Hiya! I've been building houses and lots in the sims since Sims 2, but for some reason, I just cannot get that wow factor. I wondered if anyone would be kind enough to take a look at my lots in my gallery and offer some constructive criticism so that I can take it to the next level?
My ID is Riverleigh. I'm not sure why it's showing me as Neashaleigh here.
@DeanXeL Thank you for posting pics. I can't access the gallery right now for some reason... (grr)
@Neashaleigh I'm not gonna openly critique your builds, but I'm going to give you a list of tips on building that I have using a build I'm currently working on. Also, instead of focusing on gallery popularity, I'm going to focus on design choices, because gallery popularity doesn't matter much in the end. What matters is that you built a sims' world that you're proud of!
First off, try to build based upon a floor plan. I noticed I started being able to build better in the sims by following floor plans first, but now I can create my own designs and I'm also really good at modifying floorplans to fit the sims better. I followed this floor plan recently and created this cute little house that's obviously been modified a lot from the original plan.
Off the bat, you can immediately see that I have very simple landscaping, I use color theory appropriately, I frame my siding, my roofing is an appealing shape, and I play with bump-outs. I'll go through each of these in my current WIP which I'll talk about in a separate reply
First off, sorry for the fuzzy pics. IDK what happened with imgur. These pics are much nicer.
So I'm building a lot in Glimmerbrook so I'm using Get Together and Realm of Magic. #1 thing about building is to narrow down a style. I'm going for German tudor/magical fairy mansion vibes here with the Get Together wallpaper, the bricks, turrets, interesting roof shapes, and the stained glass windows from ROM. You can get a lot of inspiration for different styles online. For this style, I google image search keywords like "tudor" or "storybook". One thing to note is cottage plans IRL can turn into mansions in the Sims so I always search for "small home/house floorplan/exterior"
So once you have a style picked out for your build and either a floor plan to follow along or some inspo pics, you need to build. Start with a rectangle (NEVER a square). Off of the rectangle, you build "bump outs". These add architectural interest to your build. I have several kinds of bump outs on this build:
1)Turrets--these are great for castle/magic/tudor/old world/medieval vibes but they're not good in suburban builds (excluding cape cod builds but those are super complicated), small lots, tiny homes, or furnishing. Octagonal rooms are sooooo hard to furnish and they're kinda difficult to place correctly, roof into a build, and landscape around. There are 4 types of turrets (assuming a 2 story build) and I have 3 in this build. The first is 1st floor only with a roof slapped on top. The second is 1st and 2nd floor with a roof adjoining into the main roof. The third is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor like a Rapunzel tower. The fourth is 2nd floor only, no 1st floor so the turret appears floating off the side of the building. This look is difficult to achieve but can look nice.
2)Dormers--I LOOOOVe dormers. These are when you have a bump out jutting out of the roof. You can find premade ones in the chimney sort of the build catalog or if you want a space to be playable, surround the second floor with roofing and the make some bump outs. It's difficult to show in pics or write about but if you download my build Double Bargain Bend (origin Id is the same as here) you can play with the roofing pieces to see how I make it work and also get to look at two classic shotgun houses, which are super easy to build and ALWAYS look great. Southern homes make a lot of use out of dormers.
3)The traditional bump out: a simple rectangle off your big rectangle. In the pic I posted previously, you can see that I have a lot of simple bump outs. There are three types (assuming a 2 story build): a) 1st floor only with a roof on the second. b) 2nd floor only with a trim on the bottom (or overhanging a roof on the second story like over a patio). c)1st and 2nd story with a roof on the 3rd. The latter can sometimes look a little big and brazen so I usually make those smaller, thinner, skinnier, etc. On Little Boy Blue, I made it bump out further but it was skinnier. On my WIP, it is fat but it only bumps out a little. That's very important to note about bump outs, they look better in rectangles than in squares. You can see I play with not only how far my bump outs come, but also how fat they are.
4) The barn roof bump out. idk what it is actually called, but it reminds me of barn style houses. I built one house recently (Model Living) where I demonstrate this nicely on the lefthand side of the front. As you can see, it requires at least two stories. The first story is a wide bump out and then the second story goes on top and juts out the same amount but it is skinnier so you can place half roofs on either side and a roof on top. This can either be done with straight roofs at different angles to make it look like a barn, you can curve it like I've done here and on my WIP, or you can make it super straight with the same angle on both the half roofs and the top roof and make it look like a triangle. I have aLOT of builds with this kind of feature where I vary the width of the half roofs, and the curves and angles of the top roof. I really encourage you to check out some of my builds and just play around with the roofing. It really is what makes these bump outs pop and when you look at how someone else put their roofing together, you can learn how to put your own roofing together.
https://i.imgur.com/elIsvjC.png
To be continued........ (I'm scared I'm gonna accidentally delete this so yeah)
I)Get your inspo II)Make a large rectangle III)make bump outs IV)Roooffff
Roofing and bump outs go hand in hand. One thing to help you place bump outs well is 1)Don't make the front or the back super flat (Unless you're doing colonial) and 2)WHERE IS THE KITCHEN? and WHERE IS THE FIREPLACE? You can use a few counters and a couch to help you figure out some of the floor plan as you place your bump outs. I looove to place my living rooms on flat walls of the main rectangle with a chimney jutting out and my kitchens in wide bump outs. Once you figure out that, you're pretty much golden on the floorplan because with bump outs, all the rooms just come together.
Now that you've figured out the layout and design of your home, you need deets.
V) Details--flower boxes, columns, patios, windows, doors, etc. With the window update (god bless), you can literally figure out anything with your fancy boxes. In my WIP, I'm limiting myself to ROM and Get Together because they have the right feel and I want this build to be a lil more accessible to other players than my normal pack-filled builds. Cats and Dogs goes well with Parenthood. Dineout and City Living. Jungle Adventure and Laundry Day. Some packs just fit together. Seasons windows go with EVERYTHING. Those stick straight columns in Get Together belong on EVERY SINGLE SUBURBAN house ever. Period. See Model Living from above. I outlined all my gray siding bump outs with those columns. If your house has colorful siding, outline them in stark white columns. Adding details in creative, but SIMPLE ways can make your build great. It can make it pop. In all my builds, you can see I don't go overboard with the flower boxes, I center all my windows, I vary textures, but not too much, and I make sure that the wall doesn't dominate. What I mean by that is you can't just have a small window on a big wall (unless you're going uber modern) Windows need to fit correctly. They need to be spaced correctly as well. Some windows look nice close together but others look better further apart. I used to be so bad at that but now I'm great at it and paying attention to other people's builds or taking a walk around my neighborhood has helped with that.
Once you've picked out deets for your build style, you need to apply color theory. This is where wall paper comes in.
VI)Coloring--What I notice immediately about your builds is your lack of understanding about color theory. There are some minecraft youtubers like Ethos Lab and BDouble0 that have videos on color theory that explain how to match colors or you can google it. I think that first and foremost, to make your builds look immediately better, is to color them correctly. If you look at houses IRL, you'll see they're all mostly one color or material, but in the sims, you need 2-3 colors/textures to make it look really good. In Little Boy Blue, I picked out my main color--white siding, my accent texture--stone, and my accent color--blue shingles. In Model Living, I picked out my main color--grey siding, my accent texture--wood planks, and my accent color--wide white planks. In my WIP, I have my main color--brown bricks, my accent texture--stone, and my second accent texture--that Get Together tudor wallpaper. Each time, I pick three things that vary not just in color, but texture as well, and at least two of them are neutral (brown, white, black, tan, grey). Too many colors is overwhelming. You've done a good job in getting neutrals in your builds but not a good job at matching neutrals to the appropriate pop of color and learning about color theory will help with that. In my WIP, the style is very detail oriented and has a lot of colors and textures so it can look a little busy at first glance but the key is to balance busyness with simplicity. You achieve that in the modern blue build (but the roofing needs help there) and you miss the mark in many of your other builds either swayign too simple or too busy and most of that is from the landscape.
VII)Landscaping.... I wanted to use my WIP to show you how landscaping can change a build. Right now, it's a cool-looking shell, but you can see that it's both a little complicated and a little simple. In the back, it looks slightly weird, on the side, the flat wall looks strange, and in the front, it looks kinda cold and intimidating. I'm going to show you a few pics of the landscaping process here:
So first off, what is the focal point for my backyard (or side yard in this case)? I alwayyyyys start in the back because my focal point determines my plants. I really want to use the hot tub and a trellis because I have a lot of space to cover and I want some vertical intrigue, but I might end up nixing the hot tub in favor of a pool.
https://i.imgur.com/lk6P9zs.png
Next, I want to map out what the backyard is going to look like. To me, this is even harder than building but landscape can make or break your build. One thing I think about with most builds is screenshot opportunities and landscaping can making your screenshots rise above. A nice backyard can also be a good place to propose or get married and with this "mini mansion" in Glimmerbrook I want romance and pixie dust. I'm using the ROM fencing, a plethora of bushes, a windy path, a cozy nook, and a raised trellis area. I've picked out some flower/bush arrangements and tested them out in the nook with the fountain before I proliferate them throughout the yard. because the yard is so large and I want it to feel cozy, I broke it up with the trellis area across from the patio, and with the swirly paths that will wind around elegant statues and benches.
https://i.imgur.com/fAC450N.png
So I proliferated my bushes, using alt one very single one, I added a statue, two more swirly paths, some garden beds around the rest of the house, lots of trees, and a trellis over the patio as well. Now I have a lush backyard and the view from all sides of the house is very quaint and full and lively. Glimmerbrook has a lot of pine trees so I incorporated those amongst the decorative spruce trees. I will continue to say it until the end of time: landscaping makes or breaks your build.
Sure I have a lot of flowers in the back, but I simplified the rest of the landscaping by using some large trees and the flowers in the beds will be simple as well. When you first do landscaping like this, it might look awful, but with practice you can perfect it. If you compare this landscaping to my more suburban builds, you will notice with suburban builds, I go pretty simple: a large grass space, a small patio or pool, and a few clumps of bushes/flowers and a flower bed or two, but I don't usually cover the whole backyard in foliage but this WIP is how you can make something magical and lush without going overboard. It's busy but because I use the same bushes and flowers throughout and clump like with like, it's not too busy.
Something I noticed with your builds is you didn't have the right balance in landscaping. You could either do random and busy or simple and patterned. Unlike the house, landscaping is supposed to be soft, to shape the angles of the house. Placing things neatly and perfectly doesn't sit right. With landscaping, alt-shift is your friend and you don't need to think about it too much. Pick 3-4 bushes/flowers and just go for it. You tend to want to place plants symmetrically or in line with each other, but you really want to vary your angles here. Never place two of the same trees right next to each other unless you size them differently and place them at an angle. I can see that this is going to be the toughest part of building for you because you seem to have a good grasp of bump outs and window placement. The easiest way to conquer landscaping is to copy the landscape around your build. The sim team did a good job designing the worlds and if you copy world landscaping you'll find your build looks a lot nicer and soon you'll be able to grasp the concepts of asymmetry and balancing busy with simple.
I hope that this helps you find not only inspiration, but a better grasp at sim-architecture and kind of the main properties of a good build. You have a good grasp on most of them, but there's always room for improvement and I think you might find yourself going back and improving on your old builds. I used to build these awful boxy mansions before I decided I wanted to learn how to build and I'm always improving (hello terrain tools, my old nemesis)
I leave you with one last thing: a challenge. I want you to try something I don't think you've tried before: follow this floorplan/facade:
It has bump outs, dormers, a bit of a challenging roof, and some simple landscaping. You can test out color theory here pretty easily with about 2 main wallpapers and a wood accent. Build it on Optimist Outlook (30x40) in Newcrest
@lzbthnndgls tip for the barn roof: try using shift +c on a roof (tip i got from chips a while ago) it lets you 'double bend' a roof and thus use the barn roof on a single story. That way if you want to use a very narrow roof to build a barn roof on, it is not weirdly high :)
ok i looked at all your lots @Neashaleigh and to me they did have the wow factor but the ones that didn't id say is because of the landscaping sorry for my brief critiquing its just your builds don't really have anything wrong with them
Wow! Loads of good advice Izbthnndgls! Thank you! By the way, how the heck do you pronounce your name? Hehe. Anyway, I will grab a coffee and settle in to fully absorb what you have said. I was a little shocked by what you said about my lack of colour theory.. but only because I'm an artist in rl. It kinda made me step back and think.. hmmmmm... how can I improve on my knowledge of colour and incorporate it better into my builds. If you haven't already, take a look at my gallery. I've loads of new builds in there and I've been playing a lot with colour. Ignore the green house lol. I did that as part of a solid colour challenge, and for some reason, Maxis liked it so who knows lol.
"DeanXeL;c-17849349" wrote: @lzbthnndgls tip for the barn roof: try using shift +c on a roof (tip i got from chips a while ago) it lets you 'double bend' a roof and thus use the barn roof on a single story. That way if you want to use a very narrow roof to build a barn roof on, it is not weirdly high :)
I just learned that a couple weeks ago! I haven't really needed to use it yet though, but I was amazed when I discovered that
"Neashaleigh;c-17849350" wrote: Wow! Loads of good advice Izbthnndgls! Thank you! By the way, how the heck do you pronounce your name? Hehe. Anyway, I will grab a coffee and settle in to fully absorb what you have said. I was a little shocked by what you said about my lack of colour theory.. but only because I'm an artist in rl. It kinda made me step back and think.. hmmmmm... how can I improve on my knowledge of colour and incorporate it better into my builds. If you haven't already, take a look at my gallery. I've loads of new builds in there and I've been playing a lot with colour. Ignore the green house lol. I did that as part of a solid colour challenge, and for some reason, Maxis liked it so who knows lol.
lol, it's my full name without vowels (Elizabeth translates to lzbth).
You're an artist? What medium do you use? I do a lot of artsy things irl and right now it's beading and I can go ahead and tell you my beadweaving always ends up awful but my prismacolor drawings look amazing. Switching mediums can be sooo hard and I consider sims build mode as an artistic medium. After looking through your gallery, I recognize some of the things I used to do before going back and reanalyzing how I built. You're trying to find your niche and I can see it.
With color theory, I knew about it since a kid but only after watching some minecraft youtubers build did I really start to think about it. I think it just takes a push and a step back. I loooove a lot of your modern homes and I think you're great at shaping things, window placement, and coloring moderns but some of the more suburban/tudor builds are just a little busy like the Rise and Flower House just have too many textures and there's not too much contrast. Also, I looooved the green house. idk why, though--maybe because green is my favorite color, maybe because the design was wonderful, etc, etc, but the main part that made it stand out is you did WONDERFUL with the landscaping there and if you apply that landscaping to your other builds, they'll pop a lot more. Like Parkshore shell is really nice with the shape and the landscaping but Oak Alcove needs some trees and Dusty Turf has too many different types of flowers.
I think you're already doing a wonderful job (I mean, even Maxis thinks so) and you're just going to get better and better!
"Neashaleigh;c-17849350" wrote: Wow! Loads of good advice Izbthnndgls! Thank you! By the way, how the heck do you pronounce your name? Hehe. Anyway, I will grab a coffee and settle in to fully absorb what you have said. I was a little shocked by what you said about my lack of colour theory.. but only because I'm an artist in rl. It kinda made me step back and think.. hmmmmm... how can I improve on my knowledge of colour and incorporate it better into my builds. If you haven't already, take a look at my gallery. I've loads of new builds in there and I've been playing a lot with colour. Ignore the green house lol. I did that as part of a solid colour challenge, and for some reason, Maxis liked it so who knows lol.
lol, it's my full name without vowels (Elizabeth translates to lzbth).
You're an artist? What medium do you use? I do a lot of artsy things irl and right now it's beading and I can go ahead and tell you my beadweaving always ends up awful but my prismacolor drawings look amazing. Switching mediums can be sooo hard and I consider sims build mode as an artistic medium. After looking through your gallery, I recognize some of the things I used to do before going back and reanalyzing how I built. You're trying to find your niche and I can see it.
With color theory, I knew about it since a kid but only after watching some minecraft youtubers build did I really start to think about it. I think it just takes a push and a step back. I loooove a lot of your modern homes and I think you're great at shaping things, window placement, and coloring moderns but some of the more suburban/tudor builds are just a little busy like the Rise and Flower House just have too many textures and there's not too much contrast. Also, I looooved the green house. idk why, though--maybe because green is my favorite color, maybe because the design was wonderful, etc, etc, but the main part that made it stand out is you did WONDERFUL with the landscaping there and if you apply that landscaping to your other builds, they'll pop a lot more. Like Parkshore shell is really nice with the shape and the landscaping but Oak Alcove needs some trees and Dusty Turf has too many different types of flowers.
I think you're already doing a wonderful job (I mean, even Maxis thinks so) and you're just going to get better and better!
Oh that's cool! About your name, that is. Also, mostly my medium is pencil, charcoal and watercolour. If you want to take a look, I have a page on Facebook called Lynda and Sapphire's Art. Also,
