So, you're probably wondering what the heck "A Cuppa Joe" means. It is slang for "a cup of coffee", yes, but that's not what this site is about. "Joe" refers to a character I've known all my life in one form or another since childhood. He's an imaginary friend, all grown up, I guess you could say. Or you could throw a handful of psychiatric meds at me, and leave it at that. Whichever is more fun for you.I go into detail about Joe Bayfield here.
Now you're probably wondering how this all ties in to my videos. My, but you're a curious one, aren't you?
Three of the characters in Bogus (the sim band I use for my videos) are Joe's grandsons. The drummer and guitar player (with the white cap) are twin grandsons of Joe and Brandi Broke. Yes, really. The bass player (black bandanna) is the grandson of Joe and Bella Goth. Yes, really.
Now, about those videos...
Under the moniker "VRevis", I started doing Sims 2 machinima in early 2006, and I still love it. I enjoy giving up sleep, food, and any semblance of a social life in order to make sims 2 films. It's all worth it.
I got TS2 when it first came out, and quickly became addicted to the in-game camera. I obsessively took pictures of every cute thing my little pixel-people did. My too-small hard drive quickly filled. I had a low-end graphics card at the time, so the early pictures are grainy, and the game settings were set to the lowest possible level. I've since gotten better at SIM-photography, and figured out a few tricks to make the photos more "real". I only toyed around with the in-game video camera, initially, but found it too limiting to be fun. Or so I thought!
It wasn't until a year or so later that I went through the billions of pics I had and began arranging them for storytelling purposes. Joe was beginning to get a name for himself, since he was used as my avatar on the Sims 2 forums I frequented, where I was known as "Brynne" (I was mistaken for Joe so often that "Brynne is a girl. A girl, dammit!" became my catchphrase for a while and has become an inside joke), and most of the posts I made were about him or his family. There seemed to be enough interest in my sims that I decided to go ahead and put the stories up publicly.
I guess video-making was bound to happen, eventually. But, this was brand-new territory for me. The one time I used the in-game video camera before, I made a clip of my sims dancing. The image quality was so bad, I gave up. Now I've made the switch from PC to Mac, so I can really play around with movie-making. (Once you go mac, you never go back!)
I think the editing process is where I have the most fun. I love mixing the clips up for different effects, seeing what I can do. It's not easy to sync up many of those animations, but that is one skill I'm really enjoying zeroing in on. And with each video I do, I try to raise the bar a little higher.
I don't play the game the traditional way. I have never tried a legacy challenge. I'm not even sure I know how. I created the original Bayfield family, Gregory and Maryann and children Joe and Gary. Joe and Gary are Sims 1 cross-overs, but I wanted to start them out as children in Sims 2. Once they aged to adulthood, I turned aging off. Joe is still my primary character, which is why he has his own website and forum! Joe mingled nicely with the Pleasantville gang. Brandi Broke was his first love. He went on to replace Don Lothario as Pleasantville's local Romeo. He has fathered so many children I have lost count. Brandi gave him four sons. Bella Goth was "resurrected", and she, too, fell under Joe's spell, resulting in the Goth-Bayfield branch of the family tree. While I have allowed several of Joe's offspring to age to adulthood, Joe has not aged to elder. Nor will he ever. I've often said that Joe will become old and gray when I do, and I don't plan on aging myself any time soon.
I enjoy this style of play because it gives the characters a chance to really take on life, much as they would if I were writing a book about the Bayfields. As a storyteller, I like a good, solid character. The game can give only a hint of a personality, so most of it comes from my own doing. The Sims2 really became the vehicle for my imagination. I do not write "serious" stories. I write what makes me laugh. That's the self-serving comedienne in me. As a child, I drew funny comic books. As an adult, I write funny Sims 2 stories.
The pics on this page are all of my self-sim. All current storylines at that time came to a screeching halt and went off in a completely different direction, when I introduced her to the game.
It was a bit uncomfortable playing myself, at first, but she has taken on her own personality. She's like me on a caffeine-drip. She's quick with the dirty jokes, she'll hustle you at pool, and she seems to have a bit of a gambling addiction. Oh, and don't let her near the wet bar.
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