Welcome to St. Equums. Considered by some to be the finest equine academy in the world.

Lorna is just a small town girl, (LIVING IN A LONLEY WOOOORRRLDDD) who has always dreamed making it big with her faithful appaloosa horse Cisco.
When her grandmother Ivy hobbles across the garden to tell her she has earned a place at the famous academy, Lorna doesn't look back.

A 10 part series machinima focusing on life around the famous academy.

The Promo is now out!



I know it sucks considerably, but I actually don't have a permanent video editing software at the moment (any suggestions??) and my game keeps freezing/lagging for ever, so it's unclear when first installment 'pilot' will be out.

I think it's a great idea Charlie! You should go for it, I love horses so it wouldn't bother me if you had some shots of the horses lol ;-)

Good stuff Charlie, go for it. :)

Thanks guys!
After seeing your responses (I know there was only 2! ;) ) I've already got characters sorted, and also VERY rough/basic ideas, which i've now sorted into ten episodes that I've already named. The ideas themselves are sort of planned but they will obviously be fleshed out more.
Now I've got the basic plot down I will work on every episode individually and make it into a script/storyboard.

The Episode List as follows;

1. Pilot
2. The Sleepover
3. Grandma Ivy
4. A Fresh Face
5. The Freshers Ball
6. Friendly Competition
7. The Fire
8 Acadamy Closure
9. Grand Reopening
10. Showjump Finals.

To be honest you can probably tell what each episode is already exactly about. They're pretty cliche and done before. :P

The thing I'm struggling with is which town to use. Its difficult because most of my sets will be exterior, so I need the town to reflect the story. I was thinking about using riverview, what do you guys think?

This is so exciting! I cannot wait until you release the first episode :-).

I would say go for whichever town you feel! You could always use two or more different towns for different sceneries. (like Riverview and Appaloosa Plains). Say , a person is visiting another town or something of that nature. It helps me a lot when I clone certain characters and place them at different lots so I wouldn't have to constantly move them in and out of certain lots. I also duplicate certain sets/lots so I wouldn't have to make changes to it when I needed a different feel of the lot.

Good luck with it and have fun!

Lol it's the same 2 posters...but I would probably recommend riverview over apoloosa or whatever its called (just installed pets about an hour ago, and not too impressed with the town). It's nice and all, but the town is way over-populated with animals, and for a machinima production you want as little interferences as possible...

The episode list is awesome, sounds like you have a solid plot and structure. I dunno if you would find this helpful, but there is a free scriptwriting software called Celtx that's free to download. http://celtx.com/

And just some advice from a fellow series maker (take it or leave it, I'm sure you know what you're doing anyway): When writing the script, I would recommend making only 4-5 main characters (and a small amount of supporting actors). Mainly because each episode will be shorter than the average tv program so you only have a limited time to explore each characters story...

Looking forward to it :)

You've only just got pets too JN? I must admit, with everyone raving about the town I expected more myself. Meh, maybe it just doesn't suit my tastes/playing style.

I'm definatley taking your advice on board! I've began work on the sets, the actual academy is going in riverview, (Peoples houses are going in Appy Plains) I have a floorplan of it and it's made of 8 lots in total. There is only 3 main characters, then a fair few supporting, and then there will be a few minors/extras to make it seem like an actual school.

Also I've never heard of that tool for writing scripts, Ill check it out now, thanks!

EDIT:
So I've been working on the set again, turns out it isn't 8 lots. I had the two main ones and then numerous around them that I thought I'd need, but I ended up bulldozing the surrounding and placing them as I needed them (duh why didn't I do that before!) Anyways, I've already used more lots than the original 8, but they're much smaller. Here's a list of lots so far if you're interested;

Pasture Pt. 1

Pasture Pt. 2 (Both parts of the pasture are fenced on 3 of 4 sides. The side they aren't fenced on joins to the other part of the pasture.)

Track to Pasture (Comes from the side of the left wing to 'seam' together the academy and the pastures)

Left Wing

Right Wing (Identical to left wing, unfortunatley there is a 2 square unavoidable gap between the two. Ideally I'd prefer for them to be touching, thus looking like one whole building, but i've done what i can and it doesn't look too bad)

Entrance (In centre front of both wings, its a thin lot with a pathway and fountain.)

Pond 1 (One pond each side of entrance)
Pond 2 (One pond each side of entrance)


I have yet to add the stable blocks (I'm going to make 2 so there is enough horses (limited to six on each lot obviously/sadly) and the training grounds/event area.

Charlie have you tried just using one 64x64 lot, and just using a facade for the building? It makes the exterior sets look way nicer as you are making better use of space...then you can just build the interior set on a separate lot... see pic below for an example (this lot was smaller than 64x64 so you could make a bigger set...


To answer your question - yeah I only got pets recently as I didnt want the game to break before I finished The Kingdom.

Remember also your set doesn't have to be huge or full-sized as the camera is mostly focused on characters, so you could make a smaller sized set...lol sorry, I'm quite passionate about set building...total geek about it

Wow that set looks really neat! Was that used in the kingdom?


I was actually originally going to make the set like that myself, and I totally get what you're saying about the camera focusing mainly on the characters so full scale sets aren't really needed, but I've actually whipped the set up quite quickly. I felt that I should build the set as indepth as possible, because after all - the setting of the series will be pretty important. I'm not going to the extent of fleshing out the innards of the buildings and things however, but I really want it to look as functional as possible, particularly as most of it will be going on outside anyway! As soon as I get in game I'll take a picture for you ;)

Another reason for the amount of sets I've used is because I can add characters to every lot I've used.

EDIT: So I've just finished the sets completely. I've found using lots of smaller lots has been helpful actually, yes sometimes the lots don't seem together perfectly, but it's allowed me to (for example) move in a household of 1 sim and 5 horses onto each stable block set which are positioned facing opposite eachother. That way, from each camera angle you will see a stable block full of horses. If I'd done it on one bigger lot, I wouldn't be able to get as many characters going at once.




I have however ran into/though of an issue. The horse riding skill. Do I have to make characters work on their horse riding skill for ages before I can begin filming or is there a mod that allows you to change them yourself? I've never actually used a mod in ts3 before, as I haven't felt the need to... Until now that is ;P

Yep - I used the set in the kingdom... And I understand what you're saying, and that's fine as long as your comp can handle several hi-res lots at a time (mine can't).

if you go look up nraas mods, you can change sill levels (and lots of other stuff) with the master controller mod.

Thanks! I just downloaded it! Let's hope it works on pets too! (the horses!)

Now I totally have three essays to write but instead I spend my day off making the characters! (teachers are on strike today!)

I'll get pictures up shortly! :)


EDIT: Some of the characters are officially moved onto the sets!! :D
Only problem is I now have a weird bug/glitch where when a sim is instructed to take the saddle off a horse, they go up to it, do the hand swipey motion but the horse still has the saddle on. I don't know if thats because of the new mod or not. Also I can't figure out where it is to change their skills! I found a part that said skill badge or something and I set it to riding lvl 10 but it didn't actually change :/

Development Pictures!

I didn't know this thread existed, otherwise my responce would have been
"sounds awesome, like real TV, but in the sims, which makes it better than real tv"
I can't wait :D

Wow! I haven't checked back here for a while, you've made a lot of progress! Awesome job Charlie! :-) I can't wait to see more

Thanks guys! But any constructive critiscm on the sets? I want other people's perspectives of it, because ive been staring at it far too long I think ;)

EDIT:
I am having freezing/major lag that doesn't end issues with my game now. Not idea why.


Also, meet the characters! (I managed to get these before the game has its freezing episodes....

Hey Charlie,
Looking awesome...just some constructive criticism on your sets as you requested (not really criticism at all, mostly a couple of suggestions:
Instead of the fields having those gaps in the fences due to 2 different lots... maybe you could just make 2 separate fields. This will get rid of the gaps, and it may not be uncommon for there to be 2 different fields...

The only other thing, maybe add some balconies to the buildings to make them less plain...perhaps also add garden/landscape....

good job :)

This looks awesome!

This is looking very good from where I'm standing, but just a little peice of advice....

It seems that every single horse story (sims or not sims) have only girls in them, but keep in mind there are GUYS who ride! Like take my story for example. It's about a guy who tames a wild stallion! (Don't even bother looking at the TS2 version, For now, focus on my Ts3 version :) )

Just putting it out there....

Thanks for the replies guys, just letting you know that I am still here, but I've had a massivley hectic few weeks trying to get course work done. Christmas break up tomorrow though - so hopefully I can put some time in.

Just a few little bits of information;

The series may end up having 0% custom content, but I'm still working on this.
I am still working on the sets lightly.
I HAVE begun filming a small mini promo/flashback scene which may/may not be used at all.


Simsfan - There will most definatley be guys in the series- you've only seen the promo! I myself am a guy who rides! I haven't given away anything yet!

lol props to you dude.... sometimes I really wish I learned how to ride horses, the chicks love that, y'know? ;)

Hey guys,
christmas is almost over now and I've bareley worked on this at all. I'm thinking of cancelling. I know, I know, I did that to my last series as well, I really hate doing it, especially as this time round I've got a great plot but I've got such a crazy busy life at the moment with apply/preparing for uni and finishing up sixth form and trying to get the grades I need to get in to uni that I haven't much time for sims, let alone making machinima.

I really am ashamed that I might have to do this. I can work on it sporadically but its few and far between and I personally would get disconnected from the project taking that long, let alone the audience. I might just stick to making 'on off' machinimas if i get around to doing any...

Thoughts?