Shadowfell Sims

Web hosting ending

2015-05-07T14:17:03Z

Hey all.

Just a heads up that things are going to look a little bare around here. I'm dropping my web host at the end of the month, and I have dozens upon dozens of pictures hosted there that will cease to be.

Fear not! I have backups of everything; I just need to reroute ALL THE LINKS. *dies*

Also, none of my downloads are going away, as they are hosted elsewhere. Just wanted you all to know I'm not dead.

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The Imbris Analects - Art Deco

2015-02-08T23:38:39Z

Good news, everyone!

The other day, I was doing yet another search for extracted textures from THIEF to no avail, but I ran across something even better. This awesome person named C-Beam had updated all the textures for Thief II: The Metal Age in high-res glory! These are the ones I've been fiddling with myself for the Imbris Analects project, and now they're all here and beautiful and all I have to do is the "put them in the Sims" part.

SO! I made something for the Conversion Immersion Garden of Shadows event using these new beauties - the Art Deco collection! Now you can have proper Mechanist cathedrals.

You can find it here.

I'll eventually get things reorganized here and also on the Simblr, but that's where it is for now.

In other news, Steam ran an Eidos-palooza sale, so I snagged THIEF for under $8 - for the specific purpose of extracting stuff. The game won't even run on this machine. After a half day of fiddling with various extractors, I found one that works, so there might be a slew of THIEF conversions coming too. If I'm feeling brave, I might even fiddle with a mesh or two. HA HA HA HA.

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Shadowfell's Natural Dyes Photoshop Actions Released!

2014-08-13T03:49:02Z

Over a year ago, I came up with the idea for Photoshop actions based on natural dyeing methods. I was aiming for the more historical side of the Simming community, but I think they' could be useful to anyone. I researched old dyeing techniques as well as modern, learned about the different kinds of mordants to pretreat your textiles and how they influenced the final color, discovered what fabrics dye well and what doesn't, and just where all these wacky dyes came from.

And I won't bore you with all those details.

I changed the name from 'medieval dyes' to 'natural dyes' as some of these aren't specifically medieval, and of course, depending on the part of the world you live in you might have access to dyestuffs that others don't. These are all historically represented at some point or another. The cool thing is you can still use these methods and dyes today, which is how this set came to be. I found examples of the colors (and the mordants used) usually in hand-dyed yarns and from there I simply used the color dropper tool to select what colors I wanted to use in the actions. These are as close as I could possibly come to representing these dyes (with a little interpretation in the rest of the actions, of course) without dyeing things myself and taking my own pictures. On the credits page, you can see what links I used for the colors themselves, as well as a bunch of links to historical dye information or even dye products you can buy.

These are made for dark textures. I had velvets firmly in mind when I made these (and I built them on Sherahbim's textures so yeah) but any mid-to-dark level texture should come up with pleasing results. The color swatches were all run on a square of #333333. You can also run these on black and still get very muted colors. So, if you're looking to use these for light cottons and what not, you'll simply want to "Step Backward" after running the action and tweak the individual settings to get the vibrancy you're looking for. I've included a tutorial on how to do so if you've never actually messed with actions in this way before (I take apart everything and use nothing as-is, but that's just how I am), and also how to do a basic overdye, where you run one action and then run a second color over it. The results of that are obviously not going to be authentic, but you might come up with an awesome color you'll want to recreate later.

14 different dye types with five different mordants each = 70 new colors to play with! Here's what you get:

Before I plop up the download link, I wanted to talk about some more credit-type things. Inspirations as you will (these are all on the credits page as well).

First off, these would never have come to be without the great inspiration of hat_plays_sims, better known as The Almighty Hat. She makes such lovely historically accurate (as possible) beautiful clothing, hairs, defaults, etc. for the medieval side of things and I wanted to dedicate this set to her. You rock, Hat.

Secondly, to Pooklet, CuriousB, Aelia, Anna, Shastakiss, Trapping, AlfredAskew and the dozens of others who have either made color actions or palettes for us Simmers to use. It's great to have so many quality resources available in the community and I think you're all awesome.

Now on to the download stuffs. The files includes the actions file, a .pdf tutorial on how to use them (and some rambly historical bits at the beginning - not much), a couple of color swatches (the one above and a second set done on a very dark leather texture), and a text file with credit information (the last page of the tutorial has these too).

Policy wise - my standard thing applies. No paysites, no claiming as your own, otherwise go nuts.

DOWNLOAD

Edit: Hex Chart available HERE for GIMP users.

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Shadowfell sucks at meshing

2014-07-10T14:02:06Z

PROGRESS!!!

</end sarcasm>

If you’re trying to convert clothing and Milkshape can’t find the bone file, this is what it looks like. So then how do I figure out where the shoulder joints are?

And after much other stupidity, I have this. So it's something.

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The Imbris Analects

2014-04-10T12:47:00Z

This is a Master post for my Thief conversion project, "The Imbris Analects".

Part One - Damask Wallpapers
Part Two - Golden Wood
Part Three - Red Wood
Part Four - Dark Wood
Part Five - Orange Wood
Part Six - Exotic Wood
Part Seven - Noble Flooring and Ceiling

Also coming: The Forgotten Library, Stone and Brick, and something involving textures slaved to Buggybooz's Niches and everything attached with that.

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For Lady Lochlane

2014-03-18T20:11:10Z

Or anyone else who wants to tackle these.

I downloaded a crap ton of extracted models and textures from Bioshock from facepunch.com before they locked all the forums from non-members. If anyone would like to download these and poke around with them in whatever meshing program they prefer, please be my guest! I've been meaning to get back to these myself.

Warning: These are pretty big .rar files.

Bioshock - Arcadia - 325 MB
Bioshock - Fisheries - 331 MB
Bioshock - Lighthouse - 196 MB
Bioshock - Medical - 308 MB
Bioshock - Welcome - 289 MB

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The Imbris Analects Part Two - Golden Wood

2014-02-04T22:29:04Z

I think these look pretty good in game (not fantastic, but their original resolution is half what's needed for Sims). I hope you can find some use for them. I fiddled with them a lot. 8 ceiling tiles and 8 wall panels.

The Imbris Analects Part Two - Golden Wood

Credit: Looking Glass Studios, Tileabl.es

More details at the Simblr.

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The Imbris Analects Part One - Damask Wallpapers

2014-02-04T22:24:31Z

You all know I love the Thief games. If you didn't, now you do.

Have some pretty things.

Imbris Analects Part One - Damask Wallapers

Credits: Looking Glass Studios, Curious B, Awesims, Aelia, and Goat.

More details at the Simblr.

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119 Followers Gift!

2014-01-15T17:30:34Z

So I needed a bright yellow recolor of this particular hair for a Sim I'm building, and I said, "What the hell, I'll do all 40 of Pooklet's colors and make it a present."

True story.

These are retextured in the infamous Nymphy Curls (which are one of my favorite textures ever) and recolored in all 40 of Pooklet's actions. The Naturals are properly binned and familied (and will show up as such), elders will go gray and the files are linked to the blacks. The Customs are properly eye-searing and awesome. All files are labeled and Compressorized. Mesh is included and enabled for all ages.

Masses of credits:

JulieJ for the mesh
Nouk, Nymphy, Pooklet, Pinketamine for the curls texture
Pooklet for the color actions
CatOfEvilGenius for the Color Binning Tool
Simtroverted for pointing out a various obvious fact that led me to figure out why my files weren't working properly

DOWNLOAD NATURALS
DOWNLOAD CUSTOM

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GoS Secret Santa Gift to Arget

2014-01-07T14:07:04Z

I made things! I really need to post more here then on Simblr (said every Simblr EVER) so here's my Secret Santa gift to Arget at GoS for 2013!

First up is a retexture of Sizz's sweater mesh. You can grab the mesh at MTS if you don't already have it. I retextured the sweater, added some little details, and slapped on some Aikea jeans textures because they're my favorite. It comes in 8 colors, 4 different jeans textures, and looks quite smashing on the lads. In the download, there are two folders to choose from: Outerwear or Casual + Outerwear. Pick which one you'd like. AM only.

Next we have Lyholy's Suede Jacket mesh for the ladies. The mesh is included in this download. I re-alphaed and retextured the sweater, slapped more Aikea textures on the jeans, and combined different colors for jacket and sweater. The jacket texture is Lyholy's original. Same options available, enabled for Outerwear only or Outerwear and Casual.

Then I made some eyes. I now understand why people who make eyes have trouble stopping. It's really kind of fun.

Anyway, these are from Mouseyblue's Lucky Eye Mix collection, the one called "Bat". I retextured them some myself and used AlfredAskew's adjusted schlera that she had graciously built into an uber-psd file for editing. 40 fabulous colors named from The Forge because why not? They're custom only.

Finally, I recolored Buggybooz's Craftsman set (love this set) using Goat's "Pecan" wood texture and twelve of Pooklet's Natural colors. The armchair's have patterns from Paper Street Designs, the sofa has a worn leather texture, and the dining chairs have both kinds of patterns available. I made the fabric colors to match the patterns. I didn't recolor the fireplace, but that was the only thing from the set I didn't do. Meshes are included.

Wood colors:

Pattern swatches:

Leather swatches:

Download the Whole Shebang!

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50 Followers Gift at the Simblr!

2013-11-25T03:02:33Z

I made a thing.

The mesh is included and all files compressorized. More pics here.

Download!

Now I am anxiously awaiting my Secret Santee assignment...as in checking GoS every hour or so. :P

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Welcome to Starktropolis!

2013-11-08T15:45:21Z

What if the Avengers were sucked into an alternate reality where they had to build civilization from scratch?

Well, then you'd have STARKTROPOLIS, my superhero BACC based more on less on nepheris' ruleset. I've taken all the CC out of my game when I was making walls and stuff, so I uploaded some Synaptic Sim's superheroes and my defaults and voila!

No storytelling here, although the ruleset I'm using is built for a more storytelling chassis. I'm just taking hilarious pictures of superheroes in costume doing mundane things because it amuses me.

The households will be rotated as follows:

Iron Man / Pepper Potts (founder)
Ant-Man / Wasp
Spiderman / Thor / Hulk / Captain America
Black Widow / Hawkeye
The Fantastic Four

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Gossamer Glen - The Siding Project (Part 1)

2013-10-31T00:32:17Z

A present for you! (I was going to wait until I reached 25 Simblr followers, but eh.)

Part 1 of several. I’m going to work through the Maxis recolors first.

18 new colors of Maxis’ Advanced Clapboard Sidings with plain, right accent, and left accent versions. That makes for 54 new walls! Also, as you can see from the color swatch, the accent piece matches the siding instead of being white. I love white accents, but Gossamer Glen isn’t so shiny.

Shown is Boston Brick on a craptacular Maxis house. There's a couple of other pics at my Simblr.

All files all labeled and compressorized, and a collection file is included.

Happy Downloading!

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No surprise, really.

2013-10-24T17:03:16Z

I've gone and made one of those Simblr things. There are pretty things there.

EDIT: Grammar, dear. Ugh, I hate typing things when I'm sleep deprived.

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Gossamer Glen

2013-10-17T01:14:24Z

So in the midst of my previously on hold project of Amberlin and now Adventures In Crowby, I've started something else.

I have a problem with starting projects.

( Read more... )

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Adventures in Crowby Update (Chapter 1.1!)

2013-10-10T17:04:59Z

Did I mark that last one as 1.1? I'm already confused.

Chapter 1.1 - Shaping the Future - In which we see James gearing up for promotions and an important proposal.

Previous Chapters
Chapter 1.0 - Unexpected Gift
Chapter 0 - The Intro

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Adventures In Crowby Update! (Chapter 1.0)

2013-10-10T13:34:46Z

I figured I'd post these in order, although you can blast through from the beginning if you want.

Chapter 1.0 - Unexpected Gift - Speed dating at its finest! James meets his true love in less than six hours of living here!

Previous Chapters:
Chapter 0 - The Intro

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Adventures In Crowby

2013-10-10T13:29:15Z

Amberlin, naturally, is already on hold because it's very time-consuming and also the theme I'm using doesn't want to work with the new Wordpress version. :P

So, I've started ANOTHER project - Adventures in Crowby. It's primarily supposed to be a writing exercise for me; I haven't written anything in years and it's something I enjoy. I'm using the amazing Rory's Story Cubes for inspiration - before every chapter I'm rolling them and incorporating my results into the story...somehow. It's also a Legacy story and a Build-A-City except that I'm not playing by the rules...like at all. I'm trying to build the entire city of Crowby out of relatives of my founder. Once he has children moving out, getting married, and starting their own families, I will then be switching to the BACC style and playing each household for the same amount of time.

If any of that sounds remotely interesting, you can check it out here:

Chapter 0 - The Intro - Where we introduce our ~~test subject~~ founder and show off his crappy house.

I have to jump in and edit his stats because I haven't yet. Otherwise it's done. So is Chapter 1.0. I'm working on Chapter 1.1 now. STUFF TO READ!!!

EDIT: And now Dreamwidth is bitching at me about my two post-dated entries, and I have to go edit THOSE before I can post this one. Does that make sense TO ANYONE?!

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Getting back into the swing of things...

2013-09-11T17:04:52Z

I am still sad that I missed the Christmas in July Exchange at GoS. I completely, totally spaced it and didn't go to the site for a month. Oops. I hope to be back as a participant for Christmastime there.

In the meantime, I broke down and finally installed the Sims 3. I've been playing an inventor/writer/tinkerer guy named Edgar Frankenmuffin and although I totally love him as a Sim - my love of the game is not so great. Things are weird and glitchy and I really don't like the general LOOK of the game. I also made a pact with myself that I WILL NOT DOWNLOAD CUSTOM CONTENT for it, since it chugs on my machine as it is. After playing several weeks with Edgar in Moonlight Falls (of course I would want to play there!), I think can say "eh" to Sims 3. I'll keep it on my computer, for now, but I'm not going to make stuff for it, nor am I going to embark on huge massive projects for it!

I do dig this guy, though. He's amazing.

See how I set up that paragraph? So clever.

In the "huge massive project" department, I've started a build-a-city challenge in Sims 2. Kind of. Sort of. I've never been able to play any challenge EVER as written, and this is less about the challenge and more about telling a story. I'm writing the story and illustrating it with the Sims, but how the game goes is going to influence the story. In previous challenges or legacies, I always had trouble between "taking a bunch of pictures and making something up" and "controlling what goes on and making it all scripted." I'm not much of a reality TV fan, if you couldn't tell.

I don't want to spoil anything, as I've only got the prelude up so far, but I'll probably be spending a lot of time with this. That includes the possiblity of making custom stuff as I go, which I will gladly share with you lovely fellow simmers. You can check out the website here @ Amberlin if you're interested in what I'm doing.

I am unreasonably proud of this house...and this picture.

I'm also still working on the Shadowfell Medieval Dye Actions, which are going less awesome as they were initially. I don't think I'm really going to be able to make them able to overlap one another to do multi-dyes, and I'm thinking about leaving the actions with the multiple layers available for individual tweaking instead of flattening them. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Most of my photographer actions don't flatten the layers at the end, and most of the color actions I have do. I think being able to make subtle changes as you go makes them far more versatile. Otherwise, you can just Ctrl+Alt+Z to undo the last action like I do.

Just a small update from me. I've been stalking all of your journals and downloading your things, so I haven't gone too far. :)

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So...taking a break from meshing now

2013-04-12T19:55:05Z

After a week of pounding my stupid head against SimPE for trying to slave a mesh to a master, I am taking a break. Now I can't even get the smaller version to work as a completely separate mesh with no slaving at all! ARGH!

If all else fails, I have the master and several pretty recolors to release.

In other amusing news, my Antivirus has decided as of two days ago that "ZOMG HOMECRAFTER IS A VIRUS THING AND IT CAN'T DELETE IT" which makes me laugh and laugh. Homecrafter has been sitting on my desktop for two months, stupid anti-virus. I assure you it's pretty harmless. But this is also the antivirus that decided to scan my ENTIRE iPod everytime I plug it in. Because I'm likely to have viruses on it from...oh wait, I'm not sure how there would be viruses on it if I only use this computer with it.

Dumb dumb dumb.

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Bioshock Meshing Progress

2013-04-09T17:04:20Z

I have a thing!

I'm so freaking excited right now. Everything worked! Sure, I had a little snag with the picture texture not showing up (easily fixed) and the original clipped with AL ceilings (another easy fix), but look at this thing. WHEE!

And now I'm going to make a billion recolors for it. :D

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Bioshock Walls and Floors!

2013-04-08T13:42:52Z

The model conversions are still a work in progress. Like I said, I've never done any meshing before in my life, so believe me, I'm happy as a clam that I got something to show up in the game even though the textures are still all screwed up. Woo hoo!

But, I'm releasing the walls and floors today anyway!

All previews were taken in-game, so you can see how purty they are. Here's everything you get!

Download from Box.net!

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Bioshock Sneak Peek!

2013-04-05T22:04:25Z

Almost ready for release. I just need to rename files, package stuff, and upload everything. Yay! These are the walls and floors, I'm going to be attempting to convert other stuff but at least I'll have Homecrafter goodies for the GoS monthly theme.

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Crazy times!

2013-04-04T21:41:45Z

What is this?! Did I just download several GIGS of Bioshock textures and models and junk? I've never converted a model in my life, I don't know how to mesh, and yet, my harddrive is now full of...Rapture.

At least I can get the pretty walls and floors converted for the Sims.

Anyone else know of any Bioshock conversions being done? Google-fu has revealed little to nothing regarding Sims 2.

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Medieval Dyes Project Test 2 - Brazilwood

2013-03-10T03:02:18Z

Brazilwood test textures and colors.

From left: Brazilwood, Brazilwood (Dark), Brazilwood (Light), Brazilwood + Copper, Brazilwood + Tin, Brazilwood + Alum, and Brazilwood + Iron.

This was more of a Renaissance pigment as it was brought back from the Americas by the Portuguese, but whatever. It was very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries so I'm including it. I can't be 100% historically accurate anyway, and look at all the pretty colors you can make with it!

I'm a getting a rhythm down. The rest will go pretty fast as long as I'm not just making up the colors. I will be doing that for some.

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