Tales at TeaTime

[TheTeaCat]

Got your cuppa? Sitting comfortably?

As you all saw a pond was created in the Cutting Edge Park

park in construction
and I thought you might like to know how I get them to look the
way I do so welcome to the


Teacats Tutorial Class

Today's Lesson is River and Ponds

One of the hardest things to do before the plopable water was made was trying to
recreate realistic ponds and streams. This meant having expert terraforming skills
and was beyond the scope of most players until the event of plopable water.

For quite a while superb results were achieved by some notable players as evident in
MD's here on this site and others.

Then Jeroni upped the ante by making Transparent Plopable Water (TPW) and suddenly
the same results could be achieved by most people. Now on occasions I have noticed
people  playing with TPW and almost getting it right (in my opinion of course) so I
thought I would share my secrets in playing with this wonderful addition to the game.

There are a few essentials I consider necessary so that a realistic effect can be achieved.

For the purpose of this tutorial I am using Jeroni TPW V3.
Now to create a good looking pond/ stream you need some flora


1    JRJ   plop bush, grass. Rocks
2   GOLDIVA   plop rocks and reefs
3   CP   plop rocks and logs
4   Gizmo    plop water flora   
5   Sorchin   plop rocks

And obviously Jeroni plop water of your choice



Now in this pic you can see which plop flora works well with the different types of TPW
and which rocks work best too



OK for the purpose of this tutorial I have lowered a section of terrain as outlined
by the streets so a river can be built. I removed some of the street so that you can
see the difference at the end and how it affects plopping stuff

First is to lay the water tiles. I use the largest one I can as it allows more to be
placed underneath.



Now comes the fun part.

1st select JRJ bushes and then paint back and forth across where you have placed the water.
Not too large a stroke when painting (approx 2-3 tiles either side of the water).

2nd  Select JRJ small rocks (green variety) and again do your painting.


Here I removed the water temporarily so you can see the effects of the painting.
As you can see there are still gaps there that can be filled.


3rd Next we utilise Gizmo's plop water flora.
The brown bushes are placed along the waters edge and some in it
then the little flowers, then the some reed bushes.

Throw in a couple of CP's logs



4th then its back to JRJ's plop grass and this is used to paint liberally all around the banks,



5th Add some trees your favs



Here we have a close up showing a river bed that looks quite realistic. All we need
now is a shopping trolley lying at the bottom   


And by the road side it can still look pretty good.

Well there you go, thats how I do it.

Hope that may help one or two of you when  doing rivers and ponds


TTC


ps replies to previous update forthcoming

[paroch]

Oh yes Derry, very nice.

You make it sound so very easy, but I know from my own trial and errors that it's far from as easy as you make it look.

Greta tutorial and Great end result.

Well done,

Paul

[Schulmanator]

The park is very nice and I really like the paving... looks quite classy. King C. George will want to emulate it in his capital for sure!

[Pat]

Derry I am soo pleased that I can sit with a master as he works his magic on such a wonderful topic!!! WOW and I cant believe I missed an Update of Tea Time what in the world is wrong with me gaaaaaaaaaaah.... That last update was wonderful as well Derry I loved your W2W's and also the pond at the end that has led to this update!!!

[Nardo69]

That's a nice tutorial, Derry, I enjoyed it with a nice glass of Karadeniz Cayi! 
Well, maybe it might make that oldfashioned stubborn donkey of me one day using ploppable water instead of PEG streams ... 

Take care and don't forget to make backups!

Bernhard 

[Diggis]

Wow, that makes a lot of sense.  I might have to try this. 

[tooheys]

Derry, very interesting. I tend to work the opposite way, plop the water than the rocks etc. But I can certainly see the merits here, got to give it a try, your end result is stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Dave

[bat]

Wonderful new update there! And like the work on this beautiful pond, TTC!

[xxdita]

A wonderful tutorial Derry. I'm really going to have to give this one a try.

[TheTeaCat]

Ladies and Gents.

I had planned a final update for OSITM.

But unfortunately it has to be postponed.

There was an altercation between a motor car and I (on my bike) on way home from work
(his fault. he hit me whilst he was texting on his cell phone and driving at the same time )
Please  -  I  ask all drivers to forget you have a cell phone if you are driving. or at least switch it off



Car + crash+ Bicyclist = Hurt 

And that is me at the mo.

Please bare with me and very soon you shall see the update but unfortunately not this month.

I am ok, just some very bad road rash (and if you have ever experienced it, you will know exactly what I mean.)

I just hope that I lived up to expectations for my time in OSITM  and that you all enjoyed the time you spent here.

The planned update will follow - but it will have to wait abit.
Is that ok?


TTC

[Nardo69]

Hey, that's not so good news! Hope you will be completely OK soon.

Here in Turkey people say "Gecmis Olsun" on these occasions - a 1:1 translation would be "it shall become past"

Take care and get some rest

Bernhard

[meldolion]

I'm really sorry for what happened to you 

Hope and pray you'll be fine and well soon

[Ennedi]

Hello Derry,

First of all I hope you are OK after this idiotic accident. All of us must pay attention on the road, and we shouldn't have too much confidence to any other driver (or pedestrian)  It is unbelievable what people can do on the road  . So we must be a bit more wise.
Don't worry about the next update, it will not be worse if we will see it a bit later 

I had much RL work last few days including weekend an I wasn't be able to visit you here - sorry! So I will comment last two updates.

Your experiments with editing pictures are very nice. You asked for opinions, so... (of course these are only my subjective opinions).
- Increasing contrast/sharpening works better or worse in various situations. The second picture (a closeup of an industrial area) looks excellent, the first one is a bit too much contrasting. All details are clearly visible, but such clarity looks a bit artificial.
- The third one (night shot): In RL less light at night means less color too, for example on buildings facades. Sometimes I darken both shadows and midtones, leaving highlights on the same level. In general, editing nightshots needs many experiments, it is difficult to give any universal advice. I know your intention, the only thing to practice trying to make changes more subtle and less visible.
- Both general views are very nice, I like the border! 
- I like the 6th picture very much, the warm light and subtle softening works excellent! 
- The 7th is again a bit too sharp for me, the 8th one looks very interesting, especially MAS71 triangle parks and the alley between them!
- Maxis night edited and unedited: The direction is good, I'm curious of your next experiments 

My general advice: I don't know what graphic program do you use, but I suppose it enables working with layers (as Photoshop or GIMP). I would like to suggest you to play with layers! You can for example make a layer from you picture (ie. from background), then copy this layer a few times and apply various effects to various layers. Then you can change the opacity of every layer and this way you can experiment with various combinations. Using layers it is much better to change (or adjust) everything if you don't like the effect. There are also many options of merging layers, it can give very interesting effects in some cases.

Your BSC park is excellent! I like the way how is it placed between buildings. It is also good you used some empty grass fillers and there is much space in your park.

And your streams/ponds tutorial is fantastic! Very interesting for me, I played with this stuff a lot too and I know how much time does it need 
My only suggestion: If you have flowers/bushes at the riverside and trees a bit away, it would be good to put some bushes between trees too. There are some plants typical only for the riverside (such as Gizmo flora), but you can put between trees some Jeronij's grass and bushes. This way you will have a soft transiton between these areas and everything will look more natural (of course I'm saying about the version without streets, the street is a natural barrier and the difference can be greater in this case).

I hope I didn't make you completely bored, I want to help a bit too, and it is very nice to make various experiments together 

Adam

[JBSimio]

Great updates, Derry!   

The industrial areas look great!  The night mod fits very well.  And I love the park... it turned out quite nicely.

Thanks for the tutorial for TPW... I haven't really experimented much with it yet, so this should come in very handy.

Sorry to hear about your "incident."  I hope everything is alright... or as much as possible... and that you will mend quickly.  Looking forward to whatever you have in store for us next.

JB

[xxdita]

Derry, I hope your recovery is speedy. Perhaps a stronger brew is in order.
I'd say you've done quite well with your month in the spotlight, and I doubt it will be long before you get another round in it, so get some rest my friend.
-Nate

[catty]

Sorry to hear about the accident, hope you are feeling better soon.

Take Care 

Cathy

[EDGE4194]

Derry- sorry to hear about the accident, but so glad you're too seriously hurt. Take care and wish you a speedy recovery.

[rooker1]

Derry,
I hope you get well quickly and for the updat edon't worry, it will be a great way to start the new month.  As for last month, it was awesome, thank you so much for everything.
Robin 

[sebes]

Derry - I am sorry ot read about the accident. Not because we have to wait a while now for an update, but because I feel sorry for you!  I enjoyed the last month very much, and will eagerly await untill you feel good enough again to proceed with your project.

Hope the pain and rash goes away soon.... I'll brew you the best tea from town! With love!

[threestooges]

You certainly lived up to the OSITM expectations. Best thing about a category like that is that the interest doesn't end when the month does. Sorry to hear about the accident though from the sound of it things turned out about as well as could be expected. Talking on the phone I can kind of understand, but texting while driving... why? At any rate, I hope you mend quickly and don't worry, we'll still be interested in seeing what update you have planned next.
-Matt