This has been the albatross for me - my flour cabinet. In trying to understand how to make better meshes at the lowest number of polys, I have been slowly creating items I see daily in my own home. This kitchen set was inspired by
Exotic Elements as Heidi has created (and is about to release) another gorgeous kitchen set.
We toyed with the idea that we'd do another joint release but I have been taking forever on this damned cabinet. Each item in my kitchen themed set has challenged me. The ceramic items previously shown have each posed a problem from scale to a seam visible at a great distance. The flour cabinet is less a problem (save the slots trouble) than it a logistics sort of thing. I am pleased with the results so far but I am trying to get the slot information down now. A
drag.
It is seeming like there may be more than just a few problems with the latest upgrade to Sims 3 - windows, door, and arches have posed some curious problems, but both Heidi and I have noticed items are disappearing from saved games. Hard to say what might be causing that and finding information on the boards and forums is a chore at best between the newbie know it alls and the venomous experts who really are shut ins and have no social graces. Fun shit that.
Anyway - take a look see at the flour cabinet. I must have blessed a snake somewhere to have finished meshing it.
In completely different news, Chris has started his round of chemo. I expect his hair will start clogging my drains within two weeks :) Please send your good vibes his way.
Hi Bau! I just discovered your 'WIP' blog, and just read over all your posts. First of all, you've really made progress with your meshes, the flour cabinet looks great already (and don't get me started on the Ancient Mariner, bad book report memories :D)! And I fell in love with the botanical hanging thingies, will you maybe finish them some day? Or upload those, I don't really mind if they're perfect or not, they're just too cute not to have in-game. I also loved your idea of recreating your RL house in TS3 (which is absolutely lovely btw, especially all the gorgeous artwork and rugs <3).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, on a different note, I want to send you all the best vibes in the world, Chris is your partner I assume? The husband of my sister (who's about 8 months along with their 3rd) was just diagnosed with cancer too, and he's undergoing treatment now.. Fun times :(
Big hug and see you at Living Sims!
- Martine
p.s. The Zombie Survival guide is awesome.
Oh btw, did you mail Sandy about the wall chart mesh? I'm quite sure she'd let you use it if you ask, she's really nice and helpful.
ReplyDeleteAnd one more btw (hope you don't think I'm a crazy stalker or anything :D), I made a little banner for your site on my blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://martinecoppens.blogspot.com/p/sister-sites.html
Hi Martine - thank you so much for commenting - you made my day!
ReplyDeleteYou know - I did write to Sandy and I don't know if she got my letter. I had noticed the day after I wrote that there was a notation in very small letters something about not using her creations and I absolutely respected her wishes - but it left me really wanting to make the wall chart. That was the moment that I pretty much started to mesh - if it had not been for that disclaimer, I might still be making just pictures. Pivotal moment! I see it being used by different people on occasion and it really touches me that people still like that mesh.
I hope to keep working on different items from my house as they progressively get harder and harder to make and solve little problems like slots and bones and the like. The flour cabinet has tested really well in game - had a brain freeze on the slot issue that I figured out on my own but installed the old version anyway and left myself completely confused! By the time I got answers at TSR, I had figured out that obscenely stupid mistake!! haha
Thank you for making me a little banner - that is so nice of you! I am not sure which botanical piece you are speaking of - I am thinking it might be the wall chart? If not, let me know and I will certainly finish it.
Chris is doing well - thank you for sending good vibes! He'll get a second chemo treatment just after Thanksgiving here - two weeks? His particular type of lymphoma is considered curable - not just treatable. Forgive me if I get this wrong - it is a 'large cell type B' and the prognosis is good. Hopefully treatments end in March. Fingers crossed :)
Oh that's very good to hear, my sister's husband's type is also curable, in a few weeks the treatment will be over and hopefully it will never return. It's just when people hear the 'c word' everyone immediately thinks they're dying :/
ReplyDeleteYes I meant the botanical charts (couldn't think of the word :)), I love vintagy science things! Do you use Hotmail btw? Because me and Sandy had some difficulties when emailing, so maybe she never got your email. But your own mesh was lovely too I thought.
I've always wanted to learn how to mesh too actually, but never had the courage to start (well apart from that one time when me and my brother made a very ugly looking apple in 3Dmax :D) and I have very little free time as it is (this is my exam year and next year -hopefully- uni). I always have these ideas for little simple objects I'd love to make (silly things like a wallet, little deco items etc, stuff I know I'd like to use myself), but for now I will have to be content with making the odd recolor every once in a while. And I'm quite enjoying sharing lots I created at the moment. Hopefully tonight (after learning chemistry -.-) I can start on the industrial loft I've been wanting to make!
You found the chart before I could send you the link! I am happy you like it - I hope you enjoy it in game - I really should release a second set of images - perhaps a set that isn't so distressed (but I love distressed things in game and in real life).
ReplyDeleteI actually use Gmail - it works seamlessly with blogger and the reader as well as youtube and the like . . . I used to have yahoo but they were awful and I would mail someone and hours later they'd be wondering if I really sent them an email or I was a leg puller.
Meshing is a lot of fun and I think you would be great at it. School comes first of course, but when you do have time, there are free 3d meshing programs like Anim8tor - Milkshape was the one that was most recommended - Heidi at Exotic Elements told me of Anim8tor - I wish I had learned that first - Milkshape is nice but it has its issues - such as creating a box you have six sides - no slices or anything - just six sides. You have to import a box from UVMapper to get something with more editable points - very annoying truth be told. I understand there are other perks to Anim8tor too which I am eventually going to download and see if I can figure out. If you are going to spend money - do it on the UVMapper - it's amazing!
Oddly, I have never made a lot. My building skills are simply awful - I cannot remember the cheats to save my life so all the tricks people use to make a cool roof or strange staircases - lost on me entirely. I have had a few comments on MS3B that people wish I would upload my lots - what they don't know is I have a test lot that I create rooms on - ta-dah - secret is out. If I am pleased with a room I might try to build more around it but it is never really what I want. Your Club and Church lots are simply gorgeous so I am very anxious to see your Industrial Lot!
I checked them in-game and they're absolutely lovely!
ReplyDeleteI love all things distressed/dilapidated too, I've always wanted to travel to the Russian country side for this reason (so beautiful there for photography and such), my family thinks I'm nuts lol!
About the lot building, most of the time I either give an EA building a makeover (this is why I love the new apartments so much, very little to build!) or I build a very simple building (like the chapel, just a cross shaped box with some stairs XD). I've never been good with the whole foundations/roof angles etc stuff! I often use test rooms too, especially if it's just for a single shot.
Bau -
ReplyDeleteI have read over much of this blog & I am impressed with your gumption.
Kudos to you for dealing with those frustrations (ie baking the shadows, poly counts, etc.) & keeping on. Meshing was something I took an interest in before I abandoned TS3 about a year ago. I got so frustrated that I just gave up - on all of it. Since I read about the Ambitions EP in August (I think), I'm back into the game (at least somewhat - I have tons of other things going on that I can't seem to find balance to do it all).
Do all meshes need to go through Milkshape, still, to be imported into the game? I hated that program. Strong word, but true. It was just so simple and it made me feel like a dolt because I could never get my mesh (singular) to do what it was supposed to do. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I couldn't even get my paintings right back then.
I used Blender & still didn't have a grasp of that program, but I was getting into it. If I decide to go with meshing again (someday) I appreciate the Anim8tor info. It just may be the next thing I download.
I am so impressed with your meshes because they are so unique. I love that you take things from your real life home (I wish I had such interesting things in my own home) and make them for us. I found you a long time ago, when I was playing TS3 in the beginning and loved your stuff then. So thank you, thank you!
Hi Lex the mom - thank you your kind words. It has been quite an adventure to get to this step - I still think of myself as an absolute infant in object creation. X Y Z is different seemingly in every program, I know half of what any of it means and it's sometimes an utter embarrassment to release something that I months later will find a glaring error in (CB2 Table for instance).
ReplyDeleteI cannot speak of the other programs - there must be plugs ins for a good many of them - I know Anim8tor is free and it must have plug ins for TSRW somewhere out there . . . Heidi at Exotic Elements uses that for meshing. It sounds like it has a significant more features to it as well and I might download it this week while I am off for the holiday. As for Milkshape, as complex as that program is I know exactly what you mean about it being simplistic. There are times I wish I could do some shape and I end up importing it from UVMapper as Milkshape cannot create the shape to alter. I use it as that was what the tutorials were for and those tutorials are absolutely terrible when it comes to the ins and outs of the ways to use the program. I believe Heidi uses Milkshape for one reason - to simplify the mesh with the DirectX tool within. I would need to double check.
Blender is absolutely counter intuitive. The steps needed to get to the point where you can burn . . . open this, import here, tab there, 'f#' key here and there, spin, chant and . . . oh, well maybe if I move the camera over there? No - that did nothing either. Maybe that isn't a camera but a light source? No. I have read a few TSR Artists who have mentioned a tutorial out there and SimMan123 said he was writing one but I have never actually seen one. Heidi wrote one specifically for me just so I would know how to do the hokey pokey in the correct order but it's still an absolute mystery.
I know it can be frustrating - the things I released early on were the baby steps while I attempted running in the shadows. Even a simple clone has very specific steps that I don't think many tutorials cover. Mapping can still sometimes be the hardest part of the whole process. I still don't understand a thing about smoothing groups or when is right to weld and which program is that a better thing to do that in. I think patience is the biggest gift one can give oneself.
Meshing the things that I own or obsess about at antique stores (the wall chart for instance) keeps my interest in meshing. I get to look at it every day and study it. Not to compare myself at all to famous artists, but they weren't famous when they started - they did studies of the things they saw every day. I sometimes think it's easier when you start with something you know. It doesn't even have to be interesting.
I hope you do try to pick up where you left off - it's a challenge, but I think that is why I love it. I do so many things in my day that I don't have to think about, so it's nice to be challenged with something in an area that holds my interest: creation.
Thank you! One day I may continue forward. If you are an infant, then I am an embryo.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the Milkshape tutorials. They were useless. I appreciate all of your input & all that you do here for the community. I need your meshes in my game. :D
Your prose is immaculate & fun & entertaining. That's why I read when I drop by.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving & that you & your partner enjoyed your time with family & friends.