BATTLE OF THE BANDS - ASSIGN 4

Not much to say at the minute since I'm craving to play more Vampire the Masquerade but I really did need to get this done, so I've dedicated most of the day to setting things up. I used my club that I built yesterday - initially tried with more sims but it just didn't work ^_^; as always, styling them took far longer than it really shoud have XDDD

BATTLE OF THE BANDS - SESSION 3

Session 3 is a shot taken from a music video. At first I really had no ideas for this one since all the j-rock videos I watch either just have the band playing (Despairsray do this, as do Girugamesh and Abingdon Boys School ¬¬) or the video is so damn complex I haven't a hope in hell of mimicking it without some serious editing (the puppets in Despairsray's Redeemer video)

So I did what I always do; fucked around with the animations in debugger. I vaguely knew what look I wanted but it was just getting the animation to match. Working with 4 models is still a pain in the ass but it's a lot of fun. You wouldn't believe how many times I had to make Niwa sit at the snake charmer basket before I got this shot - I either paused just after the perfect sitting pose I wanted or Fuuka/Mihoki were doing something really shit XD


Amusingly, I discovered this little gem whilst fucking with the animations:

LOL :D

VANITY CYCLE 2 - ASSIGNMENT 4

My entry for Vanity Cycle 2 - Assignment 4. The challenge was to do a sportswear ad; these days sportswear doubles up as streetwear and a lot of the big companies (Adidas, Nike etc) market towards this whilst keeping the clothing practical for actual sports... so I went with a simpler shot with a sleek-ish design.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS ASSIGN 2

My entry for Battle of the Bands assignment 2. I had to show what my band gets up to in their dressing room/after a gig ^_^

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO - ASSIGN 1

...-she was the only one he had ever loved; a mortal woman whose name was down on his list. Her death had always been inevitable; set in stone but when she died four months early of her death date White-Lotus found himself unable to cope.

So distraught at her premature death he took it upon himself to do the unforgivable. He tried to bring her back. Ultimately this action failed; her soul was ready to pass on to the afterlife that she deserved and when her deceased body rejected his attempts to return her soul she took out her anger on him, forever cursing his name and his enthusiasm quickly turned to bewilderment... though he still clung to the hope that he would be forgiven.

Unfortunately it did not and her rage was perfectly justified. It is not just the Shinigami that attempts such a forbidden act that pays the price; but the immortal soul of the individual they attempted to bring back.

The sole purpose of a Shinigami is to collect the souls of the deceased and guide them on to the afterlife. Although they possess a variety of powers that they are able to use at their digression there is one act that is absolutely FORBIDDEN and that is withholding a soul from the afterlife to try and bring the individual back to life; effectively cheating death.

For his actions, White-Lotus was demoted, stripped of most of his powers and banished from the Shinigami realm.


So this is my first entry for the Holding out for a Hero competition. It took me a surprisingly long time to do this, mainly because Reno (White-Lotus) wouldn't stop pulling stupid faces. In the end I wound up incorporating that damn grin of his into my story. I wanted him to look either elated or like his entire world had just come crumbling to pieces around him... that little hopeful smile kinda' ruined it a bit but with an alteration to the story I think it still works.

GRUNGE MODELLING

Ahh my ill-fated Grunge Modelling entry - ill fated because I had to drop out. I had been so pleased with this one too; I thought I'd share it here because I put a lot of effort into it and it still sucks that I couldn't move on in the competition. Damn computer... XD

Edit: The set is basically comprised of a foundation, wall-pillars (one square wide), a few hanging lamps and the base-game wooden fence recoloured to look like train tracks. I stuck a roof on top since I couldn't be bothered waiting for the darkness I needed to come along naturally in-game.

FIFTY - MODELLING COMPETITION

I've been thinking about trying to do another modelling competition. The trouble is that I have the ideas for it (I still have the shoot ideas left over from the Superhero/Villain competition) - the trouble is that I'm lazy and aside from the forums being completely USELESS at the time I'll also admit that the idea of doing all that coding just... yeah.

There are two ideas that I've been toying with; the Superhero/villain one again and another one based on Japanese fashion like the Harujuku girls, Visual Kei, Lolita, Cosplay etc... no idea where I'd go with it or anything.

I definately don't want to judge my own competitions; I'm quite a critical person and being a perfectionist when it comes to my own pictures I'd hate for that to come across for others who have obviously put in a lot of work. I'm not cut out for judging, I'm too lazy and when I judged in the past I ended up re-writing what I'd written quite a few times because looking back at it I always thought 'wow, that's kind of egotistical and harsh of me to say crap like that about someone else's work' - I don't think I'm a horrible person; I'm just a perfectionist and very opinionated about how *I* would do things which would of course come across really negatively to somebody who may not like the way I do things but put their heart into what they offered.

(I will admit though that it frustrates me when people turn in such dark shots. I lurk in the modelling forum quite a bit and I see such potential in those pictures yet I know they won't be marked well because they're too dark. I'd put up my own tutorial but I honestly don't think I'm *that* good to get away with doing it without sounding really arrogant)

So yeah... I'm not quite sure what to do at the moment. I'm in two competitions that haven't started yet so I don't want to stretch myself too thin but I'm really keen to do the Japanese-themed competition because hell, nobody seems to have done it before.

For anyone reading this blog you're more than welcome to do the idea yourselves ;) hell I might even sign up. Being a contestant is far more fun than being a judge/host IMO.

FORTY-NINE - DARK MODELS... SORT OF

I'll be honest; I was quite disappointed when the host of the modelling competition I was in disappeared (and not just because I had won in a near landslide vote ^_^; ) - it was looking like it could've been a fun competition too.

I've taken some time out again for a little while but I've noticed a couple of modelling competitions that look quite interesting;

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/246474.page - this is a grunge themed competition; which I decided to enter Raiden into.

Raiden - Unmasked. Huzzah!

Then there is this competition http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/248904.page - I recall being involved in the first cycle with my only ever female model and this was the same time that the forums were playing up, cue me eventually losing interest because I was sick of battling EA's buggy forum.

The one thing I learned first time around; I suck at modelling female sims so naturally when the male version came along I had to enter Heine.

Sorry; no new pictures of him. I've moved neighbourhood and whilst he does have a place I haven't really decorated it etc and I haven't played his household in so long.

I'm glad this one came up; I had been looking forward to using Heine in the other competition.

Vidkid; I really wish I hadn't missed signups for your competition but I fail at female models ^_^; if you ever do one where males can enter (provided I see it before it fills up) I'll be all over it. It's looking awesome so far though! ^_^

I made another sim tonight though he isn't quite ready to be shared just yet. His name is Reno *dork* he's looking sultry and pouty in my new laundromat... I would've had him posing in his underpants for added effect (read: smex) but my CC sleepwear is somewhat lacking ^_^;

Edit: aaand as usual blogger is being stupid and not seeing my paragraphs. They are there damnit! ¬¬

THIRTY-SIX - MOAR RANDOM STUFF

So with my recent bout of activity in the game I have decided to have another go at modelling. Since my own failed attempt at a competition (which I am SO sorry about - after the forums bugged out I just kind of lost the creative steam to carry on with it ^_^;) I hadn't really had much to do with it.

The first challenge was to depict a romantic moment but there was a random stipulation dependant on the number you asked for; I was told that my shoot had to be done in a park. I don't really go for all that flowery crap; not only do I live on an ex-council estate in the North-West of England (meaning I am more acustomed to seeing crude graffiti proclaiming that 'Leanne <3's Spencer 4eva!' 'OL2 sux' or 'Sweeney woz 'ere 2010', abandoned and broken park equipment and broken beer bottles) but I just fail miserably at trying to make anything that looks 'pretty' - no idea why but tell me to add flowers and trees and make it look beautiful with a load of landscaping and shit and I just... can't do it XD

This is the entry I posted:


Heine (my blue-haired sim) is the model, I still haven't uploaded the girl onto the exchange (because I'm clearly made of fail). I'm a bit concerned that my picture doesn't look 'edited' since there is a mark out of 10 for editing - they did say you don't have to be a master editor which is good because I'm not but I probably should've added a boarder or something. The trouble is that I suck at adding boarders so I just used my usual cropping/resizing/screening/colour overlay/sharpening that I do to all my pictures. Wish I'd gotten rid of that dodgy shadow on his forehead... I blame the girl's stupid hair for that XD;;;

For those of you interested here is the competition: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/227652.page

After taking the shoot I decided that I really didn't like Ryutaro's house so I demolished it and built him a new one. No exterior shots because it currently doesn't even have windows but I did finish his 'apartment'.

The painting was made by me but I took the art from Deviantart - I'm not sharing because I haven't asked permission. I figure it's OK to privately use it for my own game without permission but I really wouldn't want to share someone elses's artwork.

Needless to say, Ryutaro was exhausted after the move.

FOUR - CHARMED MODELLING

I find myself torn between three pictures for the latest assignment. The task is to use clothing, poses and environment to represent your given season and I was given Winter. I love Winter; so cold and icy but when it came right down to it I wasn't quite sure what kind of pose would represent the idea of Winter. I personally think it's the best season and I'm happiest when there's a bitter chill on the wind... I figured that given Niwa's twisted personality he would also enjoy Winter so that was what I went for. Maybe it's inappropriate for the challenge but when I gave it a lot of thought and consideration I realized that if I made him dark/gloomy/aloof/cold it would've been... dull.





At the moment I'm gravitating towards number 1... but time will tell XD