genlisae: (hands)
[personal profile] genlisae
My notes were apparently only lacking the visual I had in my head to make sense for some (I need you guys around more often! Every time someone here has to read any of my notes for anything they end up scratching their head and going “What?”) and someone else asked me to explain how it all fit together. They knew more or less what I was talking about but the process was daunting.

So, really quick and dirty (not THAT kind of dirty) a visual walk through of what the hell I was on about here. I am going to break it down to pretty basic so a lot of this will be repeat for a lot of people.

Couple notes: (read these!)

You will need two cheats active for this. moveObjects on and boolprop snapobjectstogrid false. Add in boolprop allow45degreeangleofrotation true and those are the only cheats I have going 90% of the time. I don’t often use anything else; I have logical issues with userStartupcheats files (they are logical, I am not). Those three. That’s it.

Second. I have spent way too long fiddling with poses and overlays and figuring out how they work together and how one pose warps another and yes, I do plan most of them out in my head before I even load the game. (I told you I spent too long) Those were the notes from earlier. I saw the scene in my head and made a best guess which poses and overlays would work to pull it off. I am often wrong.

That is where the PoseBox Catalogue comes in. I have a request for a tutorial on how I use that though so I won’t get into that here.

On with the images, yes?



I need to set up Anto’s apartment for an upcoming scene so Anto got roped into testing this pose. As did Random-bartender-guy-from-the-bar-downstairs-who-has-Cael’s-hair.

Everything I will be using is here in this shot. There are also a few extra things. What is here? Well

1. The freezer clock (which I don’t expect to need, I just feel lost without it)
2. Cup Of Poses v1.2
3. Shiftable OMSP’s (I am guessing I will be using 2 and 4, that might change. You can of course use any sofa height OMSP as well)
4. Random-bartender-guy
5. Anto
6. Parts Posing Box
7. PoserBox
8. Custom Prop Hack for Movie Makers & Storytellers
9. Custom Modeling Poses Overlay Hack V2 w/Face Overlays (also will not be used, it is just everywhere anyway) 
10. 'Depression' Custom Animation Hack V1

Oh, and the couch, we kind of need that too.




First, grab Anto (who has been designated Sim 1 if you are following the notes from the post that started all of this) and place him on a 2 OMSP.

Click Depression Anim box – Male – Sofa




Lean on Side …




And the pose looks like this.




Then we move Anto to the couch and set him down something like this. We can tweak where he is sitting later and probably will. (We also move the damn rug because it is covering up the OMSP, but that may not be an issue for you)




Grab Random-bar-guy (I am just going to go ahead and call him Sim 2 from now on) and place him on the OMSP (which I have guessed at being 4. Why 4? Because he will eventually be laying down on the couch and 4 shifts up nicely to be just shy of flush with the top of the couch cushion)

Usually I would set the main pose first, like I did with Anto and then tweak arm position, except Cup-of-poses won’t let me do that so everything else has to come first.




Go to PoserBOX and then Arm Overlays




Insecure ... Start.




And right there I can tell this is not going to work for what I want (might for something else, not what I am looking for for this) So, I stop the Arm Overlays – Insecure pose and try Defense instead.




Defense will work!




Now to the Cup-of-Poses … Floor




Pose 7




Which looks like this with the earlier arm overlay from the PoserBOX




Flip Sim 2 around. Shift the OMSP up until he is on the couch not in it (if you can’t use shiftable OMSP the Invisible Magispaly tray/sofa OMSP work just as well) and if it wasn’t for Anto’s hand sticking through his chest like that, this one would be good to go.

Fixing Anto’s arm is where this gets fiddly and I am going to do this in pretty much the opposite of how I listed the arm overlays in the other post so it is easier to follow.

Firsts lets look at what each arm overlay looks like. (and move Sim 2 so you can actually see them)




From the Parts Posebox (these are high priority overlays. They will completely stomp on everything any other pose told the arm to do, except other high priority overlays/animations. Can be overlayed with other high priority overlays.)




Left 1 looks like this




Left 3




Left 4




From the Prop Hack (some of these can be effected by the underlying pose. Play around with them and various different poses to figure out which ones)




Purse 6 Forearm (L)

What I am looking for is Anto’s hand resting on Sim 2’s (who’s name is Godfrey apparently …) shoulder with his arm sort of draped along Sim 2’s side.




After putting Sim 2 back I can see that to accomplish what I am looking for I need to bring Anto’s entire arm up, the hand needs to tuck in toward his chest and the elbow must come forward and drop down.

Sounds complicated doesn’t it?

It really isn’t.




Start with Arm – Left1




This brings the whole arm up nicely (and if you didn’t want to fiddle, you could probably just leave the pose here and still have pretty much the same effect. I fiddle. It is what I do.)




Arm – Left3 will both bring the hand forward and drop the elbow so we will go ahead and overlay that as well.




Hand is forward, elbow is down. Now to bring the entire forearm up and out.




Which Arm – Left4 will do




It brought it up too high though.




Add one more Arm – Left1 (Never overlay the same pose or overlay more than twice! Doing so will force the sim to reset and you will have to start again.)




And we are so close to perfect you could probably adjust their positioning and fudge the rest with camera angles.

Except I fiddle. It is what I do.




Over to the Prop Hack for Purse 6 Forearm (L) which will very slightly rotate Anto’s arm and tuck his elbow down even more and …




That is why I fiddle.




Sim 2's head angle was still looking a bit weird though so I popped him out of his laying pose (cup of poses - floor - pose 7) and going over to the PoserBox. Go to Neck - BendRight Rotation. Then Select 10°




This tilts his head slightly to the right or down when we lay him back down which we will go and do now.




Remove the poseboxes, make the OMSP's invisible (and add the dog, because she said so) and you have a cuddly new pose




That works from several angles




And would be great for say a quiet evening on the couch watching TV.

That's it. We're done. This is the point where I usually get a stupid grin on my face and do a little dance in my chair because "OMG it worked!" They don't always. I like when they do, it means I can get on with the rest of the chapter.

Date: 2011-01-26 12:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] remisims.livejournal.com
This is why I'm in awe of the posing in your images, always very intricate and well thought out. I'm very impatient when it comes to working out things like that, and more often than not just stick with the basic game animations, paused at the right moment. I've been reading lots of tutorials on mixing poseboxes, and I've been trying new things. I'm going to have to incorporate this into my repertoire.

Just the other day, I stepped outside the (pose)box and set up a scene for something I've been planning for a while. I had everything perfect, when I realised aged-down-to-teen couple still had their wedding bands.. That was frustrating..

Anyway, thank you for this, and for using Anto. :)

Date: 2011-01-26 07:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] genlisae.livejournal.com
The fun thing about the overlays (especially the arm ones) is they can be used to "lock in" a body part while the game animation runs as well. Works great for things like arms around a shoulder (used that in Chapter 4) and hanging on to something/someone (which will be used in Chapter 5 and was the entire "Holding the pizza/cookies" thing in Chapter 3).

The Leg overlays from the PoserBox will also turn other anims into a sitting version (takes some playing around with and doesn't always work, sometimes they pretzel).

I had everything perfect, when I realised aged-down-to-teen couple still had their wedding bands.. That was frustrating.. Ugh! I hate when things like that happen. :( Thankfully there is Photoshop! lol

Date: 2011-01-26 02:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kittykat2010.livejournal.com
Hmm, this is very interesting. I never downloaded the parts posebox (just the poserbox) so I never knew what all it had. Looks like I'm gonna' have to get it :)
I hardly ever use overlays though. I usually don't have the time to fiddle around so I check the posebox catalog for what I need and just find something that will work. hehe
That and in game anims...

But this is awesome! Really makes me think "whaaa... I wanna learn how to make overlay poses!" *throws fit* hehe and try them out myself!

Date: 2011-01-26 07:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] genlisae.livejournal.com
I want you to learn to make overlay poses! My gods woman, you'll be dangerous when you learn how! (In totally a GOOD way!)

Do go grab that box though. It's great! It has the single arm options which are absolutely invaluable for the times you realize "Hey, I have completely overused this pose/similar poses way too much these last few shots." Makes it so easy to just change things up a bit without loosing the whole feel.

Date: 2011-01-26 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starling-1.livejournal.com
I've had problems making the arm positions look anything close to natural using that parts pose box. This definitely helps. Thank you!

Date: 2011-01-26 07:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] genlisae.livejournal.com
I'm glad it helps :)

Date: 2011-01-26 04:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kizzy-sims.livejournal.com
Wow. You make this all look so simple! I wanna try now xP I'm in absolute awe over how you managed to even figure it all out, let alone DO it.. LOVE IT THOUGH! :D Thank you so much for this :)

Date: 2011-01-26 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] genlisae.livejournal.com
It is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. You start to get a "feel" for how one overly/pose will effect another. And of course they have a diminishing effect as well. The more you have stacked on one sim the less effect they will have. I use that to my advantage a lot. Like with the Purse 6 pose in this example. If there had only been one other overlay at work on that arm it would have brought his whole arm down almost up against his side, rotated his hand over so it was palm up and just about completely closed his fist. Except because of the other overlays at work it was only a very slight rotation of his hand and a bit of a drop in his elbow.

I hope that made sense ...

But, yes! Do try it.

Date: 2011-01-26 11:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kizzy-sims.livejournal.com
I DID IT!! :D Even though I just copied the pose you showed us through here.. I think it looks so cool, and I'm chuffed I managed to do it. Thank you SO much, you've no idea how happy you've made me! XP

Date: 2011-01-27 04:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] genlisae.livejournal.com
Yay! Glad you got it.

:D

Random Box of Random

Because why not?


Welcome and all the rest of that. Friend away. I don't mind at all and of course feel free to drop me a comment or a note any time! You can also follow me on Twitter or Tumblr.

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