b.pleased

More about the world's only (?) hc-mag with the sims

It's really about time to release the third issue of "Pleased". Also, an special edition is planned to be out soon. I hope i will have some days off between the releases of the DoL episodes.

Actually i made the layout for issue 3 and started to plan the content. I already know who will be on the title and, even more interesting, who will be the next "Pleased-Girl".

What is the Pleased Magazine?

Since i saw the sims 2 i knew it would be a cool thing to create somekind of online pornmagazine with them. But due to the intense workload i threw the idea back into the drawer. But almost two years later the idea was still in my head and i though okay, why not another horny time-eating project...

But i had a strict concept. Pleased should be a good-looking, but political-incorrect magazine with a beautiful but nasty content. Sounds good, eh?

I wanted to have sexy picture stories, galleries and also some written stuff like fictive news and interviews. My target is to fill 30 pages each issue.

After the first two issues a few returning topics seem to establish, but still there is some movement...

The Content

Which girl will fill the front page always shows up during the production. It can be a Pic from a serie, the pleased-girl, a special beauty, or, like in issue 2, an "interview guest".

Page 2 always should hold the table of content and a foreword.

The next thing is the continuing comic story. The story is splitted in three parts all through the magazine. It's a good alternative to the Dreams of Luisa Serie and has a rougher look and shorter text.

The most important thing possibly is the "Pleased-Girl". It's somekind like Playboy's "Playmate" or the "Penthouse Pet". Only much hotter ;)

Another fixed content is the page "Mixed Fruits", somekind of "yellow-press" news page.

Further more there is "MaXsiM's Diary", a short, pictured story. The "Starpic" which presents one of our "Actresses" in a full body picture, and the "New Models" page that features some new faces.

There are some more topics that vary.

The format

I decided to release "Pleased" with a page size of 800 x 600px. This is a good compromise between a good picture resolution and practicable online size. It makes me able to put the censored preview pages in full size on the website without people need to scroll (in most of the cases). And it's possible to add some high resolution close ups and large photos as well.

I also have to create two different versions of the mag to prevent children from looking at those unsuitable content. Due to the law in my country i must use an system that does both, age-verification and payment. "Click & Buy" by Firstgate is an ideal and international working system. It's much better than that terrible one, that's unfortunately often used in the sims-scene.

BTW, only to clear things out. mxm-studios don't sell any game content! I even don't release so-called donations. Don't get me wrong, i do not have anything against such paysites or sites that offer donation sets. For me those people and their visitors are not potential criminals. On the other hand the arguments of the "opposition" - that's apparantly leaded by some really "upright fellows" - are childish and seem to be based on simple personal reasons. That's too much vanity for my taste. Hold on, stay together, stop shouting, give peace a chance.

Back to the topic. Nobody gets rich here by selling the "Pleased" Magazines. While registration at "Click & Buy" is totally free for customers and selling doesn't mean subscription, mxm has to spend money to run the sites and the payment system. That's cool, no problem ;)

Phases of work

I start a new issue by thinking about the main color scheme. I always try to use as less colors as possible. A main color and a contrast for it. Also Black and White. Issue 1's main color was violet, issue 2's Blue. I guess Green would be nice for the next issue. So i create some template pages, all in original size. One has the background color, the next uses White or the contrast color as background. Using such templates helps to create a dynamic layout with single pages that fit well to the main look of the whole magazine.

The layout for "Pleased" is pretty easy done and simple:

That's all. There is some flexible white space, at the bottom there are still the page numbers and issue info. At the top you can see that i decided to use Orange as the contrast color. Hm, im actually not very happy with it. May be i will change it into a "better" color.

I create such templates - and the whole magazine - in my graphic program. I would love to use professional tools like Adobe InDesign, but those cool proggies are really expensive. Perhaps i will buy an older version at ebay sometimes, but for now my method works good enough for me.

Using such a simple layout is perfect, cause i like to add more and colorful graphics to give the single pages an own look.

The next thing means to think about the content. I write a table of content with numbered pages and a short description of the topic. This is an important process, because there can be weeks between two production phases. When i come back to work i have a short view on my table of content and quickly know what i need to do next.

In the next step i must make all those meshes and skins in versions that work in-game and in SimPose as well.

Here you can see the second Pleased-Girl Chloe Flame in two phases of the same picture. Clear to see, on the left side is the SimPose Scene. What looks so nice and easy often is a hell of work. First i created a mesh where Chloe holds her Dildo. I created the dildo first and attached it to the joint of the right hand.

Also clear that i needed the same body mesh without the toy - for untoyed shots ;)

To simulate different "strip-phases" i needed to create some different textures of the same outfit. After all i've loaded the files into SimPose and started posing. When i finish a pose the first thing i do is saving. I do not apply the SimPose lighting or use the Screenshot function. Those are good features but tend to smash the program.

I can create a simple single-person pose that looks natural and dynamic in only a few minutes. Let's say 15 or 20 minutes. But the posing of two or more persons always takes more than one hour. At least...

Good, after saving the pose i set the lighting state. Most of the time i use a middle-grey tone as "global lighting state". It's the best to make a nice daylight shading. I also try to keep my fingers away from the other lighting states, they doesn't seem to run stable on my installation.

For a final screenshot i'm stretching the SimPose Window as far as possible, then looking for the perfekt camera position and use an extern Screenshot Manager. I prefer a good full Blue as background color. I don't use the ground plane. My model has to look like standing in a classical blue box.

Then i make an in-game screenshot of the real background, the room or whatever. I copy those shots into another and delete the blue parts from the model's pic. Normally, really much graphical editing and retouch follows now...

...but for that i should write a seperate workshop.

I hope this was just interesting for you and you still enjoy my work.