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Picture Taking Tips/ Tutorials
Topic Started: Apr 11 2008, 03:45 PM (4,285 Views)
Hafise
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I believe so.. to get up to the crow's nest. I'm pretty sure since one of my sims is fascinated by the crow's nest.
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Cinamun
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11.4.08

Well I tried that using the animation box for BV and the animation is actually climbing up a ladder. Also, in Essa and Nextor's shots, it looks like their climbing up trees, but there are no options for trees. Probably moveobjects on.. but the only animation I can find for getting to that crow's nest is a ladder climbing animation.
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Hafise
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There is a climbable tree from Sims 2 Castaway. I think the objects have been converted for the Sims 2. I had them at one time but recently cleared out my game.
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Cinamun
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11.4.08

hmmm, i'll have to look around for those! Thanks Say
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Liv
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Heeeey. I saw that stuff. Here is the link Cin.

Castaway and Other Story Stuff
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Cinamun
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11.4.08

EXCELLENT! i'll try it out! thanks you two!
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nataboo22
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i downloaded gadwins... but it has a big red stamp on all my pics saying ineed to register the product and it costs money....
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~Dee~
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You have the wrong version. You downloaded pro instead of free.
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nataboo22
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I dont know if there are any newbies out there like me but i found this and hopefully it can be of help to up and coming story tellers like myself!

http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=T...ly_Bitchin_Pics
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xoJessi
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~*Jessi*~

Okay... I'm far from a pro when it comes to beauty contests but since I made up a tut for the ppl I was mentoring for Picture Perfect I'm gonna share it here too!

Runway Method


Every single runway is different and there are different ways to make different runways... but heres an example of how I did one of mine.

Step one: Make a huge square, two levels.
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Step Two: Go into game options, then to Graphics Perfomance, where it says object hiding make sure thats clicked *off*

Step Three: Make sure you have a theme in mind which will match your sims clothing and bring them out. For example you wouldn't do an African theme when your trying to portray winter clothing. Unless it' fur African clothing... but you get the picture. lol

Step Four: Paint the walls the desired color. Both Top and Bottom floor same colors, unless you want to get a little unique.
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Step Five: Do the Floors!
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Step Six: Know the handy cheats.
Move_objects on, sethour 1-10, and boolprop snapobjectstogrid false/true (you might have to use this often). Go ahead and plunk in move_objects and sethour 10

Step Seven: You can make a unique shape inside your huge square. This way it will look like you have a place for your models to come in and out from.
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Step Eight: You can paint it the same or a different color.

Step Nine: Go to your micellaneous tools in build mode> Go to the fence tool > Scroll until you see "The Great Divide" (Small fences, came with OFB) Make your desired shape on the runway.
Make it look like they have a pathway! You can change the inner color if you want.

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Step Ten: It's a little to dark for my liking so lets add some lights.
Enter boolprop snapobjectstogrid false and go to your outdoor lights place a bunch of spot lights around. Go to Sim mode and click on the lights. Turn on all lights. Doesn't look too bad but it needs something else.
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Step Eleven: Spice things up with pilars. Build mode> micellaneous and then collumns. Pick whatever one you want.

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Step Twelve: Spice up with some plants and add a few more lights! For wall lights and paintings you might want to put boolprop snapobjectstogrid true back on. It makes placement more easier.
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Step Thriteen: You might want to put on Sethour 1 I find that darker shots enhance lighting

Step fourteen: I Added a reflection floor by murano to enhance. Not quite sure where I got it. :ha:
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Step Fifteen: Set up your model with her model-like pose. Move her on the runway where you want her. (sorry her model-like pose is so uncreative... lol)
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Step Sixteen: If you feel like somethings missing Set up the scene around her. Use lights to enhance and plants and more pillars if necessary.
Take mutiple shots until your 100% sure you have what you want.

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DONE!

Heres another shot... different runway style. You can do whatever you want. ;)

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~Dee~
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Jessi great job on the tut! That came out really nice. :)
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Liv
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Great job Jessi!
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IvoryOldID
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Super Cute. Super Special.Super Star

Jessi that tut is great..I wish I had read this when I did my shots for the PP contest,lol..Thanks so much girl!!
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xoJessi
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~*Jessi*~

Thanks & Your welcome!
Sorry didn't post sooner :beatup: ..

I'm sure you did great though.. *runs to check it out* :bff:
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Netra
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Jessi this is a great tut. I am terrible at decorating anything in game, thanks a lot for this!
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xoJessi
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~*Jessi*~

Your welcome!! :D
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mocha0030
n/a

i love this thread! nice tute jess. now if only we could get one for the hairbrush. *hint*
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☆SuchaDiva☆®


Thanks Jessi, I downloaded Gadwin and my pics are much more doable. I have always taken pics of my sims, but now I can actually share them. :)
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DecoraChroi
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star782
Jun 30 2008, 12:17 PM
I wonder decora how you got the guy to look like he was dunking the ball in the basket ball shot
Heh, all about timing and wasting most of my brain cells.

First, in order to have the basket ball above the rim, you need another player using the court. This was all done studying the action and also slowing down the clock.

I used the military career reward with the action of him falling down or use Aikea Guinea's Animation Paintings, under "jungle gym failure" (low body skill). Either one will work

Second, use an invisible OMSP about half the height of the basket ball pole. If you have OFB, you'll want to place your sim ontop of the magisplay, get an invible recolor. With your sim on the magisplay and posed, place them on the OMSP.

Make sure you have the "moveObjects" on enabled, then enter cheat, "boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false". Move them close the rim of the hoop. *Note, depending on angle of your camera shot, you have to move the sim accordingly so that their hands appear to dunk.*

Whew...hope that all makes since. :D
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star782
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thanks I read it twice I see know I just liked that shot
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nikkinu
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If anyone can help me. I'm having trouble with Gadwin. I have the freeware version and whenever I try to use it my pics are blacked out. I don't know what's wrong, I've uninstalled it and erased all the files and installed it back but my pics are all black!
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Netra
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nikkinu I had the same problem with Gadwin and that's why I just decided to download Fraps, works just like Gadwin, but actually works for me.lol
Edited by Netra, Jul 16 2008, 08:30 PM.
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nikkinu
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Thanks Netra. Gadwin was workin for me a little bit, yesterday, but I'll try this out. Thank You!
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Netra
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You're welcome nikki! :P
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Drica
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[THESE ARE SUM WONDERFUL TIPS U GUYS R TALENTED MAN!! :-)/u] :D
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wens
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going to try this Gadwin program......glad to see this post...I have totally missed this post....
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nesleys
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wens
Oct 10 2008, 05:53 PM
going to try this Gadwin program......glad to see this post...I have totally missed this post....
Wens, actually, Gadwin is the one giving people problems (I got rid of it when it started giving me problems.) You should do like Netra says and try Frapps. Or try Screen Hunter 5.0, which is another really good (free) program.
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lewisb40
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Now I see how you all do those fabulous pics and poses. Great job and thanks for the tips.

I wonder if anyone have figured out tips for the live camera in AL. I have been having problems getting the right angles and movements cause really I am not use to it. I do have an old mod for the camera, Gunmod's, but can't get a better angle. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
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xoJessi
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~*Jessi*~

A livejounal Community, I've been lurking in posted a pretty good collection of WCIF's for Storytelling, which are really helpful when dealing with contests too. You should really check them out if your into storytelling, contests or just playing around with your pictures.

Part One
Part TWO
Part THREE

Also, I just did another Picture Perfect contest over at Oasis, and here's some of the things I put together to help a member over there.
You might want to download all the animation boxes you can (found in the above links) and animation paintings etc.

You may have to click to be redirected to certain pictures because of the sizes.... sorries!

Headshot

Usually what I do before anything is work with a smaller screen size. It makes the game run a lot faster and you can get your shots set up quicker. *Make sure it's not too small, but make sure it's in a workable size* When you get the shot you want, and figure you want to post a bigger picture, or have more cropping variety change your Screen Size to something higher*

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/Xox9k/Mentor/mentor1.png

Next make sure Free will is off. Sometimes it's interesting to have sims roaming around and doing whatever they want, but in modeling contests that's not always a good thing. They are not that creative on their own. lol

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/Xox9k/Mentor/mentor2.png

Camera Angles and Eye Contact

So this is how I usually create connections an eye contact with the camera.

Here's the sim I'm going to be using as an example, sorry the lighting and the quality is a bit bad, I only had time to crop.

Notice her expression and the position where she is. Is pretty standard right.

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But I want to take a headshot. So I press TAB and then ZOOM in. ( + key )
After I move my mouse abit to readjust my screen so her head fits in it, I have something like this:

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Hmmm... Thats not a good headshot because she's looking up... somewhere I don't think she should be looking. Don't get me wrong, Sometimes headshots that look away from the camera are interesting but I find that you get a better connection when you have eye contact.

Anyways, I want to make her connect with the camera.

So while in tab mode I will adjust my view.
Since she's looking UP, we have to move the camera UP. We press the E button Do not use the arrow up key, this moves the camera forward.

So I press on the E a couple times and the camera moves up up up.

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She's almost gone from my sight, but thats okay because I'll just motion the mouse downward to refit her into the screen..

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Now she has pretty good eye contact with the camera.

That was pretty basic. Just remember keyboard short cuts when in the Tab mode.
E adjusts the camera UP while
Q adjusts the camera DOWN

They really come in handy

Overlays and Expressions
Next we're gonna deal with overlays/expressions and animatons.
The combination of all those things can pull off unique and really cool pictures!

So... grab Decors Modeling Box and Akieas Painting
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Neutral is a unique and cool expression because it minimizes the effects of some 'wild expressions' and it's more flexible than the other expressions too. So lets use Neutral.

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It's a lot of fun playing around with different animations so I just picked one random one. *Explore the animation boxes and pictures. Get familiar with the ones you like* Pick ANY animation from Akiea's animation picture. Without the overlay of the expression, your sim could be displaying a variety of unpredictable emotions but with the use of overlays you can control that unpredictability and focus more on the poses.

An example:

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Remember the above steps (connect with the camera) and use this when she gets out of frame.

Again, neutral is a handy tool because it neutralizes or lessens the effects of the other emotions.

Say I make my sim really GRUMPY or use the DISGUST emotion.

It's a bit extreme

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/Xox9k/Mentor/mentorles344.png

I just want it to be a little Grumpy and Digusted, so on top of that emotion I'll use NEUTRAL and this is what happens.

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/Xox9k/Mentor/mentorles33.png

Sometimes you can use one or two neutrals on top of an emotion.

Look at me hack/tricks
Camera Connection


This is a hack that's useful for those pose boxes, which give you just standard poses.

Make sure you download it. I'm not sure if you have it but this is pretty cool for eye contact too.

This is the standard pose in tab mode. (I got it from one of the pose boxes)
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but I think I want to have it more centered and further down. So what do I do when I want my camera to move down?

Q

(Remember Q means Downand E means UP!)

I press Q the desired amount of times and then adjust the camera to my liking.

I now have something like this
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Next I want her to look at me from this camera angle. So, while in TAB mode I save this angle CTRL + 5 *remember the save frame cheat from the first PM*

and then exit the TAB mode.

Afterwards I click on my sim and click the "Look at me interaction" . MAKE SURE YOUR GAME IS PAUSED.

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We go back into our TAB mode and press 5 (because that's where our angle was saved)
We unpause it briefly and our sim should turn their direction to us.
Pause it when you have your shot because the "look at me" interaction does not last forever.

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You can do the above steps with a variety of other angles....

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Experimentation with Overlays and Animations

The basics are pretty much covered now, so if you can do all those things you can incorporate them into a lot of your pictures.

But since we're still on the topic of headshots I want to share my favorite pose/trick that involves all the previously mentioned tricks. (This pretty much puts everything together to get a decent picture)

Grab the Seasons Animation Box and Decors Modeling Hack (the one with the overlays)
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w256/Xox9k/Mentor/mentorles5.png

Before anything make sure your sims face is Neutral

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And then go to the box and do the following things. *Remember to Experiment on your own. That's half the fun!*

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Your pretty much all set up. The only thing you need to do is put in the cheat Slowmotion 7 (or 4,5,6,8 depending on your patience)

And wait.

They'll start off like this..
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and then... their eyes will move in different directions than their heads. (Looking to the side effect)
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Go to TAB mode and then ZOOM in for the headshot.

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Be patient until you get the shot you want. (The slower the better in my opinion because you can catch exactly the connection and angle you want.)

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This is what she looks like Zoomed out.
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Bodyshots

This will be an introduction into bodyshots, which can sometimes turn into headshots too.
A trick is to be as creative as possible with minimal space. Standing bodyshots are fantastic but sitting or different laying bodyshots are interesting as well.

The Action box has a lot of good Fall interactions. *Again make sure your sims face has the desired emotion (from the overlay) or she's going to make a lot of wacking emotions*

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Alright So I clicked one of the fall interactions and this is what I got.

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This is a bad angle because I can't see anything so. TAB, Q ( a bunch of times)

to get something more work able.

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I really like the above angle so I'm going to save it for later use. CTRL + 6

Then I'm going to exit TAB mode because I want to add a lighting affect.

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Turn it on and then TAB Mode and press 6 ----- Back to my angle and then more lighting and a pretty decent effect.

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I want it a little different, so lets try a different LAMP on the opposite side. Same method as above.

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Then Viola
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Netra
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Awwwwww this is really cool Jess, wish I could have been your mentee. :D Great tips, I just copied and pasted. I didn't know that "Q" moves the camera up and down until Caitlin told someone and I was like whaaaaaaaat?Lol
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