11 years ago

♥♥♥ Beginner's Comp Discussion Thread ♥♥♥

OFFICIAL THREAD TO COMP CAN BE FOUND HERE!

I'M CHANGING THIS TO A DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THE COMP WHERE YOU CAN TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES AND TO THE MENTORS! ORIGINAL MESSAGE IS BELOW.

****************************

Hi all! I'm antebellum, and you may have seen me crop up around the forums a whole lot lately. I'm one of the co-editors of Just Sims Magazine, and among other duties, I'm also responsible for creating the design and layout of every single page, as well as ordering and uploading to the internet.

I started modeling only about 2 months ago, but I've come leaps and bounds since my first entry. What I've noticed in these amazing modeling competitions is that they can come off as rather intimidating to newcomers. Not the hosts! The hosts are AMAZING and always so helpful in helping us grow! But sometimes it can be hard to have confidence in yourself when you have limited editing/photography skills and you see so many other Simmers entering amazing photographs that look so professional!

So the idea I pitched to the staff of Just Sims Magazine is to do a modeling competition that is ONLY FOR BEGINNERS. It's fine if you've entered other contests, but you have to have either been eliminated early on, placed pretty low, or just feel inadequate in your editing skills. OR you might be someone who's always loved to watch the contests but never felt confident enough to join up!

And if you're just lurking or feel you're too advanced for the comp, feel free to try out some techniques you've never seen or tried before. Just because you're not competing doesn't mean you can't learn something new!

The competition would be NON-ELIMINATION. The goal is to grow as a photographer and as an editor, and you can't do that if you've been eliminated after the first assignment!

Each assignment, I will post a tutorial on a particular skill and ask you to execute that skill. I will try to keep it GIMP and Photoshop-friendly. Photoshop is expensive and usually anyone who owns it received the copy free through a relative or through friends. GIMP on the other hand is completely free and takes up little disk space. Neither program uses a lot of CPU, so it likely will not bog down your computer if you are running a lower-end PC, which many of us are! You will be scored on your ability to follow the tutorial and execute, but in this competition, the scoring exists only to let you know how well you're grasping the concept. In the end, we will place your beginning shot with your finale shot and the judges will decide who has best improved.

Things you might learn in this comp include:

Pose Player usage
Basic editing
Filters & Effects
Lighting & Backgrounds (in-game)
Taking an outdoor shot
Hair Stock usage
Advanced editing
Pose creation
and more!

Depending on the complexity of the assignment, you may be given up to TWO WEEKS to accomplish your photograph. But fret not, we will start easy and work our way up. The purpose of this comp is to improve your skills and boost your confidence!

So I'm putting it out there, to see who might be interested in such a thing! If I can get at least 10 people interested, then I will set up the comp and away we'll go!

And did I mention the whole comp will be featured in Just Sims Magazine and the winner ("Most Improved", though you will all hopefully be very improved!) will get their own spread? ;)

INTERESTED PARTIES:

1. lovebirdelounor
2. bubblegum17
3. brunettesimgirl
4. WissaWolf
5. jojo784379
6. lijahlexi123
7. mmitchel
8. CraigyBoy2 §
9. lexidarling123
10. easypeaze §
11. OceanRose56
12. 1423smile
13. TearsDropFast §
14. bongani §

§ = Survey answers received!

RileyJW90
11 years ago
Gotcha Tears!

We're up to 13 now!
MizoreYukii
New Spectator
11 years ago
Even though I'm not a mentor, I can try helping with what I know. :mrgreen:

brunettesimgirl wrote:
2) The camera angle being slightly lower for better eye contact....Is there an easier way to get the camera to move down slightly? I mean other than using "Q"? When I tap that keys to lower the camera it jumps way down even when slightly tapping the keys. So if I had tapped the key to lower the camera more (even slightly) I kept getting it at an angle where it looked like I was looking up her nose ( :lol: ). I do see what you were talking about when mentioning getting the camera a little lower to make better eye contact (and I thought the same thing when taking the pic), but I couldn't seem to get it 'there' for the life of me and ended up just settling with what I posted. :P

From what I've heard there are several camera mods out there, but the one that I use (and also sounds like it comes with more) is this one. It slows the camera down, so no matter where your sim is you have control of your camera. I couldn't imagine modeling without it, especially since the photography studio is upstairs in my models' home, and the higher you get without this mod the more wonky the camera gets.

For anyone else having camera issues, I suggest getting this mod or another one like it.

AbbiJo44 wrote:
Anyway, I'd like to try out the HQ mod (I'm pretty sure my computer can handle it) but at this point I'm not allowed to download a .rar file reader. :( Is there anywhere that I could download it in a .zip file, or another form that wouldn't require downloading a program?

Unfortunately most cc, poses, and so on are .rar files. Like Ayana said, your best bet is to ask the creator or search high and low for a file that's a zip. You also need to figure out which HQ mod you need. HQ mods come in several versions, some with other mods attached like the "No Glow + HQ Mod" (my favorite). If I find a HQ mod that comes as a .zip I will let you know (unless someone else links one before me).
MizoreYukii
New Spectator
11 years ago
WissaWolf wrote:
Weird. Even though my computer is relatively new with a nice graphic cards and my settings are all on high, I still can't figure out why the edges are jagged and not smooth. I tried to find the liquify option, but I don't think it's available for gimp. Do they have something else similar? I have been trying to smooth them out with the blur tool on certain sections of the photo by dragging the oval crop around on the picture.

I feel tempted to download that HQ mod, but I'm worried I'll mess up my game. I am very bad at downloading stuff and find the instructions confusing, because it's not like other mods where all you have to do is extract it to to your downloads folder.
Hell, I can't even find.. the folder they were talking about! It says something about a game bin..

My graphics card is AMD Readeon HD 8750M with 2 GB Dedicated VRAM. I have no idea what any of it means, but surely it's enough to handle the game, right? My sister's boyfriend told me it could even play Skyrim! My therapist's, who is a gamer was the one who looked up this PC and helped me pick it out.. :( So yeah, kinda sucks that my graphics aren't working well.

If anyone would like to see the improved version of my last photoshoot, just ask and I'll post it up. I'd kinda like to know if the method I've found works..

If I'm correct, it looks like your edge smoothing is turned off/at the lowest. :O Try upping it and it should look better. If you still need help with that I'll post a guide. xD

For the HQ mod, it is confusing because the guides aren't thorough enough! :lol: In reality it's extremely easy. The problem most people run into is the fact that they don't know that there are two folders for the Sims 3.

My mini-guide: (Ante, if you need me to move this to a different page, let me know!)
Hopefully you have a windows PC. xD Also, I'm not sure how your system is organized, but hopefully it looks like this. If not, I can still help you.

First off, we need to find that folder. Now, if you already know how to get to "Computer" then you're already close to finishing this. If not, open up your folders where the The Sims 3 sits. There should be a bar to the left where it lists all of your files. "Computer" should be among them, along with "Pictures", "Music", "Documents", etc.

Once there, you click on the first hard drive (or if you know what hard drive you installed it on, click on that one instead). If you only had one harddrive in the first place, don't worry about that. xD Once you do, you come to a list of folders. Click on "Program Files (x86)".

Once there, we need to look for either "Origin Games" or a folder similar to TS3. So either it will be "Origin Games", or it will be under "Electronic Arts" or The Sims 3. Mine is Origin. Click on the folder when you find it.
Once in Origin, or the folder equal to it, click on the folder marked as "The Sims 3". If it takes you to a folder like this though, ignore this step.

Once you clicked on it, this should appear. Click "Game" and then "Bin".

Congrats! You made it to the inner workings of your sims game. :mrgreen: When you finally get everything going, this is the file that is being modified.

Now, for actually installing the mod. You will need two folders. So create them, then name one "My Graphics Rule" and the other "HQ Graphics Rule". Once you have named them and created them wherever you want (make sure you can get to them easily later), download the HQ mod that you want. Now that the mod is downloaded, open the file that it is in and extract it to where you can easily get it. Once you have extracted it, drag the file (labeled as "GraphicsRules.sgr") to the folder you just created, the "HQ Graphics Rule". Once you drag the mod there, go to the "Bin" file I lead you to earlier, and copy the "GraphicsRules.sgr" file. Paste the file into "My Graphics Rule". The reason you are doing this is so that you can revert back to your old graphics rule when you are done with the HQ mod.
So whenever you want to use the mod, you do this: Copy the file in your "HQ" folder and paste it in the "Bin" folder. This will ask if you want to replace the current file with the one you pasted. Hit "Yes" and then load your game and do what you want. When you are done, copy the file from your "My" folder, then paste it into your "Bin" folder and say yes again. Now your settings are normal!

Some people play with it all the time, but you're not supposed to. xD You can do so if you wish.
wissawolf
11 years ago
Thanks, Yukii! Very helpful. I loved your post about the graphic mod.
Kotii-J
11 years ago
:-o I actually love the entire concept of this idea! When you started talking about the intimidation part in competitions, I seriously related to pretty much everything! I think this competition gives people the chance to grow as a photographer and editor without having the pressure of intimidation or elimination. A lot of competitions these days (even long before) always had that atmosphere and it completely brings down your self confidence which I'm not a fan of.

To everyone whose new to modeling or old (not that old, like Bebs or Chell old XD It's a compliment :3 Meaning they're too advanced ;-;), I'd recommend this <3! It's a great stepping stone ^^

Seriously, when I joined modeling forums I wish something like this was here because practically every single talking person in this forum scared the hell out of me and I was practically on my knees XDD Take advantage of this~!!

@Antebellum Mind if I spread the word about this on Tumblr; I think it'd bring a lot of newcomers to the forums? Or did JS Magazine already make a post? (If so I'll reblog it ;3)

OH MY GOD. O.O.O.O!!! I'm actually teaching a few people the basics with photography and I admit I'm having trouble because there's like 4 of them! I'm going to direct them to here :D!
RileyJW90
11 years ago
Angel, I would LOVE it if you spread the word! I don't have a Tumblr myself, and there was no official announcement on JSM, just in the Staff Only area. So by all means, please help gain some momentum! If I have 10, if I have 20, it doesn't matter, everyone deserves the chance to grow and to learn. I think perhaps if this gains enough popularity, I'll repeat it every 6-12 months to pick up more people who are joining every day (unless it needs to be done less or more frequently).

Thanks so much for your comment! It's good to know I wasn't the only one who felt intimidated and a little lackluster in comparison to the amazing editors entering the same comps as myself.
RileyJW90
11 years ago
lovebird, I will put your name down as an interested party! If we gain enough people, I will start up a new thread specifically for the comp and move the list of names over (so keep an eye out if we get more people, and I'll make an announcement)!
Kotii-J
11 years ago
lovebirdelounor wrote:
Hi! i'm Georgina (aka: simlychic) a girl on tumblr talked me into joining :) and i'm actually really excited! <3 i'm pretty sure the girl Angel_Zarr! And i would just like to thank you for being so nice and kind <3

Heyyyy ^^ :mrgreen: Call me Angel <3 <3 I can't wait till this starts :3

@Antebellum Great :D I'll set up a post about this now :D!!
sappiechan
New Spectator
11 years ago
This is SUCH a brilliant idea! I really wanted something like this when I first started, but luckily there was a newbie-friendly Holiday comp that helped me jump in (I still had no confidence in my shots and felt super-intimidated by all the amazing competitors, though). But this.. this would help SO many! You should go for it! I would so lurk this.
cheerio517
11 years ago
This is a great idea! When I first started, I basically knew nothing and joined everything... I could have used a comp like this to smooth the transition a little.