Gotta get this off my chest...
Jul 3, 2020 4:26:40 GMT -5
freeasabird, Syboulette, and 3 more like this
Post by eglesims on Jul 3, 2020 4:26:40 GMT -5
This forum rules. That's it. That's the post.
I really never thought I'd be using a forum in 2020. I'm always extremely reluctant to ask for help in everything I do, but especially online where tone doesn't carry, and where nobody knows you so goodwill doesn't carry either. Like at work (when there was work), if I was desperate enough to need help, everyone would jump on board to give me a break because they know how quick I am to help, to carry weight. But in a place like this, I'm new. I've generated no goodwill in the community. I'm learning--and that means I am the weight. That's intimidating, even online. I don't wanna break someone's day because I'm asking a question 30 people (or more) before me have asked. In isolation, unemployed, I've been trying to learn how to make cc, and there are some things Google just can't quite deliver. I've been spending about 12 hours a day for the past ~week (I've lost count of the days--could be closer to two weeks) learning how to make cc using S4S, Photoshop, and Blender. I'll get there, but I have a lot of questions all the time--and almost every time I've had a question about anything, y'all have already answered it and documented it well on the Common Problems & Helpful Threads page. When I asked my own question (just one so far--and that was, unfortunately, a hasty rehash), two kind people jumped in immediately to help! And they fixed my problem!
But the real "breaking point" in my appreciation for this site was about two hours ago, when I was in the midst of writing out a post with a small handful of problems I was having but for which I couldn't locate a fix. Long story short: I was trying to convert a glass bottle from another game. The floor shadow wasn't showing up, it had clipping on the label, there was a remnant of a shadow of the mesh I'd cloned to make it, and the glass parts weren't showing up looking very glass-like. I'd spent a good 36 hours (!!!) working on this already, using it to try to establish a workflow template that would hopefully significantly increase my efficiency. I know that comes with time. I kept tugging at parts of the mesh, thinking I could scale it out of clipping. Nothing was working. I scoured this forum for advice using specific keywords. Couldn't find anything specific to my issues. Reluctantly, I started to draft what was going to be a very long post about my problems, with many pictures. I'd uploaded all of the pictures to imgur and was in the middle of writing a paragraph explaining my choice to clone someone else's cc in order to understand the meshing process for my conversion when I started to wonder whether or not this was even good praxis...or practice? I had my reasons--the other piece of cc was structurally and functionally very similar to what I was trying to convert. But then I remembered something I'd seen in several separate helpful threads on transparent objects: start with a base game object with glass. Maybe even start specifically with the Viney League Encased Scrolls. I realized that even if I'd studied someone else's cc to understand my own in Blender (which does seem to be good practice), there was no reason I couldn't clone a base game object as the base for my bottle in S4S. I think it took me a long time (literally days) to parse exactly what this suggestion meant--literally, make a mesh however (maybe preferably using the Scrolls' mesh, but not necessarily), but definitely use the Scrolls when it comes time to import my mesh to an object. Especially if that's actually what several well-versed creators were suggesting. It would, in fact, be bad practice for me to do otherwise, especially if I wanted to share this conversion with others. So I took your advice. And it immediately fixed literally every problem I had. Lemme repeat that: I was in the middle of penning a dissertation defending my choice to do something the wrong way and ask advice on how to not have to do it right when y'all's voices floated to the front of my mind to say, "No, Eglė, just do it the right way."
I'm so happy and proud and grateful, I feel on the verge of tears. It's one object--a small object, at that, and not even mine, and it needs recolors and more meshes to go with it before I can zip 'em up to upload and share--but it seriously feels like one of the coolest things I've ever done. There are only a few other small things I need to fix now, but I know how to approach them thanks to y'all!
I really never thought I'd be using a forum in 2020. I'm always extremely reluctant to ask for help in everything I do, but especially online where tone doesn't carry, and where nobody knows you so goodwill doesn't carry either. Like at work (when there was work), if I was desperate enough to need help, everyone would jump on board to give me a break because they know how quick I am to help, to carry weight. But in a place like this, I'm new. I've generated no goodwill in the community. I'm learning--and that means I am the weight. That's intimidating, even online. I don't wanna break someone's day because I'm asking a question 30 people (or more) before me have asked. In isolation, unemployed, I've been trying to learn how to make cc, and there are some things Google just can't quite deliver. I've been spending about 12 hours a day for the past ~week (I've lost count of the days--could be closer to two weeks) learning how to make cc using S4S, Photoshop, and Blender. I'll get there, but I have a lot of questions all the time--and almost every time I've had a question about anything, y'all have already answered it and documented it well on the Common Problems & Helpful Threads page. When I asked my own question (just one so far--and that was, unfortunately, a hasty rehash), two kind people jumped in immediately to help! And they fixed my problem!
But the real "breaking point" in my appreciation for this site was about two hours ago, when I was in the midst of writing out a post with a small handful of problems I was having but for which I couldn't locate a fix. Long story short: I was trying to convert a glass bottle from another game. The floor shadow wasn't showing up, it had clipping on the label, there was a remnant of a shadow of the mesh I'd cloned to make it, and the glass parts weren't showing up looking very glass-like. I'd spent a good 36 hours (!!!) working on this already, using it to try to establish a workflow template that would hopefully significantly increase my efficiency. I know that comes with time. I kept tugging at parts of the mesh, thinking I could scale it out of clipping. Nothing was working. I scoured this forum for advice using specific keywords. Couldn't find anything specific to my issues. Reluctantly, I started to draft what was going to be a very long post about my problems, with many pictures. I'd uploaded all of the pictures to imgur and was in the middle of writing a paragraph explaining my choice to clone someone else's cc in order to understand the meshing process for my conversion when I started to wonder whether or not this was even good praxis...or practice? I had my reasons--the other piece of cc was structurally and functionally very similar to what I was trying to convert. But then I remembered something I'd seen in several separate helpful threads on transparent objects: start with a base game object with glass. Maybe even start specifically with the Viney League Encased Scrolls. I realized that even if I'd studied someone else's cc to understand my own in Blender (which does seem to be good practice), there was no reason I couldn't clone a base game object as the base for my bottle in S4S. I think it took me a long time (literally days) to parse exactly what this suggestion meant--literally, make a mesh however (maybe preferably using the Scrolls' mesh, but not necessarily), but definitely use the Scrolls when it comes time to import my mesh to an object. Especially if that's actually what several well-versed creators were suggesting. It would, in fact, be bad practice for me to do otherwise, especially if I wanted to share this conversion with others. So I took your advice. And it immediately fixed literally every problem I had. Lemme repeat that: I was in the middle of penning a dissertation defending my choice to do something the wrong way and ask advice on how to not have to do it right when y'all's voices floated to the front of my mind to say, "No, Eglė, just do it the right way."
I'm so happy and proud and grateful, I feel on the verge of tears. It's one object--a small object, at that, and not even mine, and it needs recolors and more meshes to go with it before I can zip 'em up to upload and share--but it seriously feels like one of the coolest things I've ever done. There are only a few other small things I need to fix now, but I know how to approach them thanks to y'all!
I usually come here and try keyworks that are rubbish and find the answer while reading someones else's problem and fix. Or open a file that does work and see how someone else has got it to work. You are in good company 
Plus, everyone starts from different places, so if newbies like me can figure something out, I figure it takes a load off the more experienced members and mods when we do actually step in to help. And you helped me gain the perspective that not every question has the same level of intricacy, either. I'd be hard-pressed to explain off the cuff how to do almost anything in Blender, though I might be able to find a video, thread, post, or article about it in order to help someone. But I know I could easily explain to someone how to change an object's name, description, and price in Sims 4 Studio (
lmao). I could wax political about it (poetically?)--it just seems like creators on Sims 4 Studio really want everyone to be able to succeed. Which is idyllic.