Tutorials: Landscaping Help Section

[Belle1496]

Do any of you guys have any pointers? For landscaping because I make these gorgeous and wonderful houses in my opinion at least. Then you see that the left side of the house and yard is smaller or bigger than the other and I am a perfectionist to the extreme sadly. I will tear the whole house down to correct it but then I end up with something like well imagine the buildings and houses in the resident evil movies mainly just broken down singed and bleh. Any ideas guys or girls?

[samoht04]

@Belle - Well I always suggest build the garden around the house, your sims will most likely spend more time in the house. A Garden is for complimenting a house, or an extra room. If you are a perfectionist you can measure out how big you want your house area to cover by using floor tiles or terrain paint. I do that if I am doing a Manor home to make everything structured and organized.   Also take a look at some of my points in the previous pages.

@Pam - Would people be allowed to upload houses and request someone to do the landscaping for them? In the Building Requests thread?

[Seriphina]

I often do the same thing with the building and find that I have way too much space on one side of the house but not nearly as much on the other.  One way I remedy this is to build a patio off the side that has more open space with a walkout onto a side vegetable garden.  It can even be fenced off if you like, that way it seems as though it was an intended part of the structure all along.  I hope this helps.  When I have some free time I'll try to whip up something and get screen shots so you can see what I mean.   

[LlamaMama]

Many people are of the opinion that putting things exactly in the middle (etc.), makes them less attractive than inserting a bit of imperfection. In quiltmaking it was traditionally considered an insult to God to make things too perfect. By doing so, they believed, the quiltmaker was elevating herself to the perfection of God. So quiltmakers often still intentionally place one or several things in the wrong place.

If you look at cottage gardens, nature, or Japanese art, you might understand that asymmetry has a different kind of beauty. If that change of perspective prevents you from destroying hours of effort in making a sim house, then you've done some growing.

[Seriphina]

Now, some tips on making the landscaping look more realistic:
1. 'moveobjects' on is your friend.  Use it to layer flowers together to create more depth since in nature some flower patches will be more "dense" than others.  Use your < and > buttons to give partial turns to plants and rocks as you place them.

2. Use the terrain tool.  If you want trees, put them at a grid intersection then go raise the terrain under the tree just slightly (I often have to soften terrain after) so the tree doesn't look like it was plopped down on the land, but has roots integrated underneath as well.  It lends to the more natural feel of tree placement.

3. Next is a small step that adds huge impact.  Under trees, or any other type of plants, create a light dirt patch (just one quick click with the terrain tool should do it).  Sun doesn't get to the base of trees and the areas around them tend to have far less grass, especially near visible roots.

4. The game adds shadows to outdoor furniture, but regular use kills some of the vegetation underneath.  Again a quick tap of the terrain paints adds this illusion.  This is true around the base of your building too, especially at corners, it blends the building into the property instead of having stark contrast between walls and grass, it helps to make it appear as though it's always been there and isn't "floating" on the lot.

5. It may sound quirky, but I like to decide on who will be living there or using the property before I start to landscape (or decorate) since that may impact what they might have in their garden, how the hardscape will be placed, and so forth.  A young professional in a modern home may have rocks lining the flowerbeds with minimal greenery, where an older couple preparing for retirement may have a more casual garden with lush flowerbeds lined with mulch.  Explore terrain paints and keep the style of the house in mind when selecting plants and determining how structured the landscaping should be for that lot.

6. Landscaping is more than terrain paints and plants.  Look around at your neighborhood and you'll see that a large part of landscaping, especially in backyards, is furniture.  Outdoors is just another room.  It needs lighting, decoration, and furniture (benches, chess tables, fire pits, statues, fountains, lawn gnomes, etc).

7. Hide your foundation.  I'm not saying to completely line the area where wall meets ground, but I am saying to break up that line with some greenery or flowers.  It adds character to the property, but it also adds realism to the lot.

I hope all of this helps.

[gerrr00]

I am attempting to build my first house and would like some ideas please.  I raised my terrain around the majority of the house, with one room being the exception.  here is a picture:


Any recommendations on how to hide the terrain with anything?  I know I don't want a fence.  I just recently learned how to use moveobjects (very proud of myself), so I think I may be able to handle most anything now.

I read so much on this forum and want to try everything. That is why I raised the terrain, so I could practice stairs and foundation so that it looks cool.  But don't like under the house now.  I don't recall seeing any pictures with that kind of landscaping.

Sorry about the picture being such a small part, but I didn't think I was going to jump on here to ask for help after I quit my game.  Thank you.

[samoht04]

First of let me start on that Raised terrain, I say that you should Never, have a solid raised terrain section like you have their so first things first is to get rid of that steepness, smooth it out at the edges you can leave a bit close to the house if it is getting difficult, if you don't want to use a wall then how about a hedge? Put some of that border fencing to make it look organized. Put some borders of flowers and greenery around the building as I think that big shrubs can sometimes poke through the wall. Then a few pockets of borders around the rest of the garden with some trees scattered here and there, make sure the garden is accessible and you can see into the house well enough.

[Seriphina]

First of all, you've done a wonderful job on decorating that little sun room and kudos on the stairs leading down to it.  I was able to click the picture to see a larger image with better detail.  First things first, part of the difficulty I think you're having with the slope is that it's stopped exactly at the end of your foundation and it's precisely even on both sides.  It would be a good idea to hop back into edit terrain and extend that a bit, then use the soften terrain tool to calm down the height of the slope.  In the first picture, I tried to quickly replicate what you built, then extended the hill on both sides of the house.  Rather than leveling the terrain to be perfectly square, I again used the level terrain tool to cut off the corners using the base level.

Next I used the soften terrain tool on the extended area on it's softest setting with the largest round brush so the alterations to the hill would be gradual, then switched to a smaller brush for better control in areas I wanted to be more precise.

Finally, add some plants (as casual or structured as you want) a few terrain paints and you're done.

[samoht04]

Very good tips Seraphina! 

[gerrr00]

Thanks for the wonderful tips.  This house building stuff is hard!  Landscaping is even harder!  I took pictures of what I have done so far, I am happy but not completely happy, please tell me what is good and what I could still use work on.  Thank you again for all your help.  Maybe I will one day be good at landscaping (fingers crossed).

This is the back:


Front (i love the rock idea, did I do it too many times?  Is it ok looking?):

[gerrr00]

Oops forgot a picture.  Close up of the rocks

[Beddy_Boop]

I like it so far, gerrr00! Maybe you could add more windows on the left side of the house? I'm not picky so I like just about any house The more advanced builders will have better advice!

[samoht04]

I will start with the front since I have an issue with that - Those same Shrubs in a row! There should me more variety or a break of some flowers or something between the blue and the white. The stones are fine!  You should also try some dirt terrain paint under the shurbs or rocks.

The back needs a floor above the sun room.  It needs a border around the base of the windows of low lying plants, maybe some of those rock piles you did at the front dotted at the back. It needs some colour round there. 

[Seriphina]

Great work on the landscaping and terrain!  The rocks look great and since it's a hill, it gives the illusion that the rocks form a sort of "retaining wall" near the stairs.  As far as improvements, I'd recommend 4 things. 
1. Put some sort of roof or flooring over the sunroom. It could be a walk out deck or patio depending on the interior layout.
2. In the front yard, the hydrangea bushes are wonderful, but they seem too uniform.  With "moveobjects on" cheat, you can pick them up and pull some forward a bit, then use the < and > buttons on your keyboard to rotate them a bit.  This will help to break up the straight line that's formed. I'm not sure if it's the slope of the terrain that's making that awkward for you.
3. Terrain paints are your friend.  I don't know about you, but my shrubs have dirt under them.  There's tons of fun terrain paints to play with, but just a few quick clicks of the dirt paint will make a dramatic difference.
4.  Less is more.  Though the hydrangeas are lovely and blissfully cheap, you have alot of them there.  Perhaps delete one or two of them, group like colors together, or play with some of the other flower types with them to help reduce the stripe effect you have going.  With the purple hydrangea, I find that a few Agapanthus mingled in adds tons of depth but keeps in the same color range to add interest.  Or, you could dot a little of the white flowers terrain paint on that slope to bring out the white hydrangea more.

Again, these are only suggestions.  What really matters is how you feel about it, since it's your masterpiece.

[gerrr00]

I appreciate all of the advice.  I will go back sometime today and use it.  I took the landscaping poll, answered with want to learn more because I was/am clueless.  I think I may be able to accomplish something wonderful eventually...  Thank you for your help.  I know i will need some more soon. lol