Behind the Scenes - 4.9
Jan. 5th, 2009 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orikesI really wanted 4.9 to be out before Christmas, but I suppose just after New Year isn't too bad, all things considered. Christmas was the two-year anniversary to the day I created Taylor and began playing the legacy neighborhood. January 6th will be the two-year anniversary of the first time I uploaded a story. Considering how nebulous it all is, I'll still count this update as my anniversary update. I'd have liked to do something more, but there are only so many hours in the day.
I keep thinking about how excited I'm going to be to get Gen Five into college and really start their story, but that's not going to be as resonant if I don't develop them through their growing up years. Even though I'm anxious to get to some of the juicier plot bits I want to get into, the next couple updates are necessary to move things along.
In many ways, this update was probably the biggest focus I've ever given Persephone. I recently commented to Ben that I've felt that sometimes Persephone has been more like a supporting player than the leading heir she should be. That's partially because I honestly liked her brothers better, I'm not a huge fan of family sims, and her election as heir took me by surprise. Even when she was named heir, Brody was still the focus of most of the juicy plot bits. After that, the focus was on the Wrecking Crew. Don't get me wrong. I adore Persephone and I'm glad she was the heir I went with back in the day. It's just that she was never quite as much a focus as some of the other characters.
With Ian's death, she was probably the most profoundly affected. First, she is a family sim, so her children and grandchildren are her world. Anything happening to them is going to hit hard. Beyond that, she saw his downward spiral and couldn't do anything to stop it. While there was no way anyone could see what was going to happen with Kirstial, she knew Ian was in trouble with his relationship to Lisa, but all she could do was watch it blow up in his face. No matter how old a child is, a parent like Persephone would still want to protect them even when she knew it was not possible. When he died, there was going to be a great deal of guilt there.
Sarah commented that in some ways it seemed like Persephone had reverted to the self-centered ways she'd had in college. I don't think I've ever seen her as self-centered, so much as too focused on the wrong thing. With her mourning Ian, there was a degree of self-centeredness, but as I wrote at one point, when someone you love dies, it takes a while to remember how to live again.
So, let's move on to Louise's party. I ended up shooting the real birthday party in the old neighborhood, but by the time she'd turned into a child, I realized there was a problem with the face template. In any of the original pictures of Louise (and Oz), they're basically displaying the face-one default because Shelby's template was broken.
Here's one of the original pictures I took in the old hood. With Louise it's not quite so obvious, but take a look at Oz's nose.
And here's the real version of them. The difference in Louise's face isn't quite as obvious at the child stage as it is when she gets older, but the difference was enough that I pretty much reshot all of her scenes as a child.
This included the scene where she basically tried to convince Persephone to throw a party for Oz's birthday. I think most of the difference is in her nose and cheeks.
I don't know if I went into how I fixed them here, but let's just say I made sure that Louise took after Elijah more so I could use her toddler pictures without a problem. Oz, on the other hand, has some more of Shelby's features. Prominently (literally) the nose.
I think, besides the toddler pictures of her, the only original pictures I used of Louise were her play date with Star. I was pretty happy with most of the pictures I got, so figured I'd just roll with it. At least, I don't think I reshot these.
The beginning of their friendship was another very deliberate addition to this update. The two really are best friends and are so without too much help from me. It's a relationship I think is going to prove important for both of them and one I'm looking forward to exploring. They both have very similar personalities: messy, outgoing, active, and playful. Louise actually has nice points while Star doesn't, but that's the only major difference between them.
The shot of Miranda looking sad was a completely random moment. I accidentally deleted her eyeshadow, so I had to hunt it down and replace it. This was the moment I sent her to the mirror to fix it again. She looked so profoundly sad, I just had to use the picture.
I'm loving the shelves that come with AL. I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to focus on this, but that collection of stuff are supposed to be Dean's souvenirs from various escapades. We'll see if I can work it in.
Anyone who reads this journal knows that they do eventually have kids, but I'm pretty happy with how the scene turned out between them where he finally brought up the issue that he might not be able to father children. Lots of people have asked if Stacie and I are purposefully coordinating their story. Not exactly. We've talked about some things, but there have been no "you do this, and I'll do this" exchanges. I think we're mostly just picking up threads from one another and running with them.
So, now everyone knows who Hugh belongs to. I thought people might be able to figure it out a little easier because of the 'clever' naming I did there. See, Elijah, Ian and Miranda are all named for actors from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ian is named for Ian McKellen. Ian McKellen was also in the X-men movies, which also starred Hugh Jackman. If Hugh had been a girl, he was going to be named Halle.
It made sense to me!
All along, I'd planned to have Ophelia and Persephone there for the birth of the baby. Ophelia is friends with Lisa and Persephone would want to be there for the birth of her grandchild and Lisa would have wanted the support. It was definitely an odd mix of characters.
The whole scene was also intended to be a turning moment for Persephone. Between the arrival of her newest grandchild and her breakdown with Ophelia, it would be cathartic enough for her to begin regaining some of her old self back.
Unfortunately, Hugh's birth was one of the few moments she decided to remind me of how many nice points she has. *sigh* That's why there are no pictures of Persephone during the actual birth. She was standing in the corner waving and grinning like a fool.
Oz's birthday party was also shot twice, primarily because of his face changes. I couldn't use any of the pictures of him as a toddler, so in the new neighborhood I just threw a house party and pretended it was a birthday party.
No one really seemed to mind the distinction.
This was actually the first party in the new hood, so I was thrilled to see everyone interacting just as I expected them to.
Miranda playing with Oz was completely autonomous on her part. She spent the entire party cuddling, tickling, and playing with him. Even if he's shy, he was thrilled with the attention.
Of course, if you toss the baby, you might get other things coming out of them.
When I threw the party, I forgot that the gardener, Leo Depiesse was on the lot. Denise had asked which face template he had a while ago and I'd summoned him to the lot to double check. Since he was there when the party was started, he simply invited himself.
Unfortunately, he didn't really get along with anyone else.
He and Matthew are currently furious enemies. I'm not sure how they became enemies because I was reshooting the scene with Louise and Persephone when it happened, but they went from 0 to HATEYSTABBYDEATH in the blink of an eye.
Luckily I cheat with a gardening hack, so I don't need to hire a gardener to deal with the regular flowers and bushes.
With the rebuild, my timing on certain events is a little screwed up. Moon was actually born after Ash and Ava, but I forgot I played Dean and Miranda for an extra season. So, now I've got to shuffle them around a little to make it all work.
I'm pretty sure this is the last child that Aeric and Venus will give me. If they give me another lullaby, I will be very surprised. Venus and Star get along great now that Star's a child, but she really isn't that interested in babies. Luckily, Aeric makes up for her.
Star's still irritated at me for putting more floating people outside of HER house.
Here's a close-up shot of the witches. I picked one good and one evil witch to bring over, but I also wanted to have a neutral witch. Unfortunately, there actually aren't such a thing as neutral witches. It looks like there are if you use the Visual Teleporter (from SimWardrobe), but they're actually the spectral servants and cause an error if you try and summon them.
So, I created the warlock you see in the middle. You'll see more of him (and the other two) in the next update.
Now, for the real plot splosion. Ian.
I've been intending to make him a vampire since he was a teenager. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but the thought has been there all along. When I developed the plot line for Kirstial's resurgence, it all fell into place.
My only real worry is possible backlash from people who felt that Ian should stay dead. I debated changing my plotline for a while, but in the end, I decided to stick with where I was going.
After all, I'd already woven his storyline in so closely with Ophelia's that I would have to change where I'm going with her pretty dramatically as well.
And I like that direction way too much to give it up now.
Yes, Robi got a makeover. As much as I liked the outfit I had him in, it didn’t' really fit his personality all that well, and the joke had worn off. This outfit is by Aikea Guinea, I think.
As another side note, I'm really happy with the way the vampire house turned out. I've had the building built for a long time, but it's been mostly undecorated. I wanted something old and ornate feeling, but different enough from Kirstial's house to work.
The mirror pictures are ones that have been in my head since I worked out the details of this particular plot line. I knew that Ophelia would walk into the room and you'd see her reflection in the mirror, but not the person she was talking to.
Being a vampire hasn't changed Ian's personality at all. He's still a bit of a neat freak. He seems to have chronic blue teeth, though. I'm constantly having to fix them for him.
And that's it. I'll leave you with the dynamic duo here.
I'm hoping to have 4.10 out before the end of the month. I need to finalize my outline for what I need and then go through the pictures I already have and figure out which scenes I still need. I think we may have some teenagers by the end of 4.10. It depends on how much I need to squeeze in.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the update.
I keep thinking about how excited I'm going to be to get Gen Five into college and really start their story, but that's not going to be as resonant if I don't develop them through their growing up years. Even though I'm anxious to get to some of the juicier plot bits I want to get into, the next couple updates are necessary to move things along.
In many ways, this update was probably the biggest focus I've ever given Persephone. I recently commented to Ben that I've felt that sometimes Persephone has been more like a supporting player than the leading heir she should be. That's partially because I honestly liked her brothers better, I'm not a huge fan of family sims, and her election as heir took me by surprise. Even when she was named heir, Brody was still the focus of most of the juicy plot bits. After that, the focus was on the Wrecking Crew. Don't get me wrong. I adore Persephone and I'm glad she was the heir I went with back in the day. It's just that she was never quite as much a focus as some of the other characters.
With Ian's death, she was probably the most profoundly affected. First, she is a family sim, so her children and grandchildren are her world. Anything happening to them is going to hit hard. Beyond that, she saw his downward spiral and couldn't do anything to stop it. While there was no way anyone could see what was going to happen with Kirstial, she knew Ian was in trouble with his relationship to Lisa, but all she could do was watch it blow up in his face. No matter how old a child is, a parent like Persephone would still want to protect them even when she knew it was not possible. When he died, there was going to be a great deal of guilt there.
Sarah commented that in some ways it seemed like Persephone had reverted to the self-centered ways she'd had in college. I don't think I've ever seen her as self-centered, so much as too focused on the wrong thing. With her mourning Ian, there was a degree of self-centeredness, but as I wrote at one point, when someone you love dies, it takes a while to remember how to live again.
So, let's move on to Louise's party. I ended up shooting the real birthday party in the old neighborhood, but by the time she'd turned into a child, I realized there was a problem with the face template. In any of the original pictures of Louise (and Oz), they're basically displaying the face-one default because Shelby's template was broken.
Here's one of the original pictures I took in the old hood. With Louise it's not quite so obvious, but take a look at Oz's nose.
And here's the real version of them. The difference in Louise's face isn't quite as obvious at the child stage as it is when she gets older, but the difference was enough that I pretty much reshot all of her scenes as a child.
This included the scene where she basically tried to convince Persephone to throw a party for Oz's birthday. I think most of the difference is in her nose and cheeks.
I don't know if I went into how I fixed them here, but let's just say I made sure that Louise took after Elijah more so I could use her toddler pictures without a problem. Oz, on the other hand, has some more of Shelby's features. Prominently (literally) the nose.
I think, besides the toddler pictures of her, the only original pictures I used of Louise were her play date with Star. I was pretty happy with most of the pictures I got, so figured I'd just roll with it. At least, I don't think I reshot these.
The beginning of their friendship was another very deliberate addition to this update. The two really are best friends and are so without too much help from me. It's a relationship I think is going to prove important for both of them and one I'm looking forward to exploring. They both have very similar personalities: messy, outgoing, active, and playful. Louise actually has nice points while Star doesn't, but that's the only major difference between them.
The shot of Miranda looking sad was a completely random moment. I accidentally deleted her eyeshadow, so I had to hunt it down and replace it. This was the moment I sent her to the mirror to fix it again. She looked so profoundly sad, I just had to use the picture.
I'm loving the shelves that come with AL. I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to focus on this, but that collection of stuff are supposed to be Dean's souvenirs from various escapades. We'll see if I can work it in.
Anyone who reads this journal knows that they do eventually have kids, but I'm pretty happy with how the scene turned out between them where he finally brought up the issue that he might not be able to father children. Lots of people have asked if Stacie and I are purposefully coordinating their story. Not exactly. We've talked about some things, but there have been no "you do this, and I'll do this" exchanges. I think we're mostly just picking up threads from one another and running with them.
So, now everyone knows who Hugh belongs to. I thought people might be able to figure it out a little easier because of the 'clever' naming I did there. See, Elijah, Ian and Miranda are all named for actors from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ian is named for Ian McKellen. Ian McKellen was also in the X-men movies, which also starred Hugh Jackman. If Hugh had been a girl, he was going to be named Halle.
It made sense to me!
All along, I'd planned to have Ophelia and Persephone there for the birth of the baby. Ophelia is friends with Lisa and Persephone would want to be there for the birth of her grandchild and Lisa would have wanted the support. It was definitely an odd mix of characters.
The whole scene was also intended to be a turning moment for Persephone. Between the arrival of her newest grandchild and her breakdown with Ophelia, it would be cathartic enough for her to begin regaining some of her old self back.
Unfortunately, Hugh's birth was one of the few moments she decided to remind me of how many nice points she has. *sigh* That's why there are no pictures of Persephone during the actual birth. She was standing in the corner waving and grinning like a fool.
Oz's birthday party was also shot twice, primarily because of his face changes. I couldn't use any of the pictures of him as a toddler, so in the new neighborhood I just threw a house party and pretended it was a birthday party.
No one really seemed to mind the distinction.
This was actually the first party in the new hood, so I was thrilled to see everyone interacting just as I expected them to.
Miranda playing with Oz was completely autonomous on her part. She spent the entire party cuddling, tickling, and playing with him. Even if he's shy, he was thrilled with the attention.
Of course, if you toss the baby, you might get other things coming out of them.
When I threw the party, I forgot that the gardener, Leo Depiesse was on the lot. Denise had asked which face template he had a while ago and I'd summoned him to the lot to double check. Since he was there when the party was started, he simply invited himself.
Unfortunately, he didn't really get along with anyone else.
He and Matthew are currently furious enemies. I'm not sure how they became enemies because I was reshooting the scene with Louise and Persephone when it happened, but they went from 0 to HATEYSTABBYDEATH in the blink of an eye.
Luckily I cheat with a gardening hack, so I don't need to hire a gardener to deal with the regular flowers and bushes.
With the rebuild, my timing on certain events is a little screwed up. Moon was actually born after Ash and Ava, but I forgot I played Dean and Miranda for an extra season. So, now I've got to shuffle them around a little to make it all work.
I'm pretty sure this is the last child that Aeric and Venus will give me. If they give me another lullaby, I will be very surprised. Venus and Star get along great now that Star's a child, but she really isn't that interested in babies. Luckily, Aeric makes up for her.
Star's still irritated at me for putting more floating people outside of HER house.
Here's a close-up shot of the witches. I picked one good and one evil witch to bring over, but I also wanted to have a neutral witch. Unfortunately, there actually aren't such a thing as neutral witches. It looks like there are if you use the Visual Teleporter (from SimWardrobe), but they're actually the spectral servants and cause an error if you try and summon them.
So, I created the warlock you see in the middle. You'll see more of him (and the other two) in the next update.
Now, for the real plot splosion. Ian.
I've been intending to make him a vampire since he was a teenager. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but the thought has been there all along. When I developed the plot line for Kirstial's resurgence, it all fell into place.
My only real worry is possible backlash from people who felt that Ian should stay dead. I debated changing my plotline for a while, but in the end, I decided to stick with where I was going.
After all, I'd already woven his storyline in so closely with Ophelia's that I would have to change where I'm going with her pretty dramatically as well.
And I like that direction way too much to give it up now.
Yes, Robi got a makeover. As much as I liked the outfit I had him in, it didn’t' really fit his personality all that well, and the joke had worn off. This outfit is by Aikea Guinea, I think.
As another side note, I'm really happy with the way the vampire house turned out. I've had the building built for a long time, but it's been mostly undecorated. I wanted something old and ornate feeling, but different enough from Kirstial's house to work.
The mirror pictures are ones that have been in my head since I worked out the details of this particular plot line. I knew that Ophelia would walk into the room and you'd see her reflection in the mirror, but not the person she was talking to.
Being a vampire hasn't changed Ian's personality at all. He's still a bit of a neat freak. He seems to have chronic blue teeth, though. I'm constantly having to fix them for him.
And that's it. I'll leave you with the dynamic duo here.
I'm hoping to have 4.10 out before the end of the month. I need to finalize my outline for what I need and then go through the pictures I already have and figure out which scenes I still need. I think we may have some teenagers by the end of 4.10. It depends on how much I need to squeeze in.
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the update.