Any experts on roofs out there?

Jazzpuz

I really like creating houses, especially the rooms and furnishing them, and with The Sims 4 its a lot easier and takes a lot less time. I always dread when I'm done with the house, because then comes the roof - it's *not* my thing. It kind of spoils all the fun I had, 'cause I can never, ever get it to look good. In TS3 I had tons of lots with half-finished houses, though it was a little bit easier with the automatic roof-function. In TS4 that function is gone though, so now I'm hoping to pick the brain of someone with good roof-skills! Ant tips or advice you can share is very welcome.

I have uploaded a house on my Gallery, it's quite difficult to "roof", would love for some to help me do it. The weird thing is, I can't place floor or roofs in the second story, at all, on a part of the house.

rosemow

Hello I will post some links to threads/sites/videos that contain information about using roofs in sims 4. I hope that they may be helpful
http://www.simified.com/the-sims-4/tutorials/working-with-roofs/
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/13011239/#Comment_13011239
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_0oQfMT5I&list=PLm7eMVoztWXdOekmv6rH0cWw842Zf5vm-
http://sims-online.com/create-octagonal-roof-sims-4-building-tutorial/
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/799376/video-tutorials-on-roofing

aquilifer

Jazzpuz wrote: »

I always dread when I'm done with the house, because then comes the roof

This is the fundamental roadblock, right here. If roofing is an afterthought, it will LOOK like an afterthought. I recommend trying to envision the kind of roofing you want WHILE you're building the house. Interesting roofing usually requires an interesting building shape underneath it, but you won't ever build the perfect building shape for roofing by accident. I'll give you an example of one of my more complicated roofs, and then the same building with the entire roof removed.

With roof:

Without roof:


There are tons of things I never would have built if I didn't have roofing in my mind the whole time during the building process. I never would have had any reason to place random columns out on the deck. The wooden parts jutting out from the stone tower would just look stupid. I'd have a whole boring flat wall on the second floor for no reason, and I would have no rationale for stopping it where I did instead of at least carrying it through to the other side. But maybe the most important thing is the fact that not one of the sections of this house is plainly rectangular. Instead, each part is a rectangle or square with smaller rectangles and squares sticking out of its sides. Those little areas that stick out from the main rectangle are really the places where you have the most opportunity to make a roof look interesting. I didn't put a single one of them there by accident. I had a clear intention of what I wanted to build on top of every single one.

If roofing is relatively new to you, it might be a good exercise to start with a rectangular house. Put a roof on that rectangle. Then add some extra smaller rectangles or squares around the outside of your main structure, and play around with what kinds of roofing can go on top of those. In the building above, for example, the tallest roof piece in every section of the house is a roof piece which covers the main rectangle of the structure below it. All of the decorative and detailed parts of the roof are out on top of the extra smaller rectangles.

If you have uploaded any buildings to the gallery, and you would like any specific suggestions on anything that you've built, then give us your Origin ID and tell us the names of the lots. But in the meantime, make roofing part of the building process, instead of something that comes "when I'm done with the house."

Jazzpuz

Thanks @rosemow‌ and @aquilifer‌ for the links and advice. I have one house in the gallery, Origin ID is the same as here -> jazzpus. It is a house from one of the first photos or videos of Sims 4.
I will try and visualize the roofs more before I start - unfortunately I'm not very good with imagining thing.

aquilifer

Well, that roofless lot which you uploaded certainly has a weird enough shape that you could do something interesting with the roofing. The biggest trouble with it, though, is that there's not really one central rectangular shape to the structure; there are two which overlap each other. It's much easier to design good roofing for a building when there's only one central shape, so this might not be the best building to start with. I'm going to keep with my original recommendation, that you build a rectangle, roof that rectangle, and then add to it around the sides with smaller rectangles.

You don't get "good with the imagining thing" unless you practice. And you might not even know what's possible with roofing until you play around with it for a while. I am good with the imagining thing, but even so, there are days when all I do is play around in build mode looking at how different roofing might look, because there's always something new to figure out, and half the time the way something looks in your head isn't quite the same as it looks on a building. I also delete at least half of the things I try out. The roofing over the seating area on the deck in the building above, for example, is the fifth or sixth version of things that I tried. Just play around with roofing. It is, after all, part of a game, and should be fun.

crissylp89

Thanks @rosemow roofs drive me crazy!

rosemow

crissylp89 wrote: »

Thanks @rosemow roofs drive me crazy!

You're welcome