D-I-Y Modeling Experiment!

 *WARNING - lots of talk about sim modeling, photographers, and other stuff. Read at your own discretion. :)*

Do you remember back in TS1 Superstar when you could have photo-shoots with photographers and walk the runway? I miss it. I miss it so much, that I tried to make a modeling career with s3pe and one of Twallan's mods. Needless to say, I lost interest while trying to read all that XML gobbledygook. I got through half of the steps and just said "**** it!" Ah well, modding isn't for everyone. I did come up with some minor (huuuge emphasis on "minor") script mods that I think actually work, so I'll test those out and see if I did well or not.

Anyway, I've devised a new system, something of a makeshift "modeling career". It's very involved and severely underdeveloped (I mean, I just came up with the idea a few hours ago), but for those who want model simmies, it might be fun! :)

First, let's start with our photographer.

 This is Svetlana Kolinski, or "Lana" for short. Her work-related traits are Artistic (knowing what back-drops to use), Computer Whiz (very skilled in SimPhotoShop), and Photographer's Eye (no further explanation needed). Her personal traits are Perfectionist (always wanting to get it right) and Workaholic. One day, Lana will have her own "name" and studio, but for now, she's an unknown amateur photographer (aka unemployed and no stars).

 This is the trampoline that will be used for today's photo shoot. An outdoor photo shoot will prove to be fun for both parties involved!

 This is our model, Deela Kimari. Her work-related traits are Athletic (for staying in shape and building up endurance) and Star-Quality (that special "something" that all big-time celebrities seem to have). Her personal traits are Good Sense of Humor, Good, and Lucky.

 Deela and Lana met up at Deela's loft. Now, usually I would have the photographer and the model meet face-to-face or through social networking (think celeb parties or chatting on the computer) instead of going straight to their homes, but there isn't much in this emptied Twinbrook and I don't have all night. Deela immediately began chatting Lana up without any direction from me, so I just upped them to "friends" using Twallan's MC mod and invited Deela over to Lana's place for the shoot.

 Of course, as I expected, it wasn't much of a challenge at all to get Deela to hop on the trampoline. Ahh, silly sims!

The final result was...not ideal for either one of them, I believe. Lana took several shots but only two were remotely usable, and the others had a finger on the lens. Since Deela and Lana are not up to pay-level yet, neither one of them get paid. Pretty simple so far, right? Well, it gets a bit more complicated as you climb up in the photography/modeling professions. I'll do a separate post about it later in the week, but for now I'll just break it down in text because my game is still as slow as a turtle with a hangover.

Level Zero:
-Model/Photographer has zero stars and 0-2 photography skills (or special skills* for models)
-Model/Photographer pay rate is $0
-Models are limited to freebies & photographers are limited to independent projects

Level One:
-Model/Photographer has one star and 3-4 photography/special skills
-Model pay rate is 10% of whatever photographer gets; level one photographers and models are limited to independent projects and small businesses* (max pay rate from small businesses = $300 to level one photographers, which means the max pay rate to level one models = $30 per shoot)

Level Two:
-Model/Photographer has two stars and 4-5 photography/special skills
-Model pay rate is 30% of whatever the photographer gets; level two photographers and models are still limited to small businesses and independent shoots. Max pay to level two photographers is $600; max pay to level 2 models is $180 per shoot

Level Three:
-Model/Photographer has three stars and 5-6 photography/special skills
-Model pay rate is 40% of whatever the photographer gets; level three photographers and models are no longer limited to small businesses and independent shoots, but impressing the higher-ups will be harder. Max pay to level three photographers is $900, max pay level to to level 3 models is $360

Level Four:
-Model/Photographer has four stars and 6-7 photography/special skills
-Model pay rate is 30-50% of whatever the photographer gets; level four photographers and models are now able to get the high-hitters with a little more ease, if they've been networking and improving their portfolio. Max pay to level four photographers is $1600, max pay to level four models is $800

Level Five:
-Model/Photographer has four stars and max photography/special skills
-Model pay rate is 50% of whatever the photographer gets; level five photographers have no problems working with big names. Minimum pay to level five photographers is $1800, minimum pay to level five models is $600

As you can see, what the model makes largely depends on what the photographer makes. In the special cases of models working with photographers that have a higher level than them, the pay rule still applies. Say that a level one model works with a level five photographer. The model is still paid as a level one model, i.e. they only get 10% of the cut. That means if a level five photographer is making $5000 from the shoot, the level 1 model receives $500. Not too shabby! And in the case of a photographer working with a model that has a higher level than them, well, I have yet to figure that one out. Same goes for agents. I'm trying to figure out what benefit having an agent would serve for sims in the music, fashion, and acting industry. I guess if the agents knew a buttload of famous(er) sims for their clients to meet, that would be their purpose...? Hmm. Also, if you want to try this method but you want to modify it to make it less (or more) involved, by all means do so! I just wanted to put the idea out there, in case someone was curious about it.

Anyway, if you read all that, you're an angel. Happy simming! :)

Footnotes:
*Special skills is a section on an actor's resume displaying the special, unique, or beneficial skills they have mastered, such as horse-riding or martial arts. I don't know if they do this for models, but I wouldn't doubt it.
*Small business = a sim-owned business lot worth less than or around $20,000

****Disclaimer: I am not a model, and I know very little about the profession itself. I took the basics of it that I already knew and ran with it. This blog post documenting the "relationship" between a sim model and a sim photographer is not meant to be 100% accurate.****

The Callaway

Click image for Donald Gardner's floor plan

I started searching around for some more floor plans, and when I found The Callaway, it was a match made in heaven. It's a mixture of traditional, southern comfort, and contemporary. I just had to take it on. :) The interior is not my best work, but I like it anyway. It's quirky.

The Callaway - 2BR, 2BA, 30x30 *click here to go to download page*

Level 1

Level 2

Kitchen and dining room

Entry to the family room through the foyer

The desk nook at the back of the family room

The front of the family room

A nursery, perfect for your little boy/girl

A room I tried to make gender-neutral, but sort of failed at. So, here's a room for your tomboys and sporty kids!

Utility/clothes closet

Master bedroom

Connected bathroom

•  Built on a flat lot, so you should have no issues placing it in your world
• The house is about 70k furnished, and 45k unfurnished (whew!)
• There is an empty room + empty space at the end of the hall for expansion
• A decently-sized backyard, ideal for small gardens and/or an area to entertain guests
• The Callaway was built on 250 Cotton Branch Drive in Riverview (I moved the water tower)
• The only store items needed are the Desktop Lord Sponge and the trophy that came with the Adrenaline Rush set. Both items are free.
• Features a basement meant to hold one car and is not accessible to sims.

*****Bonus Pic******

It seems that Bizarro Jamie* doesn't exactly approve of her home. (note - Bizarro Jamie is not included with the house)

If desired, I can upload a few "celebrity" sims as well. I think you'll have to manually give them their stars via Master Controller, but they look pretty cool so their genetics might be fun to have around. Oh, and I've been playing around with makeup and hair shades, too. I don't plan on messing with the textures or anything since I have no clue how to do that stuff, but for those who don't like to make different swatches every time they go to CAS, it'll be perfect!

*Footnote: Bizarro Jamie is my makeover of Sunset Valley's Jamie Jolina. I was going to have her be a townie in one of my worlds with a back-story of how she went from being successful to poor, but then as you know, the world file went kablooey and now I'm starting over. If anyone wants Bizarro Jamie as a download, let me know and I'll take out all her store stuff. :)

Random and Infrequent Posting

 ***This is going to be a really short and random post, because I started writing it about four days ago and never finished. Unfortunately, I think I will only be able to update once a week at most for the next five months because exams are approaching, I only have a few months of school left until my next vacation, and I really need to put my nose to a book. Also, I need to devote some time to my new "business" and other creative pursuits. Of course, this means I won't be on Blogger as much, but I'll still be around. Thank you for understanding! :) ***

Remember the bright and cheery village of Greensborough?

Well, welcome to Desolado Valley, home of the Death faeries!

Drastic change in scenery, no?

 The Death faeries, for whatever deed they did, have been punished by the Lyron Kingdom and banished to an unbreakable bubble (the butterfly pavillion) for all eternity. I still have to build the dungeon/prison/castle/whatever you want to call it, but I'm not looking forward to it since it's hard to build in a giant-yet-suffocatingly-small bubble. Something tells me I won't be playing the Death faeries often.

Off-topic, but something I love to do is just pull up Notepad while in-game and jot down a whole bunch of random notes. For instance, what buildings I want/need in a world's district and what roles the citizens of that area have:

I also use NotePad to document what "specialty" rooms I need to build, and what colors/hobbies/whatever the people in the household enjoy.

Really, this is the only way I stay organized. So how do you guys jot down your notes? Do you use a program, or do you prefer the old-fashioned route with a pen and paper? I used to use pens and paper, sheets and sheets of paper, but then it all became too much and I became increasingly paranoid of an "outsider" stumbling across these vague sheets of paper with cryptic notes all over the place and declaring me to be mentally insane.

So, I switched to digital. :)

That wasn't a very strong ending, was it? Ermm....check out the Dillard's new house if you haven't already. And to all a good morning/noon/night! *tips off hat*

Casa de Dillard

(can I just note that this freakin' house ate up ALL but 452 of their simoleans, and they had 300k?)

I should probably show you the house before they mess it up with booze, parties, and empty plasma juice boxes no? Alrighty then, so welcome to...

~Casa de Dillard~

Finally finished...for now.

I couldn't finish the house because I ran out of money and ideas of how to occupy the extra space. However, I did manage to get most of it done, so I'll show you the "major" rooms as well as the floorplans. I won't bother you guys with the not-so-important rooms, because there are MANY of them. I seriously underestimated the size of the plan. For a second, I actually thought it wouldn't be big enough. Silly me.

Also, I tried something new: furnishing a sim's room by their favorite color. I'd say the hardest by far was Jacob and Trudy's room. Do you know how hard it is to make hot pink and lilac look "mature"? Very.

First up: The Basement

Yes...their basement is seriously this large.

Not an important shot, but I love the way it looks.

Angie's Lounge, aka her "happy place".

Exercise Room, aka Jacob's "happy place".

Angellique's Nursery

Jacob and Trudy's bedroom

Creepy stairs in the hallway. I wonder what it leads to...

ZOMG VAMPRIES!!!1!!!ONE!!

ZOMG A CREEPY DOOR THAT YOU HAVE TO SQUINT TO SEE!!! IT JUST GETS WORSE!! Behold, the eeeeviiiil....

...Day Spa, aka Angie's other "happy place".

 And if you're wondering why Angie would need not one, but two happy places, you're about to find out.

First Level:

Traditional homes are kryptonite to evil, club-hopping, city-slicker vampire socialites.

A view of the living room from the foyer

View of the fireplace

View of the TV

The study

The kitchen/dining room

Kristina's bedroom

The bathroom that Kristina and Angellique will eventually share

Second Level:

Thame's Bedroom

Thame's Bathroom

Angie and Beau's Bedroom (bathroom not shown because I ran out of moolah)

Bookmark this post, because you won't see the house in this good of shape for awhile. ;)

**Some Notes**

-I've decided that there is indeed something interesting about Kristina, that I never noticed because I was too busy ignoring her: I mixed up her traits. While I was hoping for a party animal to rival even her mother, instead I got an anal-retentive sim who has absolutely no sense of humor. So we're looking at Perfectionist, Neat, No Sense of Humor, Genius, and Neurotic. Goody.

An update on everyone's favorite colors:
*Trudy - Lilac
*Jacob - Hot Pink
* Beau - Black (of course)
*Angie - Purple (of course)
*Thame - Yellow
*Kristina - Orange (the color of geniuses!)
*Angellique - Green

Testing and Moving Out

*cries hysterically*

So now that we have that out of the way, methinks Noble Hills is gone. Forever. As in, completely. Can I load it in CAW? Yes. Can I boot it up in EIG? Yes. Does it crash in EIG? Yes. Am I growing impatient with building the same lot 3x in a row and not being able to save it before it crashes? Yesyesyesyesyes.

I am going to try and upload it into the game after I've made some terrain changes, and if it doesn't crash in game, we're good to go. If it does crash, then I have to say goodbye to NH and try to find the energy to crappily create yet another world. Go me. I'm getting sick of this.

So in the meantime, I'm taking extra special care of New Shamaar. I want to be able to load up this world when I'm feeling depressed and think "hmm, maybe I can build worlds!" 

Right, so, onto the speedy testing! 

Cypress Ivory taking in the scenery from her Green Residence

Tending the garden

Fishing, fishing, just keep fishing...

Apparently, sim-vegetarians can eat fish guilt-free. Doesn't that make them pescetarians?

That looks like such a comfy bed

The area of New Shamaar I tested is named "Greensborough", home to the Green faeries. I like it so far, I can't find any routing issues so I'll move onto the next area. :) I'm thinking of starting on either Hellion Village (Fire faeries), Lyron Kingdom (Water faeries), or Desolado Valley (Death faeries).

***[Now, onto the originally scheduled program]***

Love this house. So pretty...

This is Trudy Francois' house. Because she and Jacob are dating, Jacob now lives here as well. I'm ashamed to say that I followed him here shortly after he moved out because I missed him. The homestead seemed empty without him.

Workin' on his pecs

So now I'm left with three choices: A) I can keep him here with his girlfriend, B) I can move him out and leave her behind, or C) I can build a new homestead for the creepy vampire family so they can all comfortably reside with one another instead of stepping on each others' toes like they are now.

Is it sad that I'm seriously considering option B?

Trudy, aka The Girl Who Ruined Christmas Everything

Why hello there, Ms. Grace

Trudy - "What are you doing here? Jakey promised me you wouldn't talk to me."

Don't talk to me like you're Angie, you are not in my good graces right now. I could kill you right here. Nothing's stopping me.

Trudy - "Except Jakey."

Especially...Jakey.

Trudy - "If you killed me off, Jakey would cry. And you wouldn't be able to take that."

What makes you say that?

Trudy - "I saw you choke up after witnessing Jakey cry over releasing Tucker, you wimp. It was just a stupid lady bug."

But his tears were so convincing! :'(

Trudy - "Gag me."

And this, dear friends, is why I'm considering option B.

Stone-cold face of EVIL!

So why are you interested in Jacob, anyway?

Trudy - "His stepmom is famous, he's rolling in cash, he's a vampire, and he gives me inside access to the inner workings of the police department. What else could a girl want?"

Oh, I dunno, love? Lust, at the very least.

Trudy - "Love and lust are weak emotions. They get in the way of things. This is purely business."

...I see.

Trudy - "Shh- you're interrupting my soaps!"

Just keep running, running- wait, I feel like I've used that joke before...

Jacob, your girlfriend is a pain in the @$$.

Jacob - *wheezing* "I know."

So why do you keep her around?

Figures.

***A few magic clicks of omnipotence later***

....what have I gotten myself into?

**Two Hours Later*

It was just a matter of time before the EA bachelor pads wouldn't cut it.

The new homestead, based off of this floorplan. Pretty cool, eh? It's gigantic. I hope I can make proper use of the space when I get around building the interior.

Anyway, it's after 2AM, I'm exhausted, and my eyelids are drooping. Goodnight, all! :)

Update: Here's a few more pictures of Greensborough I forgot to toss in:

Overview

Welcome to Greensborough!

My favorite building, Tinka's Lumber Shoppe