Club Crimsyn

PSA

2010-05-06T05:05:49Z

GoS is back online.

Just thought I'd mention it.

something we noticed - TSRW vs. CTU with simple recolors

2010-04-12T21:13:31Z

Last night, gelydh was telling me about something odd she noticed with some t-shirts she'd downloaded from another creator. They were really cute, and she was really looking forward to using them, only... they didn't show up quite how she was expecting.

She uses my default replacement shirts, which have a slightly better shaped mesh and different textures, along with a change bumpmap to allow for more variation in styles. The shirts she downloaded were showing up with what appeared to be the original EAxis mesh and textures, which was momentarily confusing. The creator had used the TSR Workshop to create these shirts, so I decided to do a bit of poking around in the file to see what I could find out.

Turns out TSRW likes to include a whole buttload of uneccessary bits and pieces in the files, bloating them, and subsequently bloating your downloads folder.

( I decided to put together a comparison package using TSRW just to illustrate the difference, and this is what I found. )

I'm sure the TSRW is great for some things -- people seem to be able to make nice enough objects with it, I suppose -- but I'm not sure it's such a good idea to make simple clothing recolors with it. How many multitudes of the same mesh do you want to have floating around your downloads folder? The CTU isn't perfect, but for something simple like a graphic shirt I believe it's the better program of the two to use.

While I'm biased against TSR for unrelated reasons, my purpose for posting this information is simply to keep you, the downloader and creator, informed.

hooray!

2010-04-01T22:46:04Z

Holy shit! We've reached our goal for our donation drive!

THANK YOU to each and every one of you who donated; I cannot express how grateful I am for everyone's generosity. It means so much to both of us. ♥

donation drive of sorts

2010-03-23T04:55:01Z

*deep breath*

Ok. We hate to do this, but it's that time of year again. Our webhost will soon be asking us for a large sum of money, and we'd really appreciate it if anyone who can spare anything would chip in a bit to help us out.

As we said last year around this time, we had no trouble paying for our hosting out of our own pockets back when we first opened the site, but unfortunately (?) we got too popular or something. We go through a lot of bandwidth each month which is why it isn't cheap anymore.

Every little bit helps! Thanks in advance! And please don't feel bad if you can't donate. Also, we're not holding any downloads hostage or anything, either. I'll let everyone know how much we've recieved, and once we've hit our goal just to keep this as transparent as possible.

Goal: $250
Total to Date: $250
To Goal: $0

Sticky Post of Informational Goodness

2010-03-23T04:12:03Z

Eeewww... this post is all sticky.

( General Terms of Use: )

( TS3-specific TOU: )

( FAQ: )

( Contact Information: )

Want to link to us? gelydh made us a new itty bitty linky banner dealie:

Please reupload to your own host, and point your links to http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org. :D

Public Service Announcement

2010-02-22T23:56:19Z

So... this isn't an update. I've been quite lazy lately, as far as sims-related things go, doing my best to force all my productivity into school. I'm succeeding in doing so, which is a good thing, but obviously my creating has been slack.

However!

I wanted to post a link to The Sims Emporium, who've converted a few of my female TS2 outfits to TS3! It's very, very impressive work, particularly if you have an understanding as to how different TS2 UV maps are compared to TS3 ones.

So go check them out!

a note about conversions - sort-of update on TOU

2010-01-12T18:56:39Z

This is an update of sorts on our Terms of Use, specifically in regards to conversions of our TS2 creations to TS3.

If you'd like to convert something of ours from TS2 to TS3, we now ask that you please contact us and ask before you do. It's best to either PM me here on Dream Width or GoS. gelydh can be reached via PM here on DreamWidth or GoS. We're horrible at checking our site email, so PM is definitely the way to go.

By contacting us to get the go-ahead on a conversion, we can let you know if it was something we'd already planned on converting ourselves. Furthermore, we have a lot of on-going projects at any given time which may or may not get previewed, so it's possible we've already started work on something anyway.

Secondly, if you're given the clear to convert, we ask that you clearly give us credit for the original creation on the same page as your TS3 download. I know conversions aren't exactly easy, but a lot of work went into making the original TS2 item as well. We're not asking for our names surrounded by blinking lights or an opera written about how fantastic we are, just something as simple as 'originally by aikea/gelydh/club crimsyn' would be great.

We don't want people to not convert our stuff, we'd just like to streamline things a little. We've always kept our TOU very open, so we hope that you'll do us the favor of respecting these changes. Also, this obviously doesn't affect those of you who are creating for TS2.

Later today we'll be rewriting and moving our TOU over here. There won't be any major changes, we just want things cleaned up a bit. ^_^

moving house, making a mess

2010-01-08T21:40:19Z

Today we're planning on moving all of our TS3 items from our site to DreamWidth, since updating a blog suits our lazy nature far better than updating a site.

If you've got us on your reading page you may get a little spammed, but hopefully not too badly as we didn't really end up putting much on the site in general.

Lastly, gelydh is currently trying to find us another new layout, so try to avoid stepping on any nails and watch for falling hammers.

wip randomness - sweatervest dealie

2009-12-30T00:04:30Z

So I've been working on this really pointless side project (a ts3 video of all things), and I needed to do a remake of the Rock Band 2 sweater vest top I did for TS2. Unfortunatly, TS3 seems to have this thing against meshes that make sense, and I'm not really feeling up to making a totally new mesh right now (and all the morphs it would require). I ended up making this as a compromise:

( I've lost the previews down the back of the couch again... )

I know it's sort of a niche type item, but does anyone else want it?

I also made those windows! Windows are strange things indeed, and I broke those. They still look kinda neat, and really make me want to experiment with windows more.

Boots for Males, File Update

2009-12-22T21:43:30Z

A couple of things today, first being the male version of the female boots I released yesterday. They're available for Young Adults through Elders, and I would like to eventually get both genders done for teens as well. (It's amazing how actually playing the game has had an effect on the custom content I create...)

Like the female boots, these have three recolorable channels.

( Unfiltered previews hidden in the crawlspace below the house... )

Do whatever you want with these, just keep them off paysites (including TSR). When machines in your room can't survive and all your devices stand by, you'll never know why.

+ DOWNLOAD +

++++

Next up concerns a shine issue with quite a few of the hair meshes I've released. Unfortunately, I didn't even realize this was an issue until this morning -- partly because it's almost unnoticeable on paler sims, and even on darker sims isn't very apparent in-game. Still, it annoys me to no end to release something that isn't as good as I can make it, so I'll be going back and attempting to fix the hairs that are messed up.

I've been able to fix it on the Sussi conversion I posted yesterday, but I have no idea what exactly it was that went wrong. I ended up having to completely rebuild the package in order to get rid of the face shine, so if you downloaded and installed the Emilie Autumn sim, you'll have to manually change her hair over in order to get it to show up.

Download Fixed Sussi 1600

Speaking of the Emilie Autumn sim, I've uploaded a sims3pack of her, as per my SS's request. If anyone would rather download and install that version of her, snag it here.

Which leads me to something else I wanted to bring up, but kept forgetting to. I've noticed quite a few CC creators making their items available in both .package and .sims3pack versions, and I'd like to state right now that neither myself nor gelydh have any plans to do the same. Sims3packs aren't any more immune to causing the dreaded game lag than package files are, so it seems like a tremendous waste of time for us take on a project like that. As far as we know, none of the items we've made cause lag. (And of course, if anyone found anything of ours that did, we'd want to know about it right away!) If you're one of the people whose game doesn't seem to like .package files any more, I suggest you head over to MTS or MATY to see if there's a fix for your problem. (Sorry if this comes across as a bit harsh.)

club_crimsyn @ 2009-12-16T14:21:00

2009-12-16T22:25:32Z

Oh yes, it did indeed just come to that.

I don't know how it'll be for anyone else, but the newest patch made my game completely unplayable; it wouldn't even launch. (Probably because I left in my nocd hack) (And yes, I have retail versions of both the base game and WA, but my only dvdrom is an external unit, which is a pain in my ass to deal with.) Given what I've seen other people having happen with their CC ~~(both .package files and .sims3packs alike)~~ (sims3packs are fucked up), I'd avoid patching if at all possible.

~~Also, the CAW tool seemed to be rather lacking.~~ They've released the guide, which would have been useful to say the least.

Off to reinstall while I wait for Pescado to eat another part of my soul. :P

updates on projects

2009-12-09T20:57:23Z

I thought I'd go ahead and give a progress report of sorts, as it's been awhile since we've really posted much.

We're both currenting involved in two 'outside projects,' both on GoS.

First up is there 2009 Secret Santa. I've already finished several items (which I'm insanely proud of), and Gelydh has gotten a good start as well. We'll both eventually be releasing the items we make for everyone, but obviously not until our seekrit santa-ees get them. Gifts are due to start going out on December 21st, and honestly I'll be lucky if I don't snap and send mine out early. I mean, I won't... I'll try not to... it'll be very difficult.

The next project we've been working on is the December Theme, which is 'vintage.' I've uploaded a conversion of the books I did for TS2, and Gelydh is finishing up a set of vintage paintings. We should both be working on a few more items for the theme before the month is over.

Gelydh has also just informed me she's got several other projects to finish up for release on our site.

So far in the last week I've learned how to make custom objects for TS3, both recolorable and non-recolorable. I've also managed to successfully make a new custom, non-replacement TS3 clothing mesh, and have actually been having a good time texturing it.

In short, we'll have lots of new stuff for everyone both soon and later.

(Also, white text on a black background gives me a massive headache, so this layout is getting scrapped. Again. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea in the first place.)

when things go wrong

2009-11-16T03:49:39Z

At some point today, some time between a breakfast that consisted of a pancake that was larger than my head and cider after noon that was wasn't quite real, I told robokitty and century_eyes of the horror that was Things I Try To Do That Go Wrong. gelydh has seen these, and now I share them with the rest of you. This is what happens when I start messing around with making new sliders.

( Good old-fashioned nightmare fuel... )

What's the point? Well... sometimes making CC calls for experimentation. Often times, those experiments go really, really wrong. Sometimes, I feel the need to share my pain.

for-real, actual-working male hair - k&b/my ts2 version conversion

2009-11-12T18:55:37Z

I have a few things to get off my chest, but I'll start with the download that I'd managed to completely fuck up yesterday. (No, shockingly it wasn't actually supposed to show up as a totally different mesh!)

We all need more male hair, right? And 'normal' male hairs are few and far between, right? So... here's one. I did a version of this for TS2 originally, in as much as I retextured the TS2 K&B hair, so I decided to convert it.

( Unfiltered previews this-a-way... )

This is for Teen, Young Adult, Adult, and Elder Males. It looked goofy on females, and I don't much feel like putting the effort into reshaping the mesh for them.

DOWNLOAD

Standard CC TOU apply, so do whatever the hell you want with this as long as you keep it off paysites. As I spitting splitting blood red breaking windows in my heart.

+++

( And now, an open letter to the people on My Sims 3 Blog: )

tl:dr -
For those who can give feedback without using words like 'shit' and 'ass,' thank you! The rest of you aren't doing yourselves any favors.

and the birds flew around like the whole world was ending

2009-10-10T03:15:48Z

This seems like such a silly thing to bring up after so long, but this discussion on simsecret from last week kinda got me thinking about a few things. (I'm bringing it up here, now, because I didn't see it until tonight, and thought any comment I made on it would get lost seeing as it was made by several Anons.) I'm not usually one to express my opinions (why the hell should anyone care about mine when, at the end of the day, it's generally no more or less important than yours?), but this is something that hits a little closer to home, so I'll make an exception. I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before, but just in case...

The truth is, Gelydh and I stayed at TSR longer because of shit like that going on around 'the community.' Why would we want to leave the safe haven of TSR, where we had people we considered our friends giving us a network of support, when on the 'outside,' people wouldn't think twice about saying our creations were 'shit,' that we were bitches, psychos, any number of stupid things just because we were FAs at TSR, based on shit that some psychotic bitch decided to say about us just because I dared remove her from my LJ friends list? A huge part of why I even went to TSR in the first place is because of things that were said about me on PMBD even before I was a pay creator; TSR seemed something outside of everything else, a place where it was quiet if nothing else.

When all is said and done, we only stayed there as long as we did because of the (perceived or otherwise) hostility of people on PMBD. Our SOP was to try to ignore PMBD as much as possible, and try to focus on making stuff and trying to have fun while we were doing it. We never saw anything positive about us there, not least of which because it was buried under all the bad stuff. Even if it wasn't anything negative about us personally, why would we want to risk running into something by going there?

When people said shit about us on GoS, we honestly didn't see it until either just before or just after we'd gone free, as we'd only really stumbled on the site a few weeks before we'd made the decision to leave. What was a huge help to us was running into Liegenschonheit, who went out of her way to make it known that, pay or free, we were more than welcome to hang out on her forum. That was a huge deal, because, until that point, no one had bothered contacting us directly to say this.

At the end of the day, we left TSR because of our own disgust of the way things were being run there, not because of anything anyone on PMBD had to say about it. I, personally, felt used and lied to; two things I have zero tolerance for.

We don't at all regret going free, most of all because doing so has allowed us to represent ourselves rather than a larger entity. If we had it all to do over again, we wouldn't change a thing.

For what it's worth, I'm completely with anon#2 on this one: "I still like my content free, don't support TSR or Thoma$$, but I can't back PMBD. No way, no how." Good thing we were never really all that involved on PMBD, especially given how quick certain members were to turn on us over the most mind-numbingly minor things (forgetting about a thread from almost a year earlier, for example).

I need a better ending. Pretend there was something profound here.

stupid question...

2009-09-11T01:43:02Z

So, I've been on vacation for over two weeks. In that time, a lot of things got wiped out of my head completely.

I know I was working on a shitload of TS3 projects before that, so....

What the hell were they, and which ones are you most interested in seeing released first?

I know I had some stompy boots, basics, and some other things, but honestly my brain is utterly fried. O_o

(On top of everything else, I hate this layout now.)

Piercings Released

2009-08-20T18:20:40Z

Just a bit of a PSA...

I got my peircings put together as a non-replacement mesh and have uploaded them to GoS (and hopefully soon MTS).

I'll eventually get them added to Club Crimsyn, but I've been and will continue to be painfully busy over the next six days, and then I'll be gone on vacation for two weeks (my little brother's getting married, then we're off to DragonCon), so I thought this would be the best way to go about releasing these for now.

THANK YOU to everyone who help test these!

NEW COMMUNITY

2009-07-10T01:06:07Z

gelydh and I thought it would be a good idea if we separated out our picspam from the rest of the things we post here, just to keep this specific journal more about downloads, works in progress, and tutorials.

We invite anyone interested in our picspam to head over to the_xenon, where we'll be posting our pictures from now on. I've started us out with an offering of 114 pictures... :X