Welcome to My Favorite Shots.

This is a collection of photographs from my stories and movies. This album/tutorial will focus on composition, character, and special effects.

A lot can be written about composition, but I will only talk about it in relation to my own photos and how I approached them.

The black lines on the image above are composition guide lines. You see them in the viewfinders of 35 mm cameras and some digital cameras. They help you place your subjects within the image. Since no such grid exist in the game, I have been doing it by intuition. I have never seen my images on the grid until I created this tutorial.

The grid divides the image into thirds--3 sections horizontally and 3 sections vertically.

[This shot is from the Greek Arabesque Mansion movie.]

The subject is the Greek statue and it's aligned with the right vertical guide line. The shoulders fall between the horizontal guide lines and the head is above it. When your subject is on the left or the right guide lines and it is moving, it should face the direction of open space as the statue does above. It's not as big an issue with stactic subjects, or subjects facing the camera.

Another point of interest is how your eye travels around the photo. Here, your eye travels up the body, along the railing, down the left tree trunk then up the body again. It's a circular path. You don't want the eye to travel out the picture and stay out. Take advantage of such situations whenever you can and avoid dead end shots.

[This shot is from the concluding story of my Tower House series.]

Goldie has discovered a twin of herself outside; only, she knows she doesn't have a twin. The composition here is primarily vertical with Goldie within the left hand grid and the double on the right.

This composition also uses the concept of "framing". Goldie's double is framed within the window. This helps to draw attention to the subject within the frame and implies a special significance.

[From the Tower House conclusion.]

I deliberately cut off the SimDroid's head because the true subject is the Bink13Y Robotics label on its torso. I placed the lable within the center gird to give special credit to the creator of these SimDroids. I recolored them and gave them flesh faces to suit my story. Nope, they will never be available for download since I did not create them. Go to Bink13Y.

Sentry-10, the blue SimDroid, is a secondary subject and is place in the left grid.

Sentry is the primary subject here.

I broke a rule; it's more like a compromise. There should be more space in front of Sentry-10 since she is facing in that direction. I should have placed her in the center with the orange robot in the left hand grid, and her shoulders little closer to the upper horizontal guide line. I didn't do this because the house is an important part of the image and I wanted to show the windows and doors. Sometimes you have to compromise and break the rules.

The perspective is exaggerated and shot from a low position to make her a more imposing and dynamic figure. I talk about such things in the character section.

[This is the set of my Studio_A movie. The house is available for download, fully furnished.]

I like this shot because of the feeling of depth. Two things help provide this: perspective and overlapping objects. You see many angles in this shot and this is due to perspective. Floorboards and wall tiles are wide in foreground then narrow as they recede into the distance. These angles also make the image dynamic and 3-dimensional.

The second contribution to depth is the overlapping objects. The dinning table is in front of the chairs, the chairs are in front of the sofa and coffee table, and the coffee table is in front the computer chair.

So overlap people and objects and avoid photographing walls straight on, unless a 2-dimensional image is what you want.

[This is from pt. 2 of the tower house series.]

I like this shot because of the focus it places on Reginald, the gentleman in the center. The rooflines, major character and minor characters, are all facing him and he stands there defiant. This all relates to and supports the story text.

[Part 3 of the Tower House series.]
Sabrina notices the paperboy and something seems strange about him.

This is another example of placing emphasis on a subject. Sabrina is shown observing him and the handrail leads your eye to him.

I don't plan shots, I look for them. I do this by pausing the action and looking at the scene from many angles until I find a good shot. This is called working the shot, and I take lots of pictures.

[The Four-penny Curse--Ep. 1]

I could have put both characters in the shot, but I only wanted the shocking handshake and Go-Go's reaction. I want the viewer to sympathized with her. I also like how my eye travels around the shot.

Here is another example of framing. The main characters observe their gardner talking to a man as they arrive home. I shot this scene in camera mode (tab key) to get inside the cab.

[Tower House series, pt. 3]

I wanted the reader to assume that Sentry-10 is attacking Sabrina in this shot.
I made Sentry-10 tickle her until I could shoot an expression that did not look like she was laughing. This shot could be considered framing too.

[The Four-Penny Curse--Ep. 1]

I like over-the-shoulder shots of the subject being considered, addressed, or speaking in center view. I really like this one because of the death skull on the cell phone. It all relates well with the story text.

[The Four-penny Curse--Ep. 4]

I like this composition because it reflects the emotion states and relationship of the characters. The situation is a little complex. Kat, on the left, has come to a sudden realization, and Raven, on right, now realizes her brother is dead. Kat is Raven's support and strength. This photo shows her larger and standing erect. Raven appears as if she is leaning on Raven.

[The Tower House, conclusion]

Another framing shot. The subject is publicly embarrassed and feeling very small right now. I shot him with people close-up in the foreground to convey this.
This is a good segue for our next chapter.

I think this section is the most critical. Good composition is nice, but our stories are about the characters. My approach to photographing characters is to capture emotion that is directly related to the text, specifically, the text?s first few sentences or last few sentences--the first sometimes for suprise and the last to build drama.

There are some writers who are more concerned with the written words in their stories, which is as it should be, but we also have this image above the text. If the image does not work with the text, it weakens the story.

I captured this image while making my Pool Sharks movie. Maxis has done an excellent job of animating our Sims. You can capture a good range of emotions from them.

I noticed a lot of storymakers show the Sim's entire body for most of their shots. This is too far away to capture the emotion and great facial expressions of the Sim. I use full body shots to establish the setting (environment), show several Sims, create emotional distance or loneliness, or capture body posture (emotion given off by the whole body).

Most of my shots, however, are torso and headshots. You can see what the Sim looks like and you can read their emotions. This helps the reader form an attachment (or rejection) to the Sim.

[Greek Arabesque Mansion]

I used this shot in the end credits of the movie. In the movie, the characters panic as the barbecue grill catches on fire. This is intended to be a reaction shot to that earlier scene. I thought the look on her face, and arms in the air were perfect. Actually, she was having a normal conversation.

As a side note, I really like the colors and feeling of depth in this shot. For those of you who like the women's gowns, you can get them from woitasek1. Her stuff is no longer on this site, but her page has a link to where you can find them.

[Tower House series, conclusion]

"Goldie? Oh, no. What is she doing here?"

I was lucky that my Sims were hungry during these scenes. The story requires them to be agitated, so this was a happy coincidence. The subject of her concern is framed in the window behind her.

"Ohhhh.....she doesn't seem to happy to see you, Sabrina."
I can guess why.

Goldie was hungry too. Great!
I have yet to write out a story in advance. I have an idea of what I want to do, like an unwritten outline. I usually know how the story will end, so I try to get my Sims to act towards that goal.

The truth is, I create the images first, then interpret them with my writing.
This works better for me. It allows me to be more flexible and take advantage of happy accidents. This particular story changed completely from my initial vision. I'll explain later.

Oh... you saw those?
"Yeah, they where great. I was a little surprised that I was mentioned in one."
Oh, geee, Goldie, I....

I like the expression on Sabrina's face as her fear is realized.

That's you alright. How does it feel to meet yourself?
"You'll find out. Yours is around here somewhere. Go out and talk to her."
I didn't see a twin of me. Are you playing a prank, Goldie? This would be a good way to get revenge.
"No, it's not a prank. Go on."

As I said in earlier prior shot, this story took an abrupt turn. I made the mistake of creating this story in the same neighborhood as parts 2 and 3. Those clones from the earlier story decided to pay a visit. Thus, my new story direction was born. Go with the flow; it's fun.

Our Goldie, agitated from hunger, looks like she is afraid of her clone and is hiding behind the door, making Sabrina go out to investigate. I wrote this scene from observing the image.

"Mike.....,"

That look says it all. She's pretty freaked out about what they told her.

"There's Sentry. There are moments when I swear she's human."

I wanted Sentry-10 to be a strong, competent leader. I tried to capture that in her images. I really like the postures here and the orange worker Simdroid looks like it's at her beck and call.

WHAT? That's what we're here for. Didn't you just confirm it?

Great expression and body language here, too bad about the composition, I don't like where Sentry-10's hand is. I went with the shot anyway.

Co-Co: Amazingly well. Food first, ladies. I'm starving.
Jo-Jo/Go-Go: Sandwiches!

It's good to get nice and close to the character at the start of a story.

Co-Co: What do we do when that idiot comes back? I think we might have to get a restraining order against this guy. I don't want to move because some nut-case takes a liking to us.
Remington: Nut-case, am I? Idiot? They really can't see me. Something paranormal is going on here.

Here, Remington is responding to what is being said about him. This is a reaction shot. I didn't bother to work the jewelry thought bubble into the story.

[The Four-penny Curse--Ep. 3]

Raven: Sure, shuffle me off. Are you going to withdraw from me too?

Not much to say about this shot attitude, demeanor, and focus are all there.

[The Four-penny Curse--Ep. 4]

Kat: Maybe she can see Remington in her crystal ball.

In this shot, Kat is pantomiming rubbing a crystal ball. Capturing body gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions that act out your text are powerful attributes of any photo. I didn't plan this. I just took a lot of photos. It increases your chances of gettting a useful picture. The net effect is an image that draws you readers into the story and makes your characters come alive.

It's not a REAL house!
It's a fake!
It's a facade!
It will fall down in a month.
But before that, bulldozers will rip it to shreds while you are sitting in your fake kitchen, wearing your fake smoking jacket, and sipping your fake TEA, Mr. Reggie.

Another reaction shot. Reggie is being run over by Sabrina.

This is the end of the Character section. I tend to get closer to the characters to show their facial expressions and body language. The shots capture the emotions of the characters and reflect the emotion in the text, or more likely, generate the text. The photo should connect with the first few sentences or last few sentences. You can focus on the last few sentences to build drama and the first few for surprise.

Effects are fun!

I use effects to do what the game can't. I don't want to throw away a story idea because the game won't let me create it. I am a big fan of Photoshop and it comes in very handy. You can do just about anything you can imagine. There are plenty of tutorials on the Internet to show you techniques. Just Google "Photoshop tutorials."

The image above is showing a shot from a damaged floating camera. I can't imagine doing this story without Photoshop. I used it to simulate video scan lines and video ghost images here.

This is a view from another damaged camera. To create the ghost image, I simply copied the background image an pasted it in another layer. I then shifted the top layer a little to the right and adjusted the opacity setting to nearly invisible.

For the snow effect, I created two bands of white then used the noise filter to add the speckles. I then adjusted the opacity levels. The scan lines were created by using a layer style on a new layer filled with black, then adjusting the opacity to near invisible. I downloaded the layer style from Adobe's website. (The maker of Photoshop) There are plenty of tutorials on the Internet that will show you how to create scan lines.

Yeah, there is a cheat that allows you to call in a 'copter to deliver walls.

Ok, that's a lie.
I created this by building a wall 3 or 4 levels high then deleting the lower sections. I drew in the chain with Photoshop and finally added the helicopter from an image collection I bought at Best Buy--Hemera's Photo-clip Art 150,00. It has lots of vehicles and just about any image you can think of. It comes in handy.

I had to create the rotor blur on my own with the radial blur filter and I made the helicopter more cartoonish colored by making a copy to a new layer, using the drybrush filter and adjusting the opacity so the realistic details are muted.

Sorry about the plumbob, but this was created in the days when I refused to pretend my Sims aren't Sims. Actually this story is blatantly about Sims being Sims. I will remove the PBs in future stories and movies since some people are really bothered by them and will rate you accordingly.

Whoosh!

I got my characters to pose for this shot by playing "tickle". I paused the action and then rotated the camera to this angle. It looks like Sentry-10 is pulling Sabrina out of harm's way.

Recognize Luke's lightsaber training remote from Star Wars: A New Hope? I used my computer to capture a frame from the DVD. I then cut it out using Photoshop. I added blue to the remote by selecting the remote?s invisible background, inverting the selection, creating a new layer and filling the selection with blue. I set the layer to ?multiply? to bring out the dark details of the remote. I added a lens flare for the light and created the blur effect with the motion blur filter.

I'm sorry for those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, but I can't teach Photoshop here. I just want to show what can be done and what's involved.

What?

You didn't know Mig 29 fighters make flights around your Sim's neighborhood?
More compositing from my image collection, just photograph your neighborhood and composite picture, then add jet exhaust and blur effect.

This one needs to be more cartoonish to fit in with the Sims. It's too realistic. I found the logo on a website and photographed the gnome from the game. I used multiply on the logo and gnome layers to allow the lines of the jet fighter to show through.

I tried to have a reflection of one of my homes in the glass of the cockpit. On the far right, you see three white vertical lines. That's a detail from the roof of my Studio_A home. I figured, why bother. Who's going notice?

Sims at War!
And I thought it was a peaceful game.

I found the exploding plane on the net, added the smoke trail by drawing in a white line and using the Gaussian blur filter. I added motion blur for speed.

This one was very tricky.

This was for the Studio_A movie. There were two images: this one and another one without the white lens flare, yellow bullet tracers, and dark shadows on the windows and wall. I used ImageReady (a component of Photoshop) to create an animation using only these two images. I would alternate between the two. (1,2,1,2,1,2...etc) The result was a QuickTime film clip that showed the AA tank shooting yellow tracers and flashing white light that lit up the room. I added sound effects and it came off pretty realistic for such a simple thing. It was still tricky for a first timer.

Creating the image was a bit tricky too. I had three layers: The image w/o the tank, on the bottom, the tank with a clear background in the middle, then a copy of the bottom layer on the top. I simply cut out the windows of the top layer to reveal the tank. I then saved this image and duplicated it to create the second image with the flash, shadows, and tracer effects.

Ahhh! Love.

And what a beautiful Photoshop lens flare.

Wait! What the heck?

This is another effect for the Studio_A movie. It's really an effects heavy movie. I used stills because I don't have a fancy motion effects editor. But you can do some interesting things with lens flares and the cross-fade effect on your video editor. This looks like exploding light when you cross-fade from the small ball of light to the large.

Alas...our lovers are in deep trouble.

Radiation!

I used skeletal images from my handy Hemera image bank and placed them as best as I could over the bodies of our lovers. I reduced the opacity so it looks like you can see through their bodies.

I can't tell you exactly how I got the color effect. I used the exclusion layer-blending mode and I guess the colors of the photo created this effect. I may have done some final tweaking to the flattened image to pop the colors.

It's da bomb!
But, that's a bad thing.

I was lucky here. I found a nighttime hydrogen bomb photo on Google image search. It had all the right colors I needed already in it: blue and orange. It was easy to composite since it had a blue background. I just adjusted the blue level in the color adjustment. The low clouds were a nice touch too.

I created the expanding ring of fire by drawing an arc with the pen tool and stroking the path with a wide line. I then made a duplicate of this arc on another layer; Gaussian blurred it, and used the color dodge blending mode to get that glow.

That must be a really good kiss.

Dominic Gothika. He plays a ghost in Episode 4 of The Four-Penny Curse. Here he is in the green-screen room. This room makes it easier to cut out images of my Sims for composting into other images. The room itself was Made in the Sims 2 using the games wall paper. I had to make custom green floor tiles however.

I used the magic wand tool in Photoshop to select the green background then inverse the selection to isolate Dominic. You can also use "color range" from the "select" menu to do the same thing.

[The Four-penny Curse--Ep. 4]

Here is the same image composited for the story. I desaturated Dominic of color to make him grey then adjusted the color balance to make him blue. I adjusted the layer opacity to about 34% to make him translucent and set the layer style to "overlay". I then used the "lens flare" filter on the background to create the light in the center of his chest.

This is a nice image, but it doesn't work for my story.

In this scene, the characters are asleep in bed, the lights are off, and there is a raging fire outside and a little inside the room. You wouldn't know it from this photo. Another thing that bugged me was the display on the clock. It's a muddy green. The time is important to the scene. It needs more emphasis.

Much better. I created a new layer and filled it in with orange, I reduced the opacity of this layer and set the layer style to either "screen" or "overlay". I created the shadow on another layer by creating the shape selection with the "polygonal lasso tool", filling the selection with black, and reducing the opacity of the layer.

I duplicated the shadow layer and reduced the opacity more for this new shadow. This second shadow mimics a second light source from the fire and adds more realism. I then merged the two shadow layers and gaussian blurred them to make them softer. I used an orange light with the "lighting effects" filter to create the right-hand glow from the fire.

Not really an effect, but a graphic, I am using special covers for all my tutorials and stories from now on. I saw some pretty cool ones created by others so I thought I'd give it a try. This one is the first. I found all the elements on the net and my image bank, and manipulated them in Photoshop for this composite. I LOVE PHOTOSHOP!

My second cover is the one for this tutorial, which you will see again when you advance to the next frame. So we are done. I hope this was helpful and I'm glad to share what I know so far.

Tessb91 has a good 'tute to help you make your Sims perform. You can find it here: http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=13284&asset_type=story&user_id=158371