Eevee: Cinematic Artist for the Sims
Welcome Back, or as they say in The Sims, “ralalalalib bubaya”
This week a good friend of mine, Eevee, is going to share about her work that she does with The Sims. I met Eevee through GTA RP a few months ago, and only recently learned about what she does and I figured it is only perfect to showcase it on the newsletter. Her work is much better than Bronze tier, but Bronze League is the silly name we picked and we are sticking to it.
Don’t forget to check out the Youtube channel and Eevee’s instagram.
Lets hit it.
Housekeeping:
Bronze Buds
Topic Request
Discord
Hiya Eevee, tell us all about yourself and what you do now.
Ahhhh about meee. Hmm! Well, I’ve always been obsessed with visual storytelling, particularly when it’s immersive or interactive. I’ve loved video games since I could process what a screen is, and my favorite movies have always been the ones that resonate with me most emotionally or make me feel completely lost in the world. An inspired little loser, haha, I started making my own films when I got my first camcorder at age 9, kept making them throughout school (especially machinima, using The Sims 3 and 4!), went to film school, created a film festival and thennn ended up where I am now, making cinematic content for video games! I am currently a Cinematic Artist for The Sims 4 at Electronic Arts. I’m currently responsible for working with my team to create the trailers, social media content, screenshots, and in-game cinematic content for the Sims 4. It’s actually still pretty bizarre for me to think about that I’ve been doing this all my life and somehow ended up doing it as my career, too! Haha.
Take us to Day 1, before you were involved in all of this. How did it start?
So when it comes to how I actually got the position on the Sims team, I would definitely say that started with my machinima. I have a YouTube channel called TwistTVShow, that I started I thiiiink in 2011. I’m retired from making machinima for that channel (for the most part!) now, but in its prime, my series Life’s A Beach became one of the most popular Sims 3 Voice Over series in the community. Even though that series itself is silly and was never meant to be anything special, it brought together such an amazing family (and FAN-ily, as I called them, lol) through the cast and through community dialogue. I was hellbent on creating deep, emotional drama mixed with the comedy of the sims itself, and the contradiction, while surprising to most who see it for the first time, actually created a story that is still meme’d to this day, haha. At some point in my adulthood near when I was wrapping up my YouTube life, a coworker referred me to someone in the professional world who was looking for a freelancer that just so happened to make Sims content. Honestly shook, I of course took the opportunity, and ended up making a video for Conde Nast’s them. !! https://www.them.us/video/watch/them-staff-use-the-sims-to-share-their-vision-for-a-better-world The EA rep for this video enjoyed my work with this project, and referred me to the Sims Cinematics team! I have been working directly with the team ever since then :)
Tell us more about some of the intricacies of creating Sims cinematics.
Ahh, I would say, it’s a lot like making videos in real life, surprisingly. You have to direct, create the Sims, build the set, choose lighting, do multiple takes; things go wrong, Sims don’t listen, someone dies… The biggest difference, I think, is that all of that is at your fingertips, and you don’t have to raise your voice to corral people.. Even though I yell at my Sims all the time anyway :)
Now that your actual job is creating cinematics, what do you do outside of work that contributes to your passion driven career?
Gosh, that’s such a huge question for me! Funny enough, I had the whole “WHAT DO I DO WITH MY LIFE NOW THAT WHAT I DID WITH MY LIFE IS MY LIFE” crisis not too long ago, haha, and asked myself the same question! I’ve found that my new favorite thing to do is make music--specifically, right now, I’ve been doing Music/Fame RP in GTA RP! It’s funny how inspiring GTA RP can be haha, but I suppose when you’re creating an entirely different life to your own, there’s a lot to write about! I also love to cosplay and am VERY excited to start going back to cons and traveling for them again, and I’m very excited to start playing My Time at Sandrock when it comes out!! I plan on streaming my playthrough because My Time at Portia was one of the most addicting games I’ve ever played, and I’m a sucker for relationship drama in any story haha. Other than those things, when I feel like just relaxing, I like to make anime diamond art and watch anime in general :) I think any of things contribute in some way to my work, because art is all about inspiration, imagination, and discovery--and everything I love to do always involves those things!
Here is your time to PLUG! Tell the people what else you are working on and what they should be checking out.
Subscribe to YouTube.com/theSims to see all of our upcoming videos as they release and follow me on Twitch to tune in when I start streaming!
Thanks sooooo much! I really want to say, too, that if anyone is reading this and feeling like they have nothing to live for, or that they can’t reach their goals, you DO and you CAN. Sometimes, it’s not obvious, but if you find any one thing that you absolutely love, chase after it and pursue it, and let it take you wherever you want to go. Success doesn’t always have to mean sacrificing your passions--your passions can BE your success :) Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, no matter how ‘bizarre’ or ‘lame’ your dream might be. You are uniquely you and there’s always going to be a place in the world for you <3