CONTENTS 7
Letter from the Editor
10 Dark Side Challenge
Contributors Editor Minraed Arzhel
12 Featured Machinima 16 Shutterbugs Showcase
Staff Contributors
24 Making Magic
Sylent Whysper
30 Green Screen Tutorial
Kazee
34 Spread Your Wings
AAshleySEG
38 Get the Look
JinjaNinja
42 Featured Story
SS Productions
The Fountain by Spladoum
http://simatography.webs.com
photo by Minraed Taj Mahal download at TSR click HERE
front cover photo - Sylent Whysper
by Minraed
Letter from the
Editor The staff is VERY excited to be presenting this FANTASY issue of Simatography magazine. We hope it will inspire your creations with a touch of magical wonder like it has us. As we approach the new year our minds are already wandering to the next round of SIFF - the Sims International Film Festival. The SIFF buzz begins in January, getting us all excited for the films to come. Be sure to get involved in any way that suits your creativity. There is something for every type of Sims3 artist. Also in the new year we will be looking at ways to improve the Simatography website - offering more fun ways to showcase the talents of our members, and providing more helpful tips, tricks and tutorials to help machinima makers and simtographers improve their skills. We also hope to open up opportunities for more members to become involved in SIFF and in our magazine production. So we hope you will join us for another exciting year!
Minraed Arzhel
ad by Kazee
MJSimKat is one of our wonderfully talented machinima making members. She has had films show at SIFF, our twice annual film festival, and now has created this magical, simmified remake of a much loved fairy tale.
Just as we were planning this Fantasy issue of Simatography Magazine we caught sight of MJSimKat’s trailer for this film so we knew it would fit perfectly into our theme. MJSimKat did a wonderful job recreating this story using several notable machinima skills and tricks game-driven animations, whimsical fonts to represent the different voices, enchanting music, magical effects, detailed set design and creative costumes. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. Obviously you had to wait until Pets was released to film this, how long before that were you planning this film? MJ - I have been planning this film on paper since the day I learned there were going to be Unicorns in the Sims 3 Pets which was late July. The first thought that came to mind was my childhood film – The Last Unicorn and with the Lady Ravendancer Goth's Book o' Spells from the Sims 3 Store, I knew I was going to be able to pull it off. In August, I started creating my characters, sets, and modifying a world made by stadsbo from the Sims 3 Exchange to create a mystical world. I also did extensive research on camera tricks and effects I could use for the film.
The Last Unicorn
I tried to do a single photo shoot with a horse and found it was terribly misbehaved for the camera and kept running off to graze. Do you have any tips or tricks for managing animals on set?
MJ - Absolutely! Make sure that the free-will for all animal sims is completely off so that they would not do anything you wouldn’t want them to do. They will just stand there and use idle animations. I also tap the pause button quickly on the keyboard so I could capture a certain pose that is useable for a photo-op. Keeping the pets’ mood “happy” is the key in managing them on the set!
This last SIFF you submitted a great film, The Bad Seed. Will we be seeing more from you at SIFF in the future?
MJ - Thank you. You will definitely see more from me at SIFF in the future! I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I would like to try. I would also like to thank everyone for the kind comments I’ve received since the release of The Last Unicorn machinima!
click here to watch the Last Unicorn on
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/433072.page
www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=4964968
Shutterbugs simtography challenges run a few times a year - this time around the focus was Fantasy, meant to coordinate with the theme of this magazine. While it was a much shorter challenge, at 4 weeks instead of the usual 6 weeks, we once again were blown away with the talents of our members. Each simtographer was put to the challenge with a variety of Fantasy inspired themes including gnomes, fantasy sets and landscapes, and fairy tales. We’ll share a peek at some of the submitted photos, but be sure to drop by the website to have a look at all of the submissions and more by our many talented resident simtographers.
Who would have thought that gnomes would have been so much trouble. We learned that some people have quite a distinct dislike for the little creatures. photo credits
above - Molly360 below - Crescent Moon Pye
TOP SCORE OVERALL - SmokyTopaz
Ice Queen by KateSterling
Flighty Fairy by JadedCat
Bright Sky by AshleyRenesmee
Thanatos by FAProductions
Will o Wisp by Kate Sterling
two edited Sims3 photos by Kazee169
When Simatography started we were not even dreaming of the magical possibilities that editing programs would bring to our Sims3 world. With more and more artists bringing edited creations to our galleries we recognize we will be thinking up new ways to showcase and inspire those who shine in this particular art form as a separate genre from the usual in-game simtography. Watch for more at the Simatography website in the coming year.
Here are just a few of the beautiful and imaginative edited creations that came out of the latest Shutterbugs Simtography Challenge counter clockwise Red Riding Hood meets Pinocchio by Ausagi Alice in Wonderland by Toxxik.Error Winter Wonderland by Jaded Cat Moonlight Lovers by FAProductions
Pegasus Awaits by CresentMoonPye
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photos by Minraed
Our staff and members dress up to show off some of their favourite fantasy looks
Go for Couture! Wildly wonderful couture styles make for fantastical costume creations.
Jaded Cat’s captivating sorceress Dress by Meronin at TSR Gloves by Birba32 at TSR Mask by Aline127 at TSR Wings by Esmerelda at MTS
Sylent Whysper’s favourite wings can be found HERE at The Ninth Wave
Jinja Ninja’s Lonely Wizard is accomplished with a recoloured St. Nick robe, free from the TS3 store.
Minraed’;s wood elf Hair from The Sims3 belted top by Meronin at TSR ruffle skirt by Ekinege at TSR medieval shoes by Natef005 at TSR makeup by Frozen and Iced at TSR ear sliders by CMarNYC at MTS At The Sims Resource if you type “fantasy” into the general search you will find a huge selection of inspiring items for your fantasy sets and costumes
Let your imagination run wild. There are endless possibilities when it comes to creating your own unique fantasy characters.
Kazee shows off the warrior princess one of a series of great fantasy outfits by Altea127 at TSR get it HERE
AAshley’s fairy tale wicked witch Hair free from PeggyZone Ravena dress from TS3 Store Stiletto nails by NataliS free from TSR
Everyone in the small village knew the legend of the fountain—the final resting place of a village girl who had been claimed against her will by a noble of the land. It was a lake created and fed by a small stream that ran the length of the village, and four hundred yards more. A brisk walk would bring a man there in under five minutes. But no one visited this place, and those who stumbled upon it in the darkness often crossed themselves in fear before slipping away as quickly as their trembling legs would allow. No fish swam in these waters. No hand stirred the surface to seek a drink. A worn statue stood in its center, a memorial to the unhappy woman, and the hollow stone eyes seemed to follow intruders with displeasure.
As a young boy, he had heard the whispers, and taken them to heart. Ma and Da had little to say beyond, "Ye keep well clear of that place," and he did. He and all of his boyhood friends held the fountain in a dim, mystic reverence of superstition. As a young man and a squire to a knight, he was stripped of his presumptions. One by one, the lessons that he had been carefully taught were knocked from his mind's grasp, and replaced with information more suitable to the service of the king. Whether this new information was to his benefit would be hard to say. But he became a useful squire to his knight, and accompanied Sir Eston to more than one successful battle and tournament, which brought glory and fame to the king of their land, and subsequently to Sir Eston. But not to the lowly squire. "Ye must find a venture of thine own to stand conqueror o'er, m'son, for that is the way glory is won," the burly knight told him
He rode out alone, a day's steady ride returning him to the land of his upbringing, and in doing so he passed the haunted fount. But the lessons he had learned as a squire of a ferocious knight drove all thought of ghosts and bewitchings far from him. All he saw now was a pool of water to quench his mount's thirst. He let the mare approach the brink, dip her snout to the surface.
How long he sat there for, he could not tell, but he started as if waking from heavy sleep. There, on the farther bank, stood a female form, lovely and shimmering in the dim shade. Whether she saw him as well could not be doubted, and yet she made neither movement nor noise. She was, in truth, a living statue—but for her hair that fluttered in the low breeze, and her keen eyes that gazed unblinking upon this traveler. He stared back, entranced.
The movement of the horse's head brought him to himself. He did not know how much time he had lost, but the sun had surely moved on while he idled. Or had he idled at all? Had he not rather been witched?
He immediately heard the laughter of his sir knight ring in his ears, and he blushed for shame. There were no such things, Harold Eston insisted. 'We live in an age of science, boy. Those stories are for the young and foolish. Ye are grown to a man now, heed them not."
But heed he must, for the mare ailed, and shook, and as the horse fell heavily to the ground he was thrown, which was the sole reason he managed to keep both legs whole. He needed only one look to know that there was no hope. He looked again at the copse where the vision had been , but there was nothing save the whispering trees. With a feeling of dread sapping his knightly honor, he left quickly by the nearest overgrown grassy path.
Spladoum is a long-standing Sims3 story writer multi-episode story, Occasionally Yours, which Welcome to the Childhood. Read more of Splado Golden Child series as
The next day it was widely reported that a late traveler had seen the fountain run red, and the villagers discussed the event till it was well nigh threadbare and wondered whom of them was so foolhardy as to run counter to the legend. And in a quiet stable of a roadside inn, a young man was preparing to go a mission of honor by negotiating to purchase a new horse, and silently concluding that despite the age of science, some legends were better left to themselves.
r at The Sims Resource who is well known for her h uniquely entwines with RatRaceBob’s storyline, oum’s stories HERE including the most recent The s well as many others.