LyricLee
01-30-2007, 12:17 PM
A picture is what will sell your upload the most. Its very important to give downlaoders and accurate idea of what your creation will look like in their game. This mini tutorial will give you some tips and tricks on how to make great screenshots of your creations.
For this tutorial we will be using a maxis sofa and chair.
I highly recommend NOT using the In-Game camera for your screenshots. Depending on your system, some photos come out blurry or too small and do not represent your item properly.
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Step one- Open up the paint program of your choice. All programs will vary so this tutorial will give you basic instructions that should carry over to all programs.
Now minimize the art program and go into your game. Create an empty lot for your items screenshots. It's best if there are no sims on the lot.
This is an In-Game camera image of the sofa and chair. Notice the nasty grid lines, the poor lighting, general blurriness. We can get rid of all of that.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/badimagemain.jpg
On your empty lot, build a hugeeeeeeeee square room. The large room will allow you to get inside with the walls still up to take a better screenshot.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/buildalargeeeeroom.jpg
Now place a nice neutral wallpaper and flooring. And some windows to allow light in. Remember we want your uploaded item to be the focus of the picture. Don't make it too busy.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/3buildanddecoroom.jpg
Now place your items in a nice set up between your windows and use the day/night toggle to plunge the room into darkness.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/darkness.jpg
Activate the cheat MoveObjects on.
You will want to play with the lights in the game to throw a nice glow on your items without bleaching out the color. For these pics I used my favorite outside lamps.
Once you have some lighting set, flip the lot back to daytime.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/lightsdaytime.jpg
Now you have natural light, both inside and out, but have retained the detail on the furniture.
You can turn off the MoveObjects cheat if you wish.
Now is the fun part. TAB KEY!
Hit the Tab key and you will go into free camera mode. Using the Q and E keys you can move the camera upwards and downwards. You can use the mouse to rotate the camera and use + and - to zoom in and out. Use the arrow keys to move across your lot. If you play around a bit you can get used to the controls. This will allow you to get closer to your items than the in game camera.
Now instead of using the in game camera, once you have your shot lined up, hit the Print Screen button on your keyboard.
Minimize the Sims and open up your paint program.
Create a new image and select paste.
This will plop your screencap onto the blank image. You now can crop, add a border and text and jazz up your screenshot. Using print screen will also eliminate the blurriness of the In-Game camera.
This is my final screenshot after cropping, a border and simple text.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/final.jpg
Looks alot better than the begining image right?
Hope this helps you all in some little way.
For this tutorial we will be using a maxis sofa and chair.
I highly recommend NOT using the In-Game camera for your screenshots. Depending on your system, some photos come out blurry or too small and do not represent your item properly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Step one- Open up the paint program of your choice. All programs will vary so this tutorial will give you basic instructions that should carry over to all programs.
Now minimize the art program and go into your game. Create an empty lot for your items screenshots. It's best if there are no sims on the lot.
This is an In-Game camera image of the sofa and chair. Notice the nasty grid lines, the poor lighting, general blurriness. We can get rid of all of that.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/badimagemain.jpg
On your empty lot, build a hugeeeeeeeee square room. The large room will allow you to get inside with the walls still up to take a better screenshot.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/buildalargeeeeroom.jpg
Now place a nice neutral wallpaper and flooring. And some windows to allow light in. Remember we want your uploaded item to be the focus of the picture. Don't make it too busy.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/3buildanddecoroom.jpg
Now place your items in a nice set up between your windows and use the day/night toggle to plunge the room into darkness.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/darkness.jpg
Activate the cheat MoveObjects on.
You will want to play with the lights in the game to throw a nice glow on your items without bleaching out the color. For these pics I used my favorite outside lamps.
Once you have some lighting set, flip the lot back to daytime.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/lightsdaytime.jpg
Now you have natural light, both inside and out, but have retained the detail on the furniture.
You can turn off the MoveObjects cheat if you wish.
Now is the fun part. TAB KEY!
Hit the Tab key and you will go into free camera mode. Using the Q and E keys you can move the camera upwards and downwards. You can use the mouse to rotate the camera and use + and - to zoom in and out. Use the arrow keys to move across your lot. If you play around a bit you can get used to the controls. This will allow you to get closer to your items than the in game camera.
Now instead of using the in game camera, once you have your shot lined up, hit the Print Screen button on your keyboard.
Minimize the Sims and open up your paint program.
Create a new image and select paste.
This will plop your screencap onto the blank image. You now can crop, add a border and text and jazz up your screenshot. Using print screen will also eliminate the blurriness of the In-Game camera.
This is my final screenshot after cropping, a border and simple text.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/LyricLeeSV/Tutorials/final.jpg
Looks alot better than the begining image right?
Hope this helps you all in some little way.