Hollyhocks

 

Building a Lot in The Sims 4 takes a lot of time and effort and creating a stop motion video for it requires a lot of patience, concentration and skill.

I watch other creators' stop motion videos and everything seems seamless, perfect in fact.  I really admire their creativity and the use of the in-game video to switch between rooms, floors and different parts of the build.

"Hollyhocks" is my seventh stop motion video.  I took a lot of care and concentration in making it and thought that this is the one that has no mistakes.  How wrong I was!

Piecing together the pictures in the video was a doddle and placing the video transitions went really well until I got to the living room.  I really don't know what happened but the video transition that I took in that particular part of the build just didn't go for some reason.  I reversed the video as normal but one minute I was filming the wall and the next minute the other wall and then the scene changed to the floor where the rug appeared.  I thought perhaps that I had got the photos mixed up but nope, they were in order and so were the videos.  There's something not quite right here and I cannot for the life of me figure it out.

So anyway, I rectified the video a little with a fade through so it doesn't look too bad.  I'm just annoyed that I don't seem to get it right.  I took my time and made sure (or so I thought) that I had done everything correctly.  I cannot see how I went wrong.

But never mind.  If I keep at it then maybe one day I will be able to create the perfect stop motion video!

Hollyhocks is a 2 bedroom, one bathroom property with a living room/dining room, kitchen, hallway and landing.  A swimming pool adorns the back garden for family fun in the summertime together with a swing.  This property is perfect for a small growing family.

As I made this build before bunk beds came out, the childs room has a small single bed but of course this can be changed to a loft bed or bunk bed if two beds are needed.

You can download this lot from The Sims 4 Gallery - my ID is TotallySimlish.

I would love to know what you think of the build - and the video!

Happy Simming!

- Minicart

Pure Filth

 

I have been racking my brains trying to figure out how Willow can get these last 3 spells, Rite of Ascension, Strangify and Duplicato, so much so that I had to search online.  I found out (I can't remember where, probably Sims VIP), that the only way Willow can get these spells to complete her collection is by learning them from the 3 sages at the Magic Realm.  The catch is however, that she has to have high relationship with them.  Of course this really isn't a problem for Willow as she has the Potion of Forced Friendship in her inventory that she can use.

Travelling to the Magic Realm, Willow searches out the Sage of Untamed Magic.  Now when I am playing The Sims 4 and recording as I go, I can sometimes get a little confused thinking on the fly.  I tried looking for the option to give this particular Sage the Forced Friendship Potion but couldn't see how.  I therefore got Willow to take the potion instead.  This actually worked out better as rather than using a whole bottle of potion on each person she wants to befriend by giving them the potion, she can take it herself and then hug each person individually thereby making BFF's with each one.

Willow was successful in befriending this particular Sage and was able to learn the Duplicato spell.

She then searched out the Sage of Mischief Magic, befriended her and was taught the Strangify spell.

Two down, one to go!

Willow then searched out the Sage of Practical Magic, hugged him and they became BFF's!  Willow then asked him to Teach Practical Magic.  Unfortunately the Sage told her that she was at the top of her rank and couldn't learn any more spells.  I thought perhaps that this was because she had already learned 2 of them  and that she would have to come back to the Magic Realm at a later date to learn the last one.  It was only when I edited this episode and watched it back when I realised what I had done.

Now, I record two Let's Play's at once and then edit them one after the other so unfortunately I made this same mistake in the next episode.  What I done was to ask the Sage of Practical Magic to "Teach Practical Magic".  What I should have done was "ask to Teach Ultimate Practical Spell".   Never mind, maybe in episode 38...

Willow decided to return home at this point to have a party.

Deciding on a Costume Party, she invited a few foes over (who all turned up of course) and lit the fire pit, just in case.  She also made some Pufferfish Nigiri so that they wouldn't get hungry.  She can be nice sometimes...

Of course, as with all of Willow's parties, something terrible happens.  This time, one Sim dies of Pufferfish Nigiri poisoning and another dies by fire.  But this wasn't Willow's fault.  This particular Sim was sitting too close to the fire pit and couldn't even be bothered to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher.  Neither did the other guests - they just ran away.

Once the party had ended, Willow went back inside to clean up and my goodness, what a mess!  Pure filth it was, pure filth! But then, an evil witch's house should be dirty, shouldn't it?

- Minicart

Gone Fishin'

 

Willow hasn't ventured out that much during her time in Glimmerbrook.  Although she has been to a couple of parks, Granite Falls and of course the Magic Realm, she has been more focused on learning her craft and killing other Sims, the latter being done more easily at home, especially whilst hosting parties.

Fishing is one skill that Willow has been learning.  Each time she comes to a body of water that she can fish in, she has given this a go and caught a few fish.  So much so that she has raised her skill to level 4.

There are quite a few places in all the different worlds where a Sim can fish, each one giving different varieties of fish that can be caught.  Of course, different fish can be caught with different bait such as flowers or fruit and Willow being a bit of a gardener has a variety of bait within her inventory.  As Willow is an outdoorsy type, she finds fishing most enjoyable.

In this episode, Willow goes fishing in the Magic Realm and catches a couple of Rainbow fish - a new fish that she hasn't encountered before.  This then gave her the idea that maybe she should visit Sulani.

Sulani is a beautiful tropical island with palm trees, waterfalls, a volcano and beaches.  

There are lots of different fish there where you cannot catch anywhere else so Willow decides to try her luck.

Visiting the bar, she chats with one of the locals and discovers that he is a witch too.  Afterwards, she searches around for a fishing spot but unfortunately there is none to be found.  But then Willow comes across a fishing basket laying in the water, ready to be baited for catching fish.  She decides to pop an apple inside to see what fish she might catch.  While waiting, Willow begins to make a sand sculpture on the beach.

After a little while, Willow checks the basket to see if she has caught anything but alas, no.  She goes back to building a sand sculpture and leaves the basket in the water, hoping that the fish will bite soon.

Maybe in the next episode, Willow will be lucky enough to catch some new fish and perhaps she should really buy a fishing basket of her own.

- Minicart