Feature Interview

For those who don’t know me on FB, I was interviewed for a feature by one of the members of the Sims Addicts Anonymous group.

Just a little get to know me for all my followers here:

Creator: Bmit04

Creative Focus: Poses for Sims 3
Website: posesbybee.com
Tumblr: poses-by-bee.tumblr.com

1. How long have you been playing Sims?

   Since January 2011. You will think this is funny, but I had never heard of the Sims games until I was helping my best friend pack up to move. She had all the Sims 2 packs sitting in a pile to be donated to the library. I was drawn to the covers and immediately asked her what it was. After a brief description she told me to take them home with me. Been playing ever since.

2. Why did you begin creating?

   I had delved into the journey of writing a story which stemmed from playing a game challenge. I was writing the story based on things happening in the game but friends were asking for more and more story content. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon the world of posing as I cannot remember. Once I did, I spent a great deal of time searching for poses that would suit the story-line I was trying to portray, while getting extremely frustrated. Even if I found a pose that might work, the bodies were twisted and the faces were wrong. I also found the majority of poses were model type, pregnancy or lovey-dovey stuff and there was a definite lack of poses for babies to teens as well. Since my story was based on family with children, I needed a wide variety of poses for every age group.

   From there I decided to learn posing myself and began sharing those poses with friends and the community. Now I do want to say that I suffered a lot of challenges in the beginning and created a few pose sets that are also cringe worthy. Those poses I have removed from my site and I am trying to redo before posting again. I have worked hard to get where I am today. I still make goofs, just not as badly as I did in the beginning.

   My main focus for posing is based on real life situations and scenarios used for different situations and in many combinations.

3. How do you decide on your next W.I.P?

   Posing began as a way to support my own story, yet quickly turned into supporting friend’s stories, as they were having the same frustration I was in finding poses for their story. Many of my pose sets have been made for Kymber at booomcha.com. But I find inspiration from many other sources as well. For example, I may get an idea while creating a set. The idea may be a complimentary set to the one I am making or completely different. Occasionally, I get ideas from movies or TV and sometimes from reading stories I follow.

   However I have specific rules when it comes to making poses:

   1. I will not make a pose if the action is available in game.

   2. I try not to duplicate a set that someone else has already made. Before I start a set, I search the internet to see if one is available. I may make a complimentary set but not the same exact poses unless the existing set is really bad. I haven’t yet had to remake a bad set so that is good.

   3. I’m trying to keep my poses PG so everyone can search my site and not worry about stumbling upon things that no one wants to see. I have dipped my toe over the line a few times but nothing too substantial.

4. What is your favourite creation?

   That is a very difficult question. All of them? I know that sounds like I am ducking the question so I guess I could say I like all of them for different reasons. Once upon a time, my answer would have been the ballet poses I made for Kymber or the Mommy and Me Yoga set I made for Funnyaa at TSR. Both of those pose sets took me a month to complete each and I learned a lot about posing during their creations. Since then, I have made so many fabulous sets, so I don’t know which I would even pick.

5. What is the most difficult piece you have ever made?

   Definitely the ballet set is a contender! Ballet dancers are very strong, yet their bodies are so fluid in the way they move. I worried once I posted the set, I would have trained dancers who would be upset with how the set looked and so I fussed with that set till I thought it looked right.

   However, the most difficult set would be one I haven’t even posted yet. It’s called Palliative Care, Saying Goodbye To Mom. I started this set a few months after my mom passed away in November and I walked away from it for the last few months. I’m finding it very difficult to complete not only for the emotional side of things, but posing the sims to portray the full emotion attached to the moment is also very difficult. I’m hoping to finish this set by the end of this year but no one will see it, till it is finished to my satisfaction and I am ready to present.

6. What program are you using to create your poses?

   Blender 2.70 for windows 64

   Resizepic.com for resizing pics

   I’m still using Picasa 3 because I feel most comfortable with it

   Pose Pack Creator by cmo

7. Do you have advice for people starting out?

   Research, research, research and practice, practice, practice. Posing isn’t something you can jump in and do perfectly right from the start. Take your time and learn how the body moves. Watch posing videos that teach you how to properly move rig joints. I went so far as to use my four children as models so I could see how their joints moved properly. Wait to post any poses until you have learned how to move a rig and/or ask another experienced creator to look at your work first. I wish I had done that. I have pose sets up on TSR and MTS I made four years ago that I wish could be taken down, they are so bad. And I’m still learning, four years later just to be clear. My poses are not perfect. I see their mistakes. Even in new ones recently posted. So I will also say, take breaks when working on a pose. Sometimes you spend so much time looking at a rig, you can’t see it properly and mistakes easily happen and will be missed. Keep in mind a pose will look different in Blender than it will in game so you will need to compensate for those differences. If you practice a lot, you will learn what those differences are. Also, look at a rig in Blender from all views, including from above. You need to rotate your rig in all directions to make sure it looks right from every angle. For testing your poses in game, you need to create sims who have a basic look. Altering the face will affect how your pose looks on the sim so if you have really done up the lips on your sim, for example the pose will look wrong. You will spend a lot of time trying to fix the pose when really it’s the sim.

   If you are going to have a site and offer up your poses for download, set a clear guideline or set of rules you want to work by and then stick by them. How many hours a week do I want to spend working on poses? Do I want to take requests? Will I be doing all types of poses? Do I want to pay for a site? Will I need a separate email just for posing? Having a plan and knowing what you are doing will keep posing from taking over your life. Trust me, it can happen so easily!

   Lastly, have fun! Posing is supposed to be fun!