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ju1ka's avatar
ju1ka
12 years ago

~Photography Corner~

I’ve had quite a few questions regarding certain photography shots in my builds so I’ve decided to make this thread to discuss various techniques I've used/learned while using photography skill.

Photography is a great way to customize your builds or add unique character to your interiors. This thread will mainly cover different photographic methods in relation to in-game content as that is what I mostly focus on.

Some basics:

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Getting a camera - Assuming you have World Adventures, you can purchase a camera at any general travel vendor in China/Egypt/France. They also sometimes pop up at consignment vendors. Or you can always grab one in buydebug. (Open cheat window (Ctrl+Shift+C), "testingcheatsenabled on" then "buydebug" without the quotation marks)

You can also use your phone camera, or a photography mod from MTS.

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Learning photography - There is a photography skill book that can be found at the travel book vendors and sometimes in the consignment store, although I advise you to jump straight into it and start photographing everything around you to get a better hang of it. The higher your photography skill, the smaller your chance of making oopsies, such as fingers blocking the lens and blurry images. Higher skill also means a larger variety of photo size and style.

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Using the camera - Start the process by clicking the camera and choosing "Take Photo" or pressing Shift+C with a camera in your inventory. Move your cursor up and down, left or right for the desired angle, and zoom in/out by either scrolling the mousewheel or pressing "Z" (for zoom in) or "Y" (for zoom out) for a more sensitive zooming experience. Press "I" to scroll through available sizes and "F" for available filters. Press "P" to pause the game if you need to. "C" is your capture button.

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Taking care of your photographs - Remember that you can name your photos. Only the sim who took that photo can name it. Drag the photo you want to name anywhere in livemode from the camera or inventory, select your photographer sim and click the photo, then “name...”.
Very rarely traveling and moving houses may break your photographs by making them blank. I suggest keeping your old cameras/photographs on the lot if you’re traveling or in a treasure chest in your family inventory if you’re moving, as opposed to in your personal sim inventory. That way if you do encounter the annoying glitch, only the photos on the camera in your sim’s inventory will go blank.


http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Cost of photographs - Photographs are normally quite cheap, definitely cheaper than custom paintings that normally range in the 1,000-2,000 simoleon mark. Your photograph is normally worth a lot if it's labeled as a new object in a new category (A Sim In The Area, for instance) or if it's a photo of a previously-shot subject, but new for the day.

If you're on a budget (building a starter for example), it's smart to take a 2nd, cheaper photograph of the same person, scenery etc if the 1st one is way too expensive.


http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/c/camera.gif Your camera

Photo sizes: Small portrait, Medium Landscape, Large Portrait, Panorama
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/9791/screenshot25le.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

Photo filters: Color, Black and White, Sepiatone, Classic Vignette
http://imageshack.us/a/img594/1487/screenshot26eh.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

Photography helpers:

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif For starters, get the best camera - Hikon QX40di Gladiator.
http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif If you're going to follow certain techniques described in this thread, be prepared to ruin your town. Perhaps keeping a separate save for photography purposes is a good idea.
http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif "TestingCheatsEnabled on" cheat is your best friend:

_____Forever-filled needs bars - shift+ctrl+click the mailbox at your home lot (or the main tourist base if you're abroad) then choose "Make Needs Static".

_____Swift outfit/appearance changing - shift+click any sim and choose "Edit in Create A Sim", this will allow you to customize pretty much everything on that sim. This option will not work on pregnant sims or sims wearing career outfits (they will have to change out of those first)
This means you potentially only need one extra sim living with your photographer. Simply endlessly change their age/appearance to suit your photographs if you're aiming for people photography.

_____Gaining swift control of a sim - Unless your photographer is a genie, gaining control of a sim that isn't part of your household is a tedious task (via moving in together/getting married). You can shift+click the sim and "Add to Household" to instantly add a sim to your family.

_____Editing lots in town without having to use "Edit Town" - Simply shift+ctrl+click anywhere on a lot you want to edit and choose "Buy on This Lot" or "Build on This Lot"

It also enables you to use these other cheats:
"BuyDebug" - gives you access to debugged game objects, such as vendor items (cameras), fogemitter and invisible lights.
"MoviemakerCheatsEnabled on" - allows you to loop animations for your sims. (Shift+click a sim, choose "Animation" and then choose any category/animation your heart desires)

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif "MoveObjects on" - A great cheat that lets you move anything, from objects in use to actual sims.

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif "HideHeadlineEffects on" - I'm sure you don't want speech bubbles and skill bars in your lovely photographs. Use this cheat to hide the plumbob, speech bubbles and skill bars.

http://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/bulletorange.gif Holding "Alt" down while moving objects in build/buy mode - This enables you to place and turn objects at a much wider range of positions and angles.
  • ju1ka's avatar
    ju1ka
    12 years ago
    Creating a seasonal set

    Assuming you have Seasons, all you really need to do is choose an object to photograph during the 4 seasons. For mine, I chose a tree.

    I placed a new empty lot slot in Twinbrook and chose a tree from Build mode that suits my taste. Be sure to choose a relatively "green" tree because if you choose one with red, orange or yellow leaves, your summer and spring may look too similar to autumn (since leaves go red in autumn).

    http://imageshack.us/a/img94/716/screenshot27o.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    By placing that one red floor tile, I marked the spot from which my photographer will be taking the seasonal shots.

    The tricky part for this photograph set will be your camera positioning because you want all shots to look the same in terms of angle and zoom scale. The easiest way to achieve identical (or at best, very close) camera angles is to focus on some kind of aspect of the object you're photographing in relation to the marked center of the photo frame slot.

    Here, I'm focusing the center on the little section of visible branch in the middle of the tree.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img5/7836/tree2z.png "width=640" "height=480"

    In terms of zoom, I've zoomed out completely on this shot, as far as the camera would let me. If you need to zoom out (or in) but aren't happy with zooming in or out complete, simply set a fixed amount of zoom in/out "ticks" for all your shots - count the times you scroll the mousewheel or press "Z" or "Y", so you have the same zoom for all of your photos.

    Now that you've worked out your angle and zoom, time to work with the seasons. If you don't want to wait for the different seasons to naturally occur, power up your "testingcheatsenabled on" cheat, then shift+ctrl+click anywhere in the world and choose "Seasons"->"Change Season". Speed the time up a little 'til your tree has transformed enough for your liking.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img690/792/tree3e.png "width=640" "height=480"

    http://imageshack.us/a/img19/4720/tree4t.png "width=640" "height=480"

    To intensify the season look, feel free to change weather accordingly as well (shift+ctrl+click anywhere, "Seasons"->"Change Weather To" ). You could choose rain for autumn, snow for winter, fog for spring and sunny for summer.

    ~

    http://imageshack.us/a/img854/8531/screenshot28ol.jpg "width=640" "height=480"
  • ju1ka's avatar
    ju1ka
    12 years ago
    Imitating famous art I

    Art is cool, but SIMified art is so much cooler!

    I've decided to imitate Warhol's Marilyn set.

    http://artisme.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/marilyn.jpg?w=204&h=205

    After making a Marilyn sim and giving her a scary popart makeover,

    http://imageshack.us/a/img526/9097/marilynre.jpg

    I set up the room with invisible lights and blue wallpaper as my background. Because I need Marilyn to have the same expression in all of the shots, I resorted to using one of the frozen animations that makes the sim smile.

    Open the cheat window and type "testingcheatsenabled on", then "moviemakercheatsenabled on". Shift+click the sim and choose "Animation...". After fiddling with different static animations, I settled on the the one called "Loading Screen y sim", found in "Play Specific Looping Animation"->Misc->Loading Screen y sim.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img826/6985/screenshot33sv.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    The tricky part for this photograph set (just like the seasonal set) will be your camera positioning because you want all shots to look the same in terms of angle and zoom scale. The easiest way to achieve identical (or at best, very close) camera angles is to focus on some kind of aspect of the object you're photographing in relation to the marked center of the photo frame slot.

    For this set, I focused on the center of Marilyn's T-zone. I also set a fixed amount of zoom-in ticks (3 clicks of "Z") to have the same zoom on all of the frames.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img18/5762/marilyn2d.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    Once you've captured your first photo, shift+click Marilyn and "Edit in Create A Sim" to change her appearance for your next shot. Cancel her looping animation because after being done with C-A-S, her head will start turning and her posture will not be the same. Make her do the "Loading Screen y sim" looping animation again and remember to change the colour of wallpaper background.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img94/4759/screenshot34hi.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    Keep doing the same for your next 2 or however many shots you want, then enjoy the beautiful fruits of your labour.

    ~

    http://imageshack.us/a/img39/1771/screenshot22xz.jpg "width=640" "height=480"
  • w2586's avatar
    w2586
    12 years ago
    I assume that I can post? If not then sorry! :shock: This is a great idea Joolster! I will probably use this to improve my photography skills! Great work! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

    ~Will
  • ju1ka's avatar
    ju1ka
    12 years ago
    Imitating famous art II

    Art is cool, but SIMified art is so much cooler!

    I've decided to imitate Warhol's cats. I have 3 of these prints at home and wanted to see if I could recreate something similar to them in my game.

    http://www.moderncat.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Warhol1.jpg

    All you really need is a few unnaturally colourful cats and a white room. Make a bunch of felines and give them bold-coloured coats, no need for any markings because you want them to look like they've been painted. Be sure to use the "HideHeadlineEffects on" cheat to get rid of speech bubbles because cats tend to be talkative.

    Little Serena is Magenta Kitty in the series. Wait 'til your cat does something cute or worthy of taking a photograph of, like a stretch or a meow. You can also make your cat do something like clean itself or run/roll around.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img22/8373/screenshot35n.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    Exploding into a terrorizing catdemonbeast is always fun.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img201/6113/yeahno.png

    Or looking like you're plotting world dominance.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img203/2807/evilkitty.png

    Once you've snapped your first cat, move onto the next. A highfive from Mittens the blue cat!

    http://imageshack.us/a/img14/4229/mittensw.png

    Repeat the steps for as many colourful kitties as you want and voila, you have a wonderful pop art cat set.

    ~

    http://imageshack.us/a/img6/2315/screenshot37hr.jpg "width=640" "height=480"
  • ju1ka's avatar
    ju1ka
    12 years ago
    will2586 wrote:
    I assume that I can post? If not then sorry! :shock: This is a great idea Joolster! I will probably use this to improve my photography skills! Great work! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

    ~Will


    You're welcome to post Will, I only need the first 3 posts, rest will be archived in 2nd post. :D Glad you found this useful.
  • ju1ka's avatar
    ju1ka
    12 years ago
    Spice up existing wall decor

    So you have in-game wall art that for some reason doesn't fit your taste: the size is awkward, the colour doesn't fit the interior or it's a store item and you'd like to keep your lot strictly store content-free?

    To "resize" existing wall decor, photograph smaller sections of it to give it a new life.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img13/4547/screenshot38wp.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    If you're not happy with the colour of a particular art piece but would really like to use it, try aiming some coloured light at it to adjust the colour, then take a photograph of it.

    http://imageshack.us/a/img812/7863/screenshot41c.jpg "width=640" "height=480"

    ~

    http://imageshack.us/a/img692/2956/screenshot40zn.jpg "width=640" "height=480"
  • Dragonfly4242's avatar
    Dragonfly4242
    12 years ago
    Wow! What a great thread. I do photography in real life (just as a hobby) but have not done as much with it in the sims other than using a lot of digital photo frames around the lots. I am now very inspired & can't wait to use your tips & tricks in game. I had a very duh moment when I saw your post on keeping the lot cost down by taking a second shot for placement on the walls using the first one to sell. I wish I had thought of that when I was doing my Secret Santa build. On that note I do have one question:

    1. When placing photos on the walls of a build will they upload to the exchange & still be there when others use the lot in their games? I think I heard it worked but it had something to do with frames. Now I can't remember but I bet you know the answer. :mrgreen:

    I really loved your information about taking existing art & photographing it so you end up with different sizes & angles of the art that fit better in whatever area you want to place the art in.

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