Whatever Happened…
here’s basically an answer to all the people who are wondering what I’m up to and why I stopped making movies…
I know that some of you have discovered my movies not so long ago, but for me, it’s really been ages. I’ve made my first movie a few months after I started playing Sims 2. Which was 4.5 years ago!
I’ve always been creative, but guess making sims movies was something which actually made me push my creativity to the next level. It was an amazing experience while it lasted. I have learned so much.. from custom content creation to filming and storyline development. and then even some simple animation. all this experience really gave me alot..
but it was 5 years ago and things were really different in my life… back then I was just a student trying to procrastinate my college work, so I just did what I felt most passionate about, which at that time were sims and moviemaking. now that I quit the study I didn’t care about anyways, I just have to occupy myself with something that would help me pay my bills and satisfy my shopping addiction :P and making sims movies is definitely not gonna do that. You know, it’s not like i don’t do anything for ‘fun’ anymore, but making a movie doesnt take just a few nights, it’s just way too time consuming for a hobby
The other thing is my ‘awesome’ personality.. I get into something, then after a while I burn out and get bored with it, and then I get into another thing. When I’m bored with that one, I might go back to first one or just move on to something else. Yes, very annoying…Same was with the sims.. at first I was so into it, but then after I got that ‘been there, done that’ feeling, I cooled off. Now that sims 3 was rather a disappointment, I’m still lacking the interest. I’m really jealous of people who have just one passion in life. I really wish I worked this way. But I need diversity to keep me happy.
I can’t say I’m completely done with making movies. There are at least 2 things I still have to do (in this life). One is a movie I came up with even before making my Nightlife movie. At that time it was totally impossible… even now it would be ALOT of work. and it also would be nice to make that from yesterday ’sequel’ (i put it in quotation marks basically because i know that it wont be made with sims 2 and therefore the ‘actors’ most probably won’t look too much like themselves and the story that i have in mind is rather disconnected, so it might end up being more like a standlone movie in fact)
and the biggest ‘problem’ is that i really don’t feel like making movies with sims anymore.
as for sims 2.. i didnt have an intention of getting rid of it at first.. but sometime around when sims 3 came out my hard drive died, or should i say i killed it, so basically ive decided to let it go rather than reinstalling whole game and 7 or so eps (as i had no idea where half of those disks were n so on)
plus it’s just too lo-fi even though i do have to admit their faces look simply gorgeous comparing to sims 3 lol
and sims 3, i don’t really see the potential in it. i posted a 10 reasons why i hated sims 3 blog when it just came out. now i could come up with a list of 100 things lol
ive been playing it from time to time, but lately i got bored of even playing as there is literally NOTHING to do in the game. the activities they threw in there like fishing and gardening and collecting are not doing it for me for some reason… the Sims look fugly, or not good enough. there is no control over lighting/time of the day, cc(meshes) is made through milkshape i HATE milkshape. i’ve seen there is animation tool in development but again it’s for milkshape
and finally i’m sick of giving up my own ideas just because sims can’t do this or that, From yesterday is a great example of that. it looked sooo much better in my head lol. so i’ve really had enough, guess no more sims
Oh and another thing.. as most of you know I’ve had some ‘problems’ with copyrighted music in my vids. The voice of reason tells me that I should be using my own sound tracks to avoid that drama..But i don’t think I wanna go there. I didn’t have a ‘natural’ gift for music, so it would take me forever to really evolve in that direction. and all this so that I could make videos.. doesn’t sound right.
So this also to a certain (but rather small extent) discourages me.
So bottomline, yes I’m still on a break, but I’m not saying that I don’t want to mess with moviemaking ever again. So I guess y’all just gonna have to wait
Peace;]
March 1st, 2010 at 10:06 am
I agree with you with the sims 3 it was a flop with it so much on sims 2 was lost, im in movie hatius to bored for a while i play sims 2 but i dont film sometimes i do but just for a little story in the game. I have a short attention span wich doesnt help >,<. I make animation but dont post them and i made some animations from your movie ‘From Yesterday’ that were kinda cool lol. Anyway i hope your doing fine just saw this topic so i thought id pop in and read it take care :)
March 7th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Aww, well I’d still love to see another movie made by you, no matter how long it takes. “From Yesterday” was jaw-dropping and just incredible–I didn’t even know the sims game could do that. I think you have a real gift for stories and movie directing, so please don’t give that up.
March 11th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Jaydee, I really understand… I get bored by playing the sims 2 but currently I want to write a story, and then another day continuing my comic and then filmimg my movie in the sims… We have something in common <3]
We like to experiment other stuff too, not just do the same thing ;)
March 15th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I understand I have started creating sims 2 stories but either my game would mess up, I would get writer’s black, or i’d get bored. But I gotta admitt you made a heck of a lot of great sims 2 movies I tried to create one but let’s just say i’m not as talented. XD
March 19th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Awww. I have been hooked on your videos. They actually looked life-like and worth watching unlike those other ones I’ve been watching. Thanks JD. I wish you could make more :(
March 19th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
I’m so sad a god of moviemaking dies… I mean, You were the best and now it’s just… “I’m bored of The Sims… No movies”…
Ok this is just my opinion, but think at all the Jaydee(THE FAMOUS JAYDEE WHICH WAS AND IT’S STILL THE BEST) fans which were waiting for something new to come up from JAYDEE(I MEAN JAYDEE!!!) and you just post in your blog Officially o hiatus… Do you think this was beautiful or it made the millions of people which love you to feel fine?
No…
Ok, i’m sorry for this stupid comment which may be annoying…
Happy NO MORE Simming!
March 19th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
well, that was tad overdramatic…
I just said straight up how i felt about the situation and i think it’s better than giving people some false hopes and making them wait and wait and wait for nothing. now that would be just plain annoying.
i did try my best to explain in this blog why i don’t want to deal with sims anymore, and there were many more other reasons than just being bored. Sorry if it makes anyone sad, but in fact i am no god and i don’t have complete control over my life and the way i feel about things. so it is what it is..
March 30th, 2010 at 5:47 am
Hey Jaydee.
I make sims 2 movies, and it would be a lie to say that I had no interest in making movies until I saw your ‘Helena’. Seriously, I watched it and something clicked, and I thought “Dude, I’m going to make a Sims 2 movie.” Of course, the attempt was pitiful, nowhere near as good as your videos. Up to now I’ve made five of my own, they’re on YouTube and they’ve got a couple of hundred views between them.
What I thought when I read this blog was partly that you’ve gone insane. The other half of me accepted that Sims can get really boring if you’ve burned out your enthusiasm. I understand there has to be a time and a place for it, and you have to be in the right mood. I understand that you have less time on your hands than you did five years ago, but please, PLEASE, don’t stop making videos!
Looooove, TaraaSims2 xoxo
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
this is the same Alexis on the blog 10 Things I Hate ABout Sims 3. Ever since I saw your movies, I was inspired to make my own vids. I totally understand what your feeling. But, what I was feeling was, like 2 days. But just cuz I was like “THIS SUCKS CHEESE!” and went back to my simming. I just wanted you 2 know that cuz of you I have made my own sims 2 series, and it’s not that bad. The problem is, I have no custom content, cuz I don’t have internet access on my computer, and im not downloading sims 2 on my laptop uz it’ll take up 2 much space….its a hard knock life….lol o nd if u r gonna stop, atleast finish the 2 vids that u wanna do! the From Yesterday sequel and the 1 u wanted 2 do b4 NANLM
April 10th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
I’ll be honest, I was a little let down when I read your blog, but I understand where you are coming from. I really do.
Your movies are awesome, and I hope that whatever you’ve found to do now is going well for you.
April 15th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Jeesh machinima is fucking brain twisting lol btw jaydee did u no tht u r in the guiness book of world recordd
April 17th, 2010 at 2:57 am
Jaydee, I understand that you want to stop. I’m not saying I’m not dissapointed, your a natural. Your movies are the best I’ve seen. Way better than I can do.
But I know that it’s something that got old and it’s not as important, so I don’t blame you for stopping.
Although it would be nice if you could squeeze in a movie from time to time. Not editing it full on time, but little parts when you feel like it.
I’ve never seen any Sims 2 movies that are as amazing as yours and I’m sure allot of people would agree. Please don’t think that we don’t appreciate that. People are just upset because you exeed in movie making and having you stop is like deleting Sims from the face of the earth.
I know it’s not your fault, though. And I respect you for telling us straight out that your done instead of having us wait and pull all our hair out in the process xD
(I’m still wondering how you got the angles and just..wow. You’re amazing.)
April 18th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I can admit I’m going to miss your movies. They were fantastic, but do you think you could still try and fit a few shorts in here and there? If you get good enough with these movies, you could further your gift into something that could make money!
April 18th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Ah, I’m sad to read Jaydee this as I am a big fan of your movies (have been following your work since ‘Helena’)
But, in a way I understand as I too was very disappointed by the Sims 3 (and the sims 2 is too low-tech now)
What really irritated me about the Sims 3 was EA’s half-assed attempt at ‘giving us new machinima tools’ which was just an online, crappy windows movie maker-type editor. I was like, ‘really EA? That’s the best you could come up with?!’
Slighty off topic (but still relevant) there is a Playstation 3 game called ‘Uncharted 2′ and this is a 3rd person-shooter type game, with an online multiplayer. Anyway, getting to the point- Uncharted has a bunch of AMAZING machinima tools such as the ability to adjust depth-of-field, Field of view, ambient lighting, sunlight, camera tilt, fog, the color of light, slow-mo, green screen, changable walk/run modes, lip-sync etc. This can all be done very easily in the options menu AND the developers just threw it in as a ‘bonus’ to the people who play the online component.
Here’s the example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5kwtsDXfE (fast-forward to 1:45)
What I’m saying is, The Sims developers really need to step up their game,and take a leaf out of Uncharted 2s book. EA made a great product with The Sims 2 (for its day) but Sims 3 was lacking innovation and the passion which is disappointing.
April 18th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
well, thanks guys, i’m glad that at least there are some people who can understand and dont think i’m crazy lol:P
@Samantha, i don’t really think that working on a movie from time to time would work for me.. it’s just i’m not that type of a person, i need to be completely obsessed with something to get anything done, otherwise i know i will just do nothing. and movies do require that kind of dedication, you need to live and breathe with it in order to make it good. thats the only way i know how to do it
@Adeli Reid, i duno, i always thought what i was doing fell into definition of shorts lol how can it be even shorter than that haha
like to me it’s only a natural thing to quit sims, like all the moviemakers that were active when i was and all those ppl i looked up to also MIA right now(well maybe except Crystal lol) even the Sims99, the site where i started out is just dead now.. hopefully i’ll make some movies in the future, but sims is just not cut for that..
@Ingrid tbh didn’t like the game itself, but yeah, the cinema mode is really cool, so totally agree on ea being lazy. it seems like they dont really care about the ‘creative’ part of the community. i mean what percentage of the sims gamers actually makes movies? 1-2% at most? so it’s clear that machinima features are not their priority, game customization either, as then ‘no one will buy from the store’. even though the game sucks, it’s still popular, so really doubt ea really cares to make it better, they know that kids will buy it no matter what..
April 18th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Ohh I get it. Sorry, the episodes of my sims series are, at most, 5 minutes long, but they don’t really stand out. It’s mostly just actions and wording, but it’s not much.
I can see, and especially with your movies, that it does in fact, take dedication and time.
We’re all just trying to say that we get how you want to stop, we just absolutly love your videos and we think they are amazing, and there being so little of them, it’s kinda weird that your quitting (Not much to obsess over xD)
I’m allot like you, though, so I totally get it.
=]
April 18th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Oh one more thing, Jaydee. I’m trying to create an account, but the activation Email never came. I’ve sent another one out like 3 times and no progress D: I first signed up yesterday.
April 18th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
you mean the forum? well i just went there and yes you’re not the only one who had the problem . for some reason it wont send emails, same happened to my guestbook.. tbh i have no idea why. well i’ll just manually approve everyone then..
April 19th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Oh, thanks so much Jaydee :D!
April 29th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
You are soooo right! sometimes videos look so good in our heads and then we try to do it we get bored at stuff and we just give up the idea. It’s good to know I’m not alone in the world! >_>
And again, so right about sims 3. Not enough!
One more thing, if I may ask, what are you going in college. What I mean is, what are you going to do for a living? I realy think you shoud go to movie making (but in real life this time. Actors are not like sims, they do anything! ;P)
Stay cool, and good luck with the other video you mentioned! ;D
April 29th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Answering to that post where you replyed to alot of people, yeah, ea doesn’t care about minority.
Sometimes I think that the sims shouldn’t have evolved so quickly and still be that 1 or 2 forums per country for the game, and not much creations! >_>
May 9th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
@Danyyel
I don’t go to college.. tried that, not for meXD and guess making live actions films isn’t my thing either.. the actors will do anything but unfortunately they have real needs and emotions unlike pixel ppl, so i’m much more comfortable working with those..
May 29th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I really do wish that you would make another movie. I mean they’re absolutely awesome. And I do wish I had the patience to make a movie, but unfortunately I’m not too keen on have to download everything! I think I’d have to have a ton load of disc space, etc. I get the ideas in my head, but I know that there’s no way that they’ll come out as good as they are in my head. >.< And certainly no where near as good as yours.
June 13th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
OMG DON’T GIVE UP SOMETHIN YOUR GOOD AT UR MOVIES ROCK
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Oh, no! You cann’t do it! You are the best! Your movies are great and funny (especially NightLife move) and you know it!
I love them very much! And I’ll hope you will do movies again and again. ^_^
June 25th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Oh my God, it’s really sad.
But guess what?! I totally agree/understand everything you said in this post.
I also am a SimsMovieMaker and started doing videos in 2004, when I was still in High School. Time was really not the problem, so doing movies was more like a cool thing to do (I guess didn’t had anything better to do haha). Making videos was really cool and also something that was giving me pleasure to do. I mean, putting in a video something that was in your head is cool, right?
Well, like you, I losted that attraction for Sims and got really frustrated with Sims 3. And, life goes on, and adult life is not like when I was a teenager. LOL
Your personality, your reasons are exactly the same as mine. I guess you are my soulmate or something. lol
Well, all I can say is, if you do anything in your life like your movies, you will succeed.
Best wishes for your life, Jaydee. ;)
June 26th, 2010 at 5:50 am
well i’m glad that at least one person totally understands it, so thanks so much for the comment:) yep when the novelty wears off time to move on to something new. i’m glad there are a few more things i’m pretty good at besides the movies, so i guess i’ll be fine haha
and to everyone else, like i said in the post, i don’t give up completely, just taking a looong break buut no more sims of course:P
July 1st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
darn it! you’re quitting (sort of, more on a break, i guess). that sucks. oh well it’s ur choice anyway…i was SO excited for the sims 3 because they made it sound SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than the sims 2…but it was a huge disappointment. first of all, it crashed after 20 minutes, so my dad had to tweak my computer and tear it open and stuff just to make it work, which kind of made my computer so awkwardly stupid and slow…i’m afraid to uninstall it cuz we got it for $50 and my mom and dad (i’m 12, you know, i’m not 40 and live with my parents dumdums) would be upset for wasting the money. but it wasn’t my fault! i thought that the game would be SICK! but it wasn’t :( and i uninstalled the sims 2 cuz the sims 3 totally took up SO MUCH SPACE on my stupid computer, and i have all 8 of my ep discs for the sims 2, i just don’t have the small booklet thing with all the info and serial code…so i can’t uninstall the sims 3 and reinstall the sims 2 :( i only have the little booklet and serial codes for The Sims 2, The Sims 2: OFB, and this other one i don’t feel like checking right now. i don’t even hvae The Sims 2: Pets booklet! that was my favorite :( god dammit >:( (that’s a mad emoticon) well i might as well just make do with moviemaking with the sims 3…i’m making a movie out of a green day song called “21 guns”…LOVE GREEN DAY! oh yeah, jaydee, i love 30stm too! they rock :) i love your taste in music! and i’m the same way…i’m never really interested in ONE thing for my whole life: i just got in to moviemaking after seeing your sims 2 version of From Yesterday :D
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
wow you sure love to talk.. you should start a vlog or something lol anyways, i replied to your gb entry.. i’m no expert on sims3 really, i just have been playing it not more than that. anyways good luck with your movie thats a cool song choice btw
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:16 am
I know what you feel, I also have that personality of leaving things when I started to get bored of it. You know you’re a talented person. and you inspires me.. I’m really trying hard to make videos that are as awesome as yours.
I still want you to create your Sims Videos, but if ever you don’t really want to create sims video anymore, we understand, but at least be proud.. your videos encouraged me to create my own videos as well..
in contrary with you, I only made my videos in just one night. and now I can understand why i can’t make awesome videos like yours.
Do what you want to do. If you want to create sims video again then your very much welcome.
July 24th, 2010 at 7:04 am
It’s great to know what your up to. I hope you find something you love and can stick with. :)
Best of wishes!
July 31st, 2010 at 2:30 pm
you forgot that the new animations in The sims 3 are reminiscent of Super smash Bros Brawl….
abrupt, less fluid, more quickly driven, feeling half-assed, without a second of love or attention to the movements. =p
July 31st, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I’ve been keeping up with your movies since around the time of “sk8r boi”. I remember them as the best, and agree with all of your thoughts. I used to make a comic with the Sims 2. following a hard drive crash and the lost of custom content, I really haven’t touched the game with any enthusiasm. recently though I found something reminiscent, but not quite the same.
I hope you can get the feeling back one day, in some other way.