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March of Bears : A Psychological Thriller Machinima

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PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
Updated March 31, 2015
The intention is to produce a psychological thriller, starring cute widdle cuddly wuddly creepy teddybears!

Work in progress:
  • Writing Season 1 episode 8 at the moment, which is why it is a little sparse yet.
  • Deciding what is important for the rest of Season 1 leading up to a finale with clues to what is to be carried out in Season 2.
  • Scripting out the story segments into 15 minute episodes for the Machinima.
  • Filming begins in April.
  • If all goes well I will have the pilot, trailer, and possibly the first episode ready for viewing in July.

Since this thread is basically my notebook... it is also where I brainstorm and work through scene options. So, again, there may be behind-the-scenes stuff posted between episode posts. I value comments that may help improve the series and increase the impact of the story. I'm also taking note of what I am learning along the way that may be of use to others creating TS3 machinima.

I'm glad you are on this journey with me as I create this series.



Question: what software do you use to record/edit your Sims 3 videos?

If you are producing a Machinima, here are some tips I've been writing down for myself that I will share with you
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/13444468/#Comment_13444468
I'd like to hear about what you've learned too.
TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
Post edited by Penndra on

Comments

  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    On this day, March 19th of the year 2015, begins a saga like no other....

    (insert Pilot here)
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    (Idea for episode trailer)

    It is a fate in the world of Sims that one day something else would rise to power... something that no Sim would have suspected... something innocent and docile...
    something everysim has been compelled to hold...
    ...manipulating them from toddlerhood.
    Every snuggle, every caress, and every mind-controlled conversation... seeping into dreams and scouring the Sim intellect until every factor and possibility was addressed.
    They are ready now... ready to emerge from hiding... ready to march!
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited April 2015
    Season 1 Episode 1
    meanwhile...

    Was it a day like any other? The sun made it's usual path across a blue sky. Shadows shortened grew and shortened again. Butterflies appeared for a moment at twilight. Nighttime bugs danced in circles right on queue with the fading sunlight.
    Sally continued playing, oblivious to the world outside of her puzzle. A sweet cuddly teddybear in blue and white striped pants looked on with his deep black eyes... a quiet murmur in the back of his faux-fur skull.

    (skip down a few posts to continue reading the story)

    <<SCRIPT>>
    • Text on screen, lower left, "Was it a day like any other...?"
    • Time lapse passage of sun from morning to twilight, showing shadows, while roll opening credits.
    • Production by Ettralude . Mention The Sims 3 somehow. Machinima series. Thanx to.... yadda yadda yadda lama.
    • Starring.... (glimpse of characters in THIS season doing what they should be known for) (this could be the intro sequence)
    • glimpse of first episode of second season (something that says where the series is headed).
    • Title Screen
    • Outside... at Twilight, the birds chirp profusely as their evening meal of bugs emerges. The butterflies appear and disappear, then the bugs emerge as the light fades and crickets chirp.
    • Sally has intense concentration on the puzzle. The noises outside are faint through a closed window. It's about 7:00pm
    • pan and zoom to Mr. Wugglesworth on nightstand. Continue zooming in on his eyes, Sally's reflection there, continue closer to an actual eyeball with twitching iris. Sound of internal thoughts (what could he be saying very very softly to mislead the viewer to why he would be reaching for her in the next scene)
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Announcements

    ( It's for updates, this post... Look back to somewhere around this post for when the episodes go up on YouTube. )


    I'm always on the look-out for film-style machinima. If you know of a good channel, lemme know!
    Thankyou to these Machinima Artists for producing beautiful The Sims horror films:
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    (behind the scenes)

    How did the story begin?

    For three years I've been consorts with writer's block... well, not so much writer's block as indecisiveness.
    There are so many topics that could be written about, and I'd dabble now and then on this or on that and not much more became of it other than a blog post on FaceBook.

    In the background of the day to day there has been a story brewing... a simple yet absorbing story unfolding in the parallel universe of my TS3 gameplay.
    Always it was the teddybears. In every home I constructed for Sim inhabitance, in each childhood scenario, planted there like a seed bursting from the inside.

    It began with Mr. Wugglesworth. He was joined by a handful of holiday bears. And then the rest arrived. Quickly and silently they filled shelves and tabletops, lined up along the wall, a barrier between kind sanity and lurking evil.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    It is what it is. Was it ever another way.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    (behind the scenes)

    About my Sims....
    ( a little background on where the story developed )

    Usually, I go into the game to build something... a world, a hangout, a gravity-defying home, a garden lot... but did not focus on building a family... they were just tools, a means to create architecture, the key to creativity discarded in the deadbolt.
    The Greenleaf family is the first family I haven't abandoned after a month of playing it. Perhaps it is time to play TS3 in a different way.

    Legolas Greenleaf is, of course, fashioned after the character in LOTR. He's an elf, he loves sports, and he dresses well :p
    Joining him in the household is his not-so-spoken-about sister Haley. She loves playing with toys and collects themed teddybears which she arranges into menacing hoards to scare off visitors.
    They have a pet fox, Nettle, which loves Legolas. Haley is far too busy elsewhere to have gained much social with Nettle, but they are not enemies.

    Haley wanders off often, mostly to China, where she gathers rocks and seeds and stores them in treasure chests... and forgets about them.
    Legolas worries about her, but she has not gotten into too big of trouble. She seems to make friends everywhere she goes, and they watch out for her.

    Legolas is a self-employed relic salesman. He supports the family on the strange objects his sisters brings home from her travels... trinkets and statues stuffed into her suitcases amongst her prized rocks and seeds.

    ....


    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited April 2015
    (story continues here)
    Season 1 Episode 2
    Left in the dark

    And there she was in mid air, suffocating from the height- just her, a cheap wicker weave chair, and two floor tiles.
    A light shown below... a streetlamp? a car? a UFO? It flashed with vivid brilliance and all was dark again.
    Breathless, Amelia leans over the edge of her lofty prison. How could this be? How could this happen?
    She grips hard at her rumbling stomach and feels the pang of loneliness, not to mention a gnawing need for entertainment.
    Twittering erupts from the forest as the perfectly round sun peeks above an ever-hazy horizon just miles away at the edge of the traversable world.
    Amelia assesses the situation and is disturbed by the grim fate she cannot deny... A tireless lump of unhappiness sticks in her dry throat while she shifts uncomfortably in her seat. In panicked hysteria Amelia makes a vain attempt to call out to The Hand, her last hope, her salvation, her dieing wish. But only Death is there to greet her as she falls in a heap at his feet, social contact arriving far too late to turn the tides, and not a Goopy Carbonara to spare. If only there had been a fridge, Amelia could have held out longer than 6 measly hours. Alas the ill strength of Sim biology makes her victim to the mischievous curiosity of The Hand.

    Death begins his ceremony to transform Amelia into a haunted gravestone, holding an unengraved stone in one arm and raising the other arm with enchantment, beckoning her soul to release from it's body. Her soul swells into a swirling grey cloud. Death smiles and waves his hand toward the stone, a routine gesture, but instead of entering the stone, the little grey cloud stretches thin in a streak toward something on the ground. Perplexed and annoyed by the phenomena, Death chants deep and steady to regain control over this fleeting soul.

    On the ground directly below the floating floor tiles, three small forms lay innocently on soft green grass underneath a bushy flowering hedge, silently watching the soul being sucked downward toward them quicker than Death can compensate.

    Death teleports to the ground, but finds nothing. He senses for the lost soul, but also finds nothing. "My boss is going to KILL me," Death mutters, and teleports away.


    <<Script>>
    • Repeat the most important piece of scene relevant to THIS episode (which will be helpful in the future with the round-robin story style). Otherwise: show a clue, something else happening in the world, visually introduce future characters/situations, something that triggers or leads up to a situation in this episode. A tidbit to help explain the content of this episode... you get the idea...
    • Run opening credits.
    • Glimpse of Season 2 ep 1
    • Title Screen
    • Start at close range, very close range, on Amelia's face. Then pan out to show the chair, then the floor tiles, and then that the floor tiles are hovering far above the ground, where a moving car light is shining.
    • Amelia throws a horrified glance over the edge, reals back and grabs her throat as if she is choking. She looks around frantically. A question mark bubble thought.
    • She grips her rumbling stomach. Thought bubble fridge and/or goopy carbonara. Show each stat in fast forward showing decline. Show 6 hours ticking by.
    • Sunrise, on a hazy horizon. Birds twitter. The sound is lovely.
    • The ground becomes visible and the height and entrapment obvious. Thought bubble Grim Reaper. Show mood decline. Show heatstroke setting in as she wiggles in her seat.
    • Amelia leaps up and throw her hands up, calling up to The Hand.
    • Death arrives, social increases, but too late. Thought bubble Goopy Carbornara/fridge.
    • Death chants and raises his arms to call forth Amelia's spirit into a gravestone.
    • The soul streaks downward to the ground
    • Death tries to call it back by chanting more powerfully, but fails
    • The soul wisps into a bush on the ground.
    • The bush shakes and three figures run away.
    • Death appears beside the bush, but can find no trace
    • He mutter's "My boss is going to KILL me!" then evaporates out.
    • Slowishly zoom in to where Death was standing. A gravestone sits haphazard on the ground, blank. Continue zooming in to black.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited April 2015
    Season 1 Episode 3
    Continuance...

    Sally heard the skuttling behind her, though it did not sway her attention from the mesmerizing puzzle on a soft leaf print rug in the center of her bedroom. The child lay there in the audience of toys, lit by a mild light from a country lamp set delicately on the stout wooden side table beside her. A drawer was ajar and creaked slightly as Mr. Wugglesworth clung to it upon his decent.

    <<Script>>
    • Snippet of Wugglesworth's eyes from last scene.
    • Roll opening sequence (music, predominant character impressions, credits).
    • Title Screen
    • Pan over room from ceiling view.
    • Over Sally's shoulder, and out of focus, show movement on the nightstand. Sally obviously notices the sound but returns to her puzzle.
    • Focus in on Wugglesworth, Sally going fuzzy, Wugglesworth leaning up against the side of the lamp. Slowly pan around the room, shelves of toys peering into the room, pan around till Wugglesworth comes back into view.
    • Wugglesworth has continued moving, out of view of the camera, now clinging to the drawer edge with one paw.
    • Pan out quickly, over Sally's shoulder, as the drawer creaks. Sally notices the sound but does not turn. She breaths, her shoulder lifts, and when it settles Wugglesworth is out of camera view.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PixieydustPixieydust Posts: 705 Member
    Interesting....The Hand should have added a fridge for the poor woman!! LOL Looking forward to reading more!
  • p-para-Xylenep-para-Xylene Posts: 230 Member
    Penndra wrote: »
    They have a pet fox, Nettle, which loves Legolas.
    Is that a real thing in game, a pet fox, or part of the story?

    Writing is interesting. Currently a bit too fragmented to review - it is enough to make me want to read more...
    Wish list free since 2015-02-23
  • lanlynlanlyn Posts: 5,008 Member
    ooo, will Mr. Wugglesworth be a good teddy or a bad teddy? And what part will The Hand play in the child's fate? :o
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    I'm glad it's grabbed your interest :) Your questions and interest compel me to continue writing :)
    @Pixieydust , you'll find out soon the significance of the scene with Amelia.
    @p-para-Xylene , Yes, the pet fox is real. The design for it is at MyPage under MyStudio. Nettle the fox version 3 is the newest design. The fragmentation is purposeful. I'm setting up to make 15 minute episodes in a paralleled timeline montage style.
    @lanlyn , :) You gives me a great idea. Maybe we should never know if Mr. Wugglesworth is good or evil .... That would be a fun character to personify! I love incorporating The Great Golden Hand in the Sky into my game stories. :P Adds a bit of omnipotent, yet oblivious, energy to play around with.
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • lanlynlanlyn Posts: 5,008 Member
    @Penndra Well, the important thing is to have fun with your story. Try out different ideas. You have some unique, creative elements already going for you. :)
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited April 2015
    Season 1 Episode 4
    In the eyes of the beholder

    Billions of seconds passing in a hour.
    Up, around, left, down, under, up, right, down, right, up.
    Musty cobwebs and thick sand, boiling corridors upon corridors upon corridors.
    Memories of sunlight make Adam cringe, not another ounce of heat!
    Swallowing temptation to eat, he painfully holds aloft a single flamefruit to light his way thru the endless maze of chiseled yellow stone.
    Nothing but more rock, more dusty ground, more scarabs, more...
    A glint! Adam bends down and brushes away layers of years, uncovering a gleaming gold ingot. At least there is treasure to be found.
    Conveniently the ingot shrinks to the size of a pea as he shoves the find into his jeans pocket and proceeds to an upright stone sarcophagus.
    *creeeeeeeak*
    Tenderly Adam reaches in and touches something soft and crackly. It moves to meet his touch.
    Adam inhales sharply and coughs on a cloud of airborne debris. Stunned with panic he stumbles backward with a complete lack of grace as a reanimated wild-eyed mummy pushes past the heavy stone lid. It is very clear it does not like uninvited guests.
    Before the brain can tell a limb to move, the mummy leaps upon Adam with focused intent to shred him to bits.
    Adam's hand tenses into a fist and the flamefruit juices trickle thru his fingers, much like the blood thru deep gashes in his shirt.
    He struggles to get up off the dusty stone floor tiles, to get in a good swing, but all he manages to do is keep snarling slimy teeth off his face.
    Was it his eyes failing or the light fading, that snuffed the feeling of a cozy fire from his mood and instilled the feeling of dread.
    Perhaps a hallucination setting in showing a second pair of eyes, round and low, staring, simply staring, so inviting.
    Everything seems to fade away, the sound, the pain, even the bitter dark. Still and void.

    <<Script>>
    • Glimpse of a necessary clue to this episode
    • Roll opening music/credits/images
    • Title Screen
    • Dusty explorer boots walk past a brochure for 'Visit Sim Hara'. Torch-lit floor.
    • With ticking clock overlay, Transition still-frames of going in each direction listed. Character's back facing camera.
    • Transition to live frames. Adam pushes away a cobweb to walk passed it. He wipes sweat from his brow.
    • Show 3 corridor video clips transitioned over eachother. The corridors have a heat wave effect on them to show the heat.
    • Show Adams eyes, sweat rolling from forehead. Transition to the desert outside with clear view of the sun. Back to Adam, he cringes.
    • Thought bubble of food. Adam grips hungry stomach. He reluctantly holds up the flame fruit for light. (Will have to pack several of these because the Sim will eat them during these takes).
    • Pan upward, showing the maze of corridors filled with rubble, dust, bugs, and yellow brick
    • Pan down and behind Adam. Show glint ahead (over shoulder view). While panning, Adam runs up to the glint and starts digging it out. Adam should appear to be kneeling.
    • Show Adam's face smiling. He holds up a gold ingot between himself and the camera.
    • Adam stands (possibly from sitting position). The ingot shrinks in his hand and he shoves the re-sized ingot into his pocket.
    • Adam walks forward, up to a sarcophagus, and pulls open the lid. It creeeeks, echoeing through the corridors. Do a camera shot from the floor view of a long corridor to show this echo. Preferably with Adam in the far background as he is opening the lid/door and reaching in.
    • Close up view, Adam's hand touching the mummy's rag-bound chest, which crackles, and a dusty mummy hand reaching up from below Adam's arm as the camera pans out quickly.
    • Adam steps back, inhaling sharply, taking in a cloud of dust which causes him to cough. He stumbles another couple steps back.
    • Show Mummy emerging from Sarcophagus with angry red eyes and snarling features. (note, pause several times to get as many shots of the mummy as possible before it attacks)
    • Side view. Mummy leaps onto Adam and fight ensues.
    • Show Adam's hand, muscles tense in arm, flame fruit gets squished just before punching the mummy. (use anime style with still-frames if need to). Show Mummy slashing at Adam's bleeding chest (wearwolf move). (perhaps dress a wearwolf in a halloween mummy costume for the fight scene)
    • Show from Adam's viewpoint, his hands pushing away the snarling drooling mummy face.
    • Focus on ground view of flamefruit bits with fighting in background out of focus. Show the flamefruit bits dulling in brightness. Thought bubble of '-no- cozy fire'.
    • Back to Adam's view, dimming to black, just the red eyes still showing, while he screams and the mummy makes awful growling and ripping and chewing noises. (wearwolf sound clip)
    • Another pair of eyes to the lower left blink open. Round and white. Camera focus in on them while panning over. A pulsing halo emerging from each eye in unison (fade out each pulse before overlapping), hypnotic. The sound of the mummy fades, Adam's breathing slows and fades. The pulsing white eyes become larger (panning in to close-up) until entire screen is filled with white.
    • continue zooming into the white void (consistent speed), a form far away, quickly coming into view. Adam was laying down and stands up, looking around confused. Keep steady with zoom into Adam's iris till screen turns black.
    • Roll end credits.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 5
    Split

    It wasn't much of a thud when Mr. Wugglesworth dropped to the floor. His silky fur feet cushioned his steps along the wooden floorboard. Soundlessly he reached the rug where Sally lay fitting puzzle pieces into an image of 3 sleepy grey calico kittens nestled into a red basket. Mr. Wugglesworth reached out as he stepped onto the rug, but tripped on a loop of string and fell onto the puzzle box scattering the remaining pieces and alerting Sally to his clumsiness.
    She looked over her shoulder with concerned confusion, rather than surprise. "Wuggle?" Twisting herself around to face Mr. Wugglesworth, she scooped the teddybear up with one caressing arm and returned stray puzzle pieces to the box.
    Mr. Wugglesworth sunk into the cradle of her warm arm, overwhelmed with contentment, nearly drifting into daydreams of previous years when he and Sally were inseparable.
    Sally leaped up in her yellow princess costume, adjusting the cone hat squarely between her auburn pigtails, and skipped over to her bed where she set Mr. Wugglesworth gingerly upon a fluffy pillow and tucked him in under a blue fleece doll blanket. His black button eyes glinted with happiness... until she returned to the puzzle. An aching so deeply stirring inside his tiny heart compelled him into questioning this life he had come to know, this life he was loosing hold of. Beyond the footboard, Sally hummed, her gentle hands working each piece into place, turning left and then right, her face contorted and squinched in concentration. His eyes glistened in the soft lamp light, his stomach churning, his heart feeling heavy, his small body sinking into the pillow till blue fuzziness obstructed his view of the girl.
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 6
    ...not even a mouse

    Metallic tinsel reflects tiny stars upon bouquets of pillows stuffed into a plush navy blue sofa. Small colorful boxes, each one hiding a new cat toy, with over-sized bows sit in rows under dustings of fragrant pine needles from a sickly-looking twig of a tree.
    A distressed Nathaniel prods at the plump turkey in a 19th century oven, a stylish yet faulty remnant from when the run-down hotel was converted into tiny one-room apartments. Flipping thru greasy pages with smirks of annoyance, he reads chapter captions... "side dishes"... "variations"... "garnishes"... "but nothing about how long to cook the dang bird!" He slams the recipe down hard against the cut-scared wooden countertop, upsetting a tray of nectar which topples to the ground with a shattering crash.
    Nippits, startled by Nathaniel's ranting, leaps from her cozy oven-side pet bed and dashes from the kitchen as fast as a cat can fly.
    He flinches his hands in impatient frustration and storms off into the other end of the narrow apartment to relax with a video game.
    A moment later, in what seemed like only seconds, a wisp of black smoke drifts over to where Nathaniel has been willfully escaping behind a pair of virtual goggles. At first he mistakes the odor and intensifying heat as an effect of the game, until there is pain, a burning sensation along his left side. He flings the goggles, which collide with charred window glass, sending billowing clouds of black smoke out into the air. Nippits dodges flame-licked bits of wallpaper and falling debris from the ceiling and leaps out the broken window, tipping a teddybear, Saint Mitch, off the windowsill. Nippits lands skillfully on a singed tree branch outside and bounds across to the far side, away from the flames, as the bear falls to the grass several stories below. Nathaniel tries to brush the flames from his arms and legs, his Mohawk burning like sticks in a bonfire.
    Nippits leaps branch to branch, frantic, desperately meowing for help at the windows of the building across the courtyard. She looses her balance from a riveting explosion that pushes the tree into the neighboring building. Equally deafening is the whir of fire engines and shouts of tenants. Clinging by her front paws, Nippits stares at the heavy smoke and brick dust pouring out of the errupted hole that used to be her and Nathaniel's home.
    The teddybear blinks the dust from his eyes and rolls up against the wall, out of the way of falling bricks. He tries to call out for Nippits, but his mouth won't open. Pulling his hands up to his lips, his fingerless hands feel strangely spongy against his face. He tries to wave away the dust and smoke, but he can see nothing in the dark heap of debris... he is trapped.
    A careful hand envelopes Nippit's trembling form just as she begins feeling too weak to hold on, and she is quickly tucked into the fireman's loosened collar before he turns on the nozzle of a large grey hose to douse the building like trying to save a withered garden.
    Ms. Sissy, the landlord cries into her hands. A fire marshal scolds her for not installing fire alarms...


    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Note to reader:
    The rest of this page is in regards to how-to make Machinima. The story continues on the next page. Thanx for your interest in this ambition!

    === References for making Machinima ===

    Camera Tutorial
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Notes for a better Machinima

    Overall series structure
    • Why so much music? don't need it... Any music used should remain in the BACKGROUND and not interfere with the scene unless there is music IN the scene. Strengthening music between scenes and in otherwise quiet moments is recommended.
    • start sound right away so viewer can adjust speak
    • be consistent with sounds, adjust tracks to consistent decibel levels
    • slow motion helps hide the natural jerky movements of Sims, but makes talking look weird
    • Dim backgrounds with lights directed at focal points helps draw the viewer into the action of the scene
    • Using actual Sims voices and alphabet is kinda funny, but gets old. Thoughts bubbles could be used as communication.

    Episode parts
    1. Review (here's what happened last time) followed by flash-moment preview (a series of blended images or an image from the climax)
    2. Intro. Start with producer's logo and any special messages or gratitude, then go into the episode intro theme sequence. Try to keep it short and concise. A glimpse at the whole. The show should be jumped into asap without having to wait for a long intro. Can change with the progression of the series as long as there remains some continuous element or routine visual structure.
    3. the show. Beginning, middle, and end. Build-up, climax, and closure. Introduction of plot, activity of plot, ending of plot. Introduce key place, character, objective, Act 1 scene 1,2,3, Act 3 scene 1,2,3, Act 3 scene 1,2,3, Finale'
    4. preview of next episode (eluding to overall mood and conflict of next episode) Avoid revealing content.
    5. credits can take as long as it takes to list off utilized software, expansion packs, voice-over actors, royalty-free music, etc. ending with the producer's logo.

    Flow of movement -
    • panning and zooming. Like eb and flow waves. Do so very slowly, NOT quickly or entirely noticeable. Zoom in then out. Sway in and drift out. Pan left then right. Pan up, then pan down, diagonal, rotation, to the side, around subject, tilt etc. Keep it moving between focus scenes. Return to center is scene still going, or slide right or left if introducing or leaving scene. During focus scenes switch to overlays, slide-across, and side thoughts while the main image is static.
    • No sharp starts or stops unless necessary ie. dialogue or pivoting scene
    • fading a scene into next scene. Work with comprehensive transitions

    Dialogue needs cut scenes
    • show emotional reaction to comments
    • show emotional expression / detouring expressions (lies)
    • close up character 1, close up character 2, side view
    • show over the shoulder at other in dialogue
    • show reaction of those listening in on or being bothered/affected by dialogue

    Camera Angles
    • interesting camera angles makes a scene more interesting.
    • overhead from the front
    • overhead from the back side (trail)
    • feet and debris on floor/ground
    • torso/mid body and debris on countertops
    • Bird's eye view and worm's eye view
    • thru barriers, beyond boundaries, from other side.
    • Make use of camera angles to intensify the mode. Is it open? Is it closed off? Are the characters close/confined? Express close-up activity. Are the characters distant/unfamiliar? Show the detachment with a wider angle and lots of visual space. Are the characters at odds, in a disagreement, shutting eachother out, keeping secrets, or avoiding something? Shoot the scene from behind the spokes of a chair, thru a half open window, reflected off a mirror or tea kettle, have the face be obstructed by their own hair or a drifting curtain or shoot close-up from an extreme angle that excludes or distorts the face.
    • When a character is prying into the life of another Sim or being controlling, shoot from behind the manipulative Sim so that he is standing partially in the way of shooting the primary Sim of the scene.
    • Use of shadows. Flickers of firelight, glow of lamps, bursts of magical energy. Shadows make transformations easy to reveal. Silhouettes highlight key elements of the story we want to stress without distraction.

    Common Movie strategies
    • If it is in the scene, it is important to the plot, otherwise remove it. All objects in a scene should intensify and clarify what is happening within that scene. Providing clues, foresight, reminiscence, history of the characters within the story. Providing clarification of location/place/time/existence, timeframes, stage in sequence of the story line. Indicating lifestyle and situations that play a role in character development progression and how others relate to that character and that character's motives and choices.
    • More than half of acting is gesture and movement.
    • A memory-sequence or a meanwhile-sequence can save a lot of time in revealing/explaining plot and plot devices
    • If you need to have your character monologue or if you need to use stage time to explain the plot... rewrite the script -.- Everything your viewer needs to know should unfold before their eyes. If there is history to be revealed, do so in the beginning or scatter clues that build up and clarify along the way so that when the climax happens you won't need to backtrack and explain what is going on... it dulls the flow and the mood and I often chose that point to stop watching.
    • Twists are good. Let the viewer think they know what is going on. Mislead them. Steer them in the wrong direction. Make them hate the character they'll later be cheering for. Make them fall in love with the character who is revealed later to have manipulated and destroyed everyone, so the viewer is duped just like everyone else in the story.
    • Use well psychologically-bending situations and dysfunctional relationships. There are plenty of books to research to make believable characters in stressful situations... how they cope, how they snap, how they morph, how they escape, how they lash out, and how they treat others who align with them or confront them. What is the threshold of your character's mentality? What childhood memories dictate their next move? What trigger lay in wait for the red button to be pushed... Do they sink into shameful implosion, do they explode in destructive denial, do they blow it off and chose ignorance, do they shut everything out, do they let everything in... How much stress can your character bend with before they break under the pressure? And what exactly is pressuring them? Viewpoint. Perspective. Perception. Knowledge and lack of information. What is the character's weak point and can the evils of the world make use of it to move along their own parallel plot? Which plot will reach the finish line first?


    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    other tips notes and guides or other stuff



    plot notes
    --clipped from original location
    (maybe show a flashback of the three teddybears? Why they are here. How they met. Where they came from. How they became bear-nappers and why they chose to abduct Bryan the bunnybear.) or... the life of Bryan. .. the origin of Bryan's spirit? oooooo the Easter Bear resurrected? with sharp pointy teeth! a sleeper... or force a spirit in. An ordinary unpossessed toy who had not received enough love to ignite a unique spirit.

    --Mr. Wugglesworth ... investigating? What is his role? For or against which party. Why is he not abducted. Why are the others abducted?

    -- what would happen if Death were attending the death of a soul, but something else captured the soul other than him, even though he were standing right there! Would he be irate? What would tic off Death?

    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 7
    Smells like wet dog part 1

    Outside, the rain tapped at the window like a woodpecker on a rotten tree seeking bugs for dinner.
    Sally churned in her bed. The white comforter heaving as she tossed and turned. Mr. Wugglesworth struggled to not be knocked to the floor. Lightning thundered so loudly it shook the framed pictures that rattled against the walls. All the noise nearly muffled the prying at the window. The flashes of lightning nearly obscured the fuzzy ears and pairs of eyes peering under the window frame as it was hoisted up with a crowbar.

    to be continued...

    ...
    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 8
    Plight of Bryan (scene in progress)

    Sally crawls along the warm sunlit lawn, collecting treat-filled plastic eggs along the garden fence. Tiny blooms and tender green leaves tickle her tiny nose and flushed cheeks and snag on the large white woven basket she pulls behind her splicing them off their stems.

    With her basket full of pastel eggs on the inside, and dripping with vegetation on the out, the toddler wobbles toward an excited mommy and daddy to brag about her Easter harvest in sweet incoherent babble. The parents hug exuberantly, observing their daughters first unassisted steps.



    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 9
    ...continued
    Smells like Wet Dog part 2

    Gusts of wet air swirled in, curling the rug as if it were paper. Mr. Wugglesworth locked eyes with something standing on the window sill, lightening silhouetting a small standing form. Other shapes joined the first. Standing there shoulder to shoulder they appeared to be a giant claw gripping the room with talons sunk deep into the rain splattered window sill.
    Mr. Wugglesworth clung to Sally's pillow as she shifted again with a flop that bounced him into plain view. Another restless turn flings him to the edge of the bed, and he tumbles, hitting the wooden floor and rolling into a heap just behind the flickering shadow of the end table's leg. He lays still as a statue, overturned with his legs up against a shoe, waiting to see if he diverted their attention. Sally continues tossing with every thunderstrike, yet deep asleep. He can see the shadows of the figures against the edge of Sally's bed. He holds his breath as the figures leap to the floor and he watches as their shadows shrink in their approach. His upward gaze meets the faces of three teddybears, ??? Mummy and St. Mitch, hauntingly lit by a lightning crash and then fading into the dark again.
    Quick as the lightning, Mr. Wugglesworth rolls under the bed and continues rolling to the other side where he launches himself up the draped blankets emerging upon the height of Sally's pillow, curious and fearful of these invaders, he prepares a casual-looking stance of defense to be ready for anything. But where did they go?
    A shuffling in the toybox draws his attention to the right of the bed where the three intruders are pulling on Bryan's long ears, the bear's bunny costume stretching at the seams as his body slumps to the floor and is dragged effortlessly toward the open window...




    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 Episode 10




    Post edited by Penndra on
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
  • PenndraPenndra Posts: 695 Member
    edited March 2015
    Season 1 episode 11
    TS3 Store advice: DD Stalkers * DD Cascades * Complete a Set
    wishes & Thank-you!! Huggles!
    YouTube tutorial: How-to make UFO's in TS3 *
    Machinima in the making: March of Bears -a psychological thriller *
    Research Blog: Garden/Recipe
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