So the class starts at 4pm EDT, would that be like Indiana time? I am in Illinois so I am Central time which means I am 1 hour behind Indiana.
I cannot wait
It depends on what part of Indiana. Indiana is actually split into both EST and CST. If you are in CST then the class will start at 3pm for you (since you are an hour behind EST).
So excited for class!! Hopefully I'll make in at 4pm ... day before Easter is usually busy for us. (I completely forgot this was Easter weekend until just a few days ago!!). I'm going to try to surprise my hubby with a cheesecake (he loves them) but I've never made one before..
For the class, I have home-made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cherry oatmeal bars! (had to throw something at least semi-healthy in there hehe)
Well, it is almost 9 am now...I am in Mountain standard time, so class begins in 5 hours from now!
I have to get dressed...and take my college girl to the doctor. She came home with a rash I want to get clearing up before she goes back to school tomorrow! But then I'm getting my pajamas BACK on...and finding my snacks. Or stealing yours.....
Got my Cheetos puffs, Ruffles with ranch/bacon dip (both family sized bags) and if that's not enough some cookie dough ice cream so I am all set!
OK, I have to work on my stragedy (ala Bugs Bunny)... since Easy Rider is behind Zoo, and I will be next to Zoo.... hmmmm, I might be able to snag me some cheesy poofs! As long as he doesn't make a left at Albuquerque, and makes it to class! :shock:
Well, it is almost 9 am now...I am in Mountain standard time, so class begins in 5 hours from now!
I have to get dressed...and take my college girl to the doctor. She came home with a rash I want to get clearing up before she goes back to school tomorrow! But then I'm getting my pajamas BACK on...and finding my snacks. Or stealing yours.....
See you soon!
XoXO T
Take care of the wee one! OK, not so wee one, but she's still your baby. Hope all is well soon!
As we come down to the wire I'm rubbing my little hands together in anticipation! Since doggies are welcomed, I wouldn't dream of showing up without my little guy. This is Nick, 4 1/2 pounds of ferocity! No, not really. Yes, he wears diapers and clothing. That's his favorite hoodie. You can't see in the picture, but it says, "What up, dawg".
Sorry I don't have sweeties for everyone, but what about some of the shrimp creole I made for supper last night? There's enough for everyone ...
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
Well since digital candy and other snacks really aren't very tasty, I'm off to brave the Saturday Wal-Mart crowd and get some real snacks. I sure wish we had one of those nice bakeries with all of the cupcakes, like the photos on this thread. We have no bakeries here. No cupcakes, no donuts, just meadow muffins and road apples. I live out in the middle of know where in a town of 900 people. Even the town where I go to Wal-Mart hasn't got a really nice bakery. So,I'll be back later, to get busy.
*Clean set of lounge pajamas CHECK
*Fuzzy Slippers CHECK
*Cat to accompany me to class as my own fur baby CHECK
*Icy cold Diet Coke (PENDING)
*Chili Cheese Corn Chips CHECK
*Strawberry Pop Tarts CHECK
*Candy of various sorts CHECK
I need to get my drinks situation handled, then I'm set for Zoo U!
Time will tell if Im here or at a family dinner! Nonetheless Ill have my ipad in one hand on the forums and my laptop on sims. Hopefully my cat will be snuggled up with me as well as a cup of tea! See you all soon!
well...because I already had a lot of the items in certain sets like 40-60% it was free to download
That is awesome you were able to get some of them free too. I managed about 15 collections free or under 100SP. This sale has been an awesome one
I may be a few minutes late to class. Trying to finish dinner now - otherwise I'd have to stop during class to do so. Making it something simple for tonight since we'll have a large meal tomorrow.
I do have my PJs ready to go!
The ancient Ceasar (chihuahua) is curled up in his blankets on the couch by my desk - so my little fur baby will be in attendance (though he will probably sleep through it all).
The candy bowls are set for ya'll (I can't have any 'cause sugar doesn't agree with my IBS).
And I have my water bottle filled and a little iced.
I was at the sink washing dishes when MIL plated her lunch she had just taken out of the oven. So without thinking, I reached over and grabbed the glass dish she left on the counter to wash... the one that just came out of the 350 degree oven... with my bare hands... which now have first and second degree burns on my thumbs and fingers of BOTH hands. :shock:
Thumbs and first fingers are gauze wrapped, regular band aids on the others. Typing is a slow go. I'm not sure what type of building I can do... if I can, I will, if not, I'll catch up ASAP. Doh!
Oh wow I have done that before but instead of it being on the counter it was in the oven when I grabbed it! You would think I would know its hot for heaven sake it's in the oven!
Yay I made it on time, but sadly I have to step away for awhile. Need to take my sister somewhere and not sure when we will be back, and it takes forever for my game to load.
I was at the sink washing dishes when MIL plated her lunch she had just taken out of the oven. So without thinking, I reached over and grabbed the glass dish she left on the counter to wash... the one that just came out of the 350 degree oven... with my bare hands... which now have first and second degree burns on my thumbs and fingers of BOTH hands. :shock:
Thumbs and first fingers are gauze wrapped, regular band aids on the others. Typing is a slow go. I'm not sure what type of building I can do... if I can, I will, if not, I'll catch up ASAP. Doh!
Hi Zoo U'ers! Welcome to the "MOOve Your Grass" class! I'm Taryn and was asked to teach this class on terrain manipulation. So here I am to step by step guide you through this little process and I promise that when we are done, you will really be able to dress up your lots and cozy up your builds. Your lots will not be flat and boring again!
In Lesson 1 of MOOve your Grass, we will discuss how high, or how low to go to start our lot building process. I will show you how to gauge terrain heights so that you can elevate or recess your home to make walkout or daylight basements with minimal or no CFE. In Lesson 2, in two weeks, we will talk about dressing up our lots with more terrain manipulation and landscaping. In Lesson 1, you will learn how to gauge terrain heights and then to build your home on it. In Lesson 2 we will then do all sorts of other terrain work to dress up our homes. Landscaping always goes in after the home is built, so you can evaluate what space you have left to work with and the outdoor needs of your lots. Lesson 2 will also focus on playing with the landscaping paints to really add dimension to your builds.
The reason the lessons are call "MOOve your Grass:" is because we will be using the MoveObjects on cheats to pretty up our lots with natural plant and rock effects.
So here we go! Let's begin on Lesson 1! This is long, I will admit. I am breaking it into several sections so that you can take a break after each mini-lesson. I do not expect anyone to really sit and read this all at once, but instead, as you have time. It took me 2+ weeks to plan, photo and write it, so I know it could take you days to have the time to read and absorb it, or to try some examples. So don't overwhelm yourself. Take this in stages as you can.
Get comfy, grab a snack, a beverage and shoo away those pesky people you call "family" that would hinder you from your beloved free time with the Sims!
-Note from your Sub.: Tossing candy TO the teacher is not only allowed but encouraged...throwing candy AT the teacher when her back is turned or en mass as a class in protest of homework (should you wish to actually do homework) is strictly NOT encouraged.
**OK! Step one when getting ready to build your lot.....Using the "level" tool, Pre-Flatten your lot from the sidewalk all the way back to the far end of your property. This may help you avoid using a little CFE in the future of this build. (Personally, I have been trying to limit my CFE due to those pesky fly-away ceiling tiles that it seems I only notice as I done with my home and am taking the final pictures.) pre-leveling will flatten any uneven little spaces you might not even know you have. the ground level may end up being your floor level, so it's important. Got it? OK! Flatten your lot! Start at street level and flatten all the way to the end and sides of your lot.
Now go to your roofing section and turn OFF the autoroof. It is not your friend.** (shakes her head sadly)... It is not your friend.
Now go ahead and look at our terrain tools. Note the "Raise Elevation" "Lower Evaluation" "Soften Terrain" and "Level Terrain" options. We will play with these for now.
Now this first part of the lesson is our "winging it" example. "Winging it" means that we aren't planning anything! We are just going to play and NOT plan. Later, we are going to be much more precise when choosing levels, but in the first two examples, we are simply going to play, and then make everything work. It really isn't the best way to build, but sometimes you don't want or need to be precise and you just want to add some height to your terrain. It can end up great! It can end up badly too, which is why I will also teach you a more precise technique. But first, let's just play around a little and in doing so we will learn. Maybe we will learn by mistakes, maybe it will turn out really fantastic, but I want you to get a feel for this before we get more complicated. So let's play.
So a traditional wall will never look as realistic as a foundation will look. We are going to be starting our builds with the foundation tool, and then I'll show you how to match them with the wall to get a nice, realistic look to your build.
In this first example, I'm going to show you how to raise the terrain, and to build a daylight or walkout basement, and then blend all the terrain together to make sense.
This does happen here and there, and you need to watch for it, or later you can have an uneven floor that leaves a hole in the next level or becomes un-routable, or won't let you place something here. It is, an anomaly...probably from an uneven lot base. (which is why I had you pre-level you lot as step one in this lesson, but here it is as an example for us to correct) Let's fix it before we go on, and then have to tear it down and start over. It is simple enough to fix with CFE. Let's just get into the habit of looking for it right away, to save ourselves time and energy later.
Hold the three keys that will pull up our cheat box "Shift", "CTRL" and the letter "C" all together, all at once to bring up the cheat code's blue box at the top of your game screen. Type in this exactly
Double check your basement floor for level..if you must level the basement, you will need to level the floor above. Once you have these two floors nice and level, bring up your cheat box and turn CFE off by typing
ConstrainFloorElevation True
Okay! Now that we've addressed a future problem, let's happily move on!***
***Now for the MOOing part of our "MOOve your Grass" class.***
Bring up your cheat box and type in
MoveObjects on
(we will be moving and sliding our rocks and plants into place. I hope you read your "Notes from Taryn" here, towards the bottom of my note: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/748005.page#11932652 to familiarize yourself with "MOOing and Sliding, because here we go!:)
Now we will MOO in some rock formations. Grab a rock, hold the ALT key down and have fun sliding it into your terrain as you see best. Grab another rock, or the same one, but turn it slightly by holding the ALT button and circling with your mouse. Slide it into the first rock. Keep adding neat rocks, turn them, twist them, slide them right into each other to make neat configurations. Put them wherever they make sense to you and where they make sense with the hills you've created. I put clusters where my stairs are because I like the way they blend the terrain into the stairs. They also make it look like the stairs just belong there- Like the whole reason we built this house and placed it here was due to the sloping lot. I even paint the area where my rocks go with the "shale" paint color so that the area looks even more rocky.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1019_zpse6ea78d6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1019_zpse6ea78d6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-1019_zpse6ea78d6.jpg"/></a>
Now I'm adding more rocks, and MOOing flowers right into the rocks. By holding the ALT key as I slide rocks and flowers, I get this neat effect of the flowers and stems and leaves meandering along the rocks. See the green highlighted flower? I am MOOing it right into the rock. With your mouse hand, grab the flower and hold down the left mouse button...with your other hand, press and hold the alt key. Keep holding ALT AND your left mouse key as you slide your mouse (and flower) around --Landscaper's note- I am tying the blues of the flowers in with the blue of the house. The yellow and pink colors tie in really nice too. Pick flower colors that compliment your house colors.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1024_zps8fdba980.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1024_zps8fdba980.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-1024_zps8fdba980.jpg"/></a>
Now keep adding flowers and greenery to the slope of your hills to keep this rambling natural planting group. -Landscaper's note- Keep repeating the same flower for even dispersion of colors so that your eye roams around the yard. In real life, not all these flowers would be blooming at the same time, so repeating them around the yard adds plant color that will bloom at the same time. This keeps you from having "holes" in your flower beds where nothing is blooming. If you scatter and repeat the same flower here and there, throughout your yard, you will have the same colored flower blooming at the same time. In the Sims, we are just so lucky that all of our plants bloom spring-fall! In real life they do not.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1025_zpsf75fecb9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1025_zpsf75fecb9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-1025_zpsf75fecb9.jpg"/></a>
Keep adding landscaping plants that suit the area or type of house you want this to be. I decided to make this home seem like it belongs in a beach-like area, maybe somewhere in South Carolina, USA, so there is grass melding into the sand, and the trees would be more tropical. -Landscaper's Note- Leave the grassy terrain paint that came with your lot alone when you build. When you change it, for example to bluegrass, it changes permanently and will become the new grass color in every lot for every world for everyone that downloads your lot. Bluegrass might look very out of place if someone wants to put the home in Sunlit Tides. If you leave it, and erase any mistakes instead of painting over mistakes, the grass color will change to the default grass color for the world in which it is placed.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1026_zps77f7e476.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-1026_zps77f7e476.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-1026_zps77f7e476.jpg"/></a>
In this example, I just played with elevation and everything was smoothed out pretty well. But what if I had made my initial hill much lower? Where would the garage level and pool level ended up? It might have been created a deep "sinkhole". And how would that have looked sitting next to another flat lot? If it had been too high, would we have had too large of hills that didn't look natural? In this example, I was lucky. My basement level was very close to street level. That is the key to making this look good. Your lowest house level should be fairly close in height to street level. The smoothing tool will blend everything together without jarring height differences. As the class goes on, we will get more and more precise and learn other ways to MOO rocks, plants and trees to blend everything together. The goal is to get your terrain manipulation to match the sides of the lot next to it for a seamless look no matter where it is placed.
This segment is more a of a landscaping and terrain painting segment, but once again, this time we aren't really going to plan or be precise. This time I am just showing you how to raise your terrain to add some drama to your lot. Any time you have to look up to see something, that adds drama! This house will not have a basement, but it will have a high foundation look- but without CFE.
-Landscaper's note- This lot has a bit more terrain paint. Remember, to leave whatever color of grass came with your lot as is. Instead of trying to repaint grass when you make a mistake, use the eraser tool instead!
Now I added more plants, keeping in mind flowers in complimentary colors to the house. By holding ALT and sliding, I can MOO my flowers into tighter spaces than I could without MOO. Along the pathway, I MOOed these little white groundcover flowers to soften the pathway's appearance and make it look a little unkempt or over grown. Look closely at the terrain paint at the top of the hill. See how it is slightly browned? The top of the hill would get scorched by the sun first. Towards the bottom of the hill, it is slightly greener. Now look at the edge of the sidewalk and you can see it is very slightly scorched at the edges of the sidewalk. Cement and pavement would get hot in the summer sun and would burn the grass a little at the edges.
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Even though I raised the terrain for this little Victorian townhouse, smoothing it back to street level on the perimeter will blend it into the neighborhood. That is another good tip. Even if you raise terrain, try to get it back down to street level on its sides so that it will look good wherever it is placed. Keep this in mind when placing your foundation for the home, because the foundation is where it all begins! Doesn't this little Victorian look extra special with the higher foundation?
In This segment of our lesson, we will learn to be precise! No "winging it". No guessing and hoping we can smooth everything out to our liking. From here on out, we will be more exact to get the levels of terrain height we want for our homes.
*First, shut off the auto roof tool....So not your friend... (www. autoroof@sonotyourfriend.com)-just kidding!
**Second, pre-level your lot.
Remember how we used a stairs as our guide? We will use them again.
So let's learn how to go up and down with steps to determine basement placement.
Going down is easy to create 4 steps, you just pull or push your steps right into the ground until you get 4. But going up is a little trickier.
Go to your terrain tools. Choose the smallest square and slide the arrow adjustment slider all the way to the left.
I will build a little house now and show you what I did to make this home. Some of the house building steps will be omitted, because I really want you to focus on the land and terrain and landscaping and instead think how you could apply this to a house of your own design. This is a daylight/walkout basement at ground level, with our top level becoming a full wall high.
Our work isn't done. Remember what I told you my goal is for each of you? It is for each of you to grow and to take your landscaping and terrain work further than you ever have.
Comments
It depends on what part of Indiana. Indiana is actually split into both EST and CST. If you are in CST then the class will start at 3pm for you (since you are an hour behind EST).
So excited for class!! Hopefully I'll make in at 4pm ... day before Easter is usually busy for us. (I completely forgot this was Easter weekend until just a few days ago!!). I'm going to try to surprise my hubby with a cheesecake (he loves them) but I've never made one before..
For the class, I have home-made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cherry oatmeal bars! (had to throw something at least semi-healthy in there hehe)
Got my Cheetos puffs, Ruffles with ranch/bacon dip (both family sized bags) and if that's not enough some cookie dough ice cream so I am all set!
I have to get dressed...and take my college girl to the doctor. She came home with a rash I want to get clearing up before she goes back to school tomorrow! But then I'm getting my pajamas BACK on...and finding my snacks. Or stealing yours.....
See you soon!
XoXO T
OK, I have to work on my stragedy (ala Bugs Bunny)... since Easy Rider is behind Zoo, and I will be next to Zoo.... hmmmm, I might be able to snag me some cheesy poofs! As long as he doesn't make a left at Albuquerque, and makes it to class! :shock:
Take care of the wee one! OK, not so wee one, but she's still your baby. Hope all is well soon!
Here are my tester sims, Cameron Covington the fireman/handyman and Leota Tester the artiste.
So I have my builder's blank neighborhood ready to go, and Cameron & Leota are ready too! Now to go find those Sour Babies!
Sorry I don't have sweeties for everyone, but what about some of the shrimp creole I made for supper last night? There's enough for everyone ...
The Claw Machine Diaries Challenge
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
Anyway I shall try to be here!
And here's my baby girl Kenzie, since we're allowed to bring our furbabies with us!
I'm pretty much set! Just have to get my Coke Zero and some snacks when it's closer to class time! I can't wait!
*Fuzzy Slippers CHECK
*Cat to accompany me to class as my own fur baby CHECK
*Icy cold Diet Coke (PENDING)
*Chili Cheese Corn Chips CHECK
*Strawberry Pop Tarts CHECK
*Candy of various sorts CHECK
I need to get my drinks situation handled, then I'm set for Zoo U!
Checking in, I am ready and excited for class.
Did you say FREE STUFF :shock:
That is awesome you were able to get some of them free too. I managed about 15 collections free or under 100SP. This sale has been an awesome one
I may be a few minutes late to class. Trying to finish dinner now - otherwise I'd have to stop during class to do so. Making it something simple for tonight since we'll have a large meal tomorrow.
I do have my PJs ready to go!
The ancient Ceasar (chihuahua) is curled up in his blankets on the couch by my desk - so my little fur baby will be in attendance (though he will probably sleep through it all).
The candy bowls are set for ya'll (I can't have any 'cause sugar doesn't agree with my IBS).
And I have my water bottle filled and a little iced.
See ya'll soon!
I was at the sink washing dishes when MIL plated her lunch she had just taken out of the oven. So without thinking, I reached over and grabbed the glass dish she left on the counter to wash... the one that just came out of the 350 degree oven... with my bare hands... which now have first and second degree burns on my thumbs and fingers of BOTH hands. :shock:
Thumbs and first fingers are gauze wrapped, regular band aids on the others. Typing is a slow go. I'm not sure what type of building I can do... if I can, I will, if not, I'll catch up ASAP. Doh!
So sorry! hope you heal quickly!
Ouch! Hope your poor fingers heal quickly.
Here is SuePea's contest winning tee shirt for our class. http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8163600
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind033/Screenshot-1644_zps358b419d.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind033/Screenshot-1644_zps358b419d.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-1644_zps358b419d.jpg"/></a>
In Lesson 1 of MOOve your Grass, we will discuss how high, or how low to go to start our lot building process. I will show you how to gauge terrain heights so that you can elevate or recess your home to make walkout or daylight basements with minimal or no CFE. In Lesson 2, in two weeks, we will talk about dressing up our lots with more terrain manipulation and landscaping. In Lesson 1, you will learn how to gauge terrain heights and then to build your home on it. In Lesson 2 we will then do all sorts of other terrain work to dress up our homes. Landscaping always goes in after the home is built, so you can evaluate what space you have left to work with and the outdoor needs of your lots. Lesson 2 will also focus on playing with the landscaping paints to really add dimension to your builds.
The reason the lessons are call "MOOve your Grass:" is because we will be using the MoveObjects on cheats to pretty up our lots with natural plant and rock effects.
So here we go! Let's begin on Lesson 1! This is long, I will admit. I am breaking it into several sections so that you can take a break after each mini-lesson. I do not expect anyone to really sit and read this all at once, but instead, as you have time. It took me 2+ weeks to plan, photo and write it, so I know it could take you days to have the time to read and absorb it, or to try some examples. So don't overwhelm yourself. Take this in stages as you can.
Get comfy, grab a snack, a beverage and shoo away those pesky people you call "family" that would hinder you from your beloved free time with the Sims!
-Note from your Sub.: Tossing candy TO the teacher is not only allowed but encouraged...throwing candy AT the teacher when her back is turned or en mass as a class in protest of homework (should you wish to actually do homework) is strictly NOT encouraged.
**OK! Step one when getting ready to build your lot.....Using the "level" tool, Pre-Flatten your lot from the sidewalk all the way back to the far end of your property. This may help you avoid using a little CFE in the future of this build. (Personally, I have been trying to limit my CFE due to those pesky fly-away ceiling tiles that it seems I only notice as I done with my home and am taking the final pictures.) pre-leveling will flatten any uneven little spaces you might not even know you have. the ground level may end up being your floor level, so it's important. Got it? OK! Flatten your lot! Start at street level and flatten all the way to the end and sides of your lot.
Now go to your roofing section and turn OFF the autoroof. It is not your friend.** (shakes her head sadly)... It is not your friend.
Now go ahead and look at our terrain tools. Note the "Raise Elevation" "Lower Evaluation" "Soften Terrain" and "Level Terrain" options. We will play with these for now.
Now this first part of the lesson is our "winging it" example. "Winging it" means that we aren't planning anything! We are just going to play and NOT plan. Later, we are going to be much more precise when choosing levels, but in the first two examples, we are simply going to play, and then make everything work. It really isn't the best way to build, but sometimes you don't want or need to be precise and you just want to add some height to your terrain. It can end up great! It can end up badly too, which is why I will also teach you a more precise technique. But first, let's just play around a little and in doing so we will learn. Maybe we will learn by mistakes, maybe it will turn out really fantastic, but I want you to get a feel for this before we get more complicated. So let's play.
Now, using the 'Raise Elevation tool" I want you to go ahead and play with it for a minute. Use the largest circle and just get a feel for it. You will notice you can get quite the jagged peaks going if you hold too long in one spot. Here's my example:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-838_zpscc59a744.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-838_zpscc59a744.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-838_zpscc59a744.jpg"/></a>
Now use your "Soften tool" and get a pleasing, softer, hill-like shape:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-840_zps2e624b76.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-840_zps2e624b76.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-840_zps2e624b76.jpg"/></a>
Now let's take a moment and look at what build and wall tools will follow our terrain shapes.
Start with a foundation on top of your raised terrain:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-842_zps6c4373ca.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind007/Screenshot-842_zps6c4373ca.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-842_zps6c4373ca.jpg"/></a>
Now pull it to the side. Notice how neatly the terrain follows the wall of the foundation. It hugs the wall and stays uniform and fluid.
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Try the same thing with a regular wall. Notice how the wall self-levels and pulls the terrain with it. It doesn't work. It's jagged and choppy.
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Try the same with a half wall. A half wall WILL follow the terrain without self-leveling.
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A fence will work the same as a half- wall. It will follow the terrain. We can't make a home out of fences and half-walls, but we CAN make retaining walls that look good, and our fences will flow gracefully along our hilly land.
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So as you can see, the foundation, half wall and fence work the best for following the flow of the land. A traditional building wall does not. In fact, we can't even go back and snug terrain up next to a traditional wall. There will always be a dip, a little ditch between the wall and the terrain.
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So a traditional wall will never look as realistic as a foundation will look. We are going to be starting our builds with the foundation tool, and then I'll show you how to match them with the wall to get a nice, realistic look to your build.
In this first example, I'm going to show you how to raise the terrain, and to build a daylight or walkout basement, and then blend all the terrain together to make sense.
Here is my finished home, but let me break it down for you, step by step so you can follow along.
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But I am not measuring...I am just eyeballing this one, knowing full well I can run into uneven ground levels. But that can be fun too, and takes less planning. So let's just try one for fun. Here I've raised a significant area of land to look like a hill, and I've started a large foundation. Start your foundation at the TOP of your raised terrain, and then pull it along to where your lower levels are.
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Now, throughout Lesson One, I will be showing you how to use stairs as guides. And I may as well start you off in using this technique in a house to make a daylight/walkout basement right off the bat. So looking at our foundation, I want to clear away a section of it to make new traditional walls. But I must leave the exterior perimeter to keep my terrain snugly following the wall of the foundation. So let's remove an area to start with. The highlighted area is going to be blasted away with the hammer tool.
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Now blast away everything with your hammer in the middle of this foundation, leaving the perimeter intact.
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Now we will go down, down, down in a series, to determine wall height. This will look funny for a moment, but what you are doing is using the set of 4 steps as a guide to determine correct wall height. These next steps are a means-to-an-end and are strictly temporary guides that will be removed later. Our guides will be a set of 4 stairs. At the top of your foundation, use your stair tool and pull down until you have a set of 4 steps. Stop. Look at your stairs. There should be 4 steps. If you have more or less, try again.
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Now use your level tool and level off a small area of land from the bottom step's level. Bring this out a bit, and then again, use your stair tool...pull it to your next level by creating 4 steps. Stop. Use your "level" tool again to level a small area, and create your third level by making another set of 4 steps. The picture below shows levels 1-3. Note how each section of stairs has 4 steps. ( I used terrain paints to mark the areas that I used my leveling tool on.)
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All right! One more set of 4 steps will give us our final base. From your third set of 4 steps, level the terrain at the base of the steps, and use your stair tool to create 4 steps. You should now have a series of 4 stairs, each with 4 steps.
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See the flat land area directly below the bottom step of your 4 set of 4 steps? THIS is your FINAL level. This level will be your target level for a traditional wall that will match perfectly the height of a foundation. Level a bit to mark its location.
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Now you can go ahead and destroy all you step guides. Use you hammer too and just blast them out. They have served their purpose and we are done with them. Level the entire area inside your foundation to the same level as what was the ground of your last set of 4 steps. In this photo, I start at where I had marked the FINAL level, and I pull the leveling tool back to the inside perimeter of my foundation.
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If you have used your 4 sets of 4 steps guide correctly, you will be able to pull a traditional wall along the opening of the foundation. It will meet up perfectly with no need for CFE...like this:
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Daylight/Walkout basement need internal walls that all touch. Keep one tile free from the foundation.
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Here I am showing you the connected walls without the extra garage connecters
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Go ahead and put a floor on this basement level.
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Now add a floor to the upper level.
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***Here is something to watch for...see the little dip I have in the floor? (I removed a couple of tiles to highlight it for you.) Look carefully and you might see a little "V" in your floor. It is not level.
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This does happen here and there, and you need to watch for it, or later you can have an uneven floor that leaves a hole in the next level or becomes un-routable, or won't let you place something here. It is, an anomaly...probably from an uneven lot base. (which is why I had you pre-level you lot as step one in this lesson, but here it is as an example for us to correct) Let's fix it before we go on, and then have to tear it down and start over. It is simple enough to fix with CFE. Let's just get into the habit of looking for it right away, to save ourselves time and energy later.
Hold the three keys that will pull up our cheat box "Shift", "CTRL" and the letter "C" all together, all at once to bring up the cheat code's blue box at the top of your game screen. Type in this exactly
ConstrainFloorElevation False
Choose your "level" tool and level the entire floor, plus one tile extra around the entire perimeter of this floor. That pesky uneven little "V" will now level out to a nice flat floor.
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Double check your basement floor for level..if you must level the basement, you will need to level the floor above. Once you have these two floors nice and level, bring up your cheat box and turn CFE off by typing
ConstrainFloorElevation True
Okay! Now that we've addressed a future problem, let's happily move on!***
Now let's add a flight of stairs that will connect our main level, this upper one, to our basement. blast out a section of floor to place a staircase going down and set your stairs.
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**Now here is where I want you to notice something. Take a moment and count the total stairs. There are 16.**
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Remember how we used 4 sets of 4 steps as our guide? 4x4=16. A regular wall height uses a stairway consisting of 16 steps....4x4=16. Now you understand why I made you go down 4 sets of 4 steps, don't you? We will be using this guide throughout Lesson one! We will talk about this over and over in Lesson One**
To keep building a daylight/walkout basement, you can knock out other sections of foundation to add windows or doors.
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Keep in mind that regular walls must all touch and connect with each other. They must all connect or you can have frost, or snow on your floors since the Seasons expansion pack. This means you have to plan ahead, and eliminate foundation sections larger than your walls to allow for joining together. Here, I bumped out a pretty large area for a window or door section, then I connected walls, and added walls to line back up with my foundation. Look carefully and see how my regular walls do all connect.
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Now I'm adding doors and windows to our basement. From the interior, pull out a level section of ground to place our door:
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Now I can add my door and windows:
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Here, I've added a window to the bump-out I created:
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Going to the front of my house, I am adding another basement level window to my home. Again, note how my regular walls all meet and connect. This is to keep my basement floor frost free, so in planning, I have to remove extra foundation to allow for my interior walls to all meet.
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Next I am adding my front porch and entrance. See how my terrain just gently follows the foundation though? See where I've strategically placed full size walls to blend in to the terrain work?
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Now I am raising the terrain around the front of the house to blend all the terrain together, so it looks like this lot is actually a sloped lot which, of course, is perfect for a daylight basement build!
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Using the Smoothing tool, smooth everything into a nice shape:
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Now I am adding steps to the house's entrance, and I began some porch rails. Watch your steps. Make sure they do not go too deep or too shallow into your terrain, you can sort of push and pull the steps in terrain to adjust the step count:
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Here comes Fairy Taryn to wave her magic wand and give us a house to play with...many steps of building and painting are omitted so that we can get back to terrain work....ready for the magic?
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Here's the little house I came up with for this lot. Now it's painted and dressed up:
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See how it follows the curve of the land?
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The back and the walk-out side- (awaiting some sort of support underneath that upper deck):
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Now I am going to just tie everything together so this whole build makes sense. First I will add a very large deck to this build by leveling a deck area.
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Since the deck can be made larger, and it would be so nice for our Sims, I changed the window under the upper deck to a door, so our Sims have a shady area of the deck to come out on to. I leveled it and put down a simple deck flooring and I built down long lines of stairs to just gently reach the ground:
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I added rails to the side. Since my deck is sitting on the ground, not a foundation, I can even just pull my deck rails right down the line of the stairs to make stair rails.
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Wouldn't a swimming pool be the perfect transition from this deck? I'd love to walk down those steps right into a pool. Level a sizable pool area, leaving room to walk around and for lounging pool furniture:
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Because there is a little dip in the land, (because I am just winging this one, remember?) I added a small barrier or border to soften the transition to the pool:
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Now I added my pool area:
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Next I softened the entire area around my border to make that little dip less unsightly Use your "softening" tool and zip along the border:
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Now let's address the left front side of the house. It is still on the hill side of our lot. Let's make that whole area make sense and feel seamless to this build. Level a large area out to continue the hill.
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Now make it come around the corner for good flow:
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Now I can make a side door and balcony to dress up my house and add access to this side yard:
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Now soften the edges to the terrain to create a realistic, flowing hill.
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Do you see how there is an ugly little divot in the ground by the support beam to the upper deck? That is caused by having the pillar there. I can make this look so much better if I remove it for a second.
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Now with the "smoothing tool" I can gently smooth the terrain into the deck area and get rid of the sharp divot:
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...and with MOO on, I can now replace my support column. This looks so much better and smoother:
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Now let's go to the front of the house. In this picture, you can see that my stairs and my ground level of the deck are on two different plains. I'm not crazy about that. let's see if we can't make that look better too. (You can see now, in my "winging it version, How much I actually have to correct, Later in this lesson, I will show you how to be more precise)
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So I will level a large area from the ground level at the bottom of my deck stairs out. This will turn into my driveway at some point.
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Now I'll put more stairs in. Push or pull them a bit to get a better flow with the terrain. This time, I added steps to reach the flat level and it worked out pretty well. I painted in some flagstone with the terrain paints.
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I had a bit of a non-level area between the foundation steps and the steps that turn, so I leveled that as well:
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For my driveway, I started at street level, and used my level tool to cut into the bank to form my driveway.
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I am painting in my asphalt here, to judge how I like my driveway shape:
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And by both smoothing the terrain and painting in the asphalt, I create a driveway that curves around the hill I made.
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***Now for the MOOing part of our "MOOve your Grass" class.***
Bring up your cheat box and type in
MoveObjects on
(we will be moving and sliding our rocks and plants into place. I hope you read your "Notes from Taryn" here, towards the bottom of my note: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/748005.page#11932652 to familiarize yourself with "MOOing and Sliding, because here we go!:)
I thought it would be cute to cut away a small portion of the foundation to put plants underneath They are MOOed into the space and slid together:
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Now we will MOO in some rock formations. Grab a rock, hold the ALT key down and have fun sliding it into your terrain as you see best. Grab another rock, or the same one, but turn it slightly by holding the ALT button and circling with your mouse. Slide it into the first rock. Keep adding neat rocks, turn them, twist them, slide them right into each other to make neat configurations. Put them wherever they make sense to you and where they make sense with the hills you've created. I put clusters where my stairs are because I like the way they blend the terrain into the stairs. They also make it look like the stairs just belong there- Like the whole reason we built this house and placed it here was due to the sloping lot. I even paint the area where my rocks go with the "shale" paint color so that the area looks even more rocky.
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Now I'm adding more rocks, and MOOing flowers right into the rocks. By holding the ALT key as I slide rocks and flowers, I get this neat effect of the flowers and stems and leaves meandering along the rocks. See the green highlighted flower? I am MOOing it right into the rock. With your mouse hand, grab the flower and hold down the left mouse button...with your other hand, press and hold the alt key. Keep holding ALT AND your left mouse key as you slide your mouse (and flower) around --Landscaper's note- I am tying the blues of the flowers in with the blue of the house. The yellow and pink colors tie in really nice too. Pick flower colors that compliment your house colors.
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Now keep adding flowers and greenery to the slope of your hills to keep this rambling natural planting group. -Landscaper's note- Keep repeating the same flower for even dispersion of colors so that your eye roams around the yard. In real life, not all these flowers would be blooming at the same time, so repeating them around the yard adds plant color that will bloom at the same time. This keeps you from having "holes" in your flower beds where nothing is blooming. If you scatter and repeat the same flower here and there, throughout your yard, you will have the same colored flower blooming at the same time. In the Sims, we are just so lucky that all of our plants bloom spring-fall! In real life they do not.
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Keep adding landscaping plants that suit the area or type of house you want this to be. I decided to make this home seem like it belongs in a beach-like area, maybe somewhere in South Carolina, USA, so there is grass melding into the sand, and the trees would be more tropical. -Landscaper's Note- Leave the grassy terrain paint that came with your lot alone when you build. When you change it, for example to bluegrass, it changes permanently and will become the new grass color in every lot for every world for everyone that downloads your lot. Bluegrass might look very out of place if someone wants to put the home in Sunlit Tides. If you leave it, and erase any mistakes instead of painting over mistakes, the grass color will change to the default grass color for the world in which it is placed.
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Here you can see how I am melding "sand" paint into the original grass...You can see how I've smoothed the hill into the left side of the lot, added plants, and trees and paints to make this look like it slopes from left and tapers down to the driveway. Because we started with a foundation base, the land blends beautifully against the house.
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As we wrap up this house, let's talk about terrain paint. I painted the sand in around the edges very lightly. At the top of the hill, I added a dry grass paint. The top of a hill will scorch more quickly because the water will run off. The base of the hill will be greener due to this water run-off. Just doing this little effect really adds a highlight and a sense of roundness to our hill. It photographs nicely too.
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Here is the back yard, finished, landscaped, MOOed plants and all. See how nicely it fits the lots around it too. It looks like the house, and the land around it has always been there. Even this simple house and lot has great dimension.
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Fairy Taryn even found a cockatoo while we built this home! How fitting! Here you can also see how MOOing the plants looks so natural.
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In this example, I just played with elevation and everything was smoothed out pretty well. But what if I had made my initial hill much lower? Where would the garage level and pool level ended up? It might have been created a deep "sinkhole". And how would that have looked sitting next to another flat lot? If it had been too high, would we have had too large of hills that didn't look natural? In this example, I was lucky. My basement level was very close to street level. That is the key to making this look good. Your lowest house level should be fairly close in height to street level. The smoothing tool will blend everything together without jarring height differences. As the class goes on, we will get more and more precise and learn other ways to MOO rocks, plants and trees to blend everything together. The goal is to get your terrain manipulation to match the sides of the lot next to it for a seamless look no matter where it is placed.
This segment is more a of a landscaping and terrain painting segment, but once again, this time we aren't really going to plan or be precise. This time I am just showing you how to raise your terrain to add some drama to your lot. Any time you have to look up to see something, that adds drama! This house will not have a basement, but it will have a high foundation look- but without CFE.
Here is the finished lot:
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So let's begin! Here is Fairy Taryn standing on her lovely FLAT lot.
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The ice cream truck came by, so that gave her the perfect excuse to step aside and let us MOOve our Grass.
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-Landscaper's note- This lot has a bit more terrain paint. Remember, to leave whatever color of grass came with your lot as is. Instead of trying to repaint grass when you make a mistake, use the eraser tool instead!
Start by creating your hill by raising the terrain into a nice, pleasing shape in which we'd want to place our house. I am not going to add a basement to this build, I just want to give my house some character by raising the terrain and showing more foundation, and a longer flight of steps to climb.
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Smooth it into a gently rolling hill.
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Add your foundation.
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Notice how you can raise the terrain even more and it will still lay snugly against your foundation:
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You can lower it as well, and your foundation remains constant:
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Smooth it instead to get the exact terrain shape you are looking for:
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Since I haven't pre-planned anything, I'm toying with where my stairs should be. Look how placement can be good or bad against the ground:
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Ok, another Fairy Taryn Magical Moment...Snip-snap-just-like-that....we have a house! A Victorian shell to use just as an example.
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Now to put some steps in to reach ground level. Since I didn't plan the terrain work precisely, a little trial-and-error is called for. In this example, the ground is bleeding through the steps. Not a good stair placement.
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In this example, the steps are slightly too high for street level:
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Here, we have a set of steps that are too short again, but I like their offset placement.
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Now here I got the steps to land at street level and they are still offset! ( just pure dumb luck!)
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I added a fence and bumped out the gate:
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Using MOO I added the arbor. (Yes, I promise that your Sims will go through the fence that is under the arbor, but you must MOO the arbor into the fence)
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Now to connect my pathway. I used the smallest stone and held my ALT key while positioning. I turned the rock randomly here and there to give it a more natural appearance. Since we only have one small rock to work with, giving it rotation upon placement makes it look more natural. I made a gentle, curved walking path. -Landscaper's note- Gentle curves are always more pleasing to them eye than zig-zagging, harsh curves. It is better to do one gentle curve than two tight, sharp curves.
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I painted the walkway with flagstone. Now to soften the terrain. Keep the center dot back away from the fence to keep the fence level. Lightly smooth until you get the effect you want.
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I painted in a redwood mulch to define my flower bed areas:
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Right by the arbor I placed this little blooming tree using MOO to get it snuggled in and draping into the arbor's top. I painted more redwood mulch under it, then lightly painted pink flowers on top of the mulch and sprinkled over the walkway. I used pink flowers to replicate pink petals that fell off of the tree. When using the terrain paints, think about how land really looks in real life. You can look at scenery paintings too, to get ideas for adding realism.
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Adding more plants now to my busy little cottage garden and I added a couple of subtle things for more realism. Under the pink cherry tree, I added more pink flowering terrain paint, again, to simulate petals that blew off the tree. See the evergreen tree at the right fence? I MOOed it closer so the branches peek through the fence; it really would grow through a fence like this, and I very slightly smoothed my walkway to get rid of harsh edges.
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Now I added more plants, keeping in mind flowers in complimentary colors to the house. By holding ALT and sliding, I can MOO my flowers into tighter spaces than I could without MOO. Along the pathway, I MOOed these little white groundcover flowers to soften the pathway's appearance and make it look a little unkempt or over grown. Look closely at the terrain paint at the top of the hill. See how it is slightly browned? The top of the hill would get scorched by the sun first. Towards the bottom of the hill, it is slightly greener. Now look at the edge of the sidewalk and you can see it is very slightly scorched at the edges of the sidewalk. Cement and pavement would get hot in the summer sun and would burn the grass a little at the edges.
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I added a dirt terrain paint softly under the rosebushes at the front of the fence. All these little details really do bring life to your terrain work. Just like a painter adds light and detail to a painting, you can add life to your lot that started out as a flat green square.
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Taryn tests the walkway and finds that it is just fine:
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I promised you that your Sim would both go under the arbor and through the fence!
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Even though I raised the terrain for this little Victorian townhouse, smoothing it back to street level on the perimeter will blend it into the neighborhood. That is another good tip. Even if you raise terrain, try to get it back down to street level on its sides so that it will look good wherever it is placed. Keep this in mind when placing your foundation for the home, because the foundation is where it all begins! Doesn't this little Victorian look extra special with the higher foundation?
In This segment of our lesson, we will learn to be precise! No "winging it". No guessing and hoping we can smooth everything out to our liking. From here on out, we will be more exact to get the levels of terrain height we want for our homes.
*First, shut off the auto roof tool....So not your friend... (www. autoroof@sonotyourfriend.com)-just kidding!
**Second, pre-level your lot.
Remember how we used a stairs as our guide? We will use them again.
A regular wall is 16 steps high.
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4 sets of 4 steps = 16 step wall height. 4x4=16
So let's learn how to go up and down with steps to determine basement placement.
Going down is easy to create 4 steps, you just pull or push your steps right into the ground until you get 4. But going up is a little trickier.
Go to your terrain tools. Choose the smallest square and slide the arrow adjustment slider all the way to the left.
We will start making our guide level. Choose 1 random tile on flat street level to start. Place the center arrow of the "Raise Terrain" on one of your tile's 4 corners. Tap you mouse once....very lightly. Just a quick, sharp tap. Once. Do the same to the next corner, and then the third corner, and then the fourth. I find going in rotation helps keep my tile level. My tile is painted blue as an example.
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Our first lesson will be to create a daylight/walkout basement that is actually on the ground level, but it will look like it is on a sloped lot. So we will be going up a full wall height, or 4 sets of 4 steps. This is a finished example:
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Now that you know to go around your tile 3 times to achieve the 4 step guide, go ahead and make your first guide (all guides will be deleted once we find our target levels.)
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Add your steps. If you have done it correctly, you will have a set of 4 steps.
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From that level ground area at your top step, pull the level terrain tool back a bit to create a landing or top level. I am painting my levels so that you can see my landings.
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Then make a new 4 step guide by going around and raising each corner of a square tile just as we did before. Make a second set of 4 steps, pull another level landing back.
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Do this again, a third time. Make another 4 step guide and level.
Now because we will need a foundation to pull along our terrain, we will stop at level three. The foundation naturally uses 4 steps, so the foundation is actually our fourth level. See how we have 4 sets of 4 steps.......which equals the 16 step regular wall staircase. 4x4=16
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We can check for level if our floor tiles will let us connect.
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Go ahead now and happily delete all your stairs...good job! The hard part is over. Sometimes it can be frustrating or time consuming to raise each corner of the tile and keep it level for 3 rotations. It is just a light, quick tap to the mouse to get the terrain to raise just once..almost a "whap!" Using the smallest square as your guide and setting the slider all the way to the left really seems to help me, as does going around and around in rotation.
You can see my three levels here, minus the stairs and painted for this exercise's picture.
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If you do not paint, your levels will look like this:
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The third level is our target level. Go ahead and level your landings.
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Now level a large area for your home. You will tweak this level later as your build progress.
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I will build a little house now and show you what I did to make this home. Some of the house building steps will be omitted, because I really want you to focus on the land and terrain and landscaping and instead think how you could apply this to a house of your own design. This is a daylight/walkout basement at ground level, with our top level becoming a full wall high.
Start by making your foundation....again, this will be modified as you build.
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Pull your foundation out until it reaches your street level. Or level or smooth your terrain back to where you want your basement wall. Either will work.
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I have started my walls and am thinking about where my garage doors will go.
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A garage door in the Sims is four tiles wide, so I am thinking about where I'd like to put them:
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With your hammer tool, blast out your garage space. Leave a perimeter of foundation, and remember that we must connect all regular walls inside the foundation to avoid having frosted floors in winter. You must allow for more room than you really need.
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Level the ground to street level inside your garage.
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If everything has been leveled correctly, you will be able to simply draw a wall between your foundation pieces.
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Place your garage doors:
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Here are the bare bones of my build:
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I decided I wanted a deck over my garage, so I added that:
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I paint in my driveway, knowing I will clean it up later. For now, I am trying to gauge where my steps to the front entrance will be.
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Here is the front so far. Everything is still very rough, but wait until we get MOOving our Grass!
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I level out my upper level a bit more, pulling it to the end of my house.
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I'm going to show you stairs leading down. In this first picture, notice how they sit perfectly at street level. If you count the steps on the longer flight, there are 12. There are 4 more up to the foundation....12+4=16. Perfect levels!
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This set is too deep! Pull back!
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I decided instead to do an "L" shape to my stairs.
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Count the stairs again...we have 4+4+8=16! Perfect levels again.
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Smooth your terrain into a gentle slope along the house foundation edge; level for your driveway:
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Level your walkways:
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I added rails so that it looks like my Sims can't fall off the sides of this steep slope. Safety First!
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Level out as far as you like, whatever fits the scale of your lot:
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Smooth into a pleasing shape:
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I painted the sides of my hill with shale to look like a rocky edge:
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Now comes our MOOing! Turn on your cheat code MoveObjects on. Then pick a rock to begin sliding into your hillside. Choose what fits the scale of your hill.
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Keep choosing, and MOOing rocks into neat new shapes. If you use the same rock, rotate it to make it look different:
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Now MOO in some brush....slide it right into your rock formations. Play with sliding. In rotating your bushes, you will see very natural effects:
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Change colors for natural effects too
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Add flowers:
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Soften your terrain once you get your rocks and plants to your liking:
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Notice how even though our basement is actually at street level, it still looks like it is lower because of the way we are landscaping our upper level. This will blend really nicely with the lots to the side of it, wherever it is placed. I find it is more pleasing to the eye to go up rather than down. A hill looks so much better than a sinkhole!
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Fill in with more stones, plants, modify your driveway, just clean everything up and add detail.
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The little area between the large rocks and my drive was looking flat...so I raised it just a titch.
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Smooth and spray the top a lighter grass color to add realism.
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Now here I added more plants and details to finish the front off. Now it's looking like a little house in the mountains!
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Our work isn't done. Remember what I told you my goal is for each of you? It is for each of you to grow and to take your landscaping and terrain work further than you ever have.
So let's go to the back of the house and continue on. Not only do I want a basement style garage, but I want to add living spaces too. So to keep my terrain looking natural I must use the foundation as a beginning.
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I add regular walls as well as foundation- you'll see why in a moment:
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I blast away unwanted area of foundation again, always remembering that all of my regular internal walls must meet without touching foundation:
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Level the ground to create your floor:
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Here are my walls now, all connecting, then matched back up to my foundation:
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And here is the new back of the home, with windows and doors at the "basement" level:
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Here are my interior walls. Notice how they all meet. Extra walls connect to the foundation:
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I need to create an exit off my upper deck, so I pulled terrain away from the house, and now I am going to create a landing for my stairs. I am raising the 4 corners of a square terrain tile to create a landing for a set of 4 steps.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-41_zps658e3096.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-41_zps658e3096.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-41_zps658e3096.jpg"/></a>
Here is one square, with 3 rotations to get it to the 4 step height:
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And now I level out a landing:
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Here I added my stairs. I have a 12 step segment and a 4 step segment. 12+4=16
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-51_zps0ab49b42.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-51_zps0ab49b42.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-51_zps0ab49b42.jpg"/></a>
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I added a half wall to create a planter box:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-58_zps06763411.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-58_zps06763411.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-58_zps06763411.jpg"/></a>
I filled it with plants.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-59_zpsd8c4de2b.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-59_zpsd8c4de2b.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-59_zpsd8c4de2b.jpg"/></a>
For a different look, and to tie in the front landscape, I added rocks by MOOing and sliding to fill in the back:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-60_zps90fd5c19.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-60_zps90fd5c19.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-60_zps90fd5c19.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-63_zpsb517a9b8.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-63_zpsb517a9b8.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-63_zpsb517a9b8.jpg"/></a>
And then I changed the front to match by MOOing in rocks and plants.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-66_zpsdb4b2ca4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-66_zpsdb4b2ca4.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-66_zpsdb4b2ca4.jpg"/></a>
Now sculpt and change your terrain to get a pleasing shape for your back yard. We want to blend the front and the back: I am leveling to create more room at the base:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-73_zpsbd19957f.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-73_zpsbd19957f.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-73_zpsbd19957f.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-78_zps2295fdd9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-78_zps2295fdd9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-78_zps2295fdd9.jpg"/></a>
Then soften and smooth:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-70_zpse628bf0a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-70_zpse628bf0a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-70_zpse628bf0a.jpg"/></a>
I added my rocky shale paint, more than was necessary, to that I could see where I would want to keep it or erase it.
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-81_zpsdb4d7fe9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-81_zpsdb4d7fe9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-81_zpsdb4d7fe9.jpg"/></a>
I erased a great deal of the shale paint, wanting a more hill like effect:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-82_zps20fe35a4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-82_zps20fe35a4.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-82_zps20fe35a4.jpg"/></a>
Just like the front, I am adding rocks ad greenery into natural configurations by MOOing and sliding:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-84_zpsa7a25dcb.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-84_zpsa7a25dcb.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-84_zpsa7a25dcb.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-86_zpsb5773444.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-86_zpsb5773444.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-86_zpsb5773444.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-87_zps7538ca79.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-87_zps7538ca79.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-87_zps7538ca79.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-91_zps336caac2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-91_zps336caac2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-91_zps336caac2.jpg"/></a>
Now I am painting a lighter grass color on the top on my hill, even bringing it down for highlight:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-92_zpsaa5115c7.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-92_zpsaa5115c7.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-92_zpsaa5115c7.jpg"/></a>
I've added more trees, plants and paint here:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-93_zps6bd616a9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-93_zps6bd616a9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-93_zps6bd616a9.jpg"/></a>
I even lightly painted the base of my rocks with a dry grass paint:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-94_zpsfcd754a9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-94_zpsfcd754a9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-94_zpsfcd754a9.jpg"/></a>
Now to just finish off the landscape:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-96_zps3cfebd90.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-96_zps3cfebd90.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-96_zps3cfebd90.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-108_zpsf2ea708a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-108_zpsf2ea708a.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-108_zpsf2ea708a.jpg"/></a>
Here is my final look at this technique. This look very natural and woodsy. It blends nicely into the lots next to it. Once we found the correct heights by taking the time to set our levels using 4 sets of 4 steps, everything came together perfectly at street level:
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-105_zps5efc6726.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-105_zps5efc6726.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-105_zps5efc6726.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-104_zpsdd591ff2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-104_zpsdd591ff2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-104_zpsdd591ff2.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s400.photobucket.com/user/taryntempestwind/media/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-103_zps10b6142c.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/taryntempestwind/taryntempestwind009/Screenshot-103_zps10b6142c.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Screenshot-103_zps10b6142c.jpg"/></a>