https://i.imgur.com/qkXexiw.pngThe benefits First place will be awarded at all levels. If there are at least eight entries in a category, up to four places will also be announced. Challenges also create an opportunity for community on the forum site. We get to know one another’s names, share news, builds, and positive words. This is a chance to get your name out there, and hopefully make a few friends along the way.
What makes this challenge different from all the other ones I've seen? We have been hosting this weekly challenge since the first week the game was released. We have many levels of builders in our community and welcome them all. This group is truly a product of all its great members!
Within the first few challenges, our group was recognized by the gurus that be, who have helped the weekly challenges gain even more popularity be stickying both Build-n-Share threads. Since then, we have had at least one featured creation almost every week, and our list of featured members continues to grow.
With 5 successful collaborative neighborhoods (Gnomelandia, Summer of Love, NYC, Sanshi Sumei and Olde Fairy Tale Village ) completed, Build-n-Share hopes to bring more creative challenges and new neighborhood ideas to the community with the help of our dedicated participants who willingly contribute and help each week to make sure each challenge runs smoothly.
Looking for more challenges? Check out the
Build Challenges thread created by @rosemow
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Big thanks to Faith of Kaela for putting this together!
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/769877/sims-4-buildnshare-archives
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@Kittkat7147 - Challenge Admin & TS4 judge
@Masajo - TS4 judge, Entry Organizer and Archivist
@lebanna - TS4 judge
@gmcrozier - TS4 judge
@BreeMiles - Tremendous Tweeter
@SimTresa - TS4 Judge & Challenge Creator
@SheriGR - TS4 Judge & Fearless Facebooker
@Pronterus - TS4 Judge
@Allears - Image Wrangler
@Ciane - TS3 Challenge Host & TS3 Judge
@_Princess_Natasha_ - TS3 judge
@creativemetaphor - TS3 judge and comer upper of challenges
@FidgetyAtom - discord moderator and general lay about
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Since judging will be based on screenshots, we figured this would be a good time to go over some tips and tricks in taking good screenshots to help showcase your lovely builds.
Camera Man Mode - This is a must in taking good shots! You will have to be in live mode to do this, but just hit "TAB" to enter this mode. Once you are in this mode, you can use the mouse to freely control the angles and use "W, A, S, D" buttons to move forward, backwards, and side to side. "Z" zooms in, "X" zooms out. "Q" moves up and "E" moves down. "C" to capture the shot.
Find the perfect angle - With photography, it is all about finding the right angle. Spend some time in camera man mode to find the perfect angle. Get down to a sim's point of view to take the best shots of rooms.
Walls up - Most people play with walls cut away, but when you are taking pictures of your lot, try to keep your walls up to make your shots look more realistic.
No grids - Unless you need to show the grid for a specific purpose, make sure no build/buy grid is visible when you take your pictures. You can avoid this by taking pictures in live mode or by hitting 'G' button in build mode.
More is better—Weird, huh? But in this case, we want to make sure judges have enough shots to fairly judge your lot. Be sure to show off each room with at least one picture. Also, please include an overhead shot of the floorplan for each level.
Ok, those are the basics! If you want to further your simatography skills, we highly recommend you visit http://simatography.webs.com for more tips and tricks and to see some excellent shots taken by professional simatographers!
Please try to keep this thread as photo free as possible and create a slide show to illustrate your lots.
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Here are just a few tips to get you started. If you know a few more and are willing to give them up to the competition , feel free to post below with more info!
Walls:
- Are expensive. Use alternatives whenever possible.
- Open layouts work nicely for starters. Just use natural transitioning and create "areas" instead (ie. the kitchen opens onto the living room, instead of being its own little room.)
- Simple foundation basements are nice because they are made out of foundation, which is cheaper, and they add a whole lot of room to your house. If you leave them bare with brick walls, they cost even less. (I would at least cover the floor, though.) Attics can be good for the same reason. If you use a pointy roof and the house is big enough, there is some area under the highest point of the roof that's usable. All it costs to utilize this space is a set of the cheapest stairs and some inexpensive flooring.
- Diagonal walls can be a little awkward, but because they can go from corner to corner and are wider than regular walls, you get a "room" out of one wall.
Foundations:
- Whether you are going to use a basement or not, hollow out the middle of your foundation floors. You really only need foundation around the outer edge of your home so your walls aren't floating in outerspace. When you use ctrl with the foundation tool, it erases foundation. If the area is still closed in with walls and a border of foundation, you usually are left with a floating floor. If the tile grid "disappears," start from the outside and work your way in. Each new row of floor will add the grid for the row after it. Soon, the whole room is covered.
- Deleting the foundation has a second advantage: you can create little sunk-in areas with a set of stairs. Kind of a fun design twist that's cheap.
Columns:
- Also expensive. You know that carport? Instead of columns, you might consider using a two-level patio foundation (the one with the wood slats). Build the patio foundation. Then, on top of that one, hit shift and drag another patio foundation. They stack and become taller. High enough for that carport roof.
- You also don't "need" all the columns. If you're trying to get flooring above a column, use the column, add the floor, and then delete the column. Voila! Floating tiles. I wouldn't have a massive floating object with no columns, but a few less than you need helps pinch pennies when you're talking starter.
Wall coverings:
- This is something I've figured out in Sims 3. I probably shouldn't tell you if you haven't done it yet...find the cheapest wall with no built-in pattern you can find (I use Flat Wall in the paint section). Click on it with the create-a-style tool. Go to your brick or whatever other more expensive pattern you want and select it. Your brick wall now costs about $3 less per panel then if you just did it the normal way.
Floorplan:
- Always go small. More walls=more money. They're expensive, and you have to cover them. Make it big enough that the sim can move around. But if they outgrow the house, they can always add on later. This is probably the biggest money-saver for starters.
Windows:
- Check window prices carefully. Some of the double windows will be cheaper than using two of the smaller ones. It's usually not by much, but if you're doing a whole wall of them, it can add up.
- Build and build again: The cool thing about starters is you can build them pretty quickly. I usually find the more I build consecutively, the more I can get in and for less money.
