I've recently created sims inspired by music, specifically songs by Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Willie Nelson and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. And my avatar sim was inspired by Charles II of Spain, last Hapsburg king of Spain, the classic example of family tree collapse.
That's interesting. What songs?
@Hoverael, I assume the Star Trek music is all instrumental? I think that would be a good muse for just about anything. I'm not a Trekkie but I would imagine they characters alone would make for some good inspiration as well. Star Trek was always my mom's thing. I couldn't get into it. I'm more of a time travel enthusiast. Space-themed stuff doesn't really do much for me. I do, however, respect the franchise, even though I know little to nothing about it.
almost all tracks are natural instrumentals. I find the half way ambient and relaxing elements mixed in with a little action and tension at the right moments to keep it from getting stale, that is important to keep it interesting to keep listening..
I've used blueprints I found on line, real life homes I have been to or seen during my travels, or ideas simply dragged from the dark recesses of my mind. Much of what I build is inspired by the family or Sim, the backstory I have for those Sims, the lot and the view so I know where to place windows or patios and porches so there is always something to see such as sunsets or sunrises, etc. Last night I needed to build an island home on a lot that is not on the water, but still looked as if it belongs on a tropical island. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.
almost all tracks are natural instrumentals. I find the half way ambient and relaxing elements mixed in with a little action and tension at the right moments to keep it from getting stale, that is important to keep it interesting to keep listening..
I struggle to listen to instrumental for too long. Maybe it's the repetitiveness of it, I don't know.
I've used blueprints I found on line, real life homes I have been to or seen during my travels, or ideas simply dragged from the dark recesses of my mind. Much of what I build is inspired by the family or Sim, the backstory I have for those Sims, the lot and the view so I know where to place windows or patios and porches so there is always something to see such as sunsets or sunrises, etc. Last night I needed to build an island home on a lot that is not on the water, but still looked as if it belongs on a tropical island. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.
Do you draw inspiration from anything that would seem "out-of-the-box?" Like I said in my original post I've gotten inspiration by just looking at clip art.
For me it’s classic TV: Bewitched, My Three Sons, The D van D Show (real words in title are censored for silly reasons), The Brady Bunch, I Dream of Genie, etc. I take a lot of inspiration for my homes and neighbourhoods from these and others.
For me it’s classic TV: Bewitched, My Three Sons, The D van D Show (real words in title are censored for silly reasons), The Brady Bunch, I Dream of Genie, etc. I take a lot of inspiration for my homes and neighbourhoods from these and others.
Yeah, I kind of understand the censoring of those words. It's ok though, I know what you meant.
I love all of those shows. Still, my favorite is I Love Lucy...always has been, always will be.
Some of my weirdest inspirations for Sims actually came from the 33 Day Create A Sim contest held on the forum a long time ago. Each day had a different theme offered to create a Sim. Day 2 was - Animal and I created Olivia Owl:
Day 3 was - Doll and I created PJ Matel, a Barbie doll I had as a child:
Day 16 was Dessert and I created Neal Politan for Neopolitan ice cream:
*Note - None of the Sims from this challenge are on the Gallery.
It was such a fun challenge. I never did complete it though. Might be fun to try again someday. Also, as others have shared I love to create builds from photographs, house plans or houses I see during every day life that I like. That's not really very weird, but one build I did for Build-N-Share was the weirdest house I've ever built based on a photograph. It was for a post modern home in Round #36. Here's the inspiration photo for it:
And the actual build I made from that:
Here's a link to a slideshow of the build if you want to take a look. I apologize for the quality of the screenshots. I built this a lonnnng time ago when I was still using an old toaster of a laptop to play the game.
Other than the above, I can't think of anything weird that inspired the creation of my Sims, builds or gameplay. My inspirations usually come from challenges, Let's Plays, books, TV, people I know, places I've been or lived, dreams, songs, house plans, etc. Just the usual normal every day stuff that I'm sure inspire a lot of Simmers.
Some of my weirdest inspirations for Sims actually came from the 33 Day Create A Sim contest held on the forum a long time ago. Each day had a different theme offered to create a Sim. Day 2 was - Animal and I created Olivia Owl:
Day 3 was - Doll and I created PJ Matel, a Barbie doll I had as a child:
Day 16 was Dessert and I created Neal Politan for Neopolitan ice cream:
*Note - None of the Sims from this challenge are on the Gallery.
It was such a fun challenge. I never did complete it though. Might be fun to try again someday. Also, as others have shared I love to create builds from photographs, house plans or houses I see during every day life that I like. That's not really very weird, but one build I did for Build-N-Share was the weirdest house I've ever built based on a photograph. It was for a post modern home in Round #36. Here's the inspiration photo for it:
And the actual build I made from that:
Here's a link to a slideshow of the build if you want to take a look. I apologize for the quality of the screenshots. I built this a lonnnng time ago when I was still using an old toaster of a laptop to play the game.
Other than the above, I can't think of anything weird that inspired the creation of my Sims, builds or gameplay. My inspirations usually come from challenges, Let's Plays, books, TV, people I know, places I've been or lived, dreams, songs, house plans, etc. Just the usual normal every day stuff that I'm sure inspire a lot of Simmers.
Happy Simming!
Wow! That's a lot of inspiration.
I remember coming across that Sim Challenge. I tried like Day 1 but wasn't satisfied with the outcome so I gave up. I prefer building, honestly. Your Sims are very well done. You did a really good job conveying the theme for each one. I knew what Neal Politan was supposed to before without your explanation. Just by his name.
If my memory serves me right, I think I remember seeing that house floating around on the Gallery. Or maybe it was here on the forums....or both?
I've recently created sims inspired by music, specifically songs by Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Willie Nelson and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. And my avatar sim was inspired by Charles II of Spain, last Hapsburg king of Spain, the classic example of family tree collapse.
That's interesting. What songs?
@Hoverael, I assume the Star Trek music is all instrumental? I think that would be a good muse for just about anything. I'm not a Trekkie but I would imagine they characters alone would make for some good inspiration as well. Star Trek was always my mom's thing. I couldn't get into it. I'm more of a time travel enthusiast. Space-themed stuff doesn't really do much for me. I do, however, respect the franchise, even though I know little to nothing about it.
Lets see, Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast by Pink Floyd, Mean Mr Mustard By the Beatles, The Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson and The Curse of MillHaven By Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
I was also watching old ads on Youtube and ended up creating Mr Clean
I remember coming across that Sim Challenge. I tried like Day 1 but wasn't satisfied with the outcome so I gave up. I prefer building, honestly. Your Sims are very well done. You did a really good job conveying the theme for each one. I knew what Neal Politan was supposed to before without your explanation. Just by his name.
If my memory serves me right, I think I remember seeing that house floating around on the Gallery. Or maybe it was here on the forums....or both?
I had a lot of fun with that challenge coming up with creative names for my entries. lol I don't know why I just love 'naming' things, not just Sims. Anyway, while I do enjoy creating Sims, my first and lasting love with the Sims will always and forever be building and decorating houses, just like you.
Yes, you remember correctly. That house was posted on the Build-N-Share thread here on the forum and I had it up on the Gallery for awhile too. It was one of only a few rounds of the challenge that I actually won!
I remember coming across that Sim Challenge. I tried like Day 1 but wasn't satisfied with the outcome so I gave up. I prefer building, honestly. Your Sims are very well done. You did a really good job conveying the theme for each one. I knew what Neal Politan was supposed to before without your explanation. Just by his name.
If my memory serves me right, I think I remember seeing that house floating around on the Gallery. Or maybe it was here on the forums....or both?
I had a lot of fun with that challenge coming up with creative names for my entries. lol I don't know why I just love 'naming' things, not just Sims. Anyway, while I do enjoy creating Sims, my first and lasting love with the Sims will always and forever be building and decorating houses, just like you.
Yes, you remember correctly. That house was posted on the Build-N-Share thread here on the forum and I had it up on the Gallery for awhile too. It was one of only a few rounds of the challenge that I actually won!
I'm terrible with naming things, except Sims and pets. Every now and then I'll hit a good one like my bowling alley I did a while back (Pins & Juice). But it's very few and far between.
I enjoy taking inspiration from my favorite historical characters. I remember reading a biography of Cleopatra and tried to bring some of the horrible drama of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt at the end of the 1000s BC into my stories (without the inbreeding though - I couldn't do that *vomit*). But it does inspire me to add more depths to the characters and create more interesting dialogue, whether it be in my mind or in my stories!
Likewise, in my current story, I include a lot of real-life references to movies, musicals, and legal principles. It's fun, I promise!
I'm terrible with naming things, except Sims and pets. Every now and then I'll hit a good one like my bowling alley I did a while back (Pins & Juice). But it's very few and far between.
Pins & Juice, I like that! Another inspiration tool I use sometimes is Pinterest and good 'ol Google. Sometimes I just get stumped trying to think up a name for a venue and try doing a search. For instance, when GTW first came out I made a painter/baker Sim and built an art gallery/bakery for her. It needed a name, so I tried out a couple names; Pleasing Palettes and Valentine Canvas & Cakes. But neither one seemed exactly right.
I looked up 'unique bakery names' online and got back:
Bake My Day
Half Baked
Wild Flour
I liked these, but realized I forgot about the art gallery aspect so I started brainstorming stuff to go with art and food. By looking at the names of the different baked goods Vanessa had made, one dish caught my eye, Alien Tart, and I finally came up with:
Artsy Tartsy
So I guess you could say in this case the weird inspiration was a baked good. lol
Speaking of cakes, the Sims 2 wedding cake was my inspiration for a wedding cake venue. Jacques Villareal married his sweetheart from his youth up there:
WIP
With mannequins
Uh... romantic? Idk
I also wanted to create the characters from a mobile game. Now story based games wouldn't be a weird inspiration source in my opinion, but this particular one was a match three (Empires & Puzzles). Never got around to make these sims, though.
Ok, lemme see if I can catch up. Haven't been online much today.
@DanceSingLoveLive, I'm intrigued by historical play but I have a hard time getting into that mind set with Sims always wanting to use their phones. It's interesting that you used those as inspiration. Did you stay historical or just drew from the stories to create your own?
@Karababy52, I have used random name generators to come up with a few names for venues as well. It's a good tool, and if I didn't everything I built would have generic names. Although Pins & Juice just came to me.
@EnkiSchmidt, that is an awesome wedding venue. I love what you did with the mannequins. As for creating a storyline from a puzzle game, that would definitely fall into the weird category.
@SweetieWright_84 I usually draw on historical characters and their exploits to create my own stories - It's more of a "how would these characters act if transplanted to the 21st century?" kind of thought process. Something I enjoy doing alongside this sort of drama is dressing everyone up - I'll put the women in long dresses and I used to have a toga in Sims 3 for a Greek-themed legacy I did. The togas were pretty sweet. I would color code them so you could tell what family branches they belonged to!
Hope this helps! It's not a perfect system, just some sort of strange balance that my brain concocts to keep the drama alive and well in my game and stories
@SweetieWright_84 I usually draw on historical characters and their exploits to create my own stories - It's more of a "how would these characters act if transplanted to the 21st century?" kind of thought process. Something I enjoy doing alongside this sort of drama is dressing everyone up - I'll put the women in long dresses and I used to have a toga in Sims 3 for a Greek-themed legacy I did. The togas were pretty sweet. I would color code them so you could tell what family branches they belonged to!
Hope this helps! It's not a perfect system, just some sort of strange balance that my brain concocts to keep the drama alive and well in my game and stories
That's a really cool idea. Thank you for sharing. I may have to something similar some day.
I get inspired by:
Historic books, shows & movies.
David Tennant's Doctor Who.
Xmen.
Star Trek Voyager.
Stargate SG1 & Atlantis
Xfiles.
Disney Princes & Princesses.
Once Upon A Time.
The Original Bewitched.
Sabrina The Teenage Witch 2001.
Hercules & Xena 1994 - 1999
Tinker Bell & her pixie friends.
I Dream of Jeannie 1966 - 1970
Twilight Saga
Merlin
Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Dracula
Grimms Fairy Tales
1986 Beauty and the Beast
@SERVERFRA, that's a lot of inspirational sources. There are a bunch of stuff on that list I love. So what did you come up with with Tinkerbell? Did you make a fairy sim? Also, which Grimms Fairy Tales have you gotten inspiration from. Is there a specific one that has given you the most inspiration?
I made Tinkerbell and other Fairies.
I'm currently planning the Grimms Red Riding Hood.
I save my sims & their homes in the gallery under my username SEREFRAS. You can check it out if you want to.
I made Tinkerbell and other Fairies.
I'm currently planning the Grimms Red Riding Hood.
I save my sims & their homes in the gallery under my username SEREFRAS. You can check it out if you want to.
I might have to check them out.
Right now, I'm building an underground bunker town. It's going to be like a mini neighborhood. On the ground level I'm probably going to recreate what I've done on the bottom but make it look as destroyed as possible. Then I'm going to make the residents. I'm kind of taking pieces from Fallout, The Divergent Series, Blast From the Past, and The Village for the storyline. I've always wanted to do some type of bunker gameplay. I finally figured out how I want to do it, and still have my favorite playstyle (family play) as well.
I definitely have some.. weird ones. A house inspired by a Halloween magazine most recently, also a bed-and-breakfast inspired by a dream I had, and the dream was inspired by a song I listened to that day. Double indirect inspo! For one Build challenge I built a coffee shop that was basically almost a direct copy of the one I work at because I love it so much.
Comments
almost all tracks are natural instrumentals. I find the half way ambient and relaxing elements mixed in with a little action and tension at the right moments to keep it from getting stale, that is important to keep it interesting to keep listening..
Back on topic:
Do you draw inspiration from anything that would seem "out-of-the-box?" Like I said in my original post I've gotten inspiration by just looking at clip art.
Yeah, I kind of understand the censoring of those words. It's ok though, I know what you meant.
I love all of those shows. Still, my favorite is I Love Lucy...always has been, always will be.
I always heard some of the greatest authors, artists, and genius were a little strange, so strange isn't necessarily a bad thing
Day 3 was - Doll and I created PJ Matel, a Barbie doll I had as a child:
Day 16 was Dessert and I created Neal Politan for Neopolitan ice cream:
*Note - None of the Sims from this challenge are on the Gallery.
It was such a fun challenge. I never did complete it though. Might be fun to try again someday.
And the actual build I made from that:
Here's a link to a slideshow of the build if you want to take a look. I apologize for the quality of the screenshots. I built this a lonnnng time ago when I was still using an old toaster of a laptop to play the game.
Sleep Perchance Dream Post Modern
*Note - This build is not on the Gallery anymore.
Other than the above, I can't think of anything weird that inspired the creation of my Sims, builds or gameplay. My inspirations usually come from challenges, Let's Plays, books, TV, people I know, places I've been or lived, dreams, songs, house plans, etc. Just the usual normal every day stuff that I'm sure inspire a lot of Simmers.
Happy Simming!
Wow! That's a lot of inspiration.
I remember coming across that Sim Challenge. I tried like Day 1 but wasn't satisfied with the outcome so I gave up. I prefer building, honestly. Your Sims are very well done. You did a really good job conveying the theme for each one. I knew what Neal Politan was supposed to before without your explanation. Just by his name.
If my memory serves me right, I think I remember seeing that house floating around on the Gallery. Or maybe it was here on the forums....or both?
Lets see, Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast by Pink Floyd, Mean Mr Mustard By the Beatles, The Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson and The Curse of MillHaven By Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
I was also watching old ads on Youtube and ended up creating Mr Clean
No way! Seriously? That's exactly what I did and what sparked this whole thread. I built the hospital and the police station from clip art.
Mr. Clean, huh? That's interesting....and kind of funny. I just had a vision of him being a butler or something.
I had a lot of fun with that challenge coming up with creative names for my entries. lol I don't know why I just love 'naming' things, not just Sims. Anyway, while I do enjoy creating Sims, my first and lasting love with the Sims will always and forever be building and decorating houses, just like you.
Yes, you remember correctly. That house was posted on the Build-N-Share thread here on the forum and I had it up on the Gallery for awhile too. It was one of only a few rounds of the challenge that I actually won!
I'm terrible with naming things, except Sims and pets. Every now and then I'll hit a good one like my bowling alley I did a while back (Pins & Juice). But it's very few and far between.
Likewise, in my current story, I include a lot of real-life references to movies, musicals, and legal principles. It's fun, I promise!
Instagram: eternidad.sim.stories.
Pins & Juice, I like that!
I looked up 'unique bakery names' online and got back:
Bake My Day
Half Baked
Wild Flour
I liked these, but realized I forgot about the art gallery aspect so I started brainstorming stuff to go with art and food. By looking at the names of the different baked goods Vanessa had made, one dish caught my eye, Alien Tart, and I finally came up with:
Artsy Tartsy
So I guess you could say in this case the weird inspiration was a baked good. lol
WIP
With mannequins
Uh... romantic? Idk
I also wanted to create the characters from a mobile game. Now story based games wouldn't be a weird inspiration source in my opinion, but this particular one was a match three (Empires & Puzzles). Never got around to make these sims, though.
@DanceSingLoveLive, I'm intrigued by historical play but I have a hard time getting into that mind set with Sims always wanting to use their phones. It's interesting that you used those as inspiration. Did you stay historical or just drew from the stories to create your own?
@Karababy52, I have used random name generators to come up with a few names for venues as well. It's a good tool, and if I didn't everything I built would have generic names. Although Pins & Juice just came to me.
@EnkiSchmidt, that is an awesome wedding venue. I love what you did with the mannequins. As for creating a storyline from a puzzle game, that would definitely fall into the weird category.
I think I'm all caught up.
Hope this helps! It's not a perfect system, just some sort of strange balance that my brain concocts to keep the drama alive and well in my game and stories
Instagram: eternidad.sim.stories.
That's a really cool idea. Thank you for sharing. I may have to something similar some day.
Historic books, shows & movies.
David Tennant's Doctor Who.
Xmen.
Star Trek Voyager.
Stargate SG1 & Atlantis
Xfiles.
Disney Princes & Princesses.
Once Upon A Time.
The Original Bewitched.
Sabrina The Teenage Witch 2001.
Hercules & Xena 1994 - 1999
Tinker Bell & her pixie friends.
I Dream of Jeannie 1966 - 1970
Twilight Saga
Merlin
Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Dracula
Grimms Fairy Tales
1986 Beauty and the Beast
I'm currently planning the Grimms Red Riding Hood.
I save my sims & their homes in the gallery under my username SEREFRAS. You can check it out if you want to.
I might have to check them out.
Right now, I'm building an underground bunker town. It's going to be like a mini neighborhood. On the ground level I'm probably going to recreate what I've done on the bottom but make it look as destroyed as possible. Then I'm going to make the residents. I'm kind of taking pieces from Fallout, The Divergent Series, Blast From the Past, and The Village for the storyline. I've always wanted to do some type of bunker gameplay. I finally figured out how I want to do it, and still have my favorite playstyle (family play) as well.