The Sims 3 Ambitions: How to Get Photos Into Your Portfolio
By Katelyn Kelley
Updated September 22, 2017
Items you will need
"The Sims 3" base game
"The Sims 3: Ambitions" expansion pack
The "Sims 3: Ambitions" expansion pack adds several new jobs to "The Sims 3." Two of these jobs, the Stylist and the Architectural Designer, have portfolios your Sim must build to advance in his career. Photos of successful jobs make up the portfolio, but only those photographs the game prompts you to take at the end of a job well done go into the portfolio. Photos the Sim takes on his own for freelance work, even if done during business hours, go into his inventory, but do not add to the portfolio.
Start "The Sims 3" and open the household that contains a Sim with the Stylist or Architectural Design profession.
Click the "Careers" tab on the game control panel to check the Sim's business hours.
Watch for notices in the upper right corner of the screen that alert your Sim to new jobs during business hours. When the Sim first joins one of these professions, one job appears per day. As he increases his skills, multiple job opportunities appear in a single day.
Click the "Perform Job" button to start the job. Your Sim will automatically travel to the job location and begin working.
Review the client's requirements list in the floating window that appears when the Sim starts a new job. As you complete the client's requests for an architect design project, check marks appear next to the different items to help track the progress. In the stylist job, a list of required makeover items appears to remind you what outfits the client wants and how many.
Click the check mark button to exit the stylist makeover tool, or click the "Live Mode" button to exit the Build/Buy screens on the architect job, when you have completed all the items on the client's list.
Watch and listen as the client reacts to the job results. Clapping hands and cheering is a good sign. Crying, moaning and stamping feet is not.
Watch for a pop-up "Congratulations!" window that announces your Sim has done an excellent job and can take a photo for his portfolio. Click the check mark button to confirm the message and enter camera mode.
Use the mouse to position the camera lens on the client who received the makeover or on the room that received the renovation. Press the mouse button to snap the photo. A message window notifies you that the photo has been added to the portfolio and how full the portfolio is.
Tips
Each job your Sim takes has a name that indicates the type of job, such as the Stylist's "New Swimwear" job or the Architectural Designer's "New Rec Room" project. Your Sim can repeat these jobs if a client asks for them again, but only one photograph from each type of job counts toward the portfolio total.
The portfolio tallies the number of images captured from unique jobs, not the quality of them, so don't worry if the photograph you take is off-center or otherwise unappealing. It's the act of taking the photo at the end of a successful job that increases your portfolio total.
All Sims carry a cellphone with camera capabilities. You do not need to purchase a separate camera for the Sim, or give the Sim any special photography skills to build the portfolio.
Work at a drafting table in between clients to create fashion design or architectural designs that boost job skills. Sims with higher skills get more satisfied clients and more prompts to take photos for the portfolio.
When completing an architectural design job, give the client a little extra than what he asked for if the budget allows. This gives the client's satisfaction a little boost.
Warnings
Do not leave a job until you have given the client all the items on the job list or the client will not be satisfied, and you'll miss the opportunity for a portfolio photo.
Sims with the Frugal trait will not be happy if you go over their budgets on architectural projects.
At the start of either career, the Sim has no job experience and many of the early clients will not be happy enough with the results to qualify for a portfolio photograph. As the Sim's skills grow in the profession, the clients become easier to please.
References
Writer Bio
Katelyn Kelley worked in information technology as a computing and communications consultant and web manager for 15 years before becoming a freelance writer in 2003. She specializes in instructional and technical writing in the areas of computers, gaming and crafts. Kelley holds a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and computer science from Boston College.