#also rare no reshade pic

[sadnesshotline]

more snippets of what im working on blushes cutely

they don't claim their teen versions 🚫

#yes ik in the original they dont know each other till paloma introduces them. tee hee! #thats the fun of it all #new stuff new stuff #sadnesshotline #chat #poppy #simeon #also rare no reshade pic

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Housing Builds

Talking to a pal feeling bummed about their housing decorating, and it's one I hear a lot, that they aren't "good at it" and compare themselves to the builders showing off their fancy and cozy and très chic builds and...

Look. We all know the trouble with Gpose, right? Where PC players with a hundred mods and ReShade and Anamnesis/Ktisis and maybe some post-processing work (and also photography/artist skills/knowledge) take some killer screenshots, and anyone with a console--or even other PC players--who don't have or know how (yet) to use all those tools, wail and gnash their teeth about how their (perfectly glamoured, nicely composed, decently lit, imaginative situations) screenshots just don't compare?

Same things with housing.

A lot of those super fancy builds? They're using half to a quarter of the available space. They're blocking off entire floors, and making camera angles for character screenshots nearly impossible by lowering the ceilings and closing in the walls. They're using a dozen slots to make a unique bed that may be functional.

It's aesthetics. It's playing puzzles. It's seeing what they can do, and it's pretty to look at, and cool to figure out, and neat for ideas...

But it's also not a requirement. It's not workable for every player or their FC. Some are! But some are also just experiments, or art installations.

I have a couple pals who are really into the fancy builds, who even do commissions for their work. We have a decorator lizard in our FC who needs the enrichment, but a requirement I have for the FC spaces are that they have to use the whole space. It has to be functional. It has to fit multiple members of the FC when they want to hang out, maybe take screenshots for storylines and RP and such. Can we fit a couple dozen people the rare times we host events?

Does that mean not a lot of random clutter, a lot of open space? Sure! But I can swing my camera around, fit multiple Roegadyn in a shot, and still have a nice looking, homey space that gets across the idea of what our FC is about. In my personal apartments and house, they're spaces that my characters would live in, and there's room for them and for friends to move around, hang out, take pics together.

Take inspiration from the housing builders! Admire their art and the work they put in, the puzzles they create when making a toaster oven out of six disparate housing items I'd never consider using that way holy cow!

But just like one shouldn't get hung up on the ultra-modded and post-processed screenshots, don't get hung up on the super fancy designer artisanal housing builds. It's a different aspect of the game, and often for different purposes.

Use the Preview Indoor/Outdoor Furnishings options in the housing menu to see what's available, use the websites that list housing items, fiddle around, mix and match, and make something fun that suits your screenshot needs and/or your character's idea of personal space. I promise you; you're doing just fine with your apartment/FC room/house if you're making it for you, even if it takes time to figure it out.

#final fantasy xiv #housing #decorating #Screenshots #Gpose

[nectar-cellar]

Hey! With your recent Thornton and Morgana post I was wondering if you take the pictures in cas or somewhere else? Also don’t edit the photos or is it just the reshade? Love how they look!!❤️❤️

hi, thank you!! 💖💖💖

i rarely ever edit my photos, just cropping and sometimes adding text. i uploaded my gshade preset recently so you can try it if you'd like.

i'm taking the pics in my in-game photo studio. i wrote about my lighting setup here: https://www.tumblr.com/nectar-cellar/670834936133091328/can-you-tell-us-how-do-you-make-the-lighting-on

it takes a few steps to set up but i love the results :D this is how i take 99% of all my sim portraits with the plain colored backgrounds.

in the comments you can even download a pre-built version of the studio to save you some time.

[sometownie]

sims questions tag.

I was tagged in a few things but I’ve sort of forgotten to do them. This one was from @phoebe-twiddle​​ thank you for the tag ♥

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

I would rather all my sims die of old age, tbh. But I really do like the cowplant death (feed your enemy to the plant and use it to lengthen your own life?? amazing). Also I’ve never experienced the murphy bed death, that’d be fun to see!

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

I’m somewhere between mm and realistic. I love good grunge cc and I have a soft spot for photoskinned jeans, but I also love crunchy bright mm hair colors and I try to use maxis items as often as I can.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

No way. The sim either loses the weight themselves or embraces it. However my playing style is very systematic, which means that sims do certain things in certain order during the day, and they rarely do gain weight. Also, talking about this feels a little icky.

4. Do you use move objects?

You can’t even place modular stairs next to a wall without moveobjects, so yeah.

5. Favorite mod?

hmmmmm I don’t think I could live without the first born syndrome fix that’s included in Lazy Duchess’ RPC launcher. I could go fully without mods but you’d have to tear fbs fix from my cold dead hands.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

The first expansion pack I got was the House Party exp for TS1. However my base game was the deluxe edition which also had Livin’ Large. And I followed the same pattern with TS2 - Nightlife was the first one I just had to get.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Alive. You’d call it “Living mode” if you were to pronounce it like that, wouldn’t you?

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

*waves hands towards her*

*crowd boos*

9. Have you made a simself?

Yeah, for a tumblr header pic.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

sloppy / shy / lazy / neither serious nor playful / nice

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I like the og black, red and brown. In general I don’t like too yellowish blonde hair, but then again....... I just posted a pic of Greta with yellow hair. So. Yeah.

12. Favorite EA hair?

Does the gorgeous store hair count? The one that I used for Babette Black? I have no idea what it’s called :’)

I also really like aline, shorttuckin, and caesar (especially the mtf version).

13. Favorite life stage?

Adult, no question about it.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I spend a lot of time building, but I still prefer live mode gameplay. Currently building is burning me out so I try to focus on gameplay.

15. Are you a CC creator?

Not a creator but I’ve done some tiny things for myself :)

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

lol

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

2 ♥

18. Do you have any sims merch?

Not official sims merch but I do have a clothing patch with a plumbob and the text “Motherlode” and “I wish it worked in real life”. Also a few pins.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

To be honest...... I don’t think my style has changed all that much. If anything I’m slowly reverting back to my old habits. Here’s a post about this I made.... three years ago.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

I’m not sure but it’s Sometownie something something.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

Okay this is a shoutout to @jacky93sims​​ and @pforestsims​​! I absolutely love the stuff you guys do! ♥

23. How long have you had a simblr?

Since 2010........ I haven’t always been too active, though.

24. How do you edit your pictures?

I got Reshade not long ago so now I only crop the pictures before posting. Makes things so much easier and faster. More time for playing.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

ᕕ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )ᕗ

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

I still do think it’s Nightlife. It’s an integral part of The Sims 2 for me. Of stuff packs I adore Mansion & Garden, a lot of my favorite items/bodyshop stuff are from M&G.

#challenge tag

[enniewritesathing]

I just looked at the poll result (that button was for me really) and uhm.

(i guess spoilers for the result under the cut and also cut to spare yall w/e I’m gonna say)

out of 20 (it was 20 bc i voted, but it’s 19... rounding it up is easier because i can’t do math woth shit lol)

no one voted for any of my early stuff. which, valid I guess because I was absolutely horrendous on formatting it -- not even ‘script’ style. lots of blanks in between shots. the only reason I didn’t go back an edit it is because I guess I wanted to keep it as a progress thing. Started from here, now I’m here, etc. That said, I can probably see someone skipping over them completely bc of that. (or maybe I’m just projecting a little bit idk). On the other hand, idk John fighting a literal demon?? how can you not vote for that lol

5 voted for The Werewolf 4 for The Incident (which I am surprised because that story as a whole has the least amount of notes... granted the CWs and subject matter(s)-- and it’s the only story I have that doesn’t have any sort of dialogue. Kind of a fill in the blank sort of deal. 1 each for the proposal and country side, 2 for multiple/other, 4 haven’t read any/or didnt like anything in particular, and 2 (minus me) wanted to see results.

I’m trying to think of a takeway here. I was shocked that I got 19 votes and usually when I poll things, the turn out is very low for the amount of followers that I have (that’s if they did it bc obviously anyone can vote). Let me put it this way, only 2.5% voted. (I think.) idk how many are actually active, lurking, or abandoned.

as a story teller (on/off), it’s... hm. I don’t know what to feel about it. I got ideas and half the time, I go through with it because I think it’s interesting. (that and putting the boys in A Situation is fun). but I also think they’re just niche (or I should say it’s not aesthetic enough with reshade and whathaveyou and I gave my thoughts in the post via tags; it’s not that far back).

It’s pretty rare i get a message about any of it and I guess the lack of feedback/comments is getting to me (or even rarer, an ask that’s a follow up question to what i posted). like yes, I want to talk about things!! future things! speculation even. anon’s on! links have the posts in chronological order! everything’s finished! i put nav links in each story post so in the off chance someone rb’s it, you can start from the beginning!

maybe it’s because of how i do things that work for me. parts are long. there’s a fair amount of reading. it’s in script (storyboard?) format. i’ve tried being short with things but it never plays out. i even went textless once -- what you see is what you get. it’s like ‘oh, i’m not reading all of that’. i have a sneaking suspicion that’s why. it’s too long. no words on pics. or maybe it’s not interesting. (visually or otherwise)

it feels like this when I’m RBing my own work

it feels bad, yall!! it’s like im begging and that sucks. sometimes I ask, why do I bother. why do I bother with tags, why do i bother with anything. rarely a story post will leave here. like, is it not worthy of like ‘hey check out this cool thing’ (or a rec list of sort? does anyone still do that?)

. . .

on the other hand, i don’t think there’s a takeaway here and i’m really way too much into this and hurt my own feelings. (ofc 🙄) it is what it is and I should just let this go and go to sleep it’s 330 in the morning

#vent #maybe? idk #i'm not fishing for anything #or im throwing a pity party i have no idea what im doing here #im upset towards myself because its like why the fuck am i like this #i really shouldnt be #maybe i care *too* much #dropping this in the dead of night like i normally do #i'm scaring the hoes (positive) away #witht his dumb brain of mine #dl

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

You mentioned making Ocs in sims. How do you take their pictures? Because I tried taking a picture of mine but they just kept running round the place. 😭

Oh I just take pics of them in CAS aka Create-A-Sim. I also like to take pics in-game with a bunch of Reshade effects, but it takes ages to set up shots so it's rare that I do it.

For CAS screenshots, you will want to use Stand Still in CAS to keep them from moving, and also CAS pose mods if you want them to, well, pose. (Make sure to only install one pose pack per trait!)

I'd also recommend picking up a CAS background mod, and just use a plain neutral color (easier to edit), but there are also realistic photo backdrops and gradients if you're into that.

Good luck and have fun! ^^

[keibea]

Hey there, hope you’re having an amazing day and week! First of all I absolutely love all of your photos and you’re sims are stunning! 😍

I don’t know if you’ve answered this before but how do you edit your photos to look so amazing?? I’m trying to step up my photoshop game and would love some pointers! 💛

this is so kind of you to say, i might just cry 🤗🥰 thank you so much for taking the time to say this! i really appreciate it! honestly you made my day and week so thank you!! ❤💕

i have not actually answered this before, and i'm 100% happy to give pointers! i am still learning myself, so i will also leave a bunch of resources at the end of this post that really helped me, just because im really bad at explaining things at times, so i apologise in advance for that! i am also happy to make a video explaining all this, if that's easier for anyone, so if you would like that, please let me know and i will! i know lots of people are very visual learners so i truly am happy to!

1. Reshade is not necessary. I use reshade, but you do not need to, I know a lot of computers can't handle that and ive seen so many photos come out just as amazing without it. But, if you can use reshade, i like to use this preset by @breadcrumbss3 and usually any by the lovely @intramoon !! I use them all with the latest version of reshade (4.9.1) and tweak it (very rarely) if i need it to look different.

2. Topaz Clean is super helpful, and i use it a lot just to smooth everything out. it's especially good if you do a lot of gameplay pics and just want a quick little thing to do without having to do it manually. I would go here (sims 3 tutorial hub) to get it without having to...well...spend money we could use to buy things on the sims :) if you need a direct link to anything, let me know. i personally use this action set by avonlea, as i just have to click a button and it does it all for me. however, if you dont want to use topaz, you can get the same sort-of effect by reducing the noise, i found a tutorial here as well for you.

3. Shadows!! If you're doing edits shadows are really good at bringing some depth! i often over-do them whoops, but usually it just makes it look more real. i normally do a soft shadow over all the main parts of the face or body that need it, using the overlay blend layer before going into a harsher shadow for areas like the nose and edges of the mouth to define it more. for this i use a smaller brush and a brown-ish colour, with the multiplier blend layer. i will sometimes then blur it out using gaussian blur, depending on how harsh it is. there's a really good tutorial i watched for this that i'll link down below!

4. colouring and psds! there are so many out there, but usually i just play with the colours myself until i get what i like. but otherwise i'll use this big set of psds that come with a bunch of options.

5. hair strands! i love doing this, it's my favourite part!!! i have a drawing tablet, which makes it a bit easier to do but again sometimes mine can still look crazy when i over do it haha. if you would like to do hair strands and stuff, i use this brush set :)

Those are the main things i can think of, i hope it's at least somewhat helpful, i know im really bad at tutorials. a video would probably be easier to showcase things, but i wasn't sure if you wanted that. again im totally happy to do one if you'd like that! now these are some really good sources and tutorials that i use a lot (most are for the sims 4, but it's basically the same for the sims 3 too):

- TS4 Basic Editing Tutorial in Procreate (although most of these effects you can use in photoshop, which is what i did)

- Sims 4 | Screenshot Editing Tutorial

- Intramoon's tutorials

- This one by Pea-Milk is really good too!

- Lamatisse's Tutorial

- PeonyPyxels Tutorial

sorry about this mess, hope you could understand somewhat! thank you again for the lovely words. if you wanted to know about anything in particular, dont be afraid to ask again or pm me! have a beautiful day!

#jessie babbles #tutorial #asks

[salemssimblr]

Sims 4 Gameplay Tag 

! SIMS 4 GAMEPLAY TAG !

I'm sure many tags like this one already exists but I figure we can never have too many!

20 questions related to sims 4/gameplay:

-

1) What is your favorite build/buy category?

Yo, all of them. How you want me to pick one?

2) Do you randomize your sims traits or select them every time?

I normally carefully select traits depending on the sim I'm making, but sometimes I'm lazy and randomize or even use the story function in CAS, but it's rare.

3) How do you prefer to play the game? (Legacy challenge? Rotational? Just for picture taking/storytelling, etc?)

I'm a builder through and through and usually spend hours upon hours building. Sometimes I'll get the wild hair to actually play the game but it's admittedly rare for me to play for very long. I also spend a lot of time in CAS making sims to render.

4) What is your favorite cheat?

MOO, hands down.

5) What is one thing you WISH EA would add to the gameplay?

GENERATIONS.

6) What is your favorite expansion pack and why?

Uhhh probably seasons. I think the game would feel so boring without weather, and the bb objects are some of my fave to use.

7) What is your favorite game pack and why?

Gotta be a tie between tiny living and dream home decorator, cause I'm a builder lmao. Those packs have some of my favorite bb stuff.

8) Which pack do you think is not worth buying? (including stuff and kits)

Bust the Dust. It only adds annoying gameplay, and while the dust bunnies are cute, they're not that cute.

9) How often do you play the sims and for how long?

Pretty often, and usually for a few hours at a time, at least.

10) Can you remember the first sim you ever made in TS4? If so, describe them!

I've made so many sims over the years, I couldn't possibly remember haha

11) What is one gameplay mechanic you wish that sims 4 brought back from ts2 and ts3 respectively?

The pets mechanics from 2 were fantastic, and generations from 3.

12) Do you use reshade during gameplay or only for pictures?

Usually only for pictures, and then only for pics of builds or sims I plan on sharing for download.

13) How big is your mods folder?

Way too big

14) What is your favorite type of lot to build?

Residential, probably.

15) Do you edit your sims kids after they age up or leave them as they are?

It honestly depends. I will ALWAYS edit their outfits cause EA just has no sense of style, but for genetics I usually try to keep their essence the same if I do edit them.

16) What is your favorite world in game and why?

Brindleton Bay. Fight me on it.

17) Which of your sims is your favorite and why?

I really don't have a favorite overall. You'd never know it by my renders all featuring the same sims lmao but I don't actually play with them in game, just use them for the renders. I usually have a favorite per household.

18) Do you think EA cares what the fan base says about the game and its future? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I think the dev team does care about what the fan base says, but that the corporate level just wants money.

19) Would you still play the sims if you didn't have a simblr?

Yes! I've played since s1 but this is the first simblr I've had.

20) What is one thing about the gameplay mechanics that you really love or appreciate?

Why is this so hard to answer??? LMAO I guess because I don't often actually play the game. So I'll cheat a little and say the build engine on sims is actually pretty good. Finicky, but overall decent.

#sims 4 gameplay tag #sims 4 #the sims 4 #ts4

[tripstaysnoided]

Sweet Beginnings Tag

First, thanks @nickysimblr!

This will be long as I have a lot of thoughts about screenshotting for almost six years now. I’ve taken somewhere in the realm of 10,000 - 15,000 most likely. Uptown alone has 3,600 screenshots uploaded to WordPress and many more than I don’t use...

I got my “start” a lot earlier (quotes because my storytelling attempts were just...different from what I do now and I barely stand behind them now) and in TS3′s run. The top screenshot is my first extant screenshot ever and it dates back to the summer of 2012. Middle is one of my first TS4 screenshots, and last is an Uptown pic from a few days ago (though that editing job was for this post in particular...no idea what it’ll look like in a chapter)

I’m not good at using the camera to convey emotion but I think that the characters themselves can make up for it. I started out as someone who wrote very game-driven stories and leaving my characters and their faces alone, but there is little effective emotionality without manipulation. The Sims, at least in its last two incarnations, is not a very smart game in that regard. So Journeyman, my sim in the first picture, had two modes: stone-faced TS3 idling and fighting with his wives (dude got divorced and remarried a lot). He had a lot of personality but it came in bursts, short-lived ones in the grand scheme of his life. I was imagining that he was in a bad mood getting up that day, but what about him says that?

But for a while with TS3, I still loved simply playing my game and trying to rationalize its logic. So I settled for screenshots that weren’t quite as emotional as I wanted. Ones that betrayed my seriousness for a bit of game-induced silliness, even though I optimally wanted something that was serious. I always had that desire to be.

The fear of “faking it” was something I let go of when I discovered poses and got good at using them. And more when I first started making ones for personal use. Suddenly it felt much more right to manipulate the game and mod it to get what I wanted to see. The big moment was just...knowing the game’s system too well. For The Sims as a whole, there’s a point where the illusion stops and you’re not playing a game. You’re watching mechanics you figured out continue on and it hits you: this is all fake. Why keep up the illusion yourself when you don’t believe it? Why not cheat and pose and mod until your game crashes under pressure?

And with that, I got where I wanted to be at last.

I did at least always employ decent composition, and I kept the damn walls up and plumbobs away from Day One. I heavily prefer it for gameplay too. What drew to me to screenshotting and visual storytelling at all was treating it like an extension of photography. Now I do very little photography in meatspace but my screenshot collection grows and grows. The tools change but images are images. You’ll hear the same rules for composition repeated throughout the visual arts. It’s my biggest question to anyone struggling with it: “find an image that you find visually appealing. What do you like about it? What did they do to make it that way?” I absorbed a lot of technique from television and I have absolutely no shame about that. (I also have no shame in taking writing influence from TV and movies and no one should)

Was my walls up obsession born out an innate desire to tell “real” stories all along? Idk. And has my composition improved? There’s one thing I keep catching myself doing (even today) and it’s not getting the tops of heads in shot. Hence me cherrypicking a recent picture that I framed correctly. Granted, there can be a reason to have to frame a shot that way, but when I catch myself, often the full head is a better choice. Close shots are great and rarely do I see beginners who shoot too close rather than shooting far too far away, but I’ve been at this game for too long to keep excusing it for myself.

At the end of 2014 was when my laptop croaked after I spilled coffee on it, so I upgraded to a better desktop and got a major graphics bump. Unfortunately, graphics quality is not a thing that can be learned.

Editing is still my weak spot, considering that I hadn’t done much of it before joining the Tumbles. I resize and sharpen my pics and have for a while now, but I’ve just been...allergic to pushing myself further. I’m also stubborn. I won’t use Photoshop, I won’t use Reshade for TS4 (considering it if I go back to TS3), I don’t like my sharp edges messed with. I’m always trying to find a place that’s comfortable for me.

But I also read through stories and blogs and no one has their aesthetic and editing figured out on Day One. It evolves and changes if it needs to and I’m happy to find people that continue tweaking theirs. It’s actually what I like the most about a storytelling community like this: there’s real-time feedback and a record of progress unless you purge it (like meeeee).

Now this one isn’t a linear improvement, but a thing I had to re-learn in TS4. I like busy images and all the sensory overload of them. In TS3, I did a lot of pattern and texture overload to make a room pop. To give it a rich and detailed landscape for the eyes to soak in, even for something as simple as a bedroom...

...and then EA pulled the rug out from under me. TS4 had no create-a-style (as we know) and a lot of the earlier items are pretty wretched in how little texture they have and there’s a lot I refuse to use. Where’s my fabric? My wood grain? I’m glad they improved and that we have some fantastic CC creators out here, but I repeat those questions a lot.

Some people would find the setting for my first TS4 shot fine, if bizarre (fighting in your son’s room, really?) but the flat textures just are gross to me and the room has nothing interesting going on.

EA and I have both gotten better. For me, it was through learning. Maybe pattern overload is a thing for a different game.

But as it turns out, I might not need it.

#gaymes

[lovearound5am]

Why are your pics so pretty?? I'm always amazed by them, omg, you have skills!! (teach me) I love all your stuff

Thank you .I’m too lazy to do a tutorial with pics and more in depth commentary right now this heatwave has me melting. So let’s just talk about my basics.

I do use photoshop as well as reshade my current reshade settings are a modified version of @midpoosimmer “mineallmine reshade preset they are one of my style inspirations my editing process is quite similar to theirs along with a few tweaks, i follow up with @cupidjuice Bright and smooth PS action not sure if it is still available but sweetpea is good too which i also tweak that according to my needs.Then dinosquirrel’s “some good stuff” PS actions which I can’t find the link to at the momen. It gives me that nice desaturated look that I love in @bustedpixels images. 

Most of my tweaks involve toggling off certain layers or adjusting opacity levels occasionally i go deeper with topaz clean, clarity, and denoise but i rarely use them these days. My last step is always resizing and saving the image as a png. i don’t save as any other file, and all of my ingame options are on high or ultra.

#wcif