Tutorials:Taking Totally Bitchin Pics

Taking Totally Bitchin' Pics

This long and verbose tutorial will give you tons of info on making your pics for your creations and contests much better. This tutorial is mostly focused on sims and taking pics of them and their content, but the tips here will be useful for many applications.

Introduction

Okay, so, your pics suck. No, they do, really, just admit it. It's okay. Admitting it is the first step. Breathe deep and just let it out. There, there, it's all right. We'll get you fixed up.

The game's engine is capable of taking some awesome pics, but you really have to know what you're doing in order to make use of it.

You Will Need

• The Sims 2, duh.
• A decent enough graphics card that you can turn up Sim/Object Detail, Lighting, and Texture Detail to High. You do not need smooth edges, reflections, or any other fancy doodadery. I don't even have a graphics card, let alone a good one, just some patience with slow framerates.
• A graphics editing program. The better the program the more you will likely be able to do with filters, etc. to improve your pics. I recommend Photoshop - though the current versions are several hundred dollars, you can purchase a used copy of Photoshop 7 for around $40 on eBay and get most of the same functions. You can also use Paint Shop Pro, Corel Photo Paint, Paint.NET, and GIMP, the last two of which are free. You can likely use most any other program that is capable of a few filters like Brightness/Contrast and Levels, some blurs, and multiple layers.

This tutorial will be written showing techniques from Photoshop, specifically Photoshop CS2. If you have earlier versions of Photoshop, or if you are using a different program, you may not be able to do everything here, or you may not be able to do things exactly as they are stated here with the same tools - most programs will offer alternate methods to do just about anything, but it's up to you to know your graphics editing program and know it well. This is NOT a tutorial for people who have just stopped playing in Microsoft Paint, so if you're unclear on your program, go Google "beginner (program name) tutorial".

Get Hacks

There are two important modifications you need to make to your game before you continue, if you want to take truly awesome pictures.

1. GunMod's Camera Hack will give you MUCH better control of the camera in Cameraman mode, and allow angles and shots you could never achieve with the limits on the default camera.
2. Radiance Lighting 2.2 will change the way the game's lighting works, to make for much more realistic, dramatic lighting effects. You can probably use Radiance Lighting even if you have a crappy graphics card. You will likely have to fundamentally change the way you use lighting once you install it, though, and you'll often find yourself using more lights to get things well lit. For more on using lights under Radiance Lighting, see the information in the tutorial on lighting your scene.

Those above two are pretty much essential, but if you're taking pictures of sims and you want some really great poses, you're going to need some hacks or hacked objects that allow you to put your sim in a variety of poses on demand. For that, you'll want to see the list at Content List: Hacks and Hacked Objects: Pictures, Movies, Stories, and Poses. Specific items listed there and ways to utilize them will be gone over in the rest of the tutorial.

Windowed Mode

In order to take your pictures using the methods described here, you will need your game running in a window, so you can easily switch to other applications without causing major instability and lag. Instructions on setting up Windowed Mode may be found here.

Make Your Sim

Sims look best on a lot, so we're going to create a sim and put it on a blank lot to take pics. This will make an extra character file just to take pics, so if you have a big, overcrowded Legacy neighborhood, you might want to create a blank neighborhood for pics and testing to keep this out of your main 'hood.

Otherwise, go into Create a Family/Create a Sim and to in to create a sim. Enter a first name, and make sure you have it set to the right age and gender. Then click on the Choose Existing Sim button. Find your sim in the sim bin and click Accept. Jump to 6, where you set your sim's personality and aspiration. Choose an aspiration for your sim, and set their personality points. To avoid slouchy, gross sims, make sure they have at least 3 points in Sloppy and Lazy. Setting it to Aquarius gives you a basic personality. If you have Nightlife give your sim some Turn-Ons and a Turn-Off. Then choose Accept Sim. At the family screen, type a family name, and then click Accept Family.

Create a Set

Now you'll be back in your neighborhood. It's time to create an empty lot that you can use as a picture-taking set for your sim.

Click on the Lots and Housing button, then choose an empty lot. 2x2 is a good size. Place the lot in a blank spot in your neighborhood, and give it a name. It should be a Residential lot. Click on the Families button and find the sim you just made in the sim bin. Click on the empty lot you just created and move them into it.

Game Options

When you have gotten the lot fully loaded, you will want to first make sure your graphics options are turned up. Click on Options - Graphics/Performance Options.

You will need Lighting, Sim/Object Detail, and Texture Detail at least turned up to High. Shadows can also help your pictures look more realistic, depending on how nice a graphics card you have. When you have turned your settings up, click Apply Changes.

It may take several minutes for the game to begin responding again. You will get a dialogue asking if you want to save your changes with a countdown of 15 seconds. Click yes within those 15 seconds to keep your new settings - if you miss seeing that window, your options will revert to their previous levels, and it may seem like nothing happened.

Now we need to make sure our sim is not going to go running off to read the paper while we're trying to take pictures. Click on Options - Game Options and turn OFF Free Will.

Camera Controls

Take some time to just play around with the camera, especially if you have just installed the camera hack. It can take a while to get used to the camera controls, and even once you are experienced in their use, it may be challenging to get the shot you want with the constraints on the controls.

If you haven't taken many sim pictures before, here is a list of camera controls:

• TAB

Puts the game into Cameraman mode, allowing better and more control of the camera. Make sure you are in live mode before going into Cameraman mode or you will see grid lines on the ground and floating where floor tiles may be placed.

• W and S

W moves the camera forward. S moves it backward.

• A and D

A moves the camera left. D moves it right.

• Q and E

Q lowers the camera. E raises it.

• + and -

Zooms in and out. The further you are zoomed in, the smaller the increment you will move when using the WASD keys if you have the camera hack as advised above.

Basic Set

The most basic type of set is just two walls with flooring stretched between them. This will give you nice, brightly-lit pictures, and is perfect for getting a picture of a sim taken against a solid-colour background, often a requirement for contests. If you need some simple, basic walls in a variety of colours, try this set by FionaAzrael at MTS2.

Pay attention as you place the walls - notice that there is a shadowed side, and a side that is brightly lit. Light on a sim lot will come from a certain direction, just as in real life. You want both of your walls to be brightly lit, with shadows behind them, as it will make your sim easier to see against them.

Try placing walls and floors as shown, in a cross shape. Take a look at each corner in the game and notice the lighting. See how only one of those four corners is well-lit on both walls and the floor, the bottom left corner? You would want to place your sim in this corner for picture taking, as it will give you nice, clear, brightly-lit pictures. Placing your sim in any of the other corners, with shadows in them, would give you darker pics that won't look as nice.

You don't need to build this whole cross shape each time, just place some walls horizontally and vertically to see which direction the light is coming from, then build the one lit corner - two walls in an L shape, with flooring stretched between them.

Take a look at the pic to the right of the two sims. The left pic was taken in the fully-lit corner. You can see how nice and bright and visible the sim is. The right pic was taken in the fully-dark corner. You can see how much duller the colours are and how much darker the pic is by comparison.

Full daylight will give about the brightest, clearest light you can get in the game, but it can wash out some details, especially if what you are photographing is mostly very light colours.

Notice how certain areas in the brightly-lit pic that are highlighted lose detail - the white parts on her cheeks, nose, forehead, and chest, and a little bit on the design on the front of her shirt and in the highlights of her hair, there is a loss of detail due to brightness. You don't get that same loss of detail in the darker pic, and there is more depth to the colours, but there are also no bright highlights at all, and the low-contrast makes things look muddy.

Here's a sim on a nice, brightly-lit simple set, in a pretty good placement for taking pics.

Indoor Set

Exterior lighting will give you bright lighting, but if you would like more depth to your pictures without bright, harsh daylight, you can add a few walls to the simple set, and create an interior set. It may be tempting to use an existing house for pictures, but generally building a small set just for pics is better, as you will be able to take pictures much quicker on a smaller lot with only your needed walls and objects.

As soon as you add the fourth wall, though, especially if you have Radiance Lighting installed, the room will become extremely dark.

It can be challenging to properly light an interior room, but with enough windows (there are also two on the wall which is cutting away in this pic) and some lighting, you can make for a nice bright interior room, almost as bright as daylight, but with a much prettier lighting tone. Make sure you switch to live mode and turn on the lights in the room to see how your lighting levels are.

Notice how even though it is an interior pic, because much of the lighting is from the windows, the room is better lit on the near corner, and darker in the far corner. You would want to make sure you have your sim facing toward the direction of the light, so they are better lit for pictures.

Pictures taken in a well-lit interior room tend to have a nice level of shadows and highlights, without the lights being too light, or the darks being too dark.

Notice how the dark parts of her shirt still have a little shading to them, but the light parts of her cheeks, nose, forehead, and upper chest don't lose detail. There is much more depth to the lighting in a well-lit interior shot. You can still overdo it with lighting if you use certain lights directly above a sim, too many lights, lights which are too bright, or your sim has very light skin, eyes, or hair. Pay attention to the highlighted areas and make sure they still have depth, and watch the darker areas to make sure they are not too light or too dark as well.

Advanced Sets

Garden Set

A properly-created outdoor set can create a beautiful natural feel to pictures, and is appropriate for many types of sims. It can be one of the more challenging sets to work with, as plants often have high poly counts, and crowding them together and pointing the camera at them can make for very slow frame rates, but it can also be one of the prettiest ways to take pics.

Start by placing two walls - you can use a stone fence, or a wall with a stone texture applied. As with the basic set above, remember that the light is coming from a certain direction, so you want to make a well-lit corner.

Use the terrain paint tool to paint the ground an interesting texture in wide strokes using the largest brush size. Then add some accents of another terrain paint in the smallest brush size for interest. Don't overdo it - you want it to look random and natural. You can always undo or paint over it if you don't like how it looks.

If you would like to add a pond, outline the pond first in a different texture appropriate to it - a dark wet-looking brown mud or small gravel is a good choice. Make sure you do this first, as you won't be able to change the texture once the water is in place.

Then put in the water, leaving a little edge of gravel here and there. Use the smallest brush size for adding the water, and do it a single click a time. Try to give it a natural blobby sort of shape with a bit of variance in the depth of the water in places.

Now add some trees. You want it to look lush, but not too crowded, with room left for other plants and, of course, your sim. Remember to add a couple trees on the other side of the fence if you are using a low one and the trees may show over the top in your pictures.

Try to use odd-numbered clusters of trees and other plants when you are adding them.

You will want to make sure you have the following cheats enabled:

• boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false - Plants only grow along perfect straight lines in well-tended formal gardens. Unless that's the look you're going for, make sure you place your plants in a scattered, natural way.

• boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true - This will allow you to have more rotation angles for your plants. You could just use the 4 right-angle rotations by default, but the more randomly your plants seem placed, the more natural it will look, so make sure to rotate each plant a few times if you're placing several of the same plants near one another.

• moveObjects on - This will allow you to place more than one plant in a single grid tile, and intersecting one another. The branches of trees often tangle together when they are closely spaced, and placing a few trees close together and a few further apart will look random and natural.

Now add some shrubbery and lower plants and flowers. As with the trees, stick to odd-numbered groups, scatter them around off the gridlines, rotate frequently, and overlap a little. Try to stick with one or two coordinating colours in the flowers.

Pictures taken in nice natural sets like this can be very pretty. Make sure you can't see the road or sidewalk in any pics like this, and you generally want the background to look natural as well - either sky or mountain, not a roof or something behind. The high wall or fence you placed first should obscure most ugly constructions, and your trees should do the rest.