Struggling with a challenge that I set for myself

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

Hi everyone.

UNFINISHED - This house picture that I saw on the Architectural Digest website really appealed to me, such a beautiful house. I decided to challenge myself to build it in Sims 4. First of all, I don't use MOO. Secondly, I only have more basic-level building skills.

This has proven to be a much bigger challenge than I thought it would be, and I'm only a fraction of the way in. I particularly find rounded roofs (on the rotunda) and veranda railings difficult - they never sit in the right spot.

My "front-on" angle seems to make the house front look all wonky.

Does anyone have any hints they would like to share?

(photo credit, once again, is Architectural Digest - architecturaldigest.com).

Auroraskies · April 2021

I think it looks very alike. It's a bit hard to see though for me, the pictures are small.

comicsforlife · April 2021

its good

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

Auroraskies wrote: »

I think it looks very alike. It's a bit hard to see though for me, the pictures are small.

Yeah I should have found a way to enlarge those before posting! They are quite small.

comicsforlife wrote: »

its good

Thank you. I just feel like I'm not quite "getting" it. Maybe I need to just walk away from it for a couple of days, then come back for another go.

Clousinators · April 2021

I think it looks pretty good! The only thing I would do differently is add a roof over the front porch. You can always use three small pieces of roof around the white fence to make it look like one solid piece.
Maybe also add a few windows on the end facing the camera if the floor plan allows it. You have matched literally everything else that I noticed to the picture, I bet the whole thing looks great!

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

@Clousinators - yes, windows on the end are definitely part of the plan, as they are on the original picture.

I think you're right about the roof, this is one of my weakest skills. I wondered whether breaking it down into individual pieces in some places might help. I'll give that a go - thank you.

There actually *is* a roof on the front porch, but I flattened it down because I was having a lot of problems placing that and the upper balcony fence at the same time. Doing the roof in pieces might help with this.

Clousinators · April 2021

I always struggle with roofing, its something I've been trying to practice with more and I have found that using a bunch of small pieces sometimes helps get the look you're going for. I am excited to see this when its done, so make sure you post pics lol

DeanXeL · April 2021

You did a great job, don't doubt yourself. To me just a few details seem a bit 'off'. Still looks very nice, but I'm very detail-oriented when it comes to pictures.

1) The main roof, you seem to have overlapped the sides on the center. It should be the other way around, the sides go under the center (like with the porch) That way you see the finishing on the edge of the top from the frontal view and it will give a nice detailing there.
2) I think this one will be 'unfixable' but the balcony actually has a sloped roof, not a flat one. This may make it look wonky in your eyes. However, the only way you can fix this is with half hipped/gabled roofs, which do not align with rounded corners so I guess it's a toss-up between the sloped roof or the rounded balcony

3) The windows are blue, not white. If it were me, I'd settle for a less detailed window that still had the pop of blue, it will give the house some life. You could instead keep the white windows and add some blue curtains inside, that should also do the trick I think.

Either way, kudos on the great job you did on it, I bet some landscaping around the house will make this look incredible!

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

Thanks @DeanXeL - yes the roofs are definitely the bane of my existence! And I'm not good at roofing in general, which makes it harder. But I definitely think I need to play around with that balcony - having the rounded fencing there is what was making it so difficult.

Maybe I will think about the blue curtains as one possibility - finding windows that are anywhere near what I want is interesting indeed! Or if I found just what I wanted, then the colour was wrong, or the size was wrong (and re-sizing made them unable to fit etc.).

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

So when I try to change the balcony roof, I get this problem where it takes out some of my patio railing. (btw, @DeanXeL I fixed the main roof, thanks for pointing that out! I saw it clear as day once you pointed it out).

Anyone know a way around this, I tried to just draw the railing back in, but it wouldn't let me.

Clousinators · April 2021

Have you tried holding alt while adjusting the height so that it doesn't snap to the pre-determined heights? maybe making the roof touch just below the top of the fence will allow it to still show up with the roof

DeanXeL · April 2021

@PriestessDreadful If you are not above using CC (maybe for yourself, not for uploading), you can always recolor the windows you are using now, it's very easy to do using GIMP and Sims4Studio

For the fence, you can try what clousinators said, but it won't fix it. The issue is that the wall of your roof overlaps the fence and makes the fence disappear. You will see that wall > fence always... even if they are different heights. Make your roof 1 tile wide instead of 2, then extend te eaves up until you reach the fence (shift + click and drag those eaves). Since the roof wall doesn't touch it, it won't disappear anymore

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

@DeanXeL - I am using loads of custom content, although I generally don't use mods otherwise (I have literally a couple only).

Some of those windows are CC to begin with.

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

DeanXeL wrote: »

Make your roof 1 tile wide instead of 2, then extend te eaves up until you reach the fence (shift + click and drag those eaves). Since the roof wall doesn't touch it, it won't disappear anymore

I thought of that, but I didn't think I would like the eaves overhanging the front of the veranda so much..... however it might be my only option.

DeanXeL · April 2021

@PriestessDreadful that's why I said shift + click and drag, it will ONLY move them up, not down. Shift makes sure you only extend eaves on one side of the roof, not the other

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

Oh, I see. Thanks @DeanXeL - I think @Clousinators was trying to tell me something similar, but my brain skipped over the detail.

I will try that next.

Simmingal · April 2021

It's very nice!

I would perhaps add some rooftrim or spandrels or both for the porches though which would make them bit more chunky

and perhaps lower the top roof on big dormer a little so its less tall (?)

aaand i believe some more landscaping would just make it more detailed

but other than that can't find anything to nitpick

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

@Simmingal there are some spandrels on the main veranda, but unfortunately they don't stand out. I might have to try some different ones, although none of them seem quite right. Maybe I need to look for some CC ones.

However, I did have to remove spandrels altogether from the rotunda part because they were causing all sorts of problems!

Thanks for your note regarding the dormer roof, I'll have a play around and see what adjustments I can make.

DeanXeL · April 2021

@PriestessDreadful clousinators was giving you a different useful trick, alt + changing a roof height allows you to change it freely, not in snaps, much like free placing items with alt no longer has them snap to predetermined places on the grid.

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

Oh thanks for the clarification.

This is why it's always worth asking about things like this, you get the tips that you don't know, or things that I may have heard but haven't tried, and therefore I am not all that clear on how they work. And so on.

You're all such a great help.

DeanXeL · April 2021

Just remember this: pressing alt removes predetermined movement (allows freeplacing/no snaps) in most cases. Pressing shift interchanges between targeting multiple things or a single thing (1 side Vs all trims, 1 eave Vs all eaves, placing 1 item Vs placing multiple of the same item etc.)
Besides these there are still plenty of other tricks though

PriestessDreadful · April 2021

I also ended up using a higher patio fence on the rounded patio above the veranda. The fence is nothing like the original, but the height works better. I tried to search for CC patio rails that might work better, but haven't had any luck.

I'm just starting to mess about with windows for the end of the house. I obviously can't do it like it is in the picture, particularly with the multi-levels involved in the original pic. I don't have that kind of skill OR patience. So I'm doing a more basic alternative.

Not sure about this, but I also narrowed my dormers by one square. The size is kind of better, I think, but it affects the little dormer roofs so that they look even less like the original photo. I can't decide whether to leave these, or put them back how I had them before.

Clousinators · April 2021

I like the new smaller dormer windows, I think as long as the space is taken up with a window then the width won't matter as much and you accomplished that with the windows you picked. I like the windows you chose for the end as well, its sometimes hard to replicate exact architecture because we are stuck to building on a grid so using the bay style windows adds some nice dimension to the house.

PriestessDreadful · May 2021

Okay well ultimately this wasn't a huge success. I've finished it as a shell-only project, and I've shared it on the gallery, although it has CC's and MOO (and usually I only upload builds without CCs and mods and MOO.) The MOO was only for the garden plants.

The character limit in the gallery description section made it impossible for me to type out all the CC links, so instead I have linked to a document in which I have listed the CC. tbh, I doubt anybody is going to want to mess around like this.

Search on my user name - PriestessBizarre - in the in-game gallery to find this. You need a 64 x 64 block, I used the Houndshead lot (is that the right name?) in Brindleton Bay.

EDIT: they keep removing it. I removed all internet links from the description, but it still got removed. Are CC builds not permitted at all on the gallery?

and here is the list of CC links, if interested

PriestessDreadful · May 2021

I've been thinking that in the end, it ended up looking a lot like the existing houses in Brindleton Bay.

By pure chance, although the photograph I was trying to follow didn't remind me of Sims lots in Brindleton, the end result could have been something lifted straight from it.

This is actually kind of disappointing.

It's not particularly an architectural style we would really see in Australia, not sure I've ever seen one like it, well some of those features anyway. So perhaps the penny didn't drop that it would come out looking that way.

Clousinators · May 2021

I don't think items with CC can be uploaded to the gallery but I could be wrong about that. I think the finished lot looks good! I didn't realize it was a 64x64 so I completely understand not finishing the inside lol The original picture of the real house reminded me of Brindleton a little bit anyway so I think it fits nicely.

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Struggling with a challenge that I set for myself

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