7 minute read
MachinimaX
Welcome to MachiniMax! This is the section of our magazine dedicated to the multi-talented creators out there, who dedicate their time to bringing both mini movies and full-length features to our screens from the games that we love.
How do they do this, you may be asking? Well, it’s via machinima, or as it was previously known, as machinema! Creators of machinima can sometimes be called machinimists, machinimators or producers to creators, and no matter what title they prefer to use, they can surely be rated among the most creative and patient of us all.
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For this month's MachiniMax feature, we speak to Sincerely Shon, who has reached over 12,000 views on her machinima videos and only started her YouTube channel around a year ago. So, to be hitting so many views in such a short space of time just goes to show just how talented this machinimator really is.
Hi Shon, we are so excited to hear all about
you and your machinima. Tell us a little
about the person behind SincerelyShonYT,
and how and when did you first discover The
Sims?
First, I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my story! I started playing The Sims when I was about 5 years old. I had The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS, I had all of The Sims 2 packs on PC, and I had a few other Sims games on PC and PlayStation. Basically, I’ve been playing The Sims my whole life!
What inspired you to create your first
machinima? What was this about? And on a
scale of 1 - 10, how hard was this?
When I first started my YouTube channel, I was doing let's play. I thought it was fun, but my goal was to tell stories and I wanted more creative freedom to do that. I started getting more involved with The Sims community and I discovered the process of machinima making. I would always watch them as a kid, but I never knew there was a name for them. I created my first machinima in October of 2020, and it’s still going! It’s a coming-of-age story about a college freshman who decides to go to school away from her family and friends. On a scale of 1-10, I would say making it was about a 5. It wasn’t as hard as I expected, but it definitely requires a lot of time and effort.
How long does it take to create a
machinima, and what process do you have
to follow before bringing everything together for your final cut?
For me, making a machinima can take about a month. I’m still relatively new to creating, and with me being in college and working, it can sometimes take longer. Before bringing everything together for the final cut, I make sure I double check for spelling errors and look for music that fits the scene.
When creating your machinima, how do you
get your Sims to stay still? Do you use pose mods? How do you decide on a theme/
background or country?
Yes, to get my Sims to stay still, I use pose mods. I prefer using idle animations to poses because the Sim still looks like it’s “breathing” instead of being completely still. It gives more of a realistic appearance! When I choose the location for my machinimas, I usually just choose the world based on the type of lot(s) I’m using to film (i.e., urban, suburban, rural, etc).
Are there any CC or mods that you use that you couldn’t create machinima without?
How do you decide on the music to use to
run alongside your scenes?
Since I make machinimas with predominantly Black casts, it would be hard to make characters without CC. The most important CC I use to bring my characters to life are the skins and hair. Another piece of CC I think is super important for me are deco sims/a fake audience. It saves a lot of time having fake sims in the background instead of having to keep 15-20 sims still. The mods I can’t record without are MCCC, UI Cheats, Pose Player, Basemental Drugs, and Wicked Whims. The music I use is always dependent on the scene. I look at everything from genre to BPM when I pick a song. Unfortunately, YouTube uploads are a little more restricted, but my Patreon videos have more variety.
You currently don’t use voice actors for your
machinima. Do you have any plans to use
VAs in the future?
I definitely would like to use VAs in a future project! I think finding a VA whose voice fits the character you create really interests me.
As a machinima creator, has anyone else in
the machinima community helped to inspire
you? Is there anyone you would like to
collaborate with if you had the opportunity?
One of my biggest inspirations in the machinima community is ‘Trap Goddess Shawty’. Her story telling is amazing and she makes some of the best-looking Sims. I would love to work with her one day. I honestly would be down to collaborating with almost anyone, but some creators I would like to collaborate with are TheeScamily and Queensimmer. TheeScamily is a friend of mine,and she makes super cool sci-fi/
magic machinimas, so I would really like to make something different from my usual with her. Queensimmer is someone I’ve recently started watching, but I think she and I have very similar styled machinimas and could come up with something really cool together!
What would you say has been your biggest machinima success so far? And what can our
readers look forward to coming from you in the future?
Honestly, my biggest success is just my growth. Every time I make a video, I correct something that I didn’t like before or I learn how to do something I previously struggled with, it’s really rewarding. In the future, I hope to continue growing. My goal right now is to try to create something a little more cinematic! I am constantly putting out projects big and small, but the thing I am most excited for is my short film that I will be releasing at the end of this year. Lastly, is there anything we have missed you would like to tell our readers? Is there
anyone you would like to give a shout out to, and if our readers wanted to find/follow or subscribe to your content where would they
go to do this?
Yes, I want to give a shout out to my friends LinaaGames and BigBProd. They are two more talented machinimas makers in the community who I enjoy watching. Also, if you haven’t already, please check out my YouTube channel! I have two series currently running, I create machinima shorts, and I have a short film in the works! I also have early access and exclusive content on my Patreon (18+). My most recent short, “Destiny & Elijah,” is about two people who dated in college and reconnected years later. My YouTube is Sincerely Shon and I am most active on Twitter @SincerelyShonYT. All my links can be found at myLinktree. Thank you all so much for all the love and support thus far!
We now have come to the end of our chat with the lovely Sincerely Shon. We thank her for being part of our Friendship and Community issue, and sharing her talent with us, Don’t forget to check her social media pages and hit those Follow and Subscribe buttons!
