Four movies, millions of views, hundreds of fans.. why me?

The Site:
My name is Jaydee and this is my personal site showcasing movies I've made using Sims 2 game engine. You can watch/download my movies as well as find lots of information on each movie in the movies section. Some of my characters are also available for download in the Downloads section. And if you are looking for the hacks I've made, check out the MovieMaking Help here

How movies are made:
The truth is.. Sims 2 game isn't perfect for moviemaking. Well, it was never meant to be a virtual moviemaking studio in the first place. So, apart from the inbuilt video capture and preset angles, there are very little movie making features in the game. To achieve some acceptable results, you will have to reconfigure the camera controls, download alot of user created content and even resort to some hacking. That's why many people get so blown away the first time they see a well made sim movie, because it's so not what their games look like by default.

The main concept of the Sims movie making is in fact quite simple. 1. Make your sims act out whatever you have in your mind.. 2. Capture it. Then get all the little clips you have made and edit them together making it seem like a continuous sequence shot with several cameras.
In fact, most of the time what you see in movies is not the game creators intended it to be. For example, if you want a sim to fall on the floor, you should make them play bowling and wait till they trip and fall. Of course there are hacks which will make your sims do various things without provoking them to do everything in-game, but that's how movies were made before all those hacks were developed. My movies rely on modding the game and objects alot, I've even created some of my own animations. You can check out my Making of From Yesterday page to see more examples of these technical things.

How it started:

I've been a Sims fan ever since The Sims 1 came out, so of course, once I got sims 2, I played it non-stop for a very long time. That's when I had a chance to learn how to control the camera well, as I used to take alot of screenshots and learn about the interactions and cheats which were in the game. By the time I got my computer upgraded, I've played through 6 generations and I could already start thinking about making the movies of my own.

Although back then I didn't even suspect you could make actual movies in sims. I knew there was a video capture option, but to me it seemed to be more like a family recordings cam for your sims. But later I discovered that you actually can make 'movies.' On the official Sims 2 website I saw the halloween contest winners videos and I was amazed at what you could do with the game. I remember April Hoffmann's movie called 'Missing' impressed me the most, and then I discovered Sim-Movies site (no longer online) and watched alot of movies there, which inspired me as well. So when my computer was finally upgraded, the first thing I did was actually make a movie. And you know which one :)

and ......for more information about moviemaking and my movies, check out my blog and making of movies pages.