So, I’m sure that Van will tell me that I don’t need to explain myself, she usually does, but I sort of have a compulsive thing about explaining myself whenever my routine is disrupted, so even if I don’t have to, I figure it’s better to anyway.
1. I am in the process of a site redesign. I know I said that I was going to do that way back when but my focus has been on the story. Then it got to be the new year and the orange has just finally snapped me. I’ve got to get this site design done. I even have an idea, but it’s not coming as easily as I had hoped. I like wordpress for updating, not so sure how much I like it for working on site design. And also my pictures all suck. Or at least I’m not happy enough with any of them to spend the next four to six months seeing it every time I log onto my site.
So if you should happen to log on and the whole thing is neon colored with copious amounts of comic sans, either I’m trying to get something to line up or I’ve finally snapped and you should call the nice young men in their clean white coats… You know, one or the other.
2. Some character design issues. I had made Josh and Reggie both LBB, and I’m regretting that. It is how I see them. But I don’t work the right way to use bodyshapes. It is an added complication that I just don’t want to fight with right now, so I’ll be reverting them to Maxis size from here forward. Also, on Reggie… One of the problems I have had with Reggie is I could always see him very clearly in my head as a story character, but I su~uck at trying to sculpt anything other than very Caucasian features in bodyshop, and I’m not a whole lot better with choosing CC that will get me other ethnicities either.
I am a perfectionist, anyone who has ever talked to me for more than five minutes can tell you that I am a perfectionist to the point of basically being OCD about it. And nothing nags me more than saying something is “good enough”. With Reggie, he has very distinctive features in my head and they are not something I am good at translating to the screen. (Honestly if you want to know what Reggie looks like outside of my Sims sculpting talent, think Michael B Jordan in ten or fifteen years with a dash of Idris Elba in his build, coloring, and smile. Maybe a smidge of Ving Rhames too, but that’s more in presence. With long dark curls.) If you’re familiar with the actors named above or you just followed the links, you can probably tell why I am so not happy with his sculpt.
I think that he will probably be tweaked as far as CC, facial sculpt, and what not several times yet, but he’s due for another tweak now as I’ll be swapping his skintone over to one that isn’t LBB linked anyway. It is so much easier with characters who I don’t have such a clear idea of what they look like. Whatever is close enough.
Also I would like to do a small amount of tweaking, mostly just in CC to Charlie and Severus as I’m not really happy with either of their current hairstyles and might try a little different face shaping type cosmetics.
3. Real Life. Why oh why does there have to be “real life”? This has been a pretty difficult weekend for me. I’ve spent way too much time in my own head and it was a pretty shitty weekend to begin with. My parents got divorced nineteen years ago yesterday and my grandfather passed a year ago Sunday.
I haven’t had anyone around to talk to really, my F-list has been very, very bare, nobody’s logged on for days, really. Plus some other stuff that I’d rather not get into. So pile depressing times onto general depression onto no one to talk to but myself and it’s no wonder I’m climbing the walls.
4. It ain’t all bad. I have a bunch of STUFF that has accumulated on my harddrive that I’m going to try to get pictures of and get uploaded. (Some that only helps people who play a Georgian/Regency game or at least a mixed one, some that would work for most period games. Even a tiny bit of stuff that’s Medieval in nature.) A ton of male dressing gowns, some female dressing gowns, the updated version of the bra I did for my underwear defaults. A couple of corsets. A ton of Georgian suits. Also a ton of Regency suits. Recolors of my SS gifts to Winter (’12) and Heimskur (’13) in my Disney palette. A bunch of AAS party gowns I recolored to black for the funeral. Also, once upon a time, I redid the men’s tunics that I did for my first SS gift (to Ann) with shading what makes sense with the necklines on the tunics. I want to get those recolored. I think about them every time I see those tunics in Van or Winter’s games. Not sure what all to recolor them in (Albion? Disney? Winter’s or Van’s colors? Color actions? Would so take suggestions) and then I need to sling them onto the meshes and import them for CM-AM.
Also, I have a whole resource folder just lounging on my back-up drive full of shading overlays, fur trim, ribbon, boots, that I’ve been meaning to get put up, but I keep thinking that I would like to do a couple of tutorials to go with them. Plus I have no concept of time beyond ‘it’s time to sleep’. And I have a tutorial half done on making shading overlays/color action ready things from other people’s textures. Plus another half a tutorial on putting wear on an outfit.
Although, truth to tell, I would kind of like my own space for some this stuff, not that the Keep isn’t awesome, it is, but I end up feeling a lot like other people’s rules matter more than my own. Like my previews should be done X way. Like my content ought to follow X person’s rules. I know that’s not true, but I feel it and as long as I feel that way, I’m prone to putting it off as long as possible.
5. In closing. I hope to get time, inspiration, whatever all I need to get a lot of this stuff done soon, but updates might be a tad sporadic as my inspiration is easily effected by my mood. (The more depressed I am, the more I stress over the flashing of the cursor.) Although I am hoping not too much because I’m starting to get ahead again on my shooting.
Thanks for reading.
~Andavri
Heh. You know me so well. (But seriously, I do the same thing, so don’t worry about feeling the psychological need to explain despite the lack of any other obligation to do so. And now I’ve meta’d myself.)
I guess I’ll respond point by point:
1. While I like the site as it is, I’m sure whatever new design you come up with will be even better. And I can definitely understand getting sick of the way a sight looks! In truth, I have been considering redesigning my site for quite some time, but ever since Blogger got “upgraded”, the thought of fighting with the coding has become about a hundred times more repulsive.
And I’m sure your pictures are great–they always are–but you wouldn’t be the first storyteller to retake pictures and I’m sure you won’t be the last.
2. BodyShapes are a great idea but make for difficult execution. It would be so much easier if EA had come up with body sliders with Sims 2 instead of waiting for Sims 3 to give them more than three possible shapes. I know I have a few characters that definitely would not have the standard Maxis shape if there was a more practical way to go about that, so I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to switch Josh and Reggie to standard shape. Plus, power of suggestion or whatever, the writing can really influence what a person sees in the picture; I know Leofric in Lothere always looks like a large, broad-shouldered man and Malcolm looks lithe and lanky, even though neither of them appears to be using a BodyShape.
As for tweaking faces and CC, knock yourself out! Reggie should look the way you want Reggie to look, and if he looks different in his next appearance, the readers will revise their idea of Reggie to suit his revamped look.
3. Sorry to hear about the depression. Depression sucks. Anniversaries of tough events just make it suck worse. If you ever need to vent, my inbox is always open, though don’t take that invitation as an obligation. I hope things get better for you soon.
4. Well, I am looking forward to the recolors! Especially recolors of those tunics. I’ve been meaning to make some conversions of those, actually, just so the adults have all the same colors that the teens have and vice versa (I prefer the color Lucien was wearing as a teen for him personally; the one he’s currently sporting would look fantastic on a Wythleit). Personally, I prefer color sets inspired by stories and characters to the standard color actions, though those certainly have their uses as well and I’m not about to complain either way. And I’ll download from the Keep, or a new site of your own, or pretty much anywhere.
5. I hope the inspiration strikes soon on one front or another, but if you’re not feeling it, don’t force it. When it does come, whatever it inspires will be awesome, and it doesn’t matter how soon it happens.
Best of luck with everything. I hope you feel better soon.
Thanks, Van!
There are things about this layout I don’t mind, it displays very well for one, but it’s a little too mod-ish for my personal taste. (I only like that era in music, not in clothing, colors, or styles. I think it’s because of the weird color sensitivity I have due to being partially colorblind. I’m kinda hyper aware of other colors and a lot of mod colors and styling tend to grate because of that.)
But I do at least have an image for the top banner, now I just need to insert time to work on the layout into my day. (My brother lent me Dragon Age Origins and Skyrim…)
I’m with both you and Winter on bodyshapes. I truly admire people who use them and it is one of the things I really do like about TS3 (There’s not a lot.) I love being able to have those other shapes, but the meshes are REALLY limiting. *shakes head*
I hope that I can get Reggie to a place I’m happy with. But I’m glad that you guys will understand if every time you see him he looks a little different.
Yeah, depression is one of those things that is not helpful, to accomplishing anything at all. And it’s definitely not fun to have things all piled up at once. Thankfully I only really have one at Christmas, this just past one, and one in the middle of June and once I get through them, I don’t have to think so much about them from here on out.
I went with Winter’s Disney Colors suggestion for those tunics and have the recolors done. Now’s just the shooting pictures part. But I’m gonna try and work on that the next couple of days. (If I don’t get lost in other games… *blushes*)
Inspiration did sort of strike this afternoon (and on my update day even!) While playing other games could be viewed as a distraction to getting stuff done, I actually think I work better when I’m playing something other than just sims. Maybe it’s the influx of interesting story or maybe it’s just I’m not so focused on six steps down the road.
Thanks again, Van!
I’ll echo Van (or the Ghost of Van Future, depending on how quickly she pounces) and say you don’t need to explain, but it definitely feels good to do it sometimes.
Real life was invented in the 1980s to boost sales of video games. Today, 95% of the western world would be behind bars or in straitjackets if we didn’t have ways to headshot our friends and dress pixel people up in frock coats and hosen. More seriously, though, I’m sorry you had such a lousy week(end). Those sorts of anniversaries suck to begin with and all the more when they’re clustered like that. If you have depression issues, you really, really don’t need “legitimate” reasons to be depressed heaped on to the usual.
I wouldn’t blink if you re-did the entire site with neon Comic Sans and blinking gifs, but reader quality =/= creator quality. (My site will forever be whatever Blogger wants to bestow upon me that I don’t have to code myself.) Just the same, if there’s a picture you’ve taken that sucks, it’s hiding out of sight somewhere.
Bodyshapes are a bloody nightmare in the TS2 system. The idea is awesome, but the implementation can be so limiting if you like lots of options and don’t mesh. The line has to be drawn somewhere. Neither Josh nor Reggie will be any less amazing in Maxis form. And, looking at those pictures, I can see why you want to screw with Reggie’s scuplt. That first actor has a pleasingly broad, not-fat face that Maxis doesn’t want to give you without an arm wrestling match.
I think the world could use those tunics in Disney colors… ;).
If your own space would make you more comfortable, go with it. When you create as much as you do, you’re bound to develop your own system of how things should be organized and presented. And with a lot of it being not-quite-Medieval, it’s not such a bad idea to put it somewhere where you’re not worrying about whether it really belongs there or not. I’ll be drooling over your stuff wherever you post it.
Don’t let the cursor stress you out too much!
I like that explanation of Real Life. It definitely is nice to be able to get away from reality.
I wouldn’t make the site neon, I’d never be able to get through coding it. (And I’m very not a fan of comic sans. Or blinking gifs for that matter.) But I do occasionally employ them so I can see where this color displays or what changing that font does. If my color scheme is say black and navy and silver, putting in neon pink briefly is really easy to see. Besides, I wouldn’t want to distract you guys from the text, you might figure out how much of it sounds like a soap opera. *bats lashes*
Yeah, Reggie’s face is about reason 1 million and counting why I wish I didn’t think Milkshape would drive me crazy. I think it’d be about the only way to make his face match up to how it looks in my head. But I’m not quite that desperate yet…
Your wish was granted. I have all three tunics for all three ages (I did a bit of tweaking to the neckline on “Blake” and now it will work for CM as well as the older boys.) in my smaller Disney palette. I may do some of those tunics I did for the bar defaults too. Only without the aprons and bar accoutrements, reading your update reminded me I have those. I’m hoping, as I said to Van, to get those shot later this week.
Anyway, thanks, Winter! I appreciate the support and encouragement from you guys.