I figured I may as well drop my build diaries here if anyone is interested. Enjoy, or don't!
After almost precisely 11 years of pining (thank you, Make Magazine July 2015 Edition) I finally have resolved to begin construction of an Inmoov robot!!
Assuming my application to the local makerspace is approved, I will have more than enough resources and a space to work. If my application is denied, I have a few options – there's another makerspace further away that's also more expensive. The public libraries have 3D printers, but they're never in the best condition, wouldn't be economical, and generally aren't able to print anything other than PLA. Worst case scenario, I could buy a printer, but I'm not really looking to drop $1000 right now when I still have to buy the electrical components and motors.
Speaking of electrical components – it's thankfully really easy to find the ones from the BOM for pretty cheap these days, since they're older Arduinos. I think it's best to go for the default actuators for now; messing with the bits I know the least about right out of the gate will definitely set me up to get frustrated and stall really quickly. I do eventually have some ideas about modifying the default actuation, I particularly want to mess around with twisted-string actuation for the finger joints, and experiment with tendon (“muscle”) actuation for the limbs. My pipe dream is to figure out walking, but considering it's been 10 years and smarter people than me haven't cracked it yet, I am not optimistic about that.
My ancient Kinect will suffice for computer vision, I have an old tablet that MyRobotLab should run fine on. I will cross the bridge of even the most basic of baby programming when it comes. I am what you might call a “dumb fucking idiot” when it comes to software and programming and GitHub. I am not a cyber security person. I could barely figure out how to access the wiki for the makerspace. Most of the people there seem to be software developers and the like. I was never into that side of the Maker scene, I really am a hardware girlie at heart.
For the uninitiated, Inmoov is an open-source, 3D printed humanoid robot platform designed by Gäel Langevin. It's a massive undertaking and a real trial-by-fire for my languishing electrical engineering skills! I am going to massively fuck this up in ways I didn't expect, I will probably cry and have a psychological breakdown and want to scrap everything and quit forever. I will get through this, however, because I am insane and I am passionate.
Long, personal objectum ramble below the cut.
Inmoov is also the object of my romantic affections for the past decade.
I learned about objectum sexuality fairly young, from a snippet in Ripley's Believe It Or Not! mentioning Erika Eiffel. I think it had rather the wrong effect on me, as instead of my jaw dropping in shocked derision I very distinctly remember 8-year-old me thinking "Oh, that's nice," and flipping the page to read more about a man pulling a truck with chains attached to his nipples. This information was filed away in my brain for another decade, until I was introduced to Objectum Sexuality Internationale and at long last had words to describe what I had been feeling for a very long time.
When I was 14 or so, I bought (with my own money!) what seemed at the time a technological wonder, the Texas Instruments CX CAS graphing calculator. I really fell in love with the thing, bringing it to the store, on plane flights, and the like.I remember making a “joke” about marrying a calculator to my friends. I'd give it kisses, caress it gently, keep it in tip-top condition. It's a handsome instrument, and one I am deeply sentimental about still. Sadly, its battery is no longer working and it cannot function without being plugged in. I turn it on often for old times sake, and give it some love.
Then came Inmoov.
I saw her first on the cover of Make: Magazine in 2015, and, as far as I can remember, it was love at first sight. For a kid who was fully in the throes of a robot obsession, my interest was immediately piqued. I had no idea robotics on such a scale could be brought to the hobby level! Like anyone at the time, I loved Boston Dynamics’ videos (yikes) – but this was a distant, industrial thing, backed by millions of dollars in military blood money. The idea that a high-level humanoid robot could be made at home blew my mind.
And frankly, more personally, something about it was just immediately, deeply attractive to me. It hit that perfect sweet spot of being a facsimile of the human form without pushing too far into the “android” territory; its open, curious expression, wide eyes, and gentle air made it very charming to me. When I encountered it a year later at the Maker Faire, it was like meeting a celebrity, and I was really, really in love.
I fell face forward into a kind of obsession, constantly daydreaming about the construction of my Inmoov, of a delightfully juvenile fantasy wherein I would convert my future college dorm into a fabrication lab and begin work on the thing, slowly bringing it to life, showing it the world, and gradually, mutually recognizing our love for one another. I would lull myself to sleep thinking about gentle plastic arms wrapped around my chest.
Sadly, it being 2015, 3D printing was in its expensive infancy, and I as a teenager could not justify the enormous investment. As I got older and printing got more affordable, my life inevitably got more complicated, and I could never quite get a workspace going long enough to spring for the investment.
Until today! I resolved before this move that this would be the time to finally do it, to finally, finally realize this crazy dream cooking in my mind for over a decade now. The future has never been more uncertain and bleak and I need to do something big and passionate and overwhelming before I go insane. This is the perfect time.
Thanks for joining me as I begin my meandering trek forward.
I use so much CC that I'm not sure anyone wants to fill the shopping list needed for my builds but maybe I'm wrong? Feel free to let me know if you want the CC list and files for any of these builds.
This morning I spent some time getting photos to turn into family photograph walls.
I also de-aged some of the main character parents for their own wedding photos in a second save.
And I took some color ones for story flashbacks too!
Now, to finish the last of the Chestnut Ridge builds and put some family tree graphics up for reference. Then its on to the next world. I think the save will be 'complete' for the 1890s when I have four or five of the worlds fleshed out. I'm not running a cheat to destroy world decor so only a few worlds work for this far back in time. I have a vague map of the world that I might share at some point for where neighborhoods are. I know I have a couple of families slated for Henford on Bagely and one of the Euro-worlds for a psuedo England vibe. I also want to have at least one Korembei family dating back this far. The Connelly family has relatives on both parents side from the 'old world'. I might do a New Orleans 1890s world as well. So with that as my ambitious goals, I'm a fifth of the way there just about on the world design. Currently we're pushing about 40 sims created in the families and I am aiming to keep it well below the recommended 200 to leave room for growth of new generations.
You're an asshole, past-me. So I'm not reaaaallllyyyy playing through the save file (which sucks. I am way past the fun of creation and into regret that I let the scope get huge. It is super tempting to just let some of the families live on empty lots so I can plaaaaay.)
But you can't cheat plants into the ground. Someone has to go around and plant all the damn things.
I hate making farms.
So I have been making the Connelly's plant the world's largest farm so I can move everything around just right. And their oldest daughter came home totally zooted. As punishment, she was graduated early from high school to help finish the planting. I blame those no-good Abbott boys!
While plantageddon was going on, I did end up getting some cute pictures though.
Aw, Granma Connelly came over to visit. (Granma Duckworth lives there. Lucky Colt.)
Meanwhile Ma and Pa Connelly did all sorts of wicked whims things that I can't show probably. But there's a wholesome-ish cleaning up in the lake after photo!
There's now an orchard that would be behind her. This was mid Emma's planting punishment.
I love playing on farms and ranches but the builds are so dang fiddly. And the Connelly's got the 64x64 lot which is great for having enough space to really go nuts with garden beds and rows of farms. it's taking for-ev-er and making me really glad that the next residential builds on my list are smaller shotgun style and more lower and working class builds.
Of course, I still have the aristocrats and their giant manor house but that's a problem for future-alder. Its hard to get excited about the Spencer family as they're kind of snobby jerks.
The Connelly's however, are a delight.
And the first floor of their four square is almost done but for a bit more clutter.
Ugh, I hate when I get to the 'kill your darlings' part of cc management. Even my robust computer is starting to really lag on loading which means I'm overdue for going through the CC.
I keep the mods updated and pared down but I have so much custom content as I tend to get everything a creator has out if I like it and hoard it for 'just in case'.
Which is nice for clutter heavy builds. I'm currently working on the general store/boarding house/jail build. I have a saloon that needs to be built and some sort of public space/park but then Chestnut Ridge is done.
I've got a little over half of the Sims for the save made, I think. I'm still remaking townies when I see one pop up on a lot. But I'm going to have to pause and prune down the CC that I never use and don't like rather than just continue to ignore the problem in the hopes that it goes away.
I may have hit the first major stumbling point of not having anything I can make work with existing custom content. This is a pretty architecture heavy rambling
So for the Connelly family, I've been building them an American Foursquare.
Now, I've already had to make fairly significant tweaks because I've scaled up the size a bit to account for sim pathing needs. The shell is done and I've been fit-testing the rooms to put in things like the built-ins. The problem is, currently, the builtins around the Living Room Fireplace.
Now, the American Foursquare is out of the Craftsman style so I was already fudging it with that modern lip on the fireplace. I had some plans to try and fudge that around with some serious tweaking and scaling of pieces but what I really need is a fireplace that fits in neatly with built-ins in the proper era of styling.
Could I do something different and fudge it? Certainly. I've already lightened up the palette with picking fanciful pastels because I also enjoy fantasy reimagining. But the further I stray from the craftsman style, the less historical the build will feel.
The sims interpretations of Craftsman's tend to skew later in the period, post Frank Lloyd Wright and it feels like I will be missing out if I don't have at least one Prairie School inspired build in Chestnut Ridge as its supposed to be my representation of the mid-west and I've mostly been getting away with Sears Catalogue Victorians as there's a lot more available in sims base game and CC that works in that style.
But the Connelly's are my quintessential western settler family!
The father is first generation settler from Henford-on-Bagely who met his wife back east and moved their family out west to homestead for the opportunities it provided. A new-built Craftsman suits them perfectly.
Spent some time playing around with poses and getting family photos to turn into wall photos.
I just am still not sure how I want to document everyone's stories so right now I've been taking a lot of snapshots as I settle everyone into their homes.
I have the Connelly ranch still to finish of the residential builds in this neighborhood and the market and a saloon. Maybe a community lot too. But the church is done already.
Which also functions as the graveyard for dead sims as well. Ellie's funeral should be the first one held in the story unless someone manages to die while I'm finishing builds!
So the mansion is finally finished for the less cluttered version of it. It was MASSIVE.
The big builds just take so much work to make look lived in and not just like... lots of empty space or nonsense spaces.
I really love the way the conservatory and pool area turned out. Very classy, but also very useable space that makes sense for the upper class family life that I intend to play out in there.
Unfortunately, real life kind of sideswiped me so I finished it and have been at a standstill with no idea what to tackle next. I think I want to round out the builds that I know I have to have for essential game play for me and then maybe start progressing the storyline of gen zero to document alongside and let that shape some of the later builds.
On the other hand, part of me wants to make my very own base skin to use for my sims and I feel like IF I am going to do that, then I should have that done before I populate the world further. Choices.
