Midnight Hollow Creation Sharing Thread
http://store.thesims3.com/content/global/images/store/midnight_hollow/TabHeroImages/World_TABDetails_MidnightHollow.jpg For all other Sharing Threads: Riverview: Hidden Springs: Barnacle Bay:...
Forum Discussion
The Grove of Portents: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=7782590 - Amidst the darkness of Midnight Hollow, there is a hidden grove where the veil between this world and the next has worn thin and the other side shines through.
This was a bit of a tricky one for a couple of reasons. The Gypsy Caravan is brightly colored and can't be restyled, and worse, there doesn't seem to be a way to control the color or brightness of the lights on it. No matter what you do, it is going to stick out like a sore thumb wherever you put it. It will always be too bright and too brightly colored.
Instead of fighting the problems I couldn't change, I embraced them. The Moon Dial and Faerie Castle have the same lighting problems as the Caravan, so I pulled them all together in one lot. Using terrain paints, I brightened the ground around all three items, sprinkled in some subtle flowers in the ground cover near them, and used the smallest versions of the new fantasy trees to define a magical grove around them.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/953/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
Next, I placed Glow Orbs and Spotlight mushrooms to form a faerie ring around the Faerie Castle, anchored by one of the Fantasy Mushroom Trees.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/954/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
Finally, I surrounded it closely with haunted shrubbery and trees, as though the darkness of Midnight Hollow was closing in around the grove, to really emphasize the contrast between the brightness of the grove and the darkness of the surrounding forest.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/952/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
All of those shots were taken at night, when I think the problems of coloring and brightness are at their worst, and I think it still manages to fit into Midnight Hollow reasonably well. The one below is an overhead view in daylight so you can see the terrain paint effects, with the brighter grass sprinkled with flowers closest to the caravan and moon dial, fading into darker grass within the grove, and out to the dark gray basic MH background outside the grove on the left and in the lower left corner.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/300/214/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
It's not perfect, but without an alternate Gypsy Caravan that is a better fit for Midnight Hollow, I think this is a fairly good compromise without using CC or mods.
CC free 25 x 25 lot. If you change the lot type, you can drop this in the 25 x 25 lot near the cemetery.
This was a bit of a tricky one for a couple of reasons. The Gypsy Caravan is brightly colored and can't be restyled, and worse, there doesn't seem to be a way to control the color or brightness of the lights on it. No matter what you do, it is going to stick out like a sore thumb wherever you put it. It will always be too bright and too brightly colored.
Instead of fighting the problems I couldn't change, I embraced them. The Moon Dial and Faerie Castle have the same lighting problems as the Caravan, so I pulled them all together in one lot. Using terrain paints, I brightened the ground around all three items, sprinkled in some subtle flowers in the ground cover near them, and used the smallest versions of the new fantasy trees to define a magical grove around them.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/953/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
Next, I placed Glow Orbs and Spotlight mushrooms to form a faerie ring around the Faerie Castle, anchored by one of the Fantasy Mushroom Trees.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/954/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
Finally, I surrounded it closely with haunted shrubbery and trees, as though the darkness of Midnight Hollow was closing in around the grove, to really emphasize the contrast between the brightness of the grove and the darkness of the surrounding forest.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/952/198/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
All of those shots were taken at night, when I think the problems of coloring and brightness are at their worst, and I think it still manages to fit into Midnight Hollow reasonably well. The one below is an overhead view in daylight so you can see the terrain paint effects, with the brighter grass sprinkled with flowers closest to the caravan and moon dial, fading into darker grass within the grove, and out to the dark gray basic MH background outside the grove on the left and in the lower left corner.
http://lvlt.thesims3.com/sims3_asset/sims3_asset/media/shard000//shard000/300/214/016/00/screenshot_original.jpg"width=640"
It's not perfect, but without an alternate Gypsy Caravan that is a better fit for Midnight Hollow, I think this is a fairly good compromise without using CC or mods.
CC free 25 x 25 lot. If you change the lot type, you can drop this in the 25 x 25 lot near the cemetery.
Featured Places
