The Sims 4

....I mean.... I don't have any idea how they do the animation in The Sims franchise, but I do know that it has developed a lot over the years, making Sims and their environment look more and more realistic in my opinion. One thing I don't seem to like as The Sims develops, though, is the amount of "stuff" we get without actually buying Stuff Packs and Expansion Packs (and new to Sims 4: Game Packs). It seems there's less and less stuff with just the original game. Unfortunately, I won't be stopping anytime soon and they'll probably get more of my money....my Sims are more successful than I am and somehow that makes me feel somewhat accomplished, too. Not to mention, I like making sims of all different types and exploring the options with each of their aspirations, careers and family.

In my opinion, the best things about The Sims 4 are:

• The ability to manipulate their body types by clicking and dragging on their actual bodies, 
• Emotions. Though it angers me that when there is one dirty dish in the room, my sim is suddenly disgusted, there is so much good about this feature. You get different actions depending on your sims mood, and they can be Sad, Happy, Tense, Focused, Inspired, Confident, Energized, Fine, Flirty, Playful, Angry, Bored, Dazed, Embarrassed and Uncomfortable. The the funny facial expressions and the ways the sims walk that come from each emotion is pretty cool too. 
• The Get to Work expansion pack. Never have you been able to actually go to work with your sim, and getting promoted is part of game play. So it's pretty damn cool to finally be able to do that. 
• All of the different skills you can gain. Things like guitar, piano, violin, rocket science, gardening and a TON of others. It definitely adds to the game play, 

Anyhow... I think I'm going to go play Sims for a number of hours now, WOO.

Sims: Sometimes It is My Real Life

I decided for this blog entry I would express my love for The Sims. For those of you that are not familiar with The Sims, it is a strategic life simulation video game series. There are currently four main series and about six renditions of The Sims. It is one of the most successful video games series of all time and as of May 2011, the franchise has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling PC franchise in history.

I have The Sims 3 and have spent countless hours at a time creating characters, falling in love, getting jobs, burning food and so much more. It is a great game to have to pass the time, when your sick or when you are just completely bored out of your mind. You have total control of almost everything in this game, which is the biggest reason I love this game. It makes me feel like God! I also like that it is so life like. For example, in order to get into a relationship with another Sim you need to first talk to the character, then establish a friendship with them by telling jokes or asking about their work. Then you are able to start making moves like flirting. But at the same time I also like the parts of the game that aren't so life like. For instance, in The Sims 3 to adopt a child all you have to do is call child care and they will give you a kid the next day even if you already have like six of them. These little twists in the game make it a little more fun than just regular life. Another aspect of the game that makes me like the game is the quality. I like how it is a mid-level quality game. Having that quality gives the game a simplistic look, which is what the game is. It is just a simple, relaxing,  and fun game that allows you to control everything within it. I definitely recommend getting one of games from The Sims franchise, it is definitely worth it!

The Evolution of The Sims

Most of my friends know about my serious Sims addiction. I've been playing since the game came out 2000 and own almost all of the expansion packs for each stand-alone Sims (The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3). As of today, Electronic Arts is on their third version of the the Sims, which has made huge strides since the original came out 11 years ago.

In the original Sims, the graphics were basic, though at the time the game seemed amazing. The characters walked in stiff movements, with their fingers clearly stuck together. The options when creating your Sim was very limited. You were able to choose your sims face from a short number of options. This meant sims in the same town could have exactly the same look (facial features, hair color, eye color, etc;). The same went for clothes, you could select the athletic outfit, the pink dress, the grungy homeless-looking one, and a few others. There was never an option to change the colors or mix and match the tops and bottoms. And forget about picking the shoes or accessories. All in all, the graphics were plain and didn't allow for creativity.

Today, the Sims 3 allows for serious creativity. Controls allow users to manipulate almost every part of the face. You can adjust cheek bones, nose bridge width, and how far set in the eyes are, just to name a few. Hair color can be changed in great detail, featuring alterations in base, highlight, low light, and root colors. And of course, you have the entire color wheel to choose from. Clothing can be customized piece by piece, adjusting color and pattern. Aside from the huge spectrum of customizing you can do to the look of your sim, you can also customize the furniture, and wallpaper in your house. The reality of the interactions between these sims vs. the sims featured in 2000 is remarkable.

(The image on the left is a screen shot from the original Sims, the image on the right is taken from the Sims 3)

From the main stage to piece of paper, can it be done successfully?

There really is something to taking an animated movie that touches the hearts of its audiences every single time it is revisited and bringing it to life on the stage. The first time I saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, I couldn't believe the elaborate costumes and sets, the dramatic lighting, live music, and the actors and actresses ability to flawlessly transform these two dimensional sketches into living people that truly were Belle, the Beast, Lumiere, Cogsworth, etc. in the flesh. The transformation was incredible, so much so that it was done again and again with other Disney movies such as The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and Tarzan, and I'm sure there will be even more to come.

But could the animation to Broadway process be as effective if done the other way around? Can you successfully take all the elaborate bells and whistles of a Broadway play and squeeze them back into two-dimensions on a sheet of paper? Heidi Jo Gilbert, who draws storyboards for Nickelodeon, Pixar, and Disney attempts this with Broadway's Wicked and puts together a storyboard of the show's climatic act one finale: http://www.theateradvisorblog.com/if-wicked-the-musical-were-an-animated-film/
and http://collider.com/wicked-animated-storyboard-heidi-jo-gilbert/74997/
Though these storyboards are great, they (in my opinion) fail to capture the magnificence of Wicked now that it has been given the creative liberty of the open stage for the past 8 years. What bothers me is not that a lot of the details are left to the viewers imagination, that is usually how most storyboards work, but that the sketches look similar to your generic cartoon girls instead of looking like those that made Wicked famous. The castle/clock tower look like those used in any other Disney movie. The magic, the individuality of the land of Oz gets lost in the transition.
Of course, a live-action movie version of Wicked has been in the works for a while now, due to its notorious success on the stage: http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/wicked-ready-to-cast-movie-spell-authors-meet-with-filmmakers/ My only hope is that this transition is as painless as possible.

While looking for other animated adaptations of Wicked, I came across someone who took his/her characters on the computer game The Sims, and turned them into his/her own version of the Wicked cast and reenacted every musical number through the computer game. Here is his/her's version of the musical's opening number: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HEjCy70ujM&feature=related Pretty entertaining, though I can't imagine how long it took to create this!