gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical attention, food, rebuilding homes/businesses etc. (Spotlights 1 verified gfm at a time so if you don't know who/where to donate to just go here and donate to the one they show you!)
Help provide tents (urgent):
The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents for displaced families in Gaza (emergency bc tents in Rafah are being burned as we speak) (paypal) (gfm)
Food, cash & essentials:
Care for Gaza: Working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)
Direct Aid for Gaza: also working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash & other daily essential suppliess to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)
Water:
Gaza Municipality's water project: The official Municipality of Gaza needs help rebuilding the water infrastructure in Gaza City to restore access to clean water and waste management services for the people of Gaza. (This campaign only has a couple of weeks left but it's still only at 15%!)
eSIMs (urgent):
guide to buy & send esims for gaza
crips for esims for gaza: If you don't know how to buy esims or don't have the capacity to manage them (e.g. topping up regularly), this team of volunteers are collecting funds to buy & manage gaza esims regularly
Medical Aid
Palestine Red Crescent Society: Provides emergency medical and ambulance services and humanitarian relief on the ground in Gaza e.g. rescuing and treating the wounded.
EDIT: READ THE COMMENTS AND ROOT POST FOR UPDATES. About the earthquake in Turkey and Syria:
I am gathering information because I have no way to contact my loved ones at the moment so at least Iâll help this way. Check this post from its root (not reblogs) as it will keep getting updated.
And I send all my love and hope for those affected and those awaiting for answers. đ
NEWS
I wonât add a lot because many have same source and no live updates.
[The Guardian] Thereâs pinned updates live on top of the website.
[CNN] Live updates aswell
This i write will become outdated yet, right now: Gaziantep, Hatay and Antakya are the most damaged, difficult for rescuers to get in, and disconnected. It snows heavily as well. So far we know there are happenning aftershocks right now in several cities, reaching Adana and Mersin. Aleppo and Idlib have suffered it strongly as well.
DONATIONS
Turkey
AFADâs website (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey) Which @timeturnerturns explains very helpfully how to donate in THIS POST. [atm loads slowly, high traffic probably, yet it DOES work, be patient.]
AKUT Research and Rescue Association: akut.org.tr/en/donation
thank you @moonlayl:Â Islamic Relief UK
Syria *UPDATED
(Thanks @halfwar-halfpeace!: via Hadi Nasrallah on twitter) Red cross Syria appeal  ,   , UN crisis reliefÂ
Islamic Relief UKÂ
OTHER:
@pathsofoak :Â For any Dutch people wanting to donate, the red cross has opened a GIRO number, itâs GIRO 7244 [Rode Kruis]
Tips: components of creating Maxis Match objects for The Sims 4
This is the first mini tutorial in what I hope will become a series of posts about my custom content creation process. Iâve been creating custom content since The Sims 2 days, and Iâve always wanted to share some tips that I learned along the way. Some of these tips are in no way groundbreaking, but I hope that some aspiring and experienced creators alike might find them useful.
In this tutorial, I will share my tips on how to (better) match the art direction of The Sims 4 when creating custom objects.
Disclaimer: this tutorial does not cover the basics of 3D or image editing. But, this post provides tips that you can use in any software of your choice. This tutorial also assumes that you have prior experience with custom content creation for The Sims 4. I also provide links to useful resources below.
What does Maxis Match mean?
In short, âMaxis Matchâ means that a piece of custom content matches the overall look and feel of The Sims 4. In other words, it blends seamlessly with The Sims 4 experience contextually and visually.
Before we dive deeper, I must mention that this is my interpretation of the art style and the experience of the game. You may interpret various visual and gameplay elements of The Sims 4 differently, and thatâs absolutely fine.
Key aspects in summary
From my perspective, the key aspects to consider when matching Maxis objects are:
Level of detail and polygon counts
Object shading (AO, contrast, highlights and shadows)
Use of texture, texture sizes and texture details
Use of normal and specular maps
Correct naming, description and object tags
Let's dive deeper into each aspect below.
Level of detail and polygon counts
The best way to understand the Maxis level of detail in objects is, well, to study and inspect the Maxis objects.
Generally speaking, Maxis objects tend to be quite reserved on the polygon count. You may notice that rounded edges in objects do not appear to be completely smooth, or that some elements of the objects are "flat". Detail is often added as 2D texture, and not as part of the mesh.
When you play The Sims, you typically hover over an entire lot. You watch your household interact with items from a certain distance. There's no need from the gameplay perspective for the objects to be have very detailed meshes, as the level of detail is only truly noticeable when you zoom in on a specific section of the lot.
There are no set mesh detail or polygon count rules that you could reference. This really depends on the object's type and size. For example, you're creating a dining chair. I would highly recommend to inspect other in-game chairs when working on a mesh. This can help you decide:
Should a certain detail be a part of a mesh, or can you add that detail as a texture element?
Can you decrease the number of polygons of your model and still preserve its intended appearance?
What is the appropriate texture size?
Below are some chairs from the latest expansion packs that I exported using Sims 4 Studio. By inspecting the meshes and texture sizes, I learned that:
The mesh polygon count ranges from about 320 to 800 polygons
The texture size for these chairs is 256x512
Fabric folds, crevices and most tiny design details are added as texture elements rather than mesh elements
Object shading
Let's study this example of a living chair from Snowy Escape EP:
The general shading of objects appears to be smooth. If we imagine a "light source" that casts light over the objects, then it would appear as a diffused light located above the item.
The edges of surfaces have subtle highlights that give objects more character. This stylistic highlight is more pronounced in sharper edges, closer to the tip of the edge's angle. The highlight is also more present in edges that are facing the "light source"
Parts of the objects that do not get a lot of light are visibly darker, but not completely black
So, how do you replicate this shading in your texture? I begin my textures by baking a new texture using the ambient occlusion method in Blender 3.x. What is ambient occlusion?
Here's the baking method described in the Second Life forums post.
When my mesh is ready, I use the default lighting setup that is present in all meshes that you export from Sims 4 Studio. I always add a plane that acts as a "floor" in my scene, which means that object shadows are calculated against it.
Below is an example of a living chair from Tiny Living with the new texture baked:
You can use this baked grayscale texture as a base for your texture and recoloring work.
Here are some resources:
Understanding Light & Shadow Terminology
Video: Axe - Detailed Game Objects -- P18 - Ambient Occlusion Maps in Detail
Tutorial: Start to Finish Object Tutorial For Absolute Beginners
Tutorial: How mapping works & how to map & bake a cube
Use of texture, texture sizes and texture details
Let's study this Tiny Living chair once again:
The softer edges of the chair have a subtle highlight to give the shape more volume
The pillow has soft and blended fabric folds. It also has a subtle knit texture
The chair has seams, and points of higher tension have subtle fabric folds
The legs have a subtle wood texture, as well as "seams" at connection points
The Sims 4 objects are quite stylized. I use Procreate or Adobe Photoshop (with a Wacom tablet) to paint such details as crevices and fabric folds in my textures. You can also repurpose elements from other Maxis objects as an alternative method of adding detail to your items. I frequently do this with e.g. pillows - this way I avoid painting pillow folds over and over again.
When it comes to textures or patterns, I either create Maxis Match textures from scratch, or extract them directly from the game. My hot tip is to use textures from Build Mode items (such as floors and wallpapers) to create your own seamless assets that you can use in objects.
Below is an example of one of my object's textures. This is a soft bean bag chair. My starting point is always the baked AO. I use the exported UV map as a guide when adding details (especially seams). The final image in this row shows the texture with added texture, edge highlights and folds:
And here's the object preview:
Be mindful about the texture sizes. The texture size affects the size of the package. As mentioned above, study similar Maxis objects from the catalog to determine the size that is appropriate for your case. For example:
Small clutter item texture sizes may range from 64x64 to 256x256
Larger clutter and sculpture texture sizes may range from 128x128 to 512x512
Sofa texture sizes may range from 256x512 to 1024x1024, and so on
Try to not go beyond 1024x1024 in texture size.
Here are some additional resources:
My preferred method for recoloring and creating swatches
OneDrive folder with my resources
Tutorial: Components of an EA Object
Use of normal maps and specular maps
I will keep this section fairly short, as I will share links to tutorials about normal maps and specular maps below. Use these texture maps to give your objects more volume and detail. These maps help certain elements (seams, crevices, screws, folds, etc.) of your image texture stand out and appear more voluminous, shiny or reflective in-game.
Tutorial: Normal Maps
Tutorial: Basic Guide to RLES Specular Maps
Tutorial: Advanced Specular Map Techniques
Tutorial: Color picker for your specular maps
Correct naming, description and object tags
Last, but not least. You may not be the type of person who pays attention to how an item name appears in the catalog, or whether the item has tagged swatches. My other hot take of this tutorial is that taking care of the naming, tags, catalog price and other item attributes is important.
Some resources:
Tutorial: How to recategorize Buy Mode items using Sims 4 Studio
Tutorial: Components of an EA Object
Wrapping up
I hope you will find these tips useful whenever you're working on creating Maxis Match objects. I really enjoy working on tutorials (whenever I have time, which is sadly mostly not the case), so I'm hoping that I will work on more of these soon.
In the meantime, you can follow me on social media or support me on Patreon if you'd like to. Cheers!
Isabelleâs daughter Puran has grown up! In the second photo, her grandpa (1st gen) meets her ⥠She was sooo cute as a toddler. One day when she was playing with dolls I noticed Manuia sitting next to her while doing his homework (yea, it took a long time until he graduated from university đ ) and had a little chat together, IT WAS A LOVELY SCENE TO WATCH! âĄ
Affanâs (the boy in the 5th photo) dad is Carter btw (Isabelleâs sloppy friend) and Puranâs dad is Manuia (Isabelleâs neat husband now). I was wondering if Affan would grow up as a sad child and kind of jealous of Puran but things didnât develop that way. Even though Manuia was a bit distanced to Affan, two siblings always played together and had fun.
Aaand finally the last 2 photos... Itâs Puran and her childhood best friend (also her first love~) Kian. According to the rules, she was supposed to meet her partner in the romance festival but they were so great together since their childhood that i didnât want to separate them. At least they went to the romance festival together in the last photo :D
This gen was so much fun xD Isabelle fell in love with her neat roommate (no wonder why, he is super cool, omg âĄ) but also got pregnant with her sloppy buddy. It was a weird love triangle.
At the beginning of their story, one day, she found a bike in the dumpster and gave it to her roommate as a gift, but he obviously hated a gift found in the trash lol xD She got rejected so badly. After he left home, sick of her sloppiness, she started to get closer to her sloppy friend, Carter, but she could never forget Manuia, the neat guy (it was hard to choose between the two!).
One day, the romance festival came to the town. I was so curious about who was going to invite her (she had a romance bar with both guys). Carter did, which made me kinda disappointed but anyways. After a few hours, I came to a point where I was sure that Manuia was the one. So, I decided to talk to Carter. Using the relationship wellness mod, Isabelle told Carter that she loved someone else. Then, she stood up. I wondered why she did so; I didnât tell her to stand up. Suddenly, Manuia came out of nowhere and kissed her! I was so surprised, I never expected to see him there xD It was like he heard them talking, and he was so happy that Isabelle actually loved him ⥠aaaahh i will miss playing with this gen ^^
@siyasims I tag you whenever I post about this legacy because I thought maybe you wanted to see it, but if not, I'm sorry, I will not do it again ;w; also thank you again, really, after a long time I started to enjoy playing sims 4 again thanks to this challenge!)
Here are some new screenshots from my fatal flaws legacy ⥠I finished the Mean gen almost. He just needs to complete his aspiration (big happy family), but it depends on the second gen, so he has to wait for a while.
Mostly family photos: Isabelle (the second gen), her parents, twin brothers, and her cousin ^^ Isabelle has grown up! She had a tough social life while growing up; I donât know why :(Â She was so friendly to her classmates, but nobody wanted to hang out with her. Then I noticed that she could get along better with the young adults! Now she is a young adult too, and her adventure starts :D
I started to play @siyasimsâs fatal flaws legacy challenge, and Iâm having a lot of fun with it! the first gen is almost complete. my mean boy got married to Greta Laurent today! (I obviously gave her a CAS makeover xD) theyâre lovely âĄÂ
Iâm playing zodiac legacy challenge and this is Libra! This dress @daisy-pixels created looks amazing on her, Iâm so happy!!
(ËÏ̶̷̎̀ âÌźÌ Ï̶̷̎̀Ë)âà·ââșËÂ
Second gen of crybaby whims challenge! this chaotic challenge was made by @draeyad, it is focused more on drama instead of âcomplete these skills and that aspiration etc.â kind of rules which is great i think! i love drama :D
tbh i donât like when the legacy challenges focus too much on skill completing, mastering careers etc. because until you complete a skill, a career or an aspiration, you are about to finish that gen and move on to the other. then why did i completed them? just at the moment you are ready to shine with your perfect skills and all your story ends XD it kinda kills the fun i think. thatâs why crybaby whims challenge is just for me! more focus on the story yeees â„ïžÂ
I finally finished the first gen of crybaby whims challenge made by @draeyad ! It was tough emotionally because you feel bad when your sim has to cheat on her husband xD but i canât lie, i was shipping Selen (girl with blonde hair in the first photo) and Emir (the ex, brunet guy in the first photo) so much. I wanted them to marry at the end. They were dating. Then at some point they broke up autonomously due to MCCC and i was like WHAT?! xD it was expected in terms of storyline as well tho, because Emir waited for her for years since she wanted to focus on her children first of all. After seeing that I was like âwell, ok. this relationship wonât work, both of us stay single then.â Then some day I noticed that he got married with Angela Pleasant!! xD I didnât like that at all, I divorced them and had Selen and Emir married finally.
âIt was always youâ would be their motto.ïœĄ.:*âĄÂ
Letâs start off by saying this: collecting information is wrong, using that for doxxing and sending out malicious viruses even more so, full stop. What has happened in the creator community recently is just shit and should not have happened in the first place, but here we are. But how exactly did we get here?
I have some thoughts on custom content creation and with all the drama lately, it needs addressing. I will put under a read more as I like to ramble.
In regards to recent events concerning The Sims 4 creator community: claiming content by others as your own is not okay, charging money for said content is not okay, harassing and doxxing people is not okay. Overall extremely disappointing and harmful behavior that in no way should be endorsed or supported.
What should you know as a downloader/supporter?
I advise you to look into creators who you decide to support. Think of this as mindful content consumption. The Sims 4 CC community is quite saturated, and, unfortunately, there are individuals who take advantage of the monetization tools and donât do fair play
Guide on pledging safely by @llazyneiph
Understanding item tracking
List of creators to avoid for your own privacy's sake
What can you do as a CC creator?
Privacy of your supporters is also your responsibility within your creator/supporter relationship
Donât steal content
Follow EA terms of service and terms by individual creators whose work youâre using
If you still don't have a TOU, I highly suggest you create one so that others understand how to interact with your content
This was probably the most successful wedding and honeymoon I've ever had on Sims. Normally, I love drama, but this time I loved how cozy and peaceful the time my sims spent together was ⥠It felt like I had a vacation too ^^
