#freezerbnuuy tutorials

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Sims 4 CC TUTORIAL: How to make Glowing-Edge Body Parts and Glowing Edges on CAS Items and Accessories

I deleted the old post for this tutorial (although the link on the old post is still the same, whoops) because I needed to rewrite it. Thank you to the friend that helped me with this. The tutorial is linked on both the title of this post and the image.

You know Valhallansim made those cool glowing-edge horns back in 2017? I dug around the files and Blender to figure out how it was done. I have combined everything I learned in this tutorial. What I learned from Valhallan's files I used to make a guide on how to make glowing edges for body parts as well as glowing CAS items.

It will show you how to give glowing edges to body parts and to CAS items and accessories. It also has explanations of possible issues, causes and fixes if something goes wrong in your process.

Photoshop can be used for all of the steps involving GIMP if you prefer Photoshop.

Last Updated: 12/05/26

Have fun! and PLEASE reblog! Especially if it helped you!

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I wrote a guide on my main blog on writing SimLit a while back, but I figured I'd amend it to make it more suitable to Tumblr and post it here as well.

UPDATED 24/03/26: A few various additions and wording changes and additions.

How I Plan my Sims Stories - a look into my planning process that might be helpful for people looking to write a more typical narrative-style Sims story.

Story Planning Document - a pre-made table-like organising document that is designed to aid Sims storytellers of all kinds.

Please note, that there is no one way to write SimLit; creative work is always subjective. You do not have to do everything in this guide, obviously- just focus on the bits that apply to you and what you want to write. This is a gathering of my own ideas, the way I do things, and other options as well. Depending on your writing style, some of this will be more relevant to you than other bits will. This is both for the challenge players and the people who write stories with little basis off anything going on in the game.

I have made a story / challenge-planning document that you can read about here that will give you a place to put all your ideas!

The fun part...sort of...is coming up with all your rough ideas. Things to think about are:

. Where you'll put your story: The most popular places for SimLit these days seems to be Wordpress and Tumblr, but there is always Blogger and LiveJournal as another option for a place to put your story. Tumblr is a great place for stories that are more picture-based and less textual, or if you plan to only have dialogue for your story text. AO3 is not super popular for Sims fics and won't net you loads of attention, but it's another possible place to put your story as a backup and it's comfortable to read off of (to me anyhow). Also that place lends specifically to reading fanfic, so it might get you some readers!

Have a look at what different platforms have to offer to see what suits you.

Whilst I would say Blogger is a bit harder to properly customise than Wordpress and you have to rely on custom templates made by other people and some HTML editing if you want a nice blog template, it is very generous in terms of picture limit. To my knowledge, any image under 2048 on the longer width won't count toward your Photo space (as of 2025).

. Narrative or Gameplay-Driven: Some writers will write commentaries to go alongside images of challenges they're doing. Some write commentary for their general gameplay. Others use Sims solely as a way to 'direct' a story they've come up with themselves instead. Others make comics. Some do a mix of various things... Have a think about what kind of story you want to do. It might even change halfway through writing, you never know!

. Genre: You won't always have an easily-defined genre for your story, but you might have some ideas. Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Family...the options are more or less endless. 

. Custom Content: If you use CC, it can help to look for CC you might need for your story- whether that's poses, CAS items or Build/Buy items. (You will probably get lost for hours doing this, but it's fun!)

. How you will plan your story: Some SimLit authors write entirely around the game and don't pre-plan anything (brave people you are going by the seat of your pants, I used to do this but now I could never), but others like to plan story points and character notes beforehand. There are plenty of ways to plan your story, whether that's jotting ideas in a notebook or on a word processing document. There is one I already made linked at the beginning of this section.

There are also programs like Scrivener designed for writers to plan stories (it's not free, though). It depends how in-depth you need to plan things out before you write. With me, it really depends. Some story ideas, I have most of the plot planned in my head from the get-go. Other times, I only have a rough idea and have to go from there. Sometimes you have everything outlined and sometimes you go in with nothing but two vague character ideas and a dream.

. What challenge you will do: If you want to write a commentary/story around a challenge, look for one you'll find fun first. Long or short? What rules will you change or omit? How much will you let the challenge and game drive the story? Will you be writing commentary, or will you be writing in a narrrative-type style inspired by what happens in the challenge?

. Rough plot / character ideas: Write down any plot or character notes that immediately come to mind, even if you don't know if you will use them. Anything that comes to you straight away is a good place to build on later and should be jotted down whilst it's still fresh in your mind.

. How you will write your story: - Commentary VS. Narrative: Will you write a commentary around your screenshots/gameplay, or will you write it in the style of a prose-like story? You can also mix both of these approaches in various ways.

Or do you want to go about it in a different way? Maybe you could use your screenshots to make a comic-style story. Another option is to possibly have something like an epistolary novel (written almost entirely in letters) or even a 'scrapbook story' (a story told in multiple ways with multiple artifacts- letters, newspaper clippings, phone calls, almost anything).

And another option is to write the dialogue in a transcript or on the image, like many Tumblr Sims stories tend to do (I recommend doing both, if you wanna go down this route). This is sort of like the comic-style idea, but I've seen Sims stories before done in the more typical kind of comic style which is what I meant earlier and this is kind of different.

- Tense and Viewpoint: Will you write in past tense or present tense? Will you write in third person, or first person? How many different characters' viewpoints will you have if you write in first person? (...Or are you like me, and will accidentally switch between tenses throughout the whole story?)

I personally prefer writing first person and in present tense. When I write in third person or past tense, I always make it sound boring somehow. Go with what works for you!

. Themes and (optionally) tropes: It's good to think more in-depth of what themes will appear in your story. Family bonds, friendships, relationships in general, dealing with various aspects of life, prejudices, overcoming fear...the list goes on forever. Whilst I personally don't like reducing stories or characters to tropes, tropes are always a place to start if it works for you, or if you have ones that you like. Some people LOVE certain tropes and will read things if they include their favourites - all depends what you're into doing as a writer.

. General length: Do you want to ideally write a short story, or something longer? This won't always be something you'll have in mind straight away, but that's fine. It may change later on and that's okay too. (Mine was NEVER supposed to be 500k words long.)

. How much to plan and when to start: It's up to you how much you need to pre-plan and when to start writing, but I don't start writing until I'm at a point where I know that the story can be resolved, or at least carried on a decent way before I need to stop and think. I don't start writing straight away, in case I end up with a story I somehow can't finish. But that's easy for me to say since many of my Sims stories have been prequels to my other Sims stories, where certain events are already there to string together.

. Upload frequency: You won't always stick to this, since most of us are busy, sad and tired adults or possibly lazy fucks like me- but it's good to try and think about how often you want to upload chapters. Are you aiming for weekly, monthly, or just whenever you manage to get a chapter out? What I will say is please TRY NOT TO STRESS about schedules. If your readers are impatient that's their problem and they can wait until you're ready!

. Gather inspiration: Whether it's authors, shows, films, art, music...anything that gets you in the right mood and frame of mind for what you want to do. Moodboards are sometimes a good idea as well for collecting inspiring pictures. Make inspiring playlists of songs that get you in the mood for the story or characters.

. The sliding scale of 'Utopia' and 'Dystopia': On a scale of 'Paradise' to 'Hell-hole world', what's the rough state of the world in your story like? Maybe it isn't that simple, but it helps to have an idea if it's thematically relevant somehow.

. Any messages or lessons: Are there any messages you hope to get across in your story, or anything that a reader may be able to learn from it at all? Not always the case with every story, and this is not the sort of thing that you'll do intentionally. For my own story, it's very much just a snapshot of history so there isn't really much of a defined moral to the story.

This is geared more towards people who are writing mostly story-driven SimLit, since commentary and gameplay-driven stories often don't require any sort of major world-building. That, and the challenge you are doing might already have the worldbuilding situation laid out for you, like the Apocalypse Challenge or the Alien Adoption challenge, but I'll build on this a bit too.

As someone who has been Game Master for DnD and Pathfinder, I'm used to fleshing out worlds, building on lore and the like- and being a Game Master often requires you to do it on the spot sometimes. For me, it's good to have some level of lore and world-building written out. I like having a certain set of 'rules' to stick with, mainly to help keep consistency of the universe's 'rules'. This is especially important with my Magic Universe since the magic system needs a level of consistency I have to try and stick to. (That said, I have occasionally changed tiny less-significant bits of lore as I go...shh...don't tell anyone!)

But where do you start with such a thing? First off, this isn't something you have to do in massive levels of detail (unless you want to!).

Here's the general way of how I do things. Feel free to pick and choose which bits will apply to your story; you don't have to pre-plan every little last detail about your world if you don't need/want to.

--Starting with the already-established relevant worlds and lore--

I almost always start out with the 'official' stuff first. You can find this in-game, in item and world descriptions, in trailers, and on Sims Wikis. Sims isn't the most lore-heavy game for obvious reasons, but now and again you've got something to work with. It all depends on exactly what you're writing about, and how much your story will revolve around the actual Sims universe. 

--Seeing what I want to keep from the already-established worlds and lore, and what to get rid of--

I don't keep everything all of the time, and it's unlikely you will either. Sometimes your idea is better, or fits better with what you've already got in mind. Or perhaps the Sims 'lore' behind the thing is too comical and wouldn't fit a slightly more serious story.

--Start stealing ideas! (Go careful though)--

Writers worry way too much about originality, but everyone takes little bits of ideas off each other all of the time- everything is inspired by something. That, and in my opinion there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing a story that’s a ‘love letter’ to a genre with all the tropes and cliches you can think of. 

So gather up some inspiration and see what ideas others have; have a quick read of SimLits that are similar to your idea. Look at the lore behind shows or video games that are the same genre as you are writing. Think about your favourite shows, films and video games as well. Or even look at the official Sims forum or Tumblr to see what people have done with worlds, premade characters and the like. On the official forum, there are a lot of ‘What have you done with…’ threads where people discuss what they have done with premades and in-game places.

One thing I tend to focus on the most when worldbuilding, is the sort of socio-political aspect of the world. 'But why does everything have to be political?', you say, but everyone's life is governed by social and political ideas, so for me it's what makes up a big chunk of the worldbuilding because of how much it influences the characters living in that world. That, and a few big historical events I tend to think of as well to flesh the world out. If this sounds like something you feel like delving into, then here's some ideas:

NOTE: Some of this won't apply to your world or focus, so just ignore the stuff that isn't relevant to your story.

--Events in history leading up to your story--

This will depend entirely on what you story is about, but events to think about are:

. Inspiring figures from the past: For example, if you're writing about vampires, are there any in history who are still iconic to this day? What made them iconic?

. Any miscellaneous important events? My more specific ones are geared more towards conflict, but there's always going to be important events that happened that stay with people that happen in the world and they aren't always going to be bad. (Anyone who's read my Sims story is reading this and thinking 'hypocrite'.)

.Changes in laws and/or major attitudes towards groups: Were there any rules or legislations that came into play that completely shook the world of your story?

.Conflicts: Wars and other major conflicts in history will linger around for years and years in various ways. There's a lot to think about, and it ties a lot into previous bullet points.

Modern society 

This is looking at your present day in the story in more depth. This can help you with characterisation as well- how has modern society affected your character and their development and current attitudes? 

. Attitudes towards certain groups: Who or what is celebrated in society? Who has to deal with negative attitudes and why? How are people choosing to fight back, positively or negatively, against positive or negative change? Is there any prejudice at all, or is your world almost entirely accepting of different types of people?

. General morale: How happy are the different groups of people in your world? Is there still need for change, or are people more or less okay with the way things are? Is there an imbalance in the welfare of different groups and why?

. What's/who's popular: From people to events relevant to the story you're trying to tell, what's popular and well-known? Are there any events or people that are causing change or debate that might be addressed later?

. Fashions: It helps to think about what's fashionable in your universe sometimes, but maybe that will all depend on what kind of CC you can get a hold of.

. What the future holds: What ideas do people have for the way things may change as time passes?

-

Magic, superpowers, or other power systems

If your story has some kind of system of 'special' power- magic, or superhero powers, certain chemicals, powers granted from deities or the like- it's good to have some rough idea for how they work:

. Is this power innate? Can it be learned? Is it within the person, or is it a manipulation of an outside source of some kind?

. Is this power a finite or infinite source? Is it a physical object, is it ethereal/energy, a chemical, etc?

. What limits are there to the use of this power? When can it/can't it be used? What downsides are there to using this power (illnesses, magical overcharge, death, etc)? What consequences are there for overuse of the power?

-

Beliefs and belief systems

Your story might have some sort of 'collective' belief systems- common superstitions, or religions like Sims Medieval’s Jacoban or Peteran faiths, and so on. If so, it's good to outline those, though the amount of detail you'll need for it will depend on the kinds of beliefs and the story you're telling.

. What are the core / defining rules / lessons /ways of living of this belief?

. What actions/attitudes etc are rewarded, and what attitudes are frowned upon? What rewards and punishments are there for such things, if any?

. How has this belief system affected other people outside of that belief system? What do 'outsiders' think of the belief and the people that practice it?

. Are there any key figures in this belief system? Are they real objects/people, metaphysical beings, or are they not real at all? 

. Are there any specific meetings or practices etc. associated with this belief? 

. Do people of this belief own specific special clothes or objects? What significance do they have?

This is not necessarily needed, but I think worldbuilding is always interesting when there's some level of nuance or otherwise-complexity involved. Sometimes fictional cultures can be monoliths, all with the same practice and exact same opinions and so on, but people don't always follow every rule to a T and practice differs amongst individuals and communities. People are not always supportive of one another, even in communities with similarities. Religions and cultures in general don't always have one singular depiction of a deity figure. And so on!

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: When it comes to world-building, ALWAYS go careful when using any real-life cultures, beliefs or events outside of your own culture etc- especially those of marginalised groups. Try to do your research as thoroughly as possible.

To avoid potential upset or misrepresentation, I either rely on fictional creations or keep things vague. For example, I'm using the lore behind the Sims Medieval's Jacoban and Peteran religions in an upcoming story to avoid making a fictional religion that people might mistake as a parody of an existing one.

Just be aware that there's rarely such a thing as inoffensive, and one man's 'good rep' is another man's 'bad rep'. All I can say is tread carefully.

Do any research you need to do

Once again, how in-depth you go depends on how far you want to go- how realistic you want it to be, how historically-accurate you want it to be...Sometimes it's good to just have enough to get a rough idea of something to add on to. For example, if you're doing a historical story, it might be worth just seeing what big events happened, social taboos, etiquette etc. just to get a feel for the rough world of your story. For anything that isn't an important topic, I'm not bothered if it's inaccurate. For example: if it turns out the soft background science of something in my work is a bit wonky, I don't entirely care. However, for serious subjects like mental health etc, I always make sure to get a good idea of what I'm doing before I write it. If I get it wrong, I could end up spreading massive misconceptions and that's the last thing I want to do. -

World-building towns and cities

Not everyone's story is going to have a huge deal of focus on this sort of thing, and additionally to the top you might want to go even further with building onto what's already given to us. So here's some other things that might be worth thinking about if you want to do a bit of extra fleshing-out for the game worlds. When I say 'individual world' I mean the actual playable worlds on their own as opposed to the ts4 worlds altogether at once. If you're doing a challenge and the challenge has worldbuilding aspects, like Alien Adoption Challenge or the Apocalypse Challenge then that is a brilliant thing to give you some level of a framework for some aspects of your story's world.

. Rough population of the individual world etc.

. Landmarks and their significance

. Tourism, what do other people like to do whilst they're there

. What sorts of people tend to live there

. What the individual place is known for the most, what puts them 'on the map', so to speak

. How other communities think of this place

. How this place's actions or culture have affected other places

Characters are my main focus as both a writer and a reader. I can have a good story with great characters and a thin plot, but a story with a great plot and boring characters is never going to interest me. They can also be difficult to come up with ideas for. Here is a rough idea of how I come up with characters, and how I build on pre-made characters.

Some people have written 'character interviews' - these can sometimes be helpful. You fill them out from the characters' point of view, or from a third-person perspective but about the character. The 'Marcel Proust' character interview is a great one to use, since it asks questions that will no doubt be relevant to both the character and the plot later on. Some of them have questions about favourite food, colours etc. but for me, this is more often extraneous than not. Then again, knowing too much about your character for some people is better than not knowing enough.

My own character 'interview' is here. It's technically not an interview and is just a list of things to consider about your character. You may get some use out of it.

First off, before anything: think of what to base your character on, roughly. Think of the traits of people you know or have known, think of aspects about yourself. Of course, we can't forget basing characters off of your favourite fictional characters! 

If you are writing a premade character, and you're unsure on what to expand on, first off look at their in-game traits, any information provided in trailers/promotional material, and then look at fan theories and ideas about the character. Those are good places to start if you're using a premade Sim.

As well as specific characters, think of your favourite traits, archetypes, and development types as well. One of my favourites is the downfall of a character, a tragic character whose constant screw-ups land them in a deeper and deeper mess. Even better when they start going off the rails a bit as well. I also love characters who struggle with others' kindness, who learn to let themselves be loved over time.  

Then you can get to outlining them.

The basics about your character

. Name: Is there any meaning behind this name in-story? Did the character choose it themselves or is it their birth name? What nicknames do they have, if any? Which do they like, and which do they hate? (Names don't have to have meaning. I only use meaningful names in certain contexts- most names are just names I like, names that just fit for some reason, or that a character's parents thought sounded nice). 

NOTE ON NAMES: If you want an authentic name for a character from a specific time period, look at census records for the country if they're available or see if you can find articles on people from that country and time period. You can also Google naming conventions, as they can change within a country over time as well.

I also recommend avoiding baby name websites or baby-related websites when you want authentic names for characters that aren't English or American. It's best to find blogs written by people from that country. Sometimes travel blogs for the country will sometimes talk about names, authenticity and such. Sometimes Wikipedia has lists of names as well, but it's worth double-checking any info found there. Remember that naming conventions in some countries were different in the past, sometimes.

. Rough description: Height, rough weight, colours of skin/hair/eyes, the general 'vibe' of their attire or a more in-depth description. Anything notable about them, like specific jewellery, clothes, tattoos or scars/other injuries?

. Identity: This could be anything from where they grew up, gender, race, sexual orientation, or if they are an occult sim or some other made-up species or race. How has their identity affected their life? Do they face any prejudice or mistreatment for any of it at all, or does it give them more of an advantage over others?

. Family: People in a character's family, whether blood family or found family.

.Beliefs: What they do (and maybe don't) believe in.

. Protagonist or antagonist: Not always this black and white for every character, but good to think about your character's rough place in the story. Of course, one can become the other as the story progresses.

-

Character-defining aspects 

. General personality traits: You can use in-game traits and Randomise to give you ideas, or you can think of your own personality traits for the character.

. Upbringing: What it was like growing up for them. Who was good to them? Who wasn't? How have these people and experiences shaped who they are today? How was the world different growing up to what it's like now? Does the character mourn the old ways of the world or do they like the change?

. Social class: How has this affected their life?

. Education: Might also connect with upbringing here- how was school/university etc. for them?4

. Goals/dreams: Almost everyone has a goal, even if they never achieve it. Even if it's just getting out of bed to make breakfast and then getting back in again.

. Social life: Extrovert, introvert or somewhere in the middlle? What do they do when they hang out with friends etc?

. Fears: What are they afraid of? What do they do to avoid that fear, if anything?

. Any conditions, illnesses, or neurodivergence: (ONCE AGAIN, go careful when writing things like this and do research where it's needed.) How have they affected the character's life and their outlook in general? How does it affect how others percieve them, if it does at all? If applicable, what caused them?

. If not that, then general physical/mental health: How well (or not) does the character look after themselves in these ways? What do they do for self-care and distraction?

. Likes and dislikes: People, things, events, hobbies...What makes them happy and what makes them want to punch a wall? 

. Character 'flaws': Flaws don't necessarily have to be absolutely-horrible things, it can be just things that can hold the character back in some way. Some things that characters may overcome in a story might not necessarily be flaws as well- for example, introversion isn't a flaw (I wish writers would stop treating it as one), but possibly some characters may seek to try and 'come out of their shell' socially a little. Most characters have some kind of flaw or personality 'aspect' to overcome or learn to deal with, but the best kind of character flaws are the ones that actually get in the character's way in the story. The joy is in seeing how the character overcomes these flaws...or even how the character gives into them more and more as the story goes on. Wretched excess is fun sometimes!

. What they're good/bad at: Where do they excel, where do they need a little practice, and what are they absolutely terrible at?

. Any special ablities or powers: What can this character do? What are the limits of this power? How do they feel about this power? 

. Things they are known for: Whether by friends, family, colleagues or the world. What are they known for? What do people like and dislike about them?

. Ideas for development: How do you (at the moment) see the character changing? If you have any ideas for it, who or what will help to influence that change?

. Relationships with other characters: How they do (and don't) get along with other established characters, and maybe why. -

Things to think about character-wise when writing your story

Once you get to writing your character, here's a couple of things that it helps to think about- though some of it is more relevant if writing in the first person.

. What your character does and doesn't notice: How do they approach the world around them? What sort of things do they notice first in their surroundings?

. Manner of speech: Formal, or informal? Do they have any mottos, catchphrases or words they use often? Do they speak about feelings a lot? Do they lie, and how often? Sometimes what isn't spoken can say as much as what is spoken.

. How they socialise and deal with others: Do they overthink things in discussion? Do they pick up on social cues? Do they often over-analyse the actions of others, or do they let everything go over their head? Are they confident in socialising, or not? Maybe their out-of-dialogue musings are complex, but they keep to not revealing much in their speech.

. How they cope with negative emotions: Do they break down, or blame others? Or do they power through it?

. In connection to some of the above points, think about your character both from the outside and inside: How do others see them? How do they think they come across to others? How do they come across to themselves? And finally, who are they really on the inside?

My biggest tip that you don't see a lot in writing advice is: Not every character you write or read needs to be relatable to you. You don't need to write a character who's relatable either to yourself or honestly to the audience. It can be fun to delve into a mind you barely understand.

An important aspect to think about especially is character motivation. I've written this one separately from the bullet points since I think it's especially important given character motivation will play a major part in driving the plot along, as well as relationships with the other characters. This might not be something you'll have a solid answer to until you start writing, but it's good to have some starting ideas.

. In the broadest and simplest sense, what does your character want? Money, fame, honour, redemption, happiness, revenge...Have a think about what it is that they strive for deep down. (If you're struggling for ideas, maybe it might help to look at the in-game Aspirations, or maybe even the Traits will give you some ideas).

. How far are they willing to go to get it? Are there limits they won't go to in order to get what they want? Or are they willing to step on whoever's toes? This might be a change that occurs over the story, that's always an interesting concept. Seeing the well-behaved character slowly and gradually challenge what is acceptable...

. Who, or what 'kickstarted' this motivation? Some people just naturally come to want something, maybe as they grow up and/or their general interests, hobbies etc. change. Some motivations are brought on by events, though. Maybe harm done to a loved one motivates them to seek revenge, or something they did in their past motivates them to seek forgiveness or redemption for their actions. 

For challenge players, you can always define your characters through funny commentary, I always like seeing that. One story had one generation founder constantly break the fourth wall and be the only one who realised they were in a game and it made them stand out in a comical way.

IF YOU GET STUCK WRITING, my biggest tip, and the sole reason I finished my long Sims story Divided, is remembering what the characters all have in common with one another. It opens up the pathway to new relationships of all kinds between characters, and can lead to some interesting scenes and dynamics.

 Let me start off by saying: Plot is my weak point. I struggle to organise ideas when both reading and writing, I always have done. As usual, for plots it's best to think of your favourite plots from stories or a 'stock plot' like The Hero's Journey, Wretched Excess etc. It's also good to think about any potential plot points that come to mind straight away, so then you have starting points and can fill in the gaps- this is generally what I do. And honestly, I don't think it's that bad to re-use themes and plot pieces sometimes. Sometimes it works better to stick with what you're familiar with, than it is to try a thousand things at once that are new or different to you.

Do you see yourself as a 'plotter' or a 'pantser'? I'm a bit of both, though I'm leaning towards more of a plotter now. I wish I could write everything by the seat of my pants, but sadly I can't. 

The way I initially began planning for a longer, more in-depth story is by making a table in a word processing document that is one column wide, with loads of rows. Just one giant row of loads of columns. Each box in this table will be for specific notes, and the order of these notes in the planning table goes like this:

. Title ideas/preliminary ideas: What it says on the tin, and the very, very first ideas for the story.

. Rough story ideas: Any ideas that come to me in the pre-planning stage go here. Ideas for anything at all- screenshots, scenes, lines of dialogue, anything!

.Background information to be aware of: Any relevant lore or research goes here. Sometimes I keep story research in a separate document.

. Previous story points to be aware of: Any previous characters or events to be aware of to aid in consistency.

. Current plot threads: Keeping track of plot threads that need to be resolved in some way, to help prevent plot holes.

. Character info: Character information in varying levels of depth. At this point, this usually only covers main characters.

. Character Development:  This almost always changes halfway through, but this is my plan for how characters will change as the story goes on, and the events and characters that will be catalysts for that change.

. Backstory: Character backstory goes here instead, to keep things organised.

. Ideas for future chapters: Any ideas at all for upcoming chapters, no matter how vague. This also includes things that absolutely have to happen later on.

. Story ideas: Various boxes, all of which have more detailed story ideas. At the moment these are defined by specific events, and these are just for the direction of the story.

. Chapter (X): The main story planning, with one box for every chapter. This is where the story starts to be sorted by chapters as opposed to just events. Things always get swapped around during the writing process: Some things get moved until later, moved to happen earlier, or omitted/changed entirely.

The general idea as I'm going, is that each chapter has to move at least something forward. We learn something new about someone, a character's actions have changed something or caused a consequence, a character has learned something, etc. Somehow things have to be different from the beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter and that is generally how I go about it. Whilst a lot of people frown on whole chapters that 'info-dump', for some stories it might be necessary- especially for futuristic or alternate history stories where the author will need some filling-in on the general state of this unfamiliar world.

Again, how much you want to/need to plan depends on what you're doing. Nowadays I write narratively, and the game has little bearing on the actual story.

If you're going with a gameplay or challenge-driven story you probably won't need much planning, if any at all.If it helps, it's worth doing what you can to create associations of some type within your planning- whether it's symbols, bold/italic, colour-coding, anything. That might aid you in keeping important bits of the notes tied together somehow, whether it's done by scene, character, important plot points etc.

It may help to highlight important bits as well in your word processor, so you can easily find things you know you have to go back to soon. I sometimes do this since I easily get lost in my own notes...

-

Other Planning Ideas

. Starting from the end: It might be easier to go backwards if you come up with your ending before your intro. You can always start with your end point, and then figure out how you got there. 

. Mind-maps: If a massive list of boxes doesn't sound ideal, it might help do a sort of mind-map or flowchart. This is better if you are the sort of person who'd rather take in small bite-sized pieces at a time. You could have one mind-map for the beginning, middle and end, and then do little branches off for different events. And then from those branches, possibly add more for other details surrounding that specific story event, or things to remember for later on down the line. 

. 'Snowflake method': Put simply, it's writing down a simple plot point or idea and then continually expanding on it until it's at the level of detail you need for your plan- the way a typical snowflake's points branch out. As a random example: - Dave goes to get some cheese. - Dave has discovered a monster in his kitchen, and it demands a block of cheese or Dave's life. Terrified, Dave goes out to get some cheese to appease the monster. - A monster that can only live off of cheese is used to eating the bits of dropped cheese off Dave's kitchen floor, but Dave has decided to do more cleaning now his girlfriend is moving in. Desperate for survival, the monster has escaped its hiding place, demanding a block of cheese from Dave for its survival. If Dave does not supply cheese, he will be killed by the monster.

. 'Five-part narrative'/Pyramid: Breaking down your story into the five main parts of most stories: - Exposition: This is mainly setting up the world of your story - the setting, the main goings-on in the area, the characters we will be following throughout the story, and also the driving point which sets the main characters ahead doing plot stuff. - Rising action: The rising action is generally the part where the characters' antics, or possibly something caused by the world around them, sets stakes higher and puts more pressure on them. Perhaps the character has made a grave mistake. People could be after them. Or perhaps some kind of natural disaster has caused massive issues for the character. How will they come to navigate all of this? - Climax: The rise up to the 'turning point' or the height of the drama in your story. Maybe your character finally has some kind of breakdown, their actions have led them into the worst situation possible, but good can arise from this...or your character can just keep going down the slippery slope. - Falling Action: This is generally the process of gradually resolving all that has happened during the story. Maybe the main characters have realised their mistakes and aim to solve them, or perhaps your characters have overcome the main antagonist, or possibly made peace with them somehow. - Denouement: The resolution to the story, or at least where the characters end up. Then again, who's to say that everything will be resolved by the end if you want to make a series rather than a one-off? And who's to say the resolution will be a clean pretty one?

. For the challenge/game-driven writers: It helps to make notes of anything that happens in-game that could become a plot idea. Whether it's something from a mod, Lifestyles, Sentiments, or other autonomous actions- anything that gives you idea for a potential relationship change, conflict or story point, jot it down and maybe you can build on it later. If your Sims end up with positive or negative Sentiments for each other, then maybe it could be fun to come up with a reason why they feel that way.

My biggest piece of advice is: If you are stuck with what to do next in a story, let the game do some of the storytelling for you if you need to. Look at what happens autonomously, Likes/Dislikes, traits, anything caused by mods that add story depth to the game, Sentiments that people have for others etc. You probably even have mods that actually add some real depth to the game that you can go off of. It's a great way to help you get new ideas. It's gotten me through a lot of brick walls in the plot.

Other ideas for if you are stuck with the story:

If you have to pull it out of your ass to get it finished, then I say do it. The 'reboot loop' sucks, sometimes it's better to make a imperfect finished product.

Think about what all of your characters have in common - this can help you come up with new ideas going forward, and it allows characters who would otherwise have never met to have meaningful moments.

Keep a list of ongoing plot threads to help you not forget to resolve any. Plot holes aren't always the worst thing in the world, I leave them all the time, but still.

Depending on the way your brain works, there's the more obvious 'take a break'. Trouble is, if I take breaks I lose interest FAST so I can't really do that. But maybe you can!

More advice below, more general this time:

. Do not use ChatGPT or any generative AI! The whole point of creative writing is the CREATIVE part and neither of these are at all creative. Don't bother writing a story if you can't be bothered to do the planning or the thinking or the writing! There are plenty of name, idea etc. generators out there that don't use AI, the old-school ones like for fantasy names or whatever.

. Be sure to try and use content warnings for aspects of the story that may need it. You can use the trigger tags and can warn in chapter headers. You can't catch everything, of course you can't, but it's a helpful way to help a reader decide whether or not it's worth getting into a story, or whether they may want to skip a page or chapter. My own story has a lot of potential triggers so I warn about them as much as possible.

. Portrayal is not automatically endorsement. Your story does not have to be entirely morally-pure and neither do your characters. Not every story is about the perfect people who do no wrong and somehow manage to tick every box on how to be the perfect Leftist. You also don't have to provide disclaimers on the fact you are not okay with what's being portrayed, but you can do so if you want to save your own skin.

. Do not worry too much about word counts. Some people like to keep an eye on word counts, but make sure you're not letting it dictate your entire workflow. It's great to have goals to keep you going, but to let them define your work entirely can get stressful. If you miss your goals, don't beat yourself up about it. 

. Use online generators if necessary! Names, plot points, rough plot outlines, there are generators for everything online. They are there both for fun and to help you get a starting point, and you are NOT cheating for using them! No other writer ever does absolutely everything themselves. We all get ideas from somewhere, so there's absolutely zero shame in using generators for ideas and such. 

. Do not get hung up on looking for writing advice. I know, I just gave my advice and yet I'm saying this! Over the years I've looked at so many writing advice blogs, and almost all of it has been useless to me in the long run. Most of my learning has been from reading others' writing, and I have also learned from other kinds of art as well- films, pictures, etc. Do not rely too much on one person's style or advice. It's no good wanting to be someone else, and take that from someone who's been super jealous of loads of creators over the years. Whether it's art or writing, I've learned more from looking at others' art than I ever have from people who've told me how to do it.  On top of that, don't let others' advice dictate what you do too much. After all, people are so quick to label absolutely anything as 'bad writing' these days. Continuing on from this point...

. Do not let others' writing advice become super-strict rules. Including my own! The problem with some people and their advice, is that they tend to think their way is the only way, for everyone. And as I mentioned earlier, people are quick to slap the latest cool 'smart writer's term on anything. Remember when Mary-Sue/Marty-Stu started off as an overpowered character who never faces consequences, but then seemingly became any character with supernatural powers and/or unnatural hair and eye colours? Remember when we got taught 'said is dead' in primary school, and then authors and Internet writers suddenly became obsessed with it to the point where you were terrible for using 'said' at all?

All of those writing blogs demanding complete originality when every conceivable story is inspired by something, subconsciously or otherwise? Getting thrown overboard for using clichés? The same three authors being used as a style model? It's great to take inspiration from other people, but don't think that others' writing advice is always 100% going to improve your writing because as I have said ad nauseum throughout this whole thing- art is subjective. Even if the advice-giver is an excellent author that's been published 1205 times, that doesn't necessarily mean their way is the only way for everyone. My likes and dislikes are not ultimate. Neither are theirs, and neither are yours. Write the clichéd character, add the cool thing because it's fun, use 'said' all of the time, enjoy yourself.

. Also worth adding that just because someone writes their writing 'advice' in an incredibly harsh or 'my way is the only way' manner, it doesn't mean they're 100% right and that you should change how you do things because a bored stranger on the Internet thinks they're the last word on how to create things. You are not going to please everyone, and that's fine. And let's face it- some people are never pleased. Ever. Don’t write to please these types of people, it’s not worth it. I've come across them plenty of times in the past on creative websites, and I've fallen into the trap of trying to do what they say because they must be right, right? And really, why should I? Why should anyone?

Don't fall into the trap of feeling like you have to do what the angry man on Wordpress told everyone to do. Maybe these types occasionally have something good to share, but you should only use writing advice you find genuinely helpful to you.

. When it comes to doing research on things like stereotypes or tired archetypes / plotlines for certain marginalised groups, be aware that everyone has a different opinion on what is harmful and what isn't. You cannot write a character of any experience that every single person will agree with or consider to be a sympathetic portrayal. One man's good representation is another man's problematic.

You are also occasionally going to find some people writing these portrayal guides who will consider every experience out of their own individual one to be wrong (I've come across plenty of 'how to write autistic characters' guides where the autistic writer is convinced their experiences are the only kind of 'proper' autistic experience... and we are all very different people in reality!). Try to get a rough idea from multiple sources and go from there.

. In addition to the above: Go careful where you get your research/advice from. I will happily admit when I don't know what I'm talking about sometimes. Other people, not so much. Go careful who you choose to do any research from. On top of that, when you are looking for advice specific to a culture or identity, most of the time it's best to find things written by people who are actually a part of the group. It's good to be as thorough as you can.

. Be imperfect. No-one is a perfect writer, though some certainly think they are! Perfectionism is common, but in my opinion it holds people back a lot of the time. Don't stress too much- SimLit is meant to be a fun hobby.

. Always aim to finish your work. Even if you have to pull a plot point out of your backside to do it, try to finish everything where you can. I have only ever discontinued one story, and that was only five chapters into it. If you're having trouble, don't be afraid to leave a project for a while. I find in the meantime, I come up with new ideas. Sometimes a necessary distance to a project is needed to see it in a different light, and then any issues can be (hopefully) figured out.

. Don't get caught up in the 'reboot loop'. Referencing a point earlier in this section. It's a dangerous game, to constantly want to re-do your work. I'd know - I have a personal project that's been rebooted over 10 times and still not completed that's been a work-in-progress since almost 2014. Don't get caught up in it otherwise you'll never finish anything. If there's something you don't like, assess first if it's best to just move on with the story despite it. In connection to my above point, I'd rather a story be finished 'badly', personally, than not finished at all.

. Do not get put off by low reader numbers or lack of comments. It's part of the creative process- either you'll get feedback or you won't. People nowadays tend to go for shorter stories either due to not having time, language barriers are also a thing that can put people off a longer prose-based story, or due to the modern age trying to make everything as succinct as possible - and like I said earlier, a lot of people are tired busy adults and likely won't have time.

Some things are also typically more niche than others.

There are always going to be times where lack of attention to your work will get you down, and in my eyes, that's a good sign to take a break from it until the passion for creation comes back to you. Otherwise it sucks for your wellbeing.

. Try not to get put off by negative critique. Critique can be helpful, but let's face it, many people often don't know how to write a good or useful critique and a lot of people nowadays want to be a edgy, feisty caustic critic, might as well say it. Even if someone is nice about it, your first reaction might be ‘owch’.

Keep the useful critique in mind, bin the rest. You don't need to change anything about your story, at the end of the day nobody can force you to do that - but it's also not healthy to ignore absolutely all critique completely. Sometimes others' ideas can be helpful. Sometimes.

. Jarte - A free fancier version of Wordpad that I use for note-taking and plot-planning.

. My planning document and character questions linked earlier.

. MyNoise - If you like background noise to focus but music isn't for you, these are various noise machines. It includes chanting, white noise, natural sounds (thunder, rain etc), bar ambience and much more. There's an amazing selection.

. Writing Plot Prompts and Generators - A bunch of generators for plot-related events. Rough plots, possible things that could go wrong, ideas for how characters meet and general writing prompts. 

. Character Generator - A bunch of character-related generators that will generate all sorts of ideas- from rough descriptions, to in-detail outlines, to causes of death, and a separate generator for ideas for LGBT+ characters as well.

. Evernote- a free (with paid options) note-taking app for mobile and for PC. It allows you to create to-do lists, clip whole web pages, screenshots, articles PDFs and bookmarks - great for storing research or other important things! You can also sync your PC notes with your mobile ones so you always have a space to dump your ideas wherever you come up with them.

. Random Town Name Generator - with some fun tidbits about town naming in general.

. Fantasy Map Generator - for the super-world-builders!

I hope this has given you something of a starting point, or has otherwise given you something else to think about. Happy writing!

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Sims 4 Screenshot Editing Guide: Fire Effects

Most people on here have way more experience with aesthetics and editing than I do, but I thought possibly that this might help people with a small guide on how I do my fire effects. Mine in my story have a slightly different effect than what I'm about to show you but that's because I use Paint Tool SAI to add glow, whereas this tutorial just uses GIMP to make things simpler and only require 1 editing program.

You will need: ReShade / GShade and ReLight (optional, but best results) (guide to ReLight here), GIMP image editing program. This program will assume you have basic knowledge of the GIMP program and the Scale, Rotate, Flip, Lasso / Free Select- and Airbrush tools.

Optional CC for fire effects: Natalia-Auditore Fire Wall, Fire Lights (warning for the burned witch body), Fire Spots, Fire on the Ground, Burning Alive, Fire Circle, Igor Magic FX Bracelet

This can be done without mods and CC.

I am using this GShade preset with RTGI turned off. This is the unedited image. (Check out the linked ReLight guide if necessary for the next step. I should have taken a better picture with more of the FX bracelet flames showing, but oh well, we're adding fire anyway.

First off, we use the first ReLight light to create a deep reddish-orange glow. Start from where the most 'concentrated' part of your fire will be. Ideally depending on the size of the fire, you want it to have quite a wide-casting glow, and you want it at an Intensity setting abouit 2/3rds up the slider bar.

Next, make a 2nd ReLight light and make it a lighter orange. This will be a more 'concentrated' glow that casts a brighter inner glow that's not quite as big as the reddish-orange one. This is going to be at a higher Intensity setting than the red-orange one.

With the third ReLight light, you can do a very 'concentrated' bright yellow glow right in the center of the fiery area, or if you have multiple points of fire, use the other 2 ReLight light slots to cast some more detailed lights. For example, I put a yellow-orange light right at the center of Owen's right hand for the fire on the other hand, which casts a stronger glow on his face.

Optionally, you can also use the Bloom shader for more of a powerful glowy look. Top pic is Without Bloom, Bottom pic is With Bloom.

This is the visualised positions of the lights from GShade as a sort of reference guide!

IF YOU DO NOT USE RELIGHT/RESHADE, then we can do something similar in GIMP.

So for the non-ReLight way to do it, we use 3 layers in GIMP set to Overlay mode - and we do the same as above, and use the Airbrush tool to draw in the glow, so each layer has a different opacity and colour of lighting to create the layers of fire glow. You will need to use more yellowish / mid-oranges rather than red-orange when doing it this way so it shows up better.

Now we edit in the fire effects. I recommend finding Creative Commons or similar license images that are free for everyone to use, sometimes with credit required and sometimes not. I no longer have recommended websites to share to look for free pictures as many are now saturated with AI slop which won't look good. I am using this photo from RonaldPlett on Pixabay, I use this one a lot for my story. Find an effect that has a transparent or black BG. Open it up in GIMP.

If you have a Black BG, go to Colours menu > Colour to Alpha, change the Colour to Black and then press OK, and it will remove the Black BG and leave just the transparent fire. Now, CTRL + C and Copy the fire and Paste it into the screenshot. Make sure it stays as a New Layer, don't merge it into the base image. You can use the Select Menu > None or Shift + CTRL + A to deselect.

So now you can use the Scale, Flip, and Rotate on the fire to get it into the position you need. If you need to use multiple of the same image on one screenshot, Flip and Rotate will help it look a bit more 'natural' and not copy-pasted if that makes sense.

On each fire image layer, go to Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel and then Layer > Layer to Image Size. This will make the image boundary the size of the whole image, and will make sure it stays transparent around the fire image as you do this. In the Layers box that is usually at the bottom right corner of newer versions of GIMP, you'll see a Mode drop-down that says 'Normal'. Set it to 'Addition' and it'll create a glowy look that is more cohesive.

Trouble is, you can still see the completely-straight lines where the fire has cut off on the bottom of the .pngs. So to sort that, use the Eraser tool with a mid-to-low Force and Hardness and erase them so that it looks more natural.

OPTIONALLY: You can still do the Overlay Airbrush fire glow technique showed earlier to add some extra 'blending' to the fire lighting if you wish. I did this on my own version.

With that done, go to Image > Merge Visible Layers > don't change any settings then click Merge to make everything one layer. we're going to also add in an effect to mimic 'heat waves' and parts being obscured under the flames. For that we need the Lasso Tool, or Free Select as it's known on GIMP.

Make sure that Feather Edges is anywhere between about 35-50. This will 'blur' the edges of your selection, meaning the effect will blend nicely that we're about to use.

Select the area that is most central to the fire effect, so here it'll be most of the hand. Now, go to Filters > Noise > Slur. Click 'New Seed' for more randomness. Make sure 'Repeat' is quite high.

Do this for each fire image you have, and this is the end result:

EDIT: I used to use this tool for fun all the time as a teen, but you can also use the online drawing tool Flame Painter for fiery magic effects or any magic effects really.

Use Print Screen or the Snipping Tool, add it to your image as a new layer, cut off all of the UI stuff until all you have is the black square and the magic drawing, Colour to Alpha > get rid of the black colour then press OK and then you have magic effects! Yipee!

This is how I used a Flame Painter doodle and did the above tutorial's effects on it!

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A More Specific Guide to how I Planned my Sims Story

I made a post about this already, but I deleted the post by accident when I was cleaning up old posts, so I'm rewriting it. I already have a guide on how to start a Sims story / challenge story, and I already have a really long character interview where you can pick and choose relevant questions for character building, but it's time to look a bit more in-depth at my planning process. (I apologise for all the links to my own content. I feel like one of those writing blogs that keeps trying to sell you an EBook for advice you can get for free from a random woman's Wordpress.)

I still genuinely have no idea how I finished Divided given my previous writing projects were so short in comparison...

My downloadable planning document is a tidier version of my actual planning documents. You might find this one useful since it's all organised for you.

My plan is literally just a 1-column table with box after box for separating information. It's a mess!

Highlighting

For the most part, I NEVER delete anything from my plan in case I can alter it or use it later. What I do is:

• All of the ideas I've used / parts of the plan I've written into the story are highlighted in YELLOW.

• All of the scrapped or altered ideas are highlighted in RED.

On LibreOffice, I also use the Comment function by highlighting text, right-clicking and selecting Insert Comment from the drop-down menu, which makes a small yellow box appear with a dotted line connected to your written text. This is also handy for note-taking.

Usually, the comments were relevant to why I scrapped an idea (For example, some say to move certain plot points until later, or some plans intended to be spoken dialogue are instead confined to the general narrative and not spoken.)

Early Planning

The first box in my plan is 'New / Upcoming Rough Ideas'. Any new ideas I got for my story went straight into that box and stayed there. This also included any research links or quotes I might have needed. I made this the first box so I always knew exactly where to reference what to do next, and so I didn't forget any of the ideas.

I also recommend having a box specifically for links to CC that you might need for your story, or a place to write names of CC you know you'll need later if you don't want to download it straight away.

The next box is 'Current Subplots'. This is to keep track of all the plot threads that need to be resolved eventually.

The next box was 'Plot Ideas that Need to Happen'. As well as to keep on top of the multiple plot threads in a long story with like 8 main characters, it was also to keep on top of things that happened in the future since Divided is technically a prequel. This helped to keep plot holes to a (relative) minimum. Again, this near the top is to aid memory. I also used this to remember necessary lore elements.

After that, the following boxes are for INITIAL character ideas. I would recommend having one box for each group, family, or faction, whatever suits your story best.

If it's necessary, I would also recommend having a Lore / Worldbuilding box. Divided is full of rich lore mostly stolen from video games and so I needed somewhere to reference it and build upon it for the story.

TL;DR: A box for:

Rough planning / initial ideas

Links to research or custom content you might need later

Plot ideas you know you need to include at some point in the story

Initial character ideas, ideally one box for each 'group' if necessary

Lore / Worldbuilding notes

Chapter Planning

Divided is separated by 'Acts', so at the start of each new Act there is a box labelled as such. This box is like the 'Plot Stuff that Needs to Happen' box and the rough planning box, but more specific to the final version of the story and to the current story arc.

After that, there's one box for each chapter.

The helpful part of having one table box per chapter is it makes moving plot points around a lot easier in a more organised fashion. If there's one part you think would be better in Chapter 2 or 3, you can just shove it there for time being to come back to later.

As I'm writing, I highlight as I go. So once I write a scene or conversation relevant to one of my bullet points into the story, I highlight it in YELLOW so I know what I've already covered.

General Planning Tips

With Sims stories, I would not worry too much about having to pull a few things out of your ass if you have to to keep the story going and are a bit stuck. The general wackiness of The Sims in general leads to this sort of thing not seeming out-of-place in this game's universe anyway.

I kind of think of it like a crash handler of sorts in a video game - it's still not 100% ideal to have something of the sort come up whilst you're playing, but it also stops the whole thing imploding on itself if it's there. Would you rather a placeholder texture appear, or the game to shut down on you? and I think it's the same with a story.

I've played some game series where the plot has dipped a few times and some of the twists or plot-saves in the story aren't always spot-on, but it didn't detract much at all from my enjoyment of those games and it was better than a premature end to something I enjoyed. Reading stories is no different!

I would personally say a finished project with a few ass-pulls here and there is much better than constantly rebooting a project because you're unhappy with it, but that's just my perspective. Of course, I'm not your nan, so if prefer rebooting projects then you can, but! Consider pulling the idea out of your ass to keep things moving. I know I did it a few times in Divided. Or consider doing a reboot some time after you finish a project, like I did with Imago.

(This is not shaming rebooters, BTW. I know multiple people who reboot projects often due to ADHD, so please do not take this as shaming.)

I also personally think perfectionism is the biggest killer of creativity. I don't consider myself a perfectionist in the slightest, and I genuinely think it is the only thing that allows me to (sometimes) finish a creative project. Also comparison to others is a creativity killer too (Now THIS one I struggle with)

Feel free to take breaks, don't pressure yourself into constantly working on your story! (I did that, but...do as I say, not as I do!)

If you are doing a challenge-based story and you get bored, there is nothing stopping you continuing the story with casual gameplay or making the rules easier for yourself and less stressful. Fun is key! If you get tired of points tracking in a legacy, then you can always just play the rest of the generations for-fun instead!

If you get stuck with plots, I like to think about what all the characters have in common to generate possible ideas - because for me, it gave me loads of ideas to work with and it was fun watching almost everyone meet each other in Divided and come together over their various similarities across very different backgrounds.

I hope this is helpful!

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If you don't use Reshade or GShade, the GMIC plugin for GIMP is useful

If you don't use graphics injectors or want to edit console screenshots, then the GMIC plugin for GIMP is useful. I'm posting this as a separate post even though it's in my screenshot editing tutorial because I think it's a useful resource and the tutorial I wrote is a bit tucked away.

You can download the GMIC plugin here. There is an .exe installer option, use that. Once installed it will be available under Filters and usually right at the bottom, called something like 'G'MIC - Qt...'

Here are some useful things GMIC has that you can use for simple editing. Some of these easily replace the same options that are also on ReShade and GShade, like Colour Temperature editing.

The ones I highly recommend are in bold. 

ARTISTIC - Bokeh: adds bokeh lights - Brushify: Make it look like a painting (better than Gimpressionist)

BLACK & WHITE - Pencil Portrait: Gives a pencil sketch look 

COLOURS - Boost Fade: Seems to add a colour tone - Colour Blindness: Lets you see what the colours will look like to someone with specific types of colour blindness, and can change the image to look like that. - Colour Temperature: change between colder or warmer tones. - Normalise Brightness: alters brightness , hard to explain. - Sepia - changes to orange-brownish tones - Vintage Style - similar to above - Vibrance: makes colours deeper and brighter

DEFORMATIONS - Breaks: looks like shattered glass or a mirror

DEGRADATIONS - Chromatic Aberration: Adds the sort of red-greeny dodgy TV-ish blur - Has a lot of blur options, including motion blur - Add Grain: adds a graininess to the image, and is easier to do than the RGB Noise option earlier - CRT: 3 different options, looks like an old TV screen. - Rain and Snow: Adds rain and snow overlays and easier than the overlay option from earlier.

DETAILS - Freaky Details: increases detail seemingly by enhancing light and dark a bit more. - Quick Tonemap: alters the tones somehow. - Multiple options to Sharpen the image. - Texture Enhance: mostly seems to sharpen.

LIGHT AND SHADOW - Equalize Light and Shadow: Hard to explain, but affects lighting. - Dodge and Burn: Mostly darkens the image (burn) and brightens highlights more (dodge). - Light Glow: adds a bit of glow - Light Leaks: Looks a bit like a photo artifact patch of light - Shadow Patch: Adds a bit of extra shadows across the image

REPAIR - Anti Alias: the opposite of 'sharpen' essentially, smooths edges - JPEG Smooth: Tries to fix some issues with very compressed JPEGs - Unpurple: This is really good if you play on Console or if you do not use the NoBlu mod, since the unmodded game has something of a blueish filter over it. However, there might be a chance this can negatively effect lighting on skintones. Also not worth using if there's a lot of blue and purple that is necessary, like in the Magic Realm. It's probably better for portraits.

Normal screenshot on left, edited screenshot on the right.

Brushify:

Freaky Details:

Unpurple:

Chromatic Aberration:

The Freaky Details one is probably the best one in terms of quickly editing otherwise-unedited screenshots.

GMIC is amazing because it's free, easy to use and navigate, and because it can do a lot of the stuff that GShade and ReShade can do and because it does a lot of things people can sometimes rely on AI to do. G'MIC is your friend if you don't want to use ReShade or GShade and if you can't or don't use lighting mods! Highly recommend to anyone playing on console or without mods.

@crazy-hazy-sims says it is also available for Photoshop!

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Sims 4 CC Tutorial: A 2026 Guide to the Emission Map (And how to Make CAS CC Glow)

There's a few Emission map tutorials about, but many are outdated, not in a lot of detail, and some have incorrect information about the dimensions of Emission maps for certain CAS items.

This is an in-depth tutorial on the Emission map, how it works and how to make one to add glowing elements to CAS objects. It uses GIMP, but if you better know Photoshop, you can use Photoshop for those steps.

I hope this is helpful!

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Sims 4 CC Tutorial: How to make a 'Neon' Wall Light

How to make a Fun Wall Light using a Vector Image

As someone who writes written tutorials, seeing written tutorials being put behind paywalls has spurred me into action to re-write some of t

This was a tutorial I made ages ago and have lost twice due to deleting my Tumblr account. I've decided to post it on my tutorials blog where it won't get mega-deleted by accident by my stupid ass.

I un-shamefully admit to say a lot of this is based off of @/simmerkate's Neon Lights tutorial, but the reason I have made this tutorial is because of the differences in steps with my own method:

using a vector image instead of Blender Text and how to make that vector image and import it

Some people like me prefer written tutorials

How to decimate meshes and help ensure a flat, crinkle-less surface whilst also keeping polys as low as possible

How to use the base finished .package file to make other-coloured neon lights from it

I hope this tutorial is helpful to some of you. I find written tutorials much easier personally. I try to explain everything as clearly as possible.

You can download this white bird light from SFS or MediaFire. DO NOT PAYWALL ANY EDITS OR RECOLOURS OF THIS LIGHT, NO CURSEFORGE AND NO ADFLY. My Terms of Use apply. The polys are 2.5k highest.

@thefoxburyinstitute

[freezerbnuuy]

How to Edit Poses to fit Fat Sims

This is a very simple mini-guide on how to edit a pose to fit fat Sims better. This could be for a personal edit of someone else's lookbook.

This is another short tutorial lost when I accidentally deleted my Tumblr. It is a very simple guide on how to edit poses so they fit fat Sims, using a custom rig extracted from SimRipper and Blender. It's designed for people who've never made a pose before and who usually wouldn't, but would just LOVE to have poses actually fit their Sims. In a way it's basically like a really quick and dirty pose tutorial I guess. It only explains the dead basics of posemaking needed to edit a pose, not to actually make one from scratch. I hope this helps some people.

If you want to learn how to make poses from scratch, this is the tutorial that will explain everything.