simmerberlin

[simmerberlin]

a u t u m n .

1. hat / overalls / boots 

2. hat / outfit / socks / boots 

3. bow / dress / socks / shoes 

4. hat / dress / socks / boots

[simmerberlin]

l i n k s .

1  /  2  /  3  /  4  /  5

6  /  7  /  8  /  9  /  10

11  /  12  /  13  /  14  /  15

16  /  17  /  18  /  19  /  20

21  /  22  /  23  /  24  /  25

[simmerberlin]

First of all, thank you so much for all your contents. When I started storytelling your poses were literally a blessing (and they still are!).

I was wondering if you'd feel okay sharing some tips/tricks on how to make a good reshade preset.

I know that personal taste has a big impact on a reshade preset, but maybe you have some good tips for a good base?

I feel so dumb looking at that window for MINUTES without knowing what are the best values to edit 🤪 I still struggle a lot with my DOF!

What are your must have shaders for a nice preset? Thank you so much in advance, whatever your reply will be!

Sending you lot of love 💕🥺

Helloooo! Omg thank you so much, you put a really big smile on my face! You're right, presets mostly rely on personal taste, but I can totally share how I approach making a new one!

I follow these steps:

MXAO (quint)

SMAA and FXAA

Sharpen (adaptivesharpen/highpasssharpen/lumasharpen/unsharp)

Smoothing (surfaceblur/gaussianblur)

DOF (quint, cinematic/martymcfly)

Special effects (bloom/chromatic aberration/ambientlight/godrays)

Color (luts/colorgradients/quintlightroom)

Grain (filmgrain)

Border

And that's about it! I move forward step by step, so for example I only start playing with colours after I'm done with everything else. I never use a lut as it is, always take it as a starting point and then adjust the hue/saturation/exposure of colours one by one with quintlightroom shader. The list above is just a rough roadmap, sometimes I use other shaders too.

As for more general advice, whenever I want to make a new preset, I use a pretty set I have (or build a new one to get in the mood lol) and position the camera in tab mode as if I am going to take a picture. I change the position of the camera (and therefore the picture) as I move forward. Like, when making adjustments for DOF, I try it on a close up first, but then move the camera for a wider shot to see how it reacts to those kinds of shots. For color adjustments, I make sure that there are items with enough variety of colours in the set, so that I can see how the effects work on them clearly.

And lastly, I make multiple copies of the preset I am working on so that if I mess it up at one point, I can do some damage control lol.

Hope this helps!!

[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y   f i v e .

On our last day, our day is brightened by the wild Jamesons. Tobias, Arya, Ophelia and Johnny Jr... I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH! One of those households where there's always something (fun) going on. Loud, spontaneous, mischievous, full of laughter and surrounded by soooo much love. Both Arya and Tobi deserve the world after everything they’ve gone through, and seeing them happy is priceless. This is once again, seven years after the end of “Mind of Winter”, and is absolutely one of my favourites in this project.

Aaaand that was it! The end. Hope you had fun! 

Take care!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

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[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y   f o u r .

Alice and Lulu, MY LOVES!! This is somewhere around the end of chapter two of “Before I Sleep”, and as always they are living their best lives.

We are almost done with the calendar, hope you enjoyed it so far! See you tomorrow with the last pack :)

Enjoy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y   t h r e e .

On day twenty three we have Annie and Carrie ON BUMPER CARS! Hahaha I don’t know why this entire idea makes me so happy but it does! This should be a couple of years after they started dating. Babies <3

Meshing this thing was way more difficult and time consuming than I thought it would be... I guess you never know how complicated an object truly is until you try to mesh it... Turned out cute though! And the texturing part was super fun! It has 12 swatches some of which you can see below. 

Enjooooy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x] and [x]

[simmerberlin]

POSING TIPS AND TRICKS VOL 4: WALKING POSES

Hey friends, long time no tutorials! I recently received a question about making natural looking walking poses and thought it was time for another one! 

Walking poses are essential to a lot of storytellers, but when you're supposed to show a flow of motion in a frozen moment it gets a bit difficult... In the process of making 8649 million poses for my stories, I have learned a couple of things about making them look more natural (rather than disgruntled legos), soo here they are!

1. Lower Body

When making a walking pose, the first instinct is to move the legs and call it a day. However, walking is actually quite a complex process. And moving the legs is just the first step of the first step. When we leave it there, we make Luna upset.

After that, we are pressing 3 to switch to the side view. Now we need to rotate the toe and the ankle that is behind to show the movement.

Now, we are pressing 1 to switch back to the front view. Select the thigh point to rotate them on the y-axis. To super duper easily do that, select the thigh point, press R and then press Y. As a rule, whatever leg is in the front, the hip should be rotated that way too.

Now, as a finishing touch, we will rotate the thighs again, but this time in the z-axis! (select the joint, press R, press Z) And juuuust a tad, okay, it should be super subtle!

Aand now we are done with the first step! Luna already looks less upset with us, must be a good sign.

2. Upper Body

Now, the golden rule is that the legs and arms counter balance each other. So, if the left leg is in the front, the left arm should be moved the other way.

Now, whichever arm is in the front, we need to rotate the shoulders that way too. Select the clavicle joint, press R, press Z and you are ready to rotate.

Now, we need to make the torso move with the rest of the body. Keep in mind that you need to balance it out every time you rotate something. For example, we rotate the chest to the left, so we need to rotate the neck to the right. This is just an example, you may want a different look, but whatever the goal is, mind the balance. Neck, spine, pelvis... All of these joints can add a lot to a pose.

For the finishing touch, we lower the shoulder that is behind a little, lift the one that is in the front, and rotate the elbows and hands inwards juuust a tiny bit. 

Aaaand that was it for the second step! Of course there are so many things we can do to improve this, but for a base it's a good point to start from! Even Luna looks pleased haha.

Now that we are done with the base look and understood the basics, you can explore rotating which joint does what, and have great fun with it! Possibilities are endless!

Of course, this isn't the only or the best way to make a walking pose, it’s just how I approach making mine! That being said, hope it was helpful!

Cheers!

[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y   t w o .

On day twenty two we have Miho and Ceci (again, around seven years after the end of “Mind of Winter”) having their daily morning run. They were already quite athletic given their professions and lifestyles, but ever since Litsa was born they’ve been extra careful with their health. I love them so much, SO MUCH!

Enjoy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y   o n e .

Are we ready for another future blip? (WE ARE, WE ARE!) Here we have our king Roje, having some lovely beach time with their wild child Winter and never before seen ray of sunshine Coral, about seven years after the end of “Mind of Winter”. I laughed a lot while making this, the peak Sagittarius child of a die hard Capricorn and a control freak Libra... Not a dull day in this household I'm telling you, not even one.

Enjoooy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

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[simmerberlin]

d a y    t w e n t y .

On day twenty, we have another future blip (yes, seven years after the end of “Mind of Winter” hehe), in which Mariah and Babis are competing against Becky and Jana at the bowling alley. Where are Becky and Jana then, one might ask, well of course after the parents’ (lovingly) embarrassing victory dance, they are (lovingly) hiding somewhere.

Bowling ball is assigned to stigmata and can be found in hats. 

Enjoy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x] and [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    n i n e t e e n .

On day nineteen we have Pixie and Eddie sometime after the end of “Mind of Winter”. They are so cute together ahh ;-; 

I used this phone [x]

Enjoy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    e i g h t e e n .

On day eighteen, we have Elin and Chuck being Elin and Chuck, sometime after the end of “Mind of Winter”. Some things never change hehe.

Both the grocery bag and the plastic bag (of avocados) are assigned to stigmata and can be found in hats. Enjoy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x] and [x] and [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    s e v e n t e e n .

On day seventeen we have the Wiley siblings, Norah and Evan, having a lovely coffee chat, sometime after the end of “A Dream Within a Dream”. My sunshines <3

Coffee cup accessory is assigned to stigmata and can be found in hats.

Cheers!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x] and [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    s i x t e e n .

Aah this one... This one with Miles and Luz, a couple of years after the end of “Parallel Lines”, dancing and being so much in love... Their chemistry is something else... They are something else... Something gold.

From my slow dancers to yours,

Cheers!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x]

[simmerberlin]

Hello! I'm fully obsessed with your advent calendar, especially with all the future blips! It's just so cute to see these little snippets of everyday life. What's Dante's daughter's name? (I was hoping to add her to the family tree)

Aaaaa thank you thank youuu! I'm so happy to hear that, it was really nice to be able to spend some extra time with them :) Dante's daughter's name is Sarah, and she is the sweetest! And since we're here I'll say it once again: Thank you for that AMAZING family tree <3

[simmerberlin]

d a y    f i f t e e n .

Are we ready for another future blip? Here we have a fourteen year old Becky with an almost eleven year old Litsa, having some quality auntie-niece time lol. All Litsa asked for was a simple ride home, but Becky being Becky, of course that ride had to end up like that, with one that is fast, and one (understandably) furious hahaha.

So, after that scuba gear, I thought, but what if I tried to mesh a bike too? It was one of most difficult things I've ever made in blender, and it’s not perfect at all, but it was fun to work on! Especially the details!

That chain took me 300 years to figure out, so here I'm celebrating with a close up shot of it hahaha. The bike’s around 65k poly (because of the amount of details) but feel free to decimate it if you want to. Anyway, it has a bunch of swatches, and I also made a  basket as a separate object so that you can use the bike with or without a basket.

Enjooooooy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x] and [x] and [x]

[simmerberlin]

d a y    f o u r t e e n .

On day fourteen we have Alexis and Gary a couple of years after they founded their law firm, being busy busy busy. It was not easy at all but oh well we all know how goal driven and hardworking they both are. What can I say, they make a good team :)

I used this phone [x]

Enjoooy!

--

TOU: Do not claim my work as yours. That’s all.

--

Download [x]