Fionn
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37Creations 370,860Downloads

Fionn's Blog


Where Am I?

For those of you who have dropped by from time to time, you'll probably note that its now late September, and I haven't submitted anything since June.

It'll probably stay that way. I got a promotion...I'm now a High School principal, and my time with my family becomes ever-so-much-more important, as my hobby time is down to nearly nothing.

When I do have some time, I'm spending it on some other projects; my vocal group (The Four Dots and a Dash), the Viking novel I've been working on (for the last six years...nearly finished chapter one)and my fireworks business (yes, I sell fireworks in the summer).

For those in the community who know me, and I'm not very personable online, I still hang around. I still donate here and there, and I am still browsing and amazed at the things being created by this community. It's top-notch, and I'm very proud to have been a part of it all.

Big props to Xandher. She has been my buddy throughout good times and bad.

Fionn

Not totally gone

Well, I said that I wouldn't be back unless I got bitten by the bug...

So, I'm not really all the way back. I just don't have that kind of time. But, I'm back a little.

One day, while looking at my hair file collection in BodyShop, I noticed the "diva" hairstyle here at TSR, which was acquired through cooperation from Jose Silva, AKA 3Dream. They did a bang-up job on that one, but I thought that I saw something there that a few minor tweaks could turn into another really sexy style. So, I messed around with it some, deleted the bangs, widened it a bit, bent in some parts here and there, and voila! I think we have a pretty cool style working for us. Of course, I got Xandher on those re-vamped textures, and we were good to submit. We're calling it "diva redux," and I hope you enjoy.

Meanwhile, let me say a word or two about animations.

They are great, but I think for the most part, they are overdone.

Let me explain.

I have come around to the other side of the animations argument; I believe that they can cause problems, particularly when the joints aren't weighted well. For some reason, there is a problem with the blend data with our current tools, and what Maxis meant for subtle movement can easily become distorted and unrealistic as the blend data, which basically gives weight to vertices, seems exaggerated. For example, I use the fuzzylonghair as a base for most of my meshes. Maxis has by default assigned about fourteen vertices (total)toward animations. If one attempts to assign those same vertices after export from Milkshape, he/she would find some severe distortion in movement. I'm not sure if this is a Milkshape or SimPE problem, but it is a problem. Animations just don't look right. I have revisited many of my older hairstyles, and have thought that it might be best to remove some of those animations, but I want to hear more. Do those animations distract, or add to your experience with the hair?

I would like to hear your comments regarding that.

Anyway, I'm not fully back, but I'm not fully gone. Sorta like Elvis.


Fionn

Swan Song

Greetings all.

This is my last entry at TSR. Coming off of the heels of Wildness, which frankly didn't get downloaded very much, I'm heading into the sunset with my favorite of my Sims 2 creations, which Xandher and I call "Breck Girl." It's a 70's-inspired style that was pretty tough to pull together. I hope you enjoy it.

No, it isn't the last of my creations because of low download numbers for Wildness; you win some, you lose some in that respect. Rather, I just can't devote the time to it anymore. I am a busy, busy guy (aren't we all, though)with a young family and I have to take inventory of what I want to keep doing and what I want to unload. As much joy as the Sims has brought me since 1999, I'm going to have to bid it adeiu for what will be the last time.

I've been in and out before. In 2000, I decided to stop making Sims 1 heads, then went back into it three months later, working on them for another two years until SimFreaks decided it didn't need me anymore.

This time it feels more permanent. I'm not saying that I won't be bitten by the bug again, but right now, I'm wearing lots of insect repellant. I just can't justify spending the time anymore.

My thanks to Thomas at TSR for his kindness. TSR is a good site, and I'm glad to have been associated with it.

Fionn

Wildness

Greetings, all. It has been a rather busy couple of weeks at the Fionn household. First of all, I am happy to announce that the mock trial team that I sponsor won our state competition, and I'm pretty pumped about it. Information can be found at www.tba.org for any interested.

Secondly, I took the family on vacation, and it was amazing. We had a great time, even though the temperatures in Florida this last week were not as accommodating as we would have liked.

But, I digress.

I think I enjoyed this mesh more than any I have done so far because it really hails back to what I enjoy doing the most...glamour styles. Some guys do anime very well, some guys do short cuts, but I loves me some glamour.

Of course, it has the animations and stuff, which look better than New Wave's because there isn't the darkened underlay to the texture.

Here are some things I figgur'd out this time around:

1) As each number next to an assigned mesh part represents a transparency value, you will find that I only used values 15,11, and 13 for this mesh (avoiding 5,7, and 9). This was to maintain consistency of the texture transparency value throughout the mesh. The game has no problem with this, as long as the textures for 5, 7, and 9 are maintained. I am sure that I could edit those in the package file, but I'm not gonna until I'm more comfortable with that format.

2) Too many hairstyles of this ilk look "flat." They appear hollow, with little shape in the inside of the mesh, including my earlier ones. I attempt to rectify this by applying some depth panels to the back of the hair at the bulge of the cranium, down to the end of the mesh. The net effect, I think anyway, is visually pleasing.

3) Animations are hard to do. They consume most of my time. Getting it right is trial and error. Maxis doesn't use the full potential of their available joints, and that's probably because there are some compromises involved. When doing animations, you have to balance an appealing movement with practical use in the game. I ask these questions when doing an animation:

a) Does it appear to have odd breaking points most of the time?
b) Does it look natural; are any movement exaggerations realistic?
c) Is the effect worth it?

That last question is the real kicker: will an animation totally ruin a good hairstyle. I did one a few months back called "Peekaboo," that was a beautiful hairstyle, but the way the animations were applied looked really good about 1/2 of the time. The rest of the time, it looked awful. I have since fixed the animations for myself, but that was a case in which I should have held it back until I had worked it out a little better.

I go for 75%. That's a rough estimate, but I try to take the hair through as many animations as possible, and then get a sense of whether or not the overall impression of the animation is that it would look good in most animated situations. Then, I make tweaks to the joint assignment to compensate for some strangeness, and then do it again. This is the most time-consuming part of the process. I sure as heck hope it is worth it.

Today is my oldest daughter Tara's birthday. She's 9. I'm extremely old.

Fionn

Prom Nite

My names haven't been very creative of late, but there is a reason why this name isn't so hot...its a remake.

I never really liked one of my earlier creations for Sims 2, which was a remake itself of one of my realheads from back in "the day" of Sims 1 "realprom." I named the Sims 2 mesh "Promenade" and neither Xandher or I could agree that it was one of our best. It seemed nice at the time.

Anyway, if you are reading this, then check out the animations in PromNite, and let us know what you think of the tossle-curl system we devised for this one.

I've got a lot of ideas, and can't wait to try them out.

Fionn

Howdy All

Here I am, in what seems like a full circle. I have been creating Sims stuff for a while now, and even though I took about two years off from creating, I never lost touch with the community or lost my desire to create stuff for the game. I'm back, and hopefully in a little better form.

I've been back "on the scene" for about four months now, and I've decided to hang my hat here as long as they'll have me, and I'm very glad to be a part of such a community.

Along with me is my constant companion for the last four years, Xandher. She's going to be submitting lots of stuff here, including working with me on textures, so I'm tickled pink about that too.

The little ones that you see on my FA banner are my own, btw. Daddy loves 'em.

I hope you all enjoy my first entry here. I think it is innovative for a couple of reasons: 1) it utilizes some new animations made possible with the newest version of SimPE (thanks so much to the creators thereof), and 2) it is a uniquely layered style. You will notice that the outer layers are primarily transparent, so the thumb nails or quick screens of the hair in the game look like it is transparent. To an extent, it is. What this allows for is some very complicated "interweavings" of the hair that make it look more realistic, at least I think. Try it out and let me know what you think of the new animations and the layering.

Thank you all, and once again, thrilled to be here.

Fionn

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Where Am I? Not totally gone Swan Song Wildness Prom Nite Howdy All
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    Published November 15, 2022 •
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