Welcome to the Build-n-Share Weekly Challenge!

The Build-n-Share challenges will be posted Wednesday of each week and run through the following Wednesday. Results will be posted approximately one week after all entries have been submitted in the Winner's Circle thread.

The benefits
First place will be awarded at all levels. If there are at least eight entries in a category, up to four places will also be announced.

Weekly challenges also create an opportunity for community on the forum site. We get to know one another’s names, share news, builds, and positive words. This is a chance to get your name out there, and hopefully make a few friends along the way.

What makes this challenge different from all the other ones I've seen?
We have been hosting this weekly challenge since the first week the game was released. We have many levels of builders in our community and welcome th em all. This group is truly a product of all its great members!

Within the first few challenges, our group was recognized by the gurus that be, who have helped the weekly challenges gain even more popularity be stickying both Build-n-Share threads. Since then, we have had at least one featured creation almost every week, and our list of featured members continues to grow.

With 3 successful collaborative neighborhoods (Gnomelandia, Summer of Love, and NYC) just about completed, Build-n-Share hopes to bring more creative challenges and new neighborhood ideas to the community with the help of our dedicated participants who willingly contribute and help each week to make sure each challenge runs smoothly.

The rules
All entries must be original work. Any competitor who submits another builder’s work will be disqualified and banned from any future Build-n-Share challenge. These competitors will also be removed from the Builders' Boulevard related websites if they have chosen to join (membership to the site and the Yahoo! group are not required to enter a Build-n-Share challenge).

Please announce your official lot posting using the entry form below. Make sure to leave the "Official Entry" label big. If you need to reformat it, you can do this by highlighting the desired text and then selecting "Big" in the font box above. This will help us see the entries in a sea of posts with no pics to guide us.

Entries must be submitted by the deadline, 7 p.m. Wednesday evening (eastern time, USA).

Your media should include a variety of screenshots to best showcase your entry. Please include at least one clear shot of the main floorplan of the build. If your build has multiple floors, please take a screenshot of each floor.

A description of the five major level categories

Beginner--I have a little experience, but I'm still figuring a lot of things out. I would not call myself an official "builder" at this point.

Intermediate--I have been building for awhile. I know the basics and maybe a little more. I enjoy building, but it is not my primary focus with the game.

Advanced--I know the Sims, and the Sims knows me. My name is familiar to a lot of veteran players, and I've competed in and won some building challenges and maybe even been recognized in a community showcase or two. I know most of the cheats AND I know how to use them.

Official Build-n-Share Animated Siggy
Want to represent Build-n-Share in your signature? Here is our official signature. Just copy and paste [*img]http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab105/anjubee/bns_fad
e.gif?t=1251688153[/img] into the signature section under "preferences" and delete the *.



Build-n-Share Archives
Big thanks to Freynas for putting this together!
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/198045.page

Two additional opportunities
Love to build? Come join us at http://www.buildersboulevard.com . The site offers an additional forum for advertising lots, share tips and tricks, and participate in collaborative neighborhood projects!

We also have a Yahoo! Group for builders. It can be accessed at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/buildersboulevard/ . You do not have to be a member to enter. This group will be used primarily as an announcement center and for some of our more complex polls, and possibly, databases.

This Week’s Challenge Specifics:
Challenge deadline: Wednesday, December 29th at 7 p.m. (Eastern time)

. . .
Happily Ever After

Once upon a time... there was a builder who loved to build sim houses. Making sim dreams come true was this builder's specialty. From small starters to luxurious mansions, the builder has done them all.

Word gets around, of course. Even to the tiniest of creatures.

One night, a small gnome appeared into the builder's bedroom while the builder slept. Not wanting to wake the peaceful slumber, the small gnome gently touched the builder's forehead and implanted one thought.

It was time to build something truly magical...

The gnome wanted the builder to build something from the fairy tales told around the world. A lot not too big and not too small. A lot not too shabby and not too grand. A lot not too real and not too surreal.

It was a challenge the builder has never been faced with.

As the builder slept, the builder dreamed... of all the possibilities this challenge may bring.

Will the builder succeed and create this happily ever after?


Rules and details:
Basically, pick a home from a favorite fairy tale. We are not talking about the big castles of princesses who already have their happy ending, but recreating the quaintness of humble beginnings and finding magic and contentment in that.

A few examples are...
* Home of the 7 dwarves from Snow White
* Home of the 3 bears from Goldilocks
* Repunzel's treehouse

You don't have to worry about budget this time around, but just try not to overwhelm yourself with something too big!

Please include the following info in your post:

Official Entry

Name:

Link to the posted asset (link to lot):

Link to media (required for judging):

Optional Challenges entered?:

Constructive Criticism?:

Experience level:

Lot Name:

Lot address, size, and final cost:

Details and Rational:

Credit to any simmers for custom content you used:

To make it more searchable, we would highly appreciate it if you include Build-n-Share in the description of the lot.

Judges and Keepers of the Thread

Your official judges are Princess Natasha, Robodl95, Tristarin, Scoiattolo, and KittKat7147.

Your backup judges are Robb, jessk328, and denisimms.

Freynas is the official organizational guru collecting entrants' names, levels, links, and results!

Judges will post their results in the winner's circle thread: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/47204.page

Look for results typically a week after the deadline.

Big thanks to our judges and helpers!

Screenshots: Tips and Tricks

Since judging will be based on screenshots, we figured this would be a good time to go over some tips and tricks in taking good screenshots to help showcase your lovely builds.

1) Camera Man Mode - This is a must in taking good shots! You will have to be in live mode to do this, but just hit "TAB" to enter this mode. Once you are in this mode, you can use the mouse to freely control the angles and use "W, A, S, D" buttons to move forward, backwards, and side to side. "Z" zooms in, "X" zooms out. "Q" moves up and "E" moves down. "C" to capture the shot.

2) Find the perfect angle - With photography, it is all about finding the right angle. Spend some time in camera man mode to find the perfect angle. Get down to a sim's point of view to take the best shots of rooms.

3) Walls up - Most people play with walls cut away, but when you are taking pictures of your lot, try to keep your walls up to make your shots look more realistic.

4) No grids - Unless you need to show the grid for a specific purpose, make sure no build/buy grid is visible when you take your pictures. You can avoid this by taking pictures in live mode or by hitting the terrain paint button in build mode.

5) More is better—Weird, huh? But in this case, we want to make sure judges have enough shots to fairly judge your lot. Be sure to show off each room with at least one picture. Also, please include an overhead shot of the floorplan for each level.

Ok, those are the basics! If you want to further your simatography skills, we highly recommend you visit http://simatography.webs.com for more tips and tricks and to see some excellent shots taken by professional simatographers!

Please try to keep this thread as photo free as possible and either create a story, a slide show, a separate thread, or use the stickied photo thread to post shots of your lots!

Announcement!

Please note that due to the low participation lately, we have condensed the categories back down to Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.

If you were in a transitional category before, please bump yourself up to the next level!

Happy holidays and happy simming!

This sounds so cute!! I have been too busy to do some of the recent challenges, but I think I can handle this And I've got one in mind already...

This one will definitely be interesting. I've got my idea already, but it's going to be extremely difficult to build :S

- LewisJ12

I can't wait to do this one! It's going to be tough, because I know which fairy tale my builder is thinking of. Luckily Christmas break is only a few days away and most of my shopping is done!

my game right now is on the fritz cos my dad uploaded a new umm windows version (cant remember what is called right now) and didnt tell me so now he erased everything and i have to reload it (URGH!!!) so I'll see what I can do this time around. Nice challenge though, cant wait to see the houses

This sounds fun! I haven't done one for a while. I think I will try this one!

I had about three different ideas, and I actually started one ... but I'm off for Christmas now, so it won't get finished. Hope everyone else has fun making a house - just the start was lots of fun for me

This is probally a stupid question, but can we add like cheap tvs or computers to the house?

If you can blend it in just right, sure!