Issue 8 May 31 2011
Picture Perfect photos and winners Top Picks galore Get the know how on skins
Everyone worried about Tweek but it was Scorpio is the first with Generations. Who just a body getting ready creak or two. Not did he bribe to get a copy so early, and he got long now Tweek! three!! Stephs cat got locked in the shed. Of course she did. Open a cupboard and the cat creeps in. Or was that a crypt?
Much discussion about diet etc......... just eat less and walk more.
Stu’s puter is labouring under the strain of a huge guest list for the upcoming nuptials....... all that cc will make oo sick ickle puter. This weeks craze is the Pose Player, will it fade away like hula hoops and the rubix cube? Jisgr8 uploaded Waddesdon. Which depressed every other builder in the sims world. Bulfrog needs lots of positive vibes..... ready steady vibrate! (note to self: Could of phrased that better.) Mene admits to never have seen True Blood. Where has she been? Wicked had to get up very very very early. 8.00am. Welcome to the real world hun. Smoky mended her dvd player. She plugged it in. Kate made a simmie Kate....... can we cope with two? ea has decided in its wisdom that gnomes can breed. Have you seen Kims Sims???? Lush.
Just some of the wedding guests, chosen not for their beauty but for the ‘easy to remove’ backgrounds!! All the guests are lovely!
http://www.ladyfrontbum.com/?page_id=2 As well as having the nicest skins on the net, this site is full of fairly general sims info, how to's and guides. Sim makers should have this site bookmarked! I have copy pasted her photoshop tutorial here as I found it really interesting, sorry about the editing and the huge white spaces but its the best I could do.........
Tutorial ~ Neat Sim Shots using Photoshop While I am sitting on the couch coughing up what is left of my lungs, I thought I would make a tutorial for you guys. This is just a simple one to show you how I make my sim photos nice and clean. It’s long but it’s easy. Before we proceed, a word about screenshot-taking You must take your screenshots in a very well lit room (see my photo studio guide for help if you need it). The walls need to be a flat colour, no patterns. It doesn’t matter what colour you use. I use white because I like it, it looks clean and bright. The main thing is that it’s flat, and that the lighting is good; this will make selecting bits from your screenies in photoshop a lot easier. STEP 1 Cut a hole in a box… Wait… wrong tutorial *cough* Ok so, assuming you have your screenshots all ready to go and Photoshop is open, open up your first screenshot. Make sure the layer tab is open and visible. My screenshot is below:
You can click on it to enlarge it. Those poles are just the light stands I use in my photo studio home. Right-click on the Background layer and select “Layer from Background” (see image below)
Then click on the New Layer button. You can see in the image below that your old background layer has become Layer 0 and the new layer you just created is called Layer 1.
Then, lastly, drag the empty Layer 1 down to the bottom so it’s underneath Layer 0.
STEP 2 – Selecting Unwanted Areas Click on Layer 0 – your screenshot layer – making sure it’s selected. Using the Magic Selection Tool (or whatever the eff it’s called) I want you to select all of the area directly surrounding your sim. You do this by holding the shift button on your keyboard as you click on areas with the wand. You don’t have to get pedantic about the outer areas of the screenshot, just make sure that the area touching your sim is selected. You can see below that I haven’t bothered with the light stands. Once your selection is nice and neat you can proceed to step 4.
Step 3 – Contracting Your Selection Don’t deselect anything! With the area still selected, Click on the Select menu up the top. Then click on Modify, then on Contract. A little box will pop up and ask you to enter a number. Enter the number 2. This will contract the selection by 2 pixels. By contract I mean it will move the selection away from the sims body by 2 pixels. You can play around and try 1 pixel if you want. It’s up to you.
Below you can see how it ends up looking once the selection has been contracted.
Step 4 – Feathering Your Selection and Deleting Unwanted Areas If you screw up and accidentally deselect your area just remember you can Edit > Undo at any time. Now, with your area still selected and contracted I want you to go up the top and click on the Select menu again but this time I want you to click on Feather. Once again a box will pop up asking for a number. Type in 1. This will feather (blur) the edges of your selection by 1 pixel.
Once you have feathered your selection I want you to hit the Delete key on your keyboard. The area remains selected but you’ve deleted the coloured area around your sim! You can see your transparent Layer 1 underneath. You can also see that there is a tiny outline around your sim. That’s the 2 pixels of colour that you left, the edges of which will be blurred nicely. Hard to see with a transparent lower layer so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Step 5 – Cleanup Ok it’s cleanup time. Click on the Select menu and hit Deselect so that the area you were working on is no longer selected. Choose the Eraser tool. Make the eraser quite large so it doesn’t take too long to erase everything and make sure it’s a hard brush. If the brush is soft you may inadvertently erase a bit of your sim. Now erase everything else apart from your sim!
You will be left with a nice, clean transparent background. The only thing on your Layer 0 now will be your sim.
If you choose the Selector arrow tool and grab your sim , you can move it around the page. You can also resize your sim using the corner squares. Just remember to maintain the aspect ratio as you resize the sim (more on that in the image below)
Step 6 – Dragging From One Document to Another If you only plan on using the single screenshot of your sim you can skip to step 15, otherwise continue. If you plan on using multiple shots of your sim in the one picture then you need to repeat the above steps on all the screenshots you want to use. So, edit the layers, select, contract, feather, delete, cleanup all your screenies. Then you will be left with multiple edited sim shots you can play with. I have an example below. I have another shot of my sim boy that I want to move to the document we are working on. So I just grab him with the selector arrow, and drag him next to the boy on the document we were playing with earlier:
Once he’s dragged over you end up with something like this:
So, as you can see, once your screenshots are cleaned up it’s as simple as grabbing and dragging your sims onto the document you are working with. Then you can arrange them however you like.
Step 7 – Bottom Layer Now we go back to that first empty layer we created. Layer 1. It’s been sitting there having an existential crisis. Why am I here? What is my purpose? I feel empty inside. Poor thing. Anyway… Now I want you to select that empty layer. Once it’s selected use the bucket fill tool and fill it with white by using the tool to click anywhere on the document.
Step 8 – Placement of Your Sims Now you can move the sims around and put them wherever you want. There are two ways of doing this. One way is to right-click using the arrow tool on the sim you want to move then select his layer when the little window pops up. Once his layer is selected you can move him about. The other way is to click on the appropriate layer in the layer window then grab and move the sim using the arrow tool.
If you want to add some text, move to the next step. Otherwise you can end here.
Step 9 – Adding And Styling Text So I usually have some text on my pictures. Text is pretty easy, all you have to do is select the Text tool then click on the document and type. The text can be edited once it’s on the page. I’m going to type “Yeah, Bitches” and move it so it’s in front of the boys.
When you click on your text using the text tool and select it, you can edit it using the options that appear in the top menu. Things such as font/colour/size/style. Ok now my “Yeah, Bitches” is kinda hard to read because it’s in front of my sims. There’s an easy way to fix that. Make sure your text layer is selected. Then go to the Layer menu up the top and select Layer Style. Then select Outer Glow.
A box will pop up. Now you can play around in here, I’m just going to tell you what I usually do with my white screenies. Change Blend Mode to Normal. Opacity to 100%. Make the little colour square White. Take the Spread slider to just under 50% anywhere in the 40′s will do. Check the antialiased box. If you have the preview box checked you will be able to see how every step changes the text in your document.
TIPS
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If you have multiple text layers and want them all to have the same layer style such as the Outer Glow I showed above, you can add the layer style to one of the text layers then go to the Layer menu, Layer Style, then click on Copy Layer Style. Then all you have to do is select each text layer the go back to the Layer Style menu and click Paste Layer Style. Your layer window is quite handy. You can double-click on the layer name and change it to whatever you want. This is very useful for big jobs that require a lot of layers. Layer Arrangement is important. If a layer is at the top of the layer list then it will be in front of every other layer on your picture. If it’s on the bottom of the layer list then it will be underneath every other layer on your picture. You can drag the layers around to order them in the layer window. This tutorial can be done in different colours. If your photo studio walls are black, then you would just replace any instance of white in the tutorial with black. The same goes for any colour walls. Remember to crop your images and resize them so they aren’t too massive. When you resize your images make sure the quality is still decent, try not to make them crunchy and pixellated. If you are uploading sims to a website or somewhere like MTS remember to be consistent with the size of your images. Posts and submissions look a hell of a lot better if the layout is neat and the images are all the same size. If you are making a collage, keep all the images the same size and try placing them onto a larger layer so they have a nice border. You can also play around with Outer Glow and Inner Glow, they will give your pictures a nice border or edge. I hope this helps someone out there!
Ppicture Perfect Week 29
Colours for an East Indian Theme Room
Bright color is key to an authentic Indian look. Bold reds, brilliant turquoise, and vibrant orange are set off with the glitter of This week tempted those bright beautiful gold embroidery and lacquer. Because the silks and satins found in Indian decor! And color array is so broad, decorators might by golly we got them! consider settling on their focal point first. A A new client saw your work and wants you color scheme will fall into place easily once to design a room for her. She has just been to tapestries have been chosen for the windows, India. She wants silks, satins, brocades, reds or an Indian area rug for the center of the and golds and everything that reminds her of room. that vacation. No no not her bedroom silly, Layered colors work well in an Indian theme her recieving room. Or living room as we room. For example, decorators can choose lesser mortals call it. one shade of turquoise for the curtains, If decorators can pull off an uninhibited style another for the throw pillows, and a third for and have a flare for the exotic, they might be the walls.' perfect candidates for designing an Indian theme room. Here are tips for exploring the trendy look that is looking less and less foreign with its newfound popularity.
Bollywood!
One of the inspiration pictures.
Love those cushions should a great week for cc!
First up we see Bergcrys went for bright pink, love this bright and delicious colour.
Bylose went for an aqua colour scheme.
Flobos entry, love those cushions Flobo!
Haze, surprisingly scorned cc and went more muted
Jaylf turned to the sun burned earthy tones of the Indian landscape
And excitingly we have an entry from Yanti, more sunshine colours here
And after computer woes, and the discovery that Sims2 cc does not work in Sims3, Stu entered this beauty.
What the judges said Haze
Cera says - Great furniture choices and patterns. I love the red! The layout is great and the window aquarium is awesome! Tweek says - I like the decorations. The colors are calming too. I like the layout of the room. Great job!
Cera says -I love the colors, the patterns and all the wood! I really like that you used the platform as a low table! It looks great! Tweek says - Those great colors make it very cozy. I like all the decorations. Love all the plants. Nice room! Crys
Cera says - Oooo, pink!! Its bright and cheery! I love the screens and pillows! Flobo The floor is really cool, so shiny! Very Cera says -I love the colors you chose! pretty sim! They look great with the gold accents! I Tweek says - Wow what bright colors! love your layout and all the pillows! Great decorations. I love the pillow Tweek says - Those cushions make me corner. Good job! feel like I'm looking inside a genie bottle. I love the colors and the layout. Bylos Looks great! Cera says - That blue is incredible, love the patterns and clutter you chose! Jaylf Great layout too!
Tweek says - I like that blue! Great layout and decorations. I like it! Yanti Cera says - That set is perfect for this room! I love the yellow! Great clutter and pattern choices, fabulous layout! Tweek says - I like the placement of the furniture and decorations. I like the colors! Your room looks great!
Stu Cera says - Wow! The colors, the fountain, the everything! This was totally worth the wait! I love it! *waves to Stu-ghost and Eric* Tweek says - I wouldn’t expect anything less than spectacular from you Stu! I love the colors and different levels overlooking the fountain and sitting area. I like it‌lots!!
Your Non CC winner is Yanti! Non CC Honorable Mention goes to Haze!
Your CC winner is Stu! CC Honorable Mention is Flobo!
Now the whole Bollywood creative fever has had an overflow into another area of Simming, but more of that later!!
What does Default/Non Default mean? Well confusion was rife on this this weeks so here we go.
An Explanation from LFB DEFAULT Ok so in order to understand default custom skins I need to explain why they are called ‘defaults’ in the first place. This is the definition of the word default: Computers – A value that a program or operating system assumes, or a course of action that a program or operating system will take,when the user specifies no overriding value or action. Okay, so when we are using the term ‘Default Skin’ in regards to the sims, what we mean is it’s the skin that your game will apply to all sims – unless told to apply another (by “another” I mean a non-default skin but we will cover those later). So, when you open up your brandspanking new sims game your sims start out with the boring, ugly EA skins. Any sim you create will automatically have that skin applied to their body. This is your current default skin. Now, thanks to the brilliant minds out there,
we are able to create custom skins that will overwrite those EA skins. These are referred to as “Default Skins” but what we really mean is “Default REPLACEMENT Skins”. Once you overwrite your ea skin files the ea skin disappears and is replaced by your new custom ones – the custom ones become your new ‘Default’ Skin. Any sim that was made using your old default – in this case the EA skins – will automatically be using the new custom Defaults you installed. It’s like you just removed the EA skins from the game and replaced them with fancy ones. Now you’ve probably heard me, and others, say a million times “You can only have one set of default skins”. This is because there is only one set of EA skin files in the game. You can only overwrite it once. If you install more than one your game won’t like it because you will have conflicting files. Basically you’ll have multiple files wanting to overwrite the same files in the game. Which one takes precedence? The game doesn’t know so it has a sad. One thing to note is that when we say you can only have one set of default skins, we mean just that… one full set. Basically this means you can download various default skin packages from various creators as long as none of
them overlap or conflict with one another. Just remember that in game there are skins for:
can have one default set installed AND a gazillion non-defaults.
As an example, this is my current setup: DEFAULT:
Male & Female Toddlers
Naughty and Nice – All Genders/Ages
Male & Female Children Females – Teen to Elder Males – Teen to Elder
NON-DEFAULTS: Silk Full Package Velvet Full Package
So, you can install my toddler skins and aikea’s male skins and there will be no problem. You can even install someone’s male elder skins and someone else’s male teen – adult skins and there will be no problem or someone’s heads and another person’s bodies for different ages/genders. It’s only if you overlap any of the skin files that there will be an issue. Hopefully you understand Defaults now. NON-DEFAULT Obviously Non-Default means ‘not default’. Which, of course, means that non-default skins are not standard. They will not overwrite anything in the game. They are ‘extras’ and you can have as many installed as you like.
So… basically non-default skins are skin files that are their own entity. They are entirely separate from your default skin… an optional extra. installed. You
Aikea’s Faces Subaxi’s Males Peggy’s Females/Males YA-Adult etc
Hopefully you understand NonDefaults now. Thanks for this very clear explanation LFB.
Picture Perfect Week 30 -Time for a relaxing drink
They want a Tiki Bar. Now after you
have googled that, can you make one? Can you find a cas pattern for bamboo? Can you do this? Of course you can so This week we got new sets, and there were much mutterings about how 'they' you accept the clients brief....‌ always meant to make one... so here’s So what did they do? We had four your chance. entries this week, so we have double Your client has a beautiful pool (which pictures! you can build if you like) but what they want is an area for a party.
Scorpio up first with this interpretation of a tropical paradise.
And this is the promised second view, again Scorpio
Bylos entered these, that fireplace is nearly scary
Bylos again
Flobo, entered this one, love the roof�
Flobos second picture‌.cuse me while I throw a towel on one of those loungers
Haze built the whole thing, theres a link somewhere!
Hazes second view, apparently a peeping tom view.
What the judges said
Flobo
Scorp
Cera - Love the little huts and the pool, wonderful layout! I really like your use of terrain paints too!
Cera - Nice! I really like the wicker pattern you used behind the bar and the Tweek - WOW flobo!! I really like the zebra print of the seating. Fantastic pool and that stone walkway. The tiki fountains! huts look great! Look great! Tweek - I like your bar a lot. The Bylos pattern on the chairs looks great and I like the fountains flowing into the pool. Cera - I love the pool, with it's tiki Great job! design! I would also love to lounge by that fire with cocktails in hand any evening! Haze Tweek - I like the colors you chose for Cera - It looks really good. I really like the pool and the fountains are a great the view from the top of the restrooms. addition. The hot tub area is really Do I see a hot tub and a pool, maybe an inviting as well as the fireplace arcade? lounging area. I think you did a great job! Tweek - Very spacious bar. I like the roof top with the shrub. Plenty of thing to do here...like a mini vacation spot. I like it!
The winners of week 30 are: CC: Honorable Mention and Winner: flobo Non CC Honorable Mention: Scorp Winner: bylos
In order to allow more people more time to enter Picture Perfect is to become a fortnighly challenge, so get your creations ready!
GREEN DREAMS A landscaping article by Yanti
Most of us builders love to create a pretty garden for our simmies. An outside space where they can be one with nature and enjoy some outdoor activities with their family and friends. The question is how do we go about it and where do we start? The first thing you must decide is what style of garden are you hoping to create. The style depends obviously on the style of your build. So the landscaping style will vary according to the style of architecture of your house. For example, if you are building a country home for your sims then you should go for the rustic look or the cottage garden or a farm house style garden. To illustrate my point here is a picture of a cottage garden:
As you can see from the picture I have chosen stone pathway and the planting consists of flowers, ferns, climbing plants and trees including fruit trees to emphasize the cottage/farm house theme. While choosing the flowers for the garden it is very important to choose the right colour. If your house has got a yellow/brown/beige exterior wall it is better to choose red, yellow and white flowers for the garden. The terrain paint tool also comes in handy in creating the right colour scheme. Make it look as realistic as possible. So use the terrain paint to create patches of weeds or a ground full of fallen leaves or flowers. Also, suitable garden decorative objects like the scarecrow and the wheel barrow helps to create the right ambiance. To illustrate my point further let’s consider another style of garden. Here is the picture of a French chateau garden:
Since this is a garden for a chateau we are going for a regal, well-manicured garden look. So it is best to create maze of hedges with ferns, bushes, trees and flowers in between. The path between the hedges is brick which is more suitable to the build. Notice the colours chosen for the flowering plants and trees. It is red and yellow which goes very well with the peach brick exterior wall of the chateau. So now you have chosen the style of garden you are hoping to create. How do you start with the landscaping? It is simpler to first create a path stretching from the street to the front door to all the way around the house to the back door leading to the garden. Again the colour of the path and the type of path depends on the house you have built. If you want to fence your garden to allow your simmies some privacy it is better to do it first before we begin planning where the planting beds are going to be. To avoid repeating the same planting pattern we must alternate bushes/ferns with flowers and trees. You can also use potted plants here and there to break the monotony of the planting pattern. Potted plants certainly enhance the beauty of a terrace or a courtyard garden too. Gazebos, arches, ponds, swimming pools, fountains, bridges also help to beautify your garden. Also do not forget to put a bench for your simmies to sit outside and enjoy their garden. Here are some examples:
The arched walkway which is suitable for a Victorian garden
Adding a pond always helps to create the charming rustic garden
Fountains with beautiful statues always adds grandeur to a garden Be creative with your garden and let your imagination free reign. Welcome the summer in your simmies garden by introducing a riot of colours in the planting or maybe give your simmies the feeling that they are on a vacation on an exotic island by adding an outside kitchen or a bar with a swimming pool! The sky is your limit because in simmie world there is always the ever helpful motherlode cheat.
The Byrds By Gargantua
A taster from Gargantua's legacy tale. Its got humour suspence and a good balance of words to pictures. All the links are in this TSS thread http://www.simmerssociety.net/index.php?o ption=com_kunena&func=view&catid=12& id=146060&Itemid=56 Blog here:http://lucentdusk.com/index.php?option=co m_content&view=article&id=243:10-the-
Off you go to her thread and pick up this entertaining read!
TSS Insider Top Pick Review Sim Top Pick went to Kaleeko for her stunning Bollywood Kaleeko!
World Top Pick went to Tweek for BrandyWine!
Amateur Lot Top Pick went to KateSterling for Lily Pond Lane!
Pro Top Lot Pick went to socalkdl for Tudorbethan!
Community Top Lot Pick went to SmokyTopaz for Mercadillo Majorca!
Sim Top Pick went to Bergcrys for her version of Pam (of True Blood)!
Amateur Lot Top Pick went to Paogae for Orange Juice!
Pro Top Pick went to Bluebellflora for Cabbage Patch Cottage!