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nocturnalazure · 20 hours

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Gloria's cat, Ziggy.

#ts3 #sims 3 #random #ball of fluff

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nocturnalazure · 21 hours

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💌 Post 4 pictures from Pinterest that describe your OC. Send this to 3 other simmers to keep the chain going

Thank you for the ask!

I think the pics are self-explanatory.

#replies #character development #gloria deville

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nocturnalazure · 1 day

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youtube

Kinda obsessed with that song.

#music #beastars #those are the English voice actors!#they can sing!#i thought the song fit too perfectly #the howling wolf and the hunted deer #i'm dying #i'm a lougoshi shipper

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nocturnalazure · 2 days

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Update + question

The next update won't be ready for a while, I'm afraid. I've tried shooting this weekend but ended up spending all of my time solving an issue I had (apparently due to a mod, so hopefully definitely solved). After that, I had no energy left for actual shooting. It doesn't help that I'm not 100% sure what I want the next scene to be about.

Maybe I need a break, and I could turn to other characters, unrelated to the main plot. I'll see if it inspires me more.

While we wait, I was wondering if you would be interested in some Character Focus? I used to do that years ago (see tag here), it's kind of a summary of a character's life so far, from when they first appeared in the story up to now and including the most salient facts about them. It allows you to get an immediate overview of how they integrate into the plot. I would do it differently this time, avoiding big chunks of text and with actual snippets from the story. Question to you is: who would you like me to do a character focus on (if any)? I would do a poll but I have too many characters to choose from. :D

So here's my character page, please let me know in the comments whose life you'd like me to write about! You can also drop me a line anonymously in my inbox if you're shy.

And if you'd like a character that's not on the page (thinking about Jie, Clara, Chikage, ... and many others, they're not all listed), that is fine too!

#text post

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nocturnalazure · 2 days

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You're right to be afraid, Chikage.

They're everywhere.

#ts3 #sims 3 #random #sims gone wrong #scaaaary

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nocturnalazure · 3 days

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All of Erik's other Goddammits

Erik's favorite swearword comes up really often in his speech. It was even one of his first words when he appeared in the story as a young adult! The horse riding scenes in Egypt was particularly loaded in goddammits because he was so frustrated (and scared of horses, but shhh). xD

In addition to the 6 occurrences already listed in this post, here are some more goddammits for your reading pleasure!

Also comes in the "goddamn" variety.

Yeah... Erik does love that word. :D

He also occasionally says "damn" and "damn it", but I have excluded those for being too far from the original. :D

Who had noticed that habit of Erik's? :)

#ts3 #sims 3 #sims 3 story #erik zay #character development

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nocturnalazure · 3 days

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Thank you to everyone who got me to 100000 likes!

#100000 likes #tumblr milestone #thank you #since 2013 :)#that is a lot!

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nocturnalazure · 4 days

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Not-a-tutorial - Dialogues: Part II

Part 2 of the not-tutorial about how Noctie does dialogues!

Some of you know this already, but I do the shooting part first, then write the dialogues to go with the pictures that I got. It works best for me that way. I always always ask myself: what does the character want to convey here? What is the essential message? Answering that question helps me stripping out all the redundancies and unnecessary bits that would bog down my meaning. Also, I tend to find that short bits of dialogue going back and forth between characters make for a more realistic and dynamic conversation.

Talking about realism, I like showing small hesitations in a character's speech. We don't always speak in one breath. We pause, we stammer, we look for the right words,... So I choose carefully where to split my lines, in order to make them as meaningful as possible and to have the most impact on the reader (hopefully).

I use ellipsis (the three dots) to relay "visible silence". That is, when it is important to show that a character could talk but is very definitely not talking (either because they're holding back, or because they have too many thoughts at once, or the words don't come out, etc etc). I overuse those three dots, I just love meaningful silences.

I don't use any bubble at all for silences that are real silences (ie, the character is taken aback or is simply keeping quiet). It's more dramaaaaaatic that way!

Characters should ideally speak with different voices, but I know that's difficult to achieve. Besides some obvious extremes (I try not making my more cerebral characters speak the same way as the tougher, street-wise characters for example), I don't think I can get it right myself, mostly because English is not my native language and I don't master it well enough to be able to imitate a variety of accents and registers. So I try using other ways to individualize a character's way of talking, like speech mannerism or favorite expressions.

Erik's favorite swearword is very clearly "Goddammit". xD

Romeo uses Italian when he's frustrated (mostly interjections) or when he wants to make a point.

There are other easy ways to make a character's voice distinctive. Some will be quicker to crack a joke and others will have a stammer. Some will always be sulky, others will be particularly rude or polite. Their identity should somehow show through their way of speaking and addressing people.

Even if a graphic novel is very static, the way characters position themselves can say a lot about them too. The poses I select for each character can give an attentive reader some hints about their personality.

Again, I don't want to labor the point uselessly as everyone surely knows how to read a comic and I'm really not saying my way is the right way because it's not. I struggle a lot and I change my mind and try different things and there are a million things that I just don't do right. This speech bubble sort-of-guide is probably way too specific to be useful to anyone, and again, I don't believe I have enough expertise to pretend I know what I'm doing. I just really like the topic so consider it a ramble!

Thank you for reading this far! Hopefully that was at least interesting!

#ts3 #sims 3 #sims 3 story #sims 3 storytelling tips #random

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nocturnalazure · 4 days

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Not-a-tutorial - Dialogues: Part I

This part will be mostly about how I integrate dialogues into my graphic novel, and how I try to make them more visually interesting. Emphasis on "try". I don't think I have much to teach to anyone, I'm just explaining my process.

I use Comic Life for my graphic novel. I have no frigging idea how to do speech bubbles with Photoshop. Comic Life comes with a variety of pre-designed bubbles and layouts, I'm taking no credits here.

But first: speech bubbles and their shapes. Each shape has a meaning in itself and that's why I love them so much. Starting with an obvious one: the spiky, multi-edged bubble is used to indicate that a character is screaming, yelling or laughing out loud.

I use that shape for loud shouting exclusively. When a character is simply raising their voice, I put the text in bold+italics.

I do the same thing but on a single word when the character puts emphasis on it.

Voices over the phone get even spikier bubbles (and text in italics), to indicate that they come out of an electronic device.

Extraordinary circumstances require their very own speech bubbles. Like when Grimmy is talking. Or characters in a dream-like sequence.

I haven't been very consistent with my use of thought bubbles. I don't like showing too much of a character's inner thoughts, so I don't use them often. When I do, I prefer a "manga-style", rectangular caption that can be read as a voice-over.

I did use dashed-line bubbles for whispered convos for a time. But I like now to just use a slightly smaller font. Less traditional imho. And it works well for (funny) side comments.

The wavy bubble is used when a character is really distressed. I use it with parcimony for extreme situations, like when the character is crying or when their voice is breaking.

Extended speech bubbles are a godsend. I generally avoid having more than one sentence in the same bubble. The second sentence will very often be in an extended bubble.

...or on a different panel entirely. I like breaking down the lines of dialogue into several parts, to keep things dynamic and quick to read. The downside is that I need a shitload of pictures for every single scene.

A veeery important part is the order of speech bubbles. The eye must follow them seamlessly, from up to down and left to right. Characters' positions are obviously very important: ideally, a character who speaks first should be placed on the left side of the shot because that's where the eye will go first. That's not always possible though, and it's not always what I get after shooting. So I have to work around that using the tail to indicate who is speaking.

That tail is SO useful. I promise you: although you may not realize it, it helps you as a reader because you never have to stop and wonder who is saying what. It is just visible on the screen and you can focus on the important stuff: the text. That is particularly useful when there are 3 or more characters talking in the same picture.

I always pick quality of screenshots over space for my text. I can always move a bubble around and change the direction of the tail. It won't necessarily be pretty, but having the character's face (or whatever I want to put emphasis on) clearly visible is more important to me. My text goes wherever I can find some space. Now, maybe I unconsciously leave more space between my characters when I shoot? I'm not sure.

On to Part II!

#ts3 #sims 3 #sims 3 story #sims 3 storytelling tips #random

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nocturnalazure · 4 days

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💗💗Love train! Send this to all the blogs you love! Don’t forget to spread the love! 💗💗

#replies

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nocturnalazure · 5 days

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Not-a-tutorial - Camera shots: Part II

This is the next part of the not-tutorial in which Noctie states out the obvious for every Sims storyteller out there.

What were we saying? Oh yeah, close-ups!

Close-ups have the ability to create a variety of emotions, like an impression of tension for example.

A close-up from a low angle can suggest superiority or a power imbalance.

Combo extreme close-up and cut off! Eyes are very expressive when taken at the right time and at the right angle.

A bird eye view shot can emphasize isolation.

Loneliness can be shown by having the character lost in the middle of the décor.

The subject does not always have to be in the center of the picture. Actually, placing the subject off center gives the image space to breathe. It creates a bit of a dramatic effect. I use this... well, all the frigging time.

I used and abused tilted angles when I first learned about them! Now I keep them mostly for action scenes or to add a dynamic effect.

I don't think you should use the theory as if it were a bible, it's just a reference to give you more ideas and inspiration. Find out what works for you first and foremost. :) Like me and my obsession with off-center characters and cut-offs! :D

I could do another non-tutorial about dialogues and speech bubbles, would you like that?

#ts3 #sims 3 #sims 3 story #sims 3 storytelling #random #not-a-tutorial

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nocturnalazure · 5 days

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Not-a-tutorial - Camera shots: Part I

Absolutely nobody: ...

Me: I’ll share with you tips and tricks about Sims storytelling and camera shots!

And this is how it all started.

I’m far from being an expert and this probably won’t be new to many people, but I just felt the drive to ramble about camera shots because I think it’s such an interesting topic. (warning: long – see under the cut)

I sometimes have a feeling that we, as simmers, tend to repeat the same angles over and over again when telling a story. And I think that may be because we still adopt a player’s perspective. We may want to show how the Sim is dressed because we spend one hour in CAS dressing them up. Or we want to see the Sim but also the background because we spent hours decorating the scene. Or simply because we like the background and think it deserves to be shown! Zooming up on a Sim’s face is uncomfortable because that’s not how we play the game: we zoom out to see what we are doing. I know, because that’s what I used to do too in the past. Many of my screenshots were taken at hip/knee level.

And at shoulder level when I wanted to “zoom in”.

That was okay, but not necessarily very engaging. The thing is, I started using more and more screenshots in my story, dropping descriptive text entirely and using only dialogues. Soon my story became a graphic novel. Telling a story using mostly visual means implies that 1) I have to shorten the dialogues as much as possible to keep it dynamic, and 2) I have to find visual ways to express what characters are not saying but what I want the reader to understand (note that my Sims are no longer Sims but characters xD). This comes very close to storyboarding and it is what I’m doing now. It is much more planned and requires more work. But it pays! (at least according to me: I rather like my way even if there are many ways I can still improve!) So I'm going to show you a few concrete examples of how I apply to my shots some techniques from photography, comics, mangas and filmmaking.

First, I use wide, establishing shots to show the reader where the action is taking place.

Sometimes to express an idea, like that of a crowded place for example:

What I do A LOT is use a random landscape or zoom in on a detail to indicate the passage of time, like for transitions within the same scene: we find the same characters in the same place but they are leaving, or they are now seated, or they are still in the same building but not in the same room, etc. I often use sky pictures because I like them, sue me. :D

I use full shots when there are several characters in the room and I need to show whom and where they stand in relation to each other.

It is actually quite important for the reader to be able to locate a character in space. It sounds pretty basic, but we as authors tend to forget that the reader is not in our head. The reader needs to be able to follow your story every step of the way, even (particularly!) at the most basic level. The more characters in a scene, the more important this step is. A wider shot is perfect for this.

Or a bird eye view.

This is a standard shot of two characters having a seated convo:

What I I try to do is vary the angles as much as possible in a single conversation. It’s easy to use only an “over-the-shoulder” perspective but if the conversation is long, using only that kind of shots can give an impression that it drags on and on.

The character that is talking should be to one to which the eye is attracted to. If I used only that kind of shot, the eye would quickly get bored going from one character to the other, and since the conversation here was long, I used different angles to make it more interesting and play with different effects depending on what the characters were saying.

First, I reminded the reader of where the characters are in space:

Then, I got some close-up on small details while the characters are talking. This one shows that they have finished their meal.

I used an overhead shot for variety, but also to suggest that my characters are confronting their points of view, with the table separating them.

When a character is having a long monologue, I like taking my time to show a bit of the décor. It allows to break a long block of text into several more digestible parts and it gives the eye something more relaxing to look at so that it can focus on the text.

Doing a close-up on an interesting detail works too. It can add an emotional impact as readers do not see the character's face and will try to connect what the character is saying to what he does not say.

Same idea here, more experimental. You like it or you don’t. I chose not to show the character’s face while she’s asking a personal question. It fits her and it fits the story.