I think this might be the right thread for this kinda stuff, unless this is all intent to upload. (I do not--too much CC to keep track of what I used and what I didn't etc etc.) I also didn't think too many played TS2 anymore--I like it because, for me,it's the most flexible to build with.

So I have two major projects--an idyllic fictional small town in a state like my own, and a college campus associated with its set. I do a thing--I take buildings I'm inspired by, been in, or have a book of floor plans for, and I try to translate it. One of my most recent projects was a college apartment complex similar to one I lived in a couple of years ago at Iowa State. The first five photos are the inspiration, and you can see a more detailed walkthrough in this video

These were somewhat simple to translate--with some finagling, of course. These are 2BR 1BA townhome-styled apartments with steep roofs, long windows, and a very cozy layout. If you're fortunate enough to get an end unit, you get a nice window in the stairwell to allow in more light. The bedrooms in the real thing are slightly bigger but with the limitations of the game, I think I did quite nicely. The following photos are of full unit, as well as a mostly furnished unit similarly laid out in the manner that my own was.

The far bedroom is slightly bigger, but the smaller one (in the real plan anyway) had a nice little storage nook extending above the stairs (in the real units anyway) as well as an extra few inches of space from the door to the wall. Each unit had a back patio as well as a fenced in front patio with a small garden plot.

There's more, but this is a taste.

Of course, in between intermittent crashes, I plan on mostly filling up this map.

Too much DLC to play for extended periods.

So. Welcome to the (really really incomplete) city of Valley del Amanacer (Dawn Valley), a town that exists in an alternate universe. It is located on the southeasternmost edge of California's Central Valley, and as a result is quite isolated, and has the seasons of hot, slightly less hot, a slightly wetter hot, and hot.

The time is in the near future, around 2021 or so.
Because of previous circumstances, the country that has (for the most part, peacefully) taken over California, Oregon, parts of Nevada and Arizona, as well as the northwestern-most part of Mexico (including Baja California) in the mid 60s' has an embargo placed on it by America, meaning vehicles, fuel, electronics, food, and pretty much everything exported cannot reach the new country. However, this did not deter the then-Soviet, European, and Asian markets, who saw economic advantage in trading with the new country. This meant that pretty much everything that the country didn't produce themselves was from the Old World - cars, construction materials, and electronics included.

Amanacer was founded in the late 1850s', as a outpost for the gold rushers moving in from out east. The population is primarily Hispanic, with a fair blend of all other ethnicities making up the rest of the population. During the revolution in the 60s', relatively little damage happened in Amanacer. The town was overshadowed by the (not so) nearby city of Los Angeles, which sustained rather major damage. [cutting things off here, i'm too lazy to write more]



Apologies for the lazy crops.

There is a loooot of CC used, so much so that I can't even keep track of it. The chance of both completion and release are very very low, although if I manage to sort out my CC, I will probably release houses, apartments, and such eventually.
Many commercial buildings are simple shells, without interiors or actual floors - Sometime in the distant future, I will eventually detail them.
The blank undetailed prefab houses are all there to save time, as I am quite lazy as far as building houses go, and they let me move sims into them straight away.
I took the styling cues from quite a few places, from (the very real) Bakersfield in California, to the pavement-covered flat parts of Los Angeles, to even a hint of the downtowns of many Midwestern cities from the 1890s'.

side note: can anyone help me build a proper looking high school? every time i try to copy the stereotypical cali highschool everything comes out all wrong looking lol kthx

Hope you enjoyed my wall of text!

Was testing a mod that makes plants spawn on their own.
Extreme settings + speed 3 = and I saw this.
So far, pleased with this old/neglected/decayed house feel (well, not a real house, but good ehough for testing).

Another interesting concept Lamare. I think I'd like that too though my initial reaction is that I'm a little wary about stuff growing out of control.

Yes, it will grow out of control if you leave it on aggressive setting for very very long. When there's no place left outside it will get into your house and eat you. Although, it will take time. And as long as you're controlling the sims or buy mode on a lot, the control is all yours.

I decided to add real feet(default replacement), to every outfit that Bloom's didn't replace. To me, bare foot is also wearing sandals...
This will be tedious and long. lol
Here is the AL flipflop adult male...shirt&shorts.


Not quite done yet, still need some texture remap, and today is my birthday, so I am launching my game. I'll work some more later.

Those look nice Rose

Ah double-posting because I can!

I'm thinking of making a set of these for the maternity and beyond theme - not sure about either of those. Does anyone have a preference or even a suggestion for a base object? The one on the left is a patchwork dog recolour and the one on the right is that signature wedding picture. It needs to be a fattish portrait size. I thought not too big if it's for a nursery. Train on the right is heading in the wrong direction.

Are there more trains in a set? If there are, I think, without frames they would make for a nice triptych or the such (I don't know the right non-religious term for that, but I mean a set of pictures hanged together side by side).

No the themes are transport and natural world. Only one train - though that's a nice idea.

I vote "patchwork dog," on the grounds that I've always wanted recolors for it and that it's something I would look at to put in a nursery. Once you have 50 jillion recolors of a picture it's hard to remember which ones have which recolors, and either you go through the paintings tab clicking on everything and scrolling through endless thumbnails cruising for suitable pics, or you click the ones whose originals are suitable and discover "Oh, right, there's all these cool recolors I downloaded, too!" So I wish people would choose which meshes to put their pictures on based on the original picture.

That's a fair point Peni - I've often done that myself.

I personally prefer the one on the right. Smaller white frame, babyish-er.

I'll edit my post, and show you a new project I am working on.
I started it before I saw it was done already, so I made mine differently...a new toddler pajamas. I will create recolors for it, but for now, it has the child's pjs textures.

Soooo - the plan was to work some more on the nursery pictures today. Yes! Make that submission for the monthly theme. Go maxon!

So I recoloured a ferris wheel.



The mapping of the spokes is a bit weird but I like it anyway.

So today I did what I was supposed to be doing. I'm kind of pleased with those:

Thanks Lamare for the idea of doing them without a frame - I think I like that better.

It is perfect! looks like someone painted on nice wood surface...what a great gift idea.

I agree with Rosebine, they are absolutely lovely.

More Default...I am having a blast.
I am done with this one. A FT (I think?)dress for children.
You prefer..Sexey or Maxey?

Oh love the more 3d shoes. The only objection I have to defaults in a case like this is that if you have custom meshes based on the same footware model but remeshes, you often run into conflicts. It might be good to make your new meshes available as custom too.

@maxon could you show me an example please? (custom meshes based on the same footware model but remeshes) maybe i just woke up, and cannot wrap my head around this...lol
If it is the same model..but remeshed, then it is not the same mesh anymore.
In this case, i completely isolated the sandal part of the foot, and made it a separate mesh. But the default texture has not been edited.
otherwise, it,s no worst than having Bloom's default for bare foot...the ones I am working on are sandal or anything that shoes toes IN shoes.
Making non-default as well is no trouble.

No that's right but if it has the same GUID (as in a default), it will replace any foot that uses that mesh. There are quite a few EAxis meshes that use the same foot model and, of course, a huge amount of CC that does too. If you default one, you will default them all. I can't tell you which ones though. Bloom's feet defaulted all the bare feet in the game, including many that looked like shoes. I had to create (and still haven't finished), a good number of CC meshes, which used EAxis foot meshes, in order to correct that in my game and is one reason why I am generally reluctant to download defaults.

I do use Bloom's feet obviously, and I like them, but the experience of having to correct a large amount of CC has put me off DL any more defaults. Of course, I could delete the effected CC - but I didn't want to so corrected it instead. Somewhere along the line a few months back, I DL a mesh which defaults a shoe shape (a slipper) onto a standard EAxis mesh and it's all over the place in my game and needs to go. It's a nice shape but I don't want it because it's too much work. I need to track it down and get rid of it and, to be honest, if that happens with what you're doing with these feet, you will find a lot of people will not download it or will get rid of it sharpish just the same. I'm not saying don't do it but there is an issue with defaults. I much prefer custom myself.

So this week I decided my project would be to make a whole sub-hood dedicated to lots/houses meant to take screenshots in for uploads. Kind of like a town full of studios and boutiques? It was a great idea in theory but I think my brain is going to explode from all the ideas I have

This is especially true for all the undies swimsuit and all painting on skin. But this FT outfit is its own mesh...it is not like having to replace all the crop-top/skinny jeans painting on skin recolor of a swimsuit mesh. Only recolor of that particular FT mesh would apply on it. And if the feet part of that FT outfit has been used and add onto a different custom mesh..well it is its own new mesh now. As any default, you could not have my FT patterskirt default, and another patternskirt one.
But maybe I am just not getting what you are telling me, or maybe you,d need to try it for yourself
And thank you. You are forcing my brain to work.

No, I'm not saying it would but if you're remapping the feet (which I guess you are), then all recolours of that mesh someone already has will get something like this



It's why I don't like default mesh replacements.

Gah - I must find that. I'm really puzzled by it because it's not defaulted anything EAxis - I have a horrible suspicion it's simply a foot mesh. My own fault of course, I should have been paying attention. However, once I find it, it's gone.