Update News

While everyone's still enjoying their vacations, I've been working behind the scenes today. Set building and rewriting the ending to suit the changes made when I wrote Guardian's Key.

But, I do believe everyone's rested enough, it's time to get back to work. So, making no promises, they should be back next Sunday and for the next six Sundays until we finish.

Take care,
Lachesis

Epilogue at OoT

Okay, now the Epilogue is up at Out of Touch. This time it's truly finished. :)

Thank you all for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

Ok, You Choose Because I Can't

After the Epilogue is posted and after I finish up The Search for Nanda at Sea of Moons (which I will do on consecutive Sundays) it will be time to start a new Lachesis' Tale. So, I've been going back and forth, do I move Angels' Cloud here and finish it up, or do I do Just Call it Magic as I always had planned?

Before you decide, let me say that Just Call it Magic is now and always has been Sébastien Baudelaire's story - in the present. It, like Out of Touch, was originally intended to be sold as a romantic suspense. In fact, I had twelve chapters completed before I set it aside. To make it fit here, I need to rework it, and have been doing just that, just not fast enough. :)

So, since I can't decide what to do - the reason for moving Angels' Cloud to LT would be because it's difficult to tell it within the confines of the simfic50 prompts - what would you like to see?

A complete Angels' Cloud or
Sébastien's story?

Thanks,
Lachesis

Okay, I'm Feeble :)

I know I said Chapter Twenty-Six was the end of Out of Touch, Out of Time. However, after sleeping on it and then looking at it today, I realize there are just some loose ends that I need to tie up. So, I've written an Epilogue. It's short, but I now feel like the story's complete. :)

I'll post a quick notice to let you know when it's up. It shouldn't take terribly long, it's less than 500 words, no more than about three pictures.

Also, at the bottom of the Epilogue, I've included a note explaining how the two timelines differ.

Now, the story is complete. This time I feel comfortable with it. Thank you all for reading.

Take care,
Lachesis

OoT Final Chapter

Chapter Twenty-Six, the final chapter, has been posted! Thank you everyone so incredibly much for going along on this journey with me. I really hope you've enjoyed it and the ending is everything you want it to be. :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Take care,
Lachesis

(Edit 5/26/09 - This is the final chapter, but not exactly the end. I've decided on an Epilogue and I will get that posted as soon as possible.)

Almost Finished ;)

Out of Touch Chapter Twenty-Five posted tonight.

Thank you for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

Spot Coloring Your Pictures

Recently I did a one-page story where the world was black and white but the people were in color. I thought I'd share how I did it.

I suggest you choose your characters carefully. I made the mistake of using a hairstyle for my female that had tendrils of hair hanging down the sides of her face. Looked nice, but made the Photoshoping a real challenge. For this tutorial, I'm using Terre from the above mentioned story.

Select Brush Tool A and Mask Mode. Make sure your brush has a hard edge, 100% Hardness. To make my life easy, I use an overlay Opacity of 63% and I like red so that's the color I use. Any color’s fine. :)

Try to stay within the area where you want to keep the color; but if you slip, don’t worry, we’ll erase that later. Blowing up the area with the magnifying glass is very helpful.

I find it easiest to carefully outline what I want to mask off with a small brush and then go back and paint in the middle with as large a brush as possible. Oh, and remember to lift your finger off your mouse every now and then so if you make a mistake you don’t have to undo a very large portion of the masking you just put in. Also, being careful as possible makes it easier. You can erase, but that's just a waste of time. For once in your life, staying inside the lines is a good thing.

Once your selection is filled in, choose Select, Inverse.

Now the background is masked and Terre, in my case, is not.

Choose Layer, New, Layer via Copy.

You’ll notice your Layer pallet has two layers, one of just Terre and the background layer with everything. Make sure your background layer is selected and choose Enhance, Adjust Color, Remove Color.

There, the background is black and white and Terre is still in color.

You’ll notice in my example that around his hair brown from the bricks is still showing. Make sure you have the layer with your color selected.

Using the erase tool at 100% opacity, start carefully erasing anywhere you may have slipped or gone over the line with the mask brush, Terre should be the only color showing.

Since Terre has black hair, I don’t have to be careful erasing and because I made a layer using a copy, the black and white version of Terre is still behind him, so I won’t really erase his hair at all, I’ll just reveal what’s underneath. I had to be much more careful with Soleil, but I didn’t want to get that complicated with this tutorial. Not only was Terre’s hair forgiving, but so was his clothing. (I'm just showing the two layers below, you don't want to move the top layer off the background. If you do accidently slide the color layer over, undo and it'll snap back in place.)

Last step go to Layer, Flatten Image.

Now save however you normally do.

(Just a note, as I use Photoshop Elements 2, my layer pallet doesn't give me the option to create a mask layer, and I'm not even sure how that works. But if you can make a mask that way, then it might be easier than coloring the mask in. The rest of the steps would still remain the same.)

Hope this helps take some of the mystery out of selectively using color.

Lachesis

One Down, Two to Go

OoT updated with Chapter Twenty-Four.

I seriously think I've set a record the the least amount of pictures I've ever used in an update. :D But really, how many ways can two people sit on a couch staring at a computer? I'm not that creative.

Thank you all for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

Pose Box Update

First and foremost, thank you Phoenix for letting me pilfer your screens from Sim Haven. :D

Pose Boxes added are:

• Miya's Box
• C's Pose Box
• RayE-scape BJD Pose Box
• Pose Box v1.5 CatdogII
• 20090216-Posebox

And there was at least one pose for each of the catalogs.

Take care,
Lachesis

General Mutterings from the Corners of My Mind...

With Out of Touch coming to an end in three chapters, and The Search for Nanda having only a handful of parts left, I've been giving thought to how to handle these updates.

I've decided that the end of stories, if done correctly, should be answering questions and tying up loose ends. Hopefully, if I've done my job, that's precisely what's going to happen with these two stories.

Therefore, I've decided to put SoM on hiatus until Out of Touch ends. This means the next three Sunday updates will be Out of Touch.

Then I will be free to concentrate and end The Search for Nanda on consecutive weeks without breaking the momentum.

As for where other stories are going. I was supposed to start a new Lachesis' Tales with Just Call it Magic. Unfortunately, that story, although started, just doesn't seem to be cooperating, and is lacking the magic at the moment, so it has been shelved. It's a story and character I love, so hopefully, it will talk to me soon.

However, not to worry, I've also been giving thought to the future of Lachesis' Falderal and the simfic50 challenge. When I started it, it was very much my intention to have fun with it. To write little vignettes for each of the prompts. I never intended for there to be storylines. Sebastien follows along with that desire very nicely as each of his stories are actually contained vignettes. Doing the same with the Guardian Angel characters would be quite easy as well, although I do have one more written with Alexander and Melissa that will more or less tie up that storyline.

But, Angels' Cloud is another matter entirely. I've grown quite fond of the story and the characters but it will not fit into the vignette pattern. Beginnings was a desperate attempt to find something, anything that would allow it to fit within the simfic50 guidelines. So, I'm going to move it into the next Lachesis' Tales slot.

For the time being, I'm not sure how it will be updated. Between pose boxes, SoM The Search for Nanda followed immediately by Guardian's Key

(which is completely written - so not to worry) and my newest project which I'm looking forward to, but will keep a secret for just a little while longer, getting AC written completely and then updated will take sometime.

So much to do... but you will not be left without something to read. That I promise.

Take care,
Lachesis

Out of Touch Updates

Chapter Twenty-Three added. Wow, it seems like it took me quite a long time to get this up today. :0

Actually, that's because when I read the chapter through this morning, I realized I'd made so many minor changes along the way that it no longer made sense, and I had to completely rewrite the entire chapter. That's a new one for me, but hopefully, I made a chapter that now flows with the rest instead of seeming weird and out of place.

Thank you everyone for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

Kerrin Discovers a New Ability

Pollux Part 8, Revelation has been added.

No, his new ability is not levitating glasses, he was just screwing around between takes. LOL

Behind the scenes. :D Fortunately, with the pose box catalog, I choose which poses I'm going to use before I start simming, so I don't have as many on set as I used to. Also, Ixchel isn't actually sitting on anything, I had to move her off the chair so Xavier could do his magique.

Also, the guy who's selected is Billy Extra. I use residential lots that I give to an extra and then I teleport the main characters in. Billy's good for things like keeping the fire lit and because he doesn't do anything, I will select him when the main characters are doing actions that put the action square in the corner. Keeps me from having to clean up the picture in Photoshop. ;)

Thank you everyone for reading!

Take care,
Lachesis

4 More Pose Boxes

Pose boxes added to all catalogs except Kneel.

Take care,
Lachesis