Three New Stairs Tutorials

I've just written three (yup, three!) new tutorials - all of them on constructing split-level stairs.

I'll publish them next week. The first is called Building Split-level Corner Stairs, and is a simple way to do what used to be called L-shaped Stairs.

The second is Building a Free-standing Stairwell, and the third and longest is Building a Split-level Staircase.

I thought it made reading easier to have them as 3 short tutes rather than 1 v-e-e-e-e-e-ry big one! ;)

Preview pics coming shortly.

Venice Bridges

The last of my bridge tutorials (I think, anyway) is on Building a Venice Bridge. (I know it should say Venetian, but not everyone gets the 'big word'!) Almost all the bridges in the stunning city of Venice are built in the same style. And there are hundreds of them, because Venice has no roads, but has hundred of canals. The ’cars’ are boats – even the ambulances and fire vehicles! So for Sims, the bridge style is great because all the bridges are pedestrian only! They’re for walking on, just like bridges in the Sims2 game. They’re also beautiful. Most bridges elsewhere are either horizontal or curve at all levels. The Venetian style is more elegant because it combines curves and straight lines. Here's the preview pic for the tute:

Food poisoning

Hi everyone - sorry I've been away from the site for pretty much 2 weeks.

Last Monday was my birthday, and Ruthie has arranged for us to have a celebration break away the week before. I was at TSR briefly on my birthday, then we went out for a meal with friends ..... and I came down with (mild) food poisoning!!! Oh man.

It cleared up after a couple of days, but just left me feeling horrible weak. Anyway - fine now, and another tutorial is on the way. I'll post more in a wee while. :)

Tiger's Nest - Taktsang

I've been working on and off over the last few days on a very unusual project. This is the Tiger's Nest or Taktsang, a monastery high up on a mountain in Bhutan. I saw some pics of it and became more and more intrigued and impacted by it. So I've made it as a residential home - bought up by very rich Sims and modernised for a large family! It combines pagoda-type roofs and shallow-pitch roofs with buildings at different heights sprawling over the 'mountain top' (well, almost!!!) Here's a sample pic:

Next tutorial - on Gambrel Roofs

What the dickens is a gambrel roof? - I maybe hear someone say! :lol: (BTW, as you may have noticed, tutorials aren't showing in our 'Coming Soon' sidebars (yet?!), so I'll keep adding them to my blog.) Well, I put a wee Preface to this tutorial explaining, and showing some examples. They're now most common in North America so most guys there will know. It's a roof with 2 different slopes each side - 'gambrel' comes from gamba (latin) = leg, so it kind of means "bent at the knee"! As always, a pic is better than a hundred words:

The REAL Lord Tiko

Some of you have asked about our cat, Lord Tiko. He's a Birman. The breed is originally from Thailand. He's 11, and was a bit of a tough boy when younger, but recently I've learned how much cats love learning tricks - almost as much as dogs! Boy, I wish I'd known this earlier on. ;) So far we have all kinds of games with him rolling over and putting his paws in the air or lying on one side - he responds to gestures more than words so I point or wave. And he loves games with rituals, like taking the morning coffee up to Ruth (who's fast asleep in bed!). He purrs like a motorbike as we go up the stairs, and leaps on her in bed then lies next to her! Here he is:

Additional Tutorials

OK, so now we're up and running - thanks Maaike!!!

Over the next week or two I'll be publishing a range of building tutorials in TSR format - I hope you find them useful.

Some will be re-formats of my web-page tutorials, some will be completely new to TSR.

And thanks for reading this! ;)

Andy

Preview pics - new tutorials

There's a temporary delay at TSR for getting tutorials published, so meantime I can at least let you know that the first 3 will be the new Glass Domes one, plus revisions of 2 more. The Domes one is pitched at Intermediate level, and the other two at Basic level. I posted a preview pic of the Glass Domes tute last week in this blog. Here are the preview pics of the other two - many more to come! :) and

Tiko's Building Tutorials

While I'm getting my tutorials ready for the TSR format, you can access the ones I've already written by clicking on this link:

Tiko's tutorials

I'll aim to leave this blog up for a few days to let you know where to go! ;)

Btw, if you're looking for what are sometimes called Hanging or Suspended Bridges, look at the Jungle Walkways tutorial for the relevant info! ;)

Andy

New tutorials coming - gradually!

I've had to put Hagrid's Hut on the shelf - it just doesn't seem realistic yet. It will come - I'm sorry about the delay. So I've gone back to writing and revising tutorials. The first one will be on Building Simple Glass Domes - something which people often ask me how to do. :) This will be the title picture: