DOWNLOAD recolors of Holysimoly’s La Boheme bedroom

@ Mediafire

@ drop.io

(click me!)

*Game permitting, which means it will probably take longer than I’d like.

NOTE: Ugly Dolls are no longer available. The Ugly Doll people took their time about it (10 months!) but are seemingly of the opinion that my trademark infringement will lead to rampant overseas manufacturing of knock-off toys. Apparently, I am a big influence on the Chinese toy industry. Who knew?

Buggybooz’ post @ Black Pearl Sims: http://www.blackpearlsims.com/showthread.php?t=24861

Delphy’s explanation of the investigation: http://forums.sims-community.com/showthread.php?t=66708

There are discussion threads at PMBD, SimsCave, GoS, and other forums, as well.

There are quite a few creators at TSR whose work I like, despite my opinion of their character and/or intelligence . Shakeshaft was one of them. Now I have my doubts as to whether or not Shakeshaft deserves credit for “her” work or not. For years, TSR “artists” have blatantly copied and charged for ideas that originated in the free community - Maxis Match sets, anyone? extracted maxis meshes? age conversions? - but at least they made (okay, extracted) their own meshes.

Instead of changing their dirty business practices, TSR continues flailing about, trying to discredit the free community in general. It would be laughable if they didn’t have so much personal information on so many people. If you’re a paying member - and it’s not just because you’re keeping an active account in order to funnel files to the booty - what TSR-vindicating stories are you telling yourself today?

I’ve been asked a couple of times if I’m looking for donations to support my site. Happily, I don’t need donations. Since all of the files are hosted elsewhere, my site is very inexpensive to run. However, if you’re wanting to show your appreciation for my stuff through a donation, you couldn’t do any better than to donate to GoS. I never would have learned to mesh if it hadn’t been for a tutorial written by a gosling (hello, Azaya!), and I probably would not have bothered sharing my recolors on a wide scale if the response of the members there hadn’t convinced me that there was a need for less-than-pristine objects.

Empty Promises: I’m working on a bunch of new meshes, some of which may have actual utility if/when I finish them. This includes a deco batch of Ugly Dolls, a functional tansu staircase, and a Venetian-style mirror. The Ugly Dolls are easy since they’re just deco - I don’t know how to make them playable, which is certainly the main reason they’re deco. However, even if I did, they are just too stubby to adapt well to animation - I’ve seen a few toy meshes where the mesher had made the limbs longer to fit the animations with varying aesthetic success, and I just don’t think that Ugly Dolls look like Ugly Dolls with anything but nubbins for legs.

It’s good to have goals: It’s a secret goal of mine to fill up the whole front page with blather and yap, not a picture or download in site, and I’m almost there. Just a couple more “updates” like this one and I will realize my dream.

I am not even going to talk about the state of my game–which pretty much tells you all about the state of my game (see: drinking game tag).

They are included in this lot at MTS2: Realistic Diner by Martine. This lot has a lot of goodies in it, but I’ll let you read the description for yourself at the link above.

FYI, I have also added a link to the lot on my WCIF? page.

With this in mind, I anticipated that I would eventually “get” UV mapping and, while I wouldn’t call myself an expert at making maps, or more than competent at using Milkshape’s mapping functions, I do believe that I understand the process more completely than quite a few more experienced meshers, at least based on the sorry condition of their UV maps. For this reason, I have added a section to the site - see tutorials, in the sidebar.

As of this time, there aren’t any actual tutorials there. I’ve got two essay-ish things, one just talking and the other made up of talking along with an illustration of a big mistake I made and how I propose to fix it. I’ve got a specific project in mind for making an actual step-by-step picture tutorial that I hope to do in the next couple of months, but I do believe that the meshing and mapping phase requires a lot of planning beforehand, and that’s what I’m addressing in the current pages.

There are other ways of doing UV mapping, obviously, but my methods address my concerns, namely facilitating the use of highly-detailed, precisely-placed textures for a more realistic, prettier and/or grungier final result. I typically want large surfaces on furniture to have minimal texture distortion and to allow non-repetitive texturing where it really ought to be - cabinet doors textured separately, for instance, instead of using a single, mirrored texture. I want to see casegoods and the frames of upholstered pieces mapped to take advantage of woodgrain textures rather than working against them and ultimately requiring floodfill techniques (boring, and unrealistic, and even more BORING). It’s extremely possible to make maps that allow these conditions to exist, down to the level of applying texture individually to each face if you so desire, even though that level of nerdy obsession is rather disturbing to contemplate.

Again, I’m not an expert. I’m posting this stuff in hopes that it just might serve as the key for someone, in the way that the two tutorials I mention in the first essay-thing opened up possibilities for me. If you know a better way, or an easier way, I would encourage you to write it up and post it somewhere for the edification of all interested parties.

When I was in my 20s, I lived in a warehouse in downtown Seattle. It was not, actually, zoned residential, which was part of the fun. In fact, the top floor housed a production sewing firm that started their thundersome business day at 5:30 AM, causing a fine dust of unknown particulate content to sift down upon my sleeping face from the ceiling 22 feet above.

We were on the second floor. There were tenants on the first floor, but they were mysterious and I never saw any of them myself, though I was assured they were there by my neighbors who’d lived in the building longer than I had. They were probably a lot more serious about whatever they were doing than we were. In theory, all of us living there were artists. We all had, at least, artistic ability. Only two (maybe three) of the dozen or so people living there at any given time were actually doing much art. There were lots of parties, lots of wandering from one’s own space to one’s neighbors’ space, lots of drunkenness and ill-considered naked behaviors. My neighbors happened to be particularly well-connected in the local music scene and we would venture out in a boisterous pack to see bands two or three nights a week. Our local music scene was just amazingly lively then, and we probably should not have been surprised when it became the international music scene nearly overnight. Suddenly, all those people we knew in bands were famous. Really famous.

I suppose I ought to be showing you posters from early 1990s Seattle bar shows - yes, I saw Nirvana play in bars, many times - but even though I should have a lot of that stuff, I just don’t. I got rid of all that ephemera in an attempt to forget the crash and burn of a dramatic Big Love. This tactic was, of course, unsuccessful. I regret the losses - I could have sold that stuff for a lot of money.

These are recolors of Adele’s Super Chouette set that was released as part of the WNF Aspiration Set for December 08. Upholstery in burgundy, blue, green, olive, rust and white. Posters in three groups, as shown. Table offered in two different cements, as well as black and white.

Edouard Benedictus was not a name I knew until, well, I knew it. But I knew his style and, for me, it’s what I think of when I think ‘1920s pattern.’ These images are from a Dover publication that included a CD with gargantuan .tif files, and now that I’ve made these for Sims, I think I might look into what it would cost to have them printed up huge for me.

The Chang and Fak-Hong posters delight and appall me. The colors are beautiful and the “mysterious east” motifs are excellent kitsch. The haphazard blending of various cultures into one generic “Oriental” package would offend me deeply in a contemporary poster, but I…well, I can’t say I “like” it in vintage ephemera, but I’m fascinated by the more or less innocent racism of the past. Innocent in that it would not have occurred to most middle-class (white) people in the 1920s that “Orientals” were a diverse group - and one with it’s own internal racism - or that they were anything more than exotic fantasy figures. Anyway. Moving along…

Richard Prince did this series of nurse paintings a few years back. He did a painting for the cover of a Sonic Youth album, both the record and the painting appropriately titled Sonic Nurse. This made nurse kitsch suddenly “important.” I’m not all that interested in Richard Prince’s other work, and even though the nurse paintings are a joke taken maybe a bit too far, I still think they look good on a wall.

Get REZONED RESIDENTIAL recolors here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/jmjdumyf4zt/nixy_adelesuperchouette_rezonedresidential.rar
or here: http://sharebee.com/f9bce29b

MESHES are NOT INCLUDED. They were originally part of an Aspiration set at WNF and may still be available there, but they are now available at MTS2.

Get Adele’s Super Chouette meshes here

I am a researcher by nature, and it’s something I have been employed to do in the past. I would never consider asking where I might be able to find something before I had exhausted all avenues known to me - it’s a point of pride, and it’s just how I am. I’ve become very hyperaware of search engine (non)usage lately, since so many people who post WCIF questions on the various forums I frequent don’t seem to know that such things exist. Or, rather, they’re too damn slack to do the least bit of searching on their own. I am a HUGE snob about this, and I get puffed up with self-righteous disdain when I read stupid requests. I realize that not everyone shares my proclivities, but despite this awareness, I have no intention of trying to develop a more charitable attitude toward those who will not do their own searching. However, since I’m sure that you, lovely visitor, are not too lazy to embark upon your own quests, I offer you these links:

Sailorjune’s Category lists. Somewhat outdated, but still useful.
Sims 2 Wiki Content List Category lists. Also somewhat outdated, IMO, and leaves out a LOT (also IMO), but definitely a good starting place.
A Sim’s Life Category Lists. A confession: I’ve never seen this site before, but it was linked from the Wiki, and it looks useful.
Junk & Clutter Thread @ GoS Updated frequently, and more comprehensive than most. GoS itself is also a good source of stuff. I would advise you to SEARCH the forum, including the existing WCIF posts, before posting any sort of WCIF. Self-sufficiency in searching is valued highly at GoS. You have been warned.

ETA: I’m feeling sort of bad that most of the things in my WCIF lists are things you can’t just go download right away since they are, in large part, my unreleased recolors. As it says on the WCIF page, I don’t really want to be harangued about releasing things, but if anyone wants to let me know - politely, one time - that there’s something in particular they’re interested in, I’ll be able to keep that in mind for those rare occasions when my game is running well and I can get screenshots. There’s nothing that I’m ever going to show that I’m not going to be willing to share, it’s just a matter of the schedule.