Hey Hey Hey Addicts!
So the nuclear option came back in TSTO and it got me jonesing for a redesign in Wookieetown. While my finger IS hovering over that button, I’m not ready yet but it did make me consider my town and things I liked vs. new ideas I may have. I know some of you might be in the redesign (or design) phase for your Springfield so I thought I might share some pics with you to maybe provide inspiration.
We get quite a few comments asking for tips and design ideas for Springfield. While we do have a basic design guide here at Addicts (mostly just tips to get started), we thought it would be fun to create a series of posts based on different ways to design various areas of your Springfield. Note: In no way do we consider ourselves “experts” at this design stuff, in fact MANY of you could teach us a thing or two about town designs. These are just fun and different things we’ve come up with, inspired from our own minds or friends towns, to “spice up” our favorite virtual city!
For this edition, we’re going to look at PERSPECTIVE. Basically taking items in your town and making them look different than intended. It is one of my favorite things to do and I thought I’d share. Without further ado… let’s get started.
I love this work of perspective art from James Hopkins. It illustrates my point in this post perfectly. Designing is all about what your viewer sees. The way you place things can make certain items different than they were initially intended. Here are some examples:
So you want a limo for you rich Springfieldians but the only thing available is the DMV Limo with that “Student Driver” sign. I chose to hide it behind my mansion. You can also see I hid the base of the Left-handed Roadster with some hedges.
Here’s another example of hiding the Roadster with Boardwalk trees.
Another example of hiding something is this next one. I took the Egg Nog Bar from the 2013 Holiday Event and turned it into a hillbilly moonshine joint. Seemed only natural to make Cletus the proprietor.
One of the buildings I had that I never really liked the look of was the Cracker Factory. Inspiration struck recently when I realized it could flesh out my Springfield Mall area quite nicely provided I hid its sign. Here’s what I came up with. The billboards just seemed to tie it in even better.
It’s up to your imagination what a building can be. My neighboreeno Steven took the Springfield Skating Rink, Gulp ‘N’ Blow, El Chemistri, Up Up & Buffet, and the Sunsphere and created an airport in his town. Really rad IMHO.
There are all sorts of buildings you can mash together to make something new. The White Houses fit together nicely. All you need is a big decoration to hide what you don’t like.
My neighbor Cybersilly took the Ultrahouse 2 from the 2013 Halloween Event and made it an addition to Frink’s Lab. It’s really cool.
I love Frink and his lab so what I did to add to it was take the spooky walls and a Bomb Shelter to create an extra structure to Frink’s Lab. This could easily be done with Cobblestone Walls also. I think the ghost zapper works as a great addition too.
We all know that 3D is an example of forced perspective. We have some great info on that here. Using the lessons from previous 3Ds, I took the Sunsphere and made it part of my high rise area in Wookieetown. This is actually part of one of the movie sets I have near Krustylu Studios and Channel 6. (shoutout to Chris J. for that inspiration). You may also notice I wanted to give the Stonecutters their own plane. These building worked great to hide the Up Up & Buffet’s sign.
Using this same technique, you can put Billboards on the roofs of buildings. For the longest time, I have had a Radioactive Man Billboard on top of the Android’s Dungeon. Same idea also turns a silly Popsicle Stick Disco Stu into a roof decoration that makes sense to this Fuzzball.
Using a billboard and my Itchy, Scratchy & Poochie Balloons from Thanksgiving 2013, I was also able to spice up my new animation studio. The placement easily makes things look higher than they really are.
Another example of this is what I did with my 2013 Fireworks. Apu sold them during that event so I gave him a stockpile behind one of his Kwik-E-Marts. Just lined up the boxes with the roof edge and then used brown fencing to make it look larger than it was.
Using perspective, you can also create jokes in your town. I took the Escalator to Nowhere and decided anyone using this would obviously be deposited at Calmwood Mental Hospital. I love watching the crazies drop into its backyard.
Using water you can create pools for virtually anywhere. Until EA gives us one that’s not solid gold, my Wookiee-made ones are by my apartments and Community Center.
I also used perspective, a little 3D and the clever placement of my Springfield Buddhist Temple to create a waterfall flowing into a river.
The 2014 Stonecutter Event gave us those pretty pink Tube Slides. How about taking them and creating mega slides? The first folks I saw do this were reader Kelpek and Cybersilly during a Showoff. We all get inspiration from others. Here is my slide I put in my park a la Silly.
Kelpek took it one step further and if I had the room, I would so do this.
Got a few Kang & Kodos Topiaries from the 2014 Easter Event you don’t know what to do with? Well, you could always copy misspandi like I did. The top picture is hers and the bottom is the fun area I created on my Squidport.
There are so many possibilities in your town using perspective. Hopefully you enjoyed seeing some of mine. While I know a bunch of these examples used items you may not have, trust me when I say there are probably many more ideas I haven’t even considered that are purely premium. If you have something you came up with, please share with us. The awesomeness of TSTO is all the great things different designers come up with!
Well, that’s enough from me for now. Sound off below with any questions, comments, cussing or discussing you may have about all this. We love hearing from you. Happy designing and keep on tapa-tapa-tapping in the free world.
TTFN… Wookiee out!