Ive made a movie making guide here

[kraal7718]

Not a compleate movie making guide, but does give help and tricks on how to do a few scenes

* Making a group of sims all laugh together simultaneously
* Knocking somebody out
* Groping a womans behind, and she pushes you away
* Make a female sim pose sexy on a couch
* Assume the position (as in the law and enforcement terminology)
* Do a chase scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU8NH6LGXyY

[carenrose]

The link's working for me ... :D

I think the version using paul's reaction tester or the like offers a bit more flexibility ... as they can be standing up ... As long as you keep freewill turned off and don't let too much idle time pass after the end of the last action you make your sims perform (I do like the method of telling them all to do something cancelable like that, then canceling them all at the same time), they should all start close enough to the same time. However, if you have 3 or 4 sims doing the *exact* same laugh animation at the *exact* same time, it looks a little fake ...

[kraal7718]

I did try the laughing simultaniously method using Pauls Reaction box, originally. The trouble with doing it using pauls reaction box is, after you have selected a command using it, it then asks you, do you want to animate the move, overlay the move, or interact the move?.

And it asks you this for every sim you issued a command to, and cause of that, i dont think they all laughed at the same time :-(

[kraal7718]

Another tip i could of added actually (though most Sims movie makers have probably figured this one out for themselves), is how to get Sims to walk long distances, and not run.

Instead of clicking on the spot you want them to go to, and then selecting "go here", put an object down on that spot (like a chair) and command them to interact with that object. If you do that, the Sim will always walk to it and not run at all.

[kraal7718]

:blink: :blink: Are you sure that applies to ALL sims, including active ones that will prefer running over walking? I think the best way is to use boolprop testingcheatsenabled true and shift + left-click the staircase to get a pie menu up. When that pie menu shows up, it asks you what kind of moving style you want for your sim. You can make your sim walk happily, walk sadly, walk angrily, skip, and run.

Oh right, i never knew of that cheat, it sounds handy, ill have to give it a try next time.

And i didnt realise active sims always run to everything.

This was an annoying hurdle for me at first, cause i sometimes wanted sims to walk long distances, without having to break it up into loads of camera angles to bypass the running default.

[kraal7718]

:blink: :blink: Are you sure that applies to ALL sims, including active ones that will prefer running over walking? I think the best way is to use boolprop testingcheatsenabled true and shift + left-click the staircase to get a pie menu up. When that pie menu shows up, it asks you what kind of moving style you want for your sim. You can make your sim walk happily, walk sadly, walk angrily, skip, and run.

UPDATE:.......I have given this cheat a try, and whether you pick normal, sad, happy or angry as their walking style, they will still run, if you make your sim "go here" at a long distance away.

So i guess the secret is, if you want to make movies where you want scenes where sims walk continously for a long distance, dont have them be a fit and athletic sim, otherwise ur gonna be up a creek without a paddle there lol

[megan8788]

Well it is quite a good source of entertainment for everyone.

[Jemcrystal]

User closed their account this thread is dead.

[rainb0wRhie]

Editing the camera file for Sims 3
To get slower, faster, smoother, individual camera movements with the Sims 3, you'll need to edit the camera file. This tutorial will help familiarize yourself with the camera file, so you can edit it to your needs and tastes.


Step 1

First, you'll have to know where to find the file which allows you to edit the camera's movement. The file is located in the Sims directory, and you'll get there by going this way:

Local Disk>Program files>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3>GameData>Shared>NonPackaged>Ini>Videocamera

And you've got it! You can open the camera file (Videocamera) with notepad, for example. I use that one, but I'm pretty sure there's more options.

IF YOU HAVE EXPANSION/STUFF PACKS:
You still need to be poking around in the original game's directory. When it comes to editing your recording values however, it's another story, but we'll get there soon.


Step 2

Now, before messing around with it it's important you back it up. There's times you'll want to revert it back to its original state, such as when patching the game (It will cause issues if it's edited).

When that's done, open the file and take a good look at everything in it. As you can see, there's already some useful descriptions which somewhat explain what each option does.


Step 3

Examining the options

If you want the camera to move slower, we'll need to look at the speed options. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but let's take a look at each individually anyway:

Speed

''Move''
controls the speed at which the camera moves horizontally, using the keyboard.

''MaxMoveSpeed''
controls the speed at which the camera moves horizontally at the max height, using the keyboard.

''MoveVertical''
controls the speed at which the camera moves vertically, using the keyboard.

''MaxVerticalMoveSpeed''
controls the speed at which the camera moves vertically at the max height, using the keyboard.

''Zoom''
controls the speed at which the camera zooms in and out.

''Pitch''
this one seems to apply to the rotation along the horizontal axis, created with the mouse.

''Yaw''
this one seems to apply to the rotation along the vertical axis, created with the mouse.

''Roll''
controls the speed at which the camera rolls (Using shift+A or D)

''MinSpeedHeight''
sets the height at which the camera moves at its minimum speed.

''MaxSpeedHeight''
sets the height at which the camera moves at its maximum speed.

Deceleration

This seems bugged. I think deceleration basically applies to the last bit of movement when manually moving the camera, with the keyboard. If the variable is set at 0.5, for example, the last second of your movements will be twice as slow as the rest.

I've noticed that when you put it at 1, your camera will continuously keep moving, at the same speed, without you pressing any keys (with 2 being twice as fast, etc).

However, I've noticed that deceleration rarely happens, and for some reason only sometimes. I don't know if there's a certain way to trigger it, but I haven't found it yet. The zoom deceleration does function the way it should, which makes for smooth zooms, hurrah!

These options are pretty much self-explanatory so I won't go any further into them.

Limits

''MinPitch''
''MaxPitch''
controls how much degrees the camera can rotate along the horizontal axis. If you put Min to -360, and Max to 360, you can fully rotate along the horizontal axis, allowing for shooting upside down!

''MinRoll''
''MaxRoll''
controls how much degrees the camera can roll left and right.

''MinPosHeight''
''MaxPosHeight''
controls the minimum and maximum height you can position the camera at.

View

I'm not sure what these do.

Miscellaneous

''LerpDuration''
this controls the time it takes to go from point A to point B, when using preset angles.


Step 4

Editing! When editing the variables, the numbers behind each option, a positive number usually means an increase, and a negative number a decrease. For example, if you want to alter ''Move'' to make it go faster, you add to it. When you want it to go slower, you decrease it.

When you're done, you save the file and let it overwrite the original. This might give you an error message saying you're not allowed to do so (something along those lines), if that happens, save it to your desktop and manually move the file to the directory and let it replace the original - which should work.

Have fun, and goodluck! :giggler: