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☆☆ Sims 4 Quality Control Practice Challenges ☆☆

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  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    Cbear13 wrote: »
    @lisa17ann wow love it, the jagged pathing gives a great look and the two kinds of fencing looks amazing I dont use that trick as often as I should.
    I love the patio so creative and pretty lol did you forget the pool?

    There is one on each side of the raised patio.
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    Ah ignore me then haha Ive just woken up brain is still asleep lol
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  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    *offers a new brain and coffee* chose wisely, which you take :p
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    Id have to take the new brain as I dont drink coffee haha
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  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    hmmm too bad, the coffee would have been for free. the new brain will cost you your soul :p
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • chips46chips46 Posts: 3,655 Member
    edited January 2017
    Here is my practice challenge no 2
    fogocp.jpg2qdppn9.jpg168e5w4.jpgmsisuf.jpg5jshts.jpg
    Post edited by chips46 on
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,521 Member
    edited April 2016
    The landscaping of the build looks very nice ! @chips46 :) The water fountain and lilypads water features at the front left and right hand sides of the build look very nice! The use of the terrain paint to create a chequered ground pattern looks great! Very nice pool and outdoors living and dining area! The ground paving though the outdoors areas gives a great look to the build. The greenery covered trellis pergola looks very nice! Sims will enjoy cooking meals on the BBQ and eating the food at the table in the pergola or enjoy resting on the sofa there. The teaset looks homely on the table. The water fountains and flowers island in the pool looks nice. The fenced plants and trees section behind the pool looks great! Nice outdoors art nook. Sims will enjoy painting on the easel there in the sunshine. The art decor items are a nice touch near the easel. Nice side wall chess playing area.
    The outdoors areas looks nice! :)
  • Artemis_DreamerArtemis_Dreamer Posts: 200 Member
    Thank you @rosemow for your kind feedback.

    @crysk and @Cbear13 Thank you both for offering to provide more in-depth feedback! I appreciate it, and would like to take you up on that offer. I don't mind if the feedback is public - that way it might help other aspiring builders too.

    The gallery link to the landscaped shell is here: Link.
  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    @chips46 awesome I love the fountains at the front and gorgeous patio and pool well done, you have improved so much with detail since I first saw you entering comps
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    ✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
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  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    @Artemis_Dreamer I should get a chance to look at it today and will post here :)
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    ✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
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  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    @Artemis_Dreamer here is my feedback on your Challenge 2 - part 1
    Remember I can only give my opinion and that may not always be right as I have my own likes and dislikes which I try not to bring into my judging. I will give feedback based on how the qc comps are judged also so you get insight into what we look for.
    One thing about the comps is we always look for quality so we are big on placement and usability.
    So in saying that dont take offense nothing you do is wrong I just give feedback from a judges point of view and tips.

    I will start with the faults that you would lose points for (get the bad out of the way hehe)
    One of the biggest things I find a lot with landscaping is things sticking into others, just because the game places them in that spot doesnt mean its correct or not sticking into others so holding the ALT button down while placing and moving slightly away from other items works wonders

    Finding plants sticking out of solid stone is one thing we see a lot and while flexible with making them look like they come from underneath instead of out of the rock. We really only critique the obvious ones
    For example here is the rock in the front garden of yours and on the right is using alt to move the rock so it doesnt look like the flowers are growing through it. Or you can move the flowers away from it a little. I did find around the pool a few plants were sticking out of the rocks also
    Artemis%201.jpg

    Another problem can be items dropping that have been raised up using bb.moveobjects, here you can see the banner around your garden has dropped into the ground.
    One thing I always do when using moo is when I am finished I save the lot to my library, bulldoze the lot and replace it to see if anything drops. I also find that placing builds on different lots to which they were built on can cause items to drop to (in the comps we judge them on the lots that you built on so that this doesnt happen and you dont lose points because of this). But you can check by replacing the lot down to see if anything moves.
    Also the hanging plants dropped into the ground also, a way to fix this is to place basement rooms underneath items that you have used to raise with moo, a suggestion when doing this when entering comps is to note on your entry form thats what the basement rooms are for.
    Artemis%202.jpg
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    One thing I see a lot of is trees sticking into builds because they disappear when you zoom in a lot of people miss that if you zoom out they actually are sticking into builds. Though its not sticking into your build much it still is slightly
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    I think you will get a bit of a laugh out of this one but this is the extent things can move when placing on a lot that you didnt build it on (I had a giggle).
    For anyone else looking at this several items moved to inside the shell when they were suppose to be on the side of the house, now this happened when I turned on bb.moveobjects before placing the lot which is suggested when people build with moo but when I turned off moo and placed the lot all these items placed in the right spot. Very glitchy.
    Artemis%204.jpg

    I really cant wait to see what you do with the exterior of this house, the landscaping has a bit of a country style and feel to it. Also dont forget your nightview even though you did place some outdoor lights around parts there was quite a lot of dark spots and it really can highlight your overall look. One thing I do is hide lights in the gardens so that it lights them up but they cant be seen (make sure if hiding them that they are well hidden for judging), you can place lights in other items (not usuable items as it may make them unusable).

    I love the style and you did great with the terrain paint under flowers and such it really does make it more natural, I think you could do a bit more decoration up against the shell at the front or some more decoration around the bbq area on the ground. A good tip with doing pathing and things like your bbq area is if you put plants, rocks, plant pots, statues or items in general up against the paint lines it takes the focus off the lines of it. Dont be afraid to go nuts with decorating it really gives the builds their own personalities.
    Artemis%206.jpg

    To fix the issue with the bbq area and the hanging plants dropping I would put a roof on it to cover up the tops of the plants and to help them attach to something then they wont drop
    If you put a bit of a ceiling on part of the bbq area to cover up the tops of the hanging plants and then you could even place some ceiling lights also something for the columns to attach to.
    We will be covering doing this type of roofing when we come to the next part of the challenge with the exterior and patio but there is a little tutorial for it here: Tutorial for lattice roofing
    I just didn't delete the ceiling and instead just put floor covering on it to blend with your style.

    Artemis%207.jpg

    These are all just suggestions so happy if you want to go decorate some more go for it and I am more than happy to take another look or help you build anything you might like to try. I really cant wait to see how the exterior comes along as I love the style you have gone with.

    Landscaping doesn't have to be neat it just has to decorate and give personality so my advice would be just try to decorate a little more.
    Please feel free to ask any questions or comments.
    New%20siggie%2011th%20Nov%2015.jpg
    ✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
    ✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
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  • emereemere Posts: 1,755 Member
    Hi: I need a new house for one of my fav sims (a ghost), so I choose a whimsi house. I discovered that is easy for the eye to fix stuff with a clean shell :o At the end I was not sure if changing the foundation was allowed (I lower it, but I can move it again if needed). I wanted a playable garden at night: enought light but with a ghostly mood. Practice challenge 2:
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    13-04-2016_4-02-25_zpsyklqu8ea.png
    13-04-2016_4-03-24_zpsveckcm33.png
  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    Oh its very cute @emere I love the pool backdrop and gorgeous landscaping, yeah its not a judged challenge so not setting any rules in stone its all about learning and sharing tricks and tips
    New%20siggie%2011th%20Nov%2015.jpg
    ✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
    ✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
    ✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
  • emereemere Posts: 1,755 Member
    Hi @chips46 I love how you use the Straight Trellin' :o I like that item but I do not know how to use it.
    @Artemis_Dreamer thanks for sharing your feedback :)
    @lisa17ann I love your small flowers gardens <3 I can not use those plants because of my game resolution (they look like crushed mallows lol).
    @crysk how did you make the little rocks?
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,521 Member
    The outdoors areas of your build look so very nice! @emere :) The feature at the front of the home with the water fountains, flowers, rocks and sculpture looks so very pretty! The flowers look very nice placed along the edges of the building. The grow fruit look great in the build! The side walls of the lattice covered pool area looks so very nice! The wall tiling and the greenery, flowers and plants on the walls gives it a great effective look! The water fountains look very nice there. Very nice pergola for sims to enjoy growing plants in the gardening planters there. The floor tiling looks very nice. The glass roofing and the use of the spandrels is very nice.
    The landscaping of the build looks great! :)
  • Cbear13Cbear13 Posts: 6,278 Member
    @emere I think you have to turn your graphics up to a better quality to have some of the flowers look good, I had that problem when I first started building again on a new laptop took me a little while to figure out thats what caused it
    New%20siggie%2011th%20Nov%2015.jpg
    ✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
    ✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
    ✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
  • emereemere Posts: 1,755 Member
    It is a desktop, not new and with an integrate graphics card. Those small flowers and some bushes do not work if you zoom out just a little :p Many of the newest flowers work better than the base game stuff, even if they look more intrincated.
  • chips46chips46 Posts: 3,655 Member
    edited January 2017
    @Cbear13 that was my second attempt building the patio which was easy to follow the step by step tutorial that you posted on here.
    Post edited by chips46 on
  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    emere wrote: »
    Hi @chips46 I love how you use the Straight Trellin' :o I like that item but I do not know how to use it.
    @Artemis_Dreamer thanks for sharing your feedback :)
    @lisa17ann I love your small flowers gardens <3 I can not use those plants because of my game resolution (they look like crushed mallows lol).
    @crysk how did you make the little rocks?
    They are from Outdoor Living, you'll find them after using bb.showhiddenitems. I increased their size twice.
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • chips46chips46 Posts: 3,655 Member
    @emere I think that was my first time that I used the Straight Trellin it was to dress up the garden area up a bit and always have your bb.moveobjects cheats on if you want to designed a bit different like for a barbecue area.
  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    @Artemis_Dreamer I will just give you my personal opinion and leave out the things @Cbear13 already mentioned. Though I have to say, I think of flowers sticking through rocks as them growing through cracks. And I checked the tree, there was a tiny winy small gap between it and the wall in my game.
    KJ8Z5mU.png


    What I noticed with MOO off was that some of your columns disappeared. If you use MOO to place objects near columns make sure to place the column last or it will disappear.
    9WCBw6M.jpg

    And like Cbear13 already said, objects will drop to the ground, if not placed in a room. Use a room in the basement to avoid that, watch my video, if you wish to know how to use it. But since this is a wall object, all you need is a wall in the basement. Place it on the wall and raise it.
    4HJBYeT.jpg


    I have to admit, this one puzzled me. What were you trying to do? Are you planning to add a door under the arch or was the bench supposed to be there?
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    I suppose you used the harvestable trees from debug. I noticed that I can only harvest them, take a cutting, take a microscope sample and talk to them. On the good side that means they wont die, but on the bad side I can't improve their quality. I suggest that you either place their fruits and have a Sim plant them or you create a room with all plants and save it to your libary. All you need to do then is place the room temporarily on your lot and move the plant to wherever you want it. I do that with a room full of plants with perfect quality.
    cvmSxc0.jpg


    Another thing I did notice, was that you didn't really use ALT during your item placement. You might want to play around with it. It will let you place items whereever you want them without them snapping to default positions. It can be used to turn around items freely. This is really useful for landscaping, as it allows you a bit more variation on the placement.



    Next I have some before and afters considering terrain paint and some item placement.

    I personally find it weird to have the drain for rain start in the middle of the house and not go up all the way to the top. So I added another right above it.
    1MB8w9H.jpg


    A path to the trash can made this feel more complete to me. Since the trash can was sticking into the foundation I moved it away. And I moved the plant pots in the middle of the darker terrain.
    BktpT7U.jpg


    As I said in my previous post, my Sims weren't able to use the mailbox. So I moved it out of the flowers. Those were moved as well to fit in a bit better with your terrain paint there. The paint itself was adjusted a bit as well, I used the remover on it to make it look more natural.
    For the path, I prefer more curved pathes so I let it pass the mailbox.
    RYg3N1j.jpg


    Having the terrain paint go all the way to the fence, makes it look more realistic in my eyes.
    cgvk9Qw.jpg


    For the last I simply added some flower terrain paint, as well as some brownish right under the flowers. This way it looks far more natural than before.
    rUIhJgK.jpg
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • Artemis_DreamerArtemis_Dreamer Posts: 200 Member
    Thank you so much @Cbear13 and @crysk for taking the time to give me such incredibly detailed feedback!

    I am taking plenty of notes, and all of your ideas (and pictures, wow!) are wonderful. I really appreciate it.

    I have a lot to learn, but that's part of the fun!
  • cryskcrysk Posts: 657 Member
    @Artemis_Dreamer you are welcome :)

    We all had to learn everything and there is still plenty of things to learn.
    ccBcpyk.jpg
  • StSciurusStSciurus Posts: 1,580 Member
    @Cbear13 and @crysk Just stopped by to say I think this is a wonderful thing you've started! :) I've learned so much just reading your comments and watching the tutorials. Thank you for doing this.

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