Do you use pose boxes in your game??

[lauratje86]

Not a WCIF or anything, as I already have 54 pose boxes in my game. That's right, 54.... I just finished making myself a Word document cataloguing them all with images so that I can use them more easily without having to figure out what each pose is supposed to be and how couples poses fit together exactly.....

I mainly use pose boxes to take bridal photos, wedding photos and engagement photos, though I also have some for parents with children, pregnant women and random stuff like dance poses and reading poses.

I almost always make my sims a wedding album and they generally have a few snapshots on their walls. I also use the pictures for my sims websites. I'm intending to do more still life paintings in my current challenge to document my sims' lives, as they won't be able to order photos/albums.

So what I'm wondering is: do you have any pose boxes in your game? What do you use them for? What kind of sim pictures do you like to take? Do you use the resulting pictures in game (ie BV snapshots & albums, uni camera pics, still life painting with the easel) or out of the game (ie stories or websites).

[Kailacat]

Oh my. Didn't even know there were that many!

I only use them for specific events - like you said, weddings, and birthdays. But it's too much trouble to get them out every day.

[lauratje86]

Oh, there are at least twice that many! :-D I only download ones I think I'll use fairly often..... (in theory at least!)

The ones I use most are the couple's poses - I like being able to get pictures of my sims holding hands, with their arms round each other or sitting on each others laps. So much better than ending up with tons of pictures of sims stood next to each other using the Bon Voyage poses.....

[Kailacat]

Yeah, the BV ones are pretty bad. Although I have a certain fondness for the "Moose Ears" one. ;)

[WoohooAndTheCity]

Yeah, the BV ones are pretty bad. Although I have a certain fondness for the "Moose Ears" one. ;)

You mean the neener neener neener?

[Kailacat]

Yeah. ;)

[Clashfan]

I've only recently gotten into using pose boxes so I'm still experimenting with them. I try to get at least one photo of every Sims life stage and also special events such as marriages ect. Sometimes I just simply forget or else I simply want in game action shots so I use the in game photo.

[Lavaster]

I use them for stories... and optical illusions. By that, I mean making it look like the Sim is doing something they're not really or can't do in-game, even with mods/hacks. The ability to take pics from angles works wonders with pose boxes!

[pinimon162]

I did have one in the past that glitched up my game so now I never bother..I just use the poses that come with BV. I usually take action shots anyway.

[Lil'B]

Woow! I have about 30 and still downloading more x Loool I use them completely randomly like if I want to take pics to edit in Photoshop or If I want my sims to be 'models' x

[Kneon_Knight]

No. No I don't. :|

[Mia138]

I wish these were available for Sims 3 - my wedding shots etc are all soooooo bad!!

[RoseGirl101]

Im looking for them because im making a story. I currently have 2 or 3

[mangaroo]

I don't use poseboxes. However, I wouldn't hesitate to add to my Downloads folder any mod that added animations that could be accessed via menus during gameplay.

Even though I'm impressed that players would take the time to pose their shots, posing isn't really playing to me. I am only interested in the actions and interactions Sims can perform, erm, "naturally." It's kind of like the overly-photoshopped pictures favored by some players: they look beautiful, but I know the game doesn't look like that. With poses, I know the situation in the image didn't "really" happen in gameplay. (Insert the cover-my-ass comment that I believe people should play and photoshop however the heck they want. It's your game, darnit. Play it your way.)

[Kailacat]

I agree with that mangaroo - only when the shot is messed up do I use poseboxes, or when it's very special and I want to take lots of pictures. For example before I had poseboxes I had a lot of shots where Goopy Gilscarbo was smustling in the backround or whatever and it was completely messed up.

[lauratje86]

I do kind of agree with you, mangaroo, despite the 54 pose boxes in my game!! Posing itself doesn't add anything to the game, but the results kind of do. The way I see it is that posed photos taken in real life aren't "natural" either. I know a couple of people who hate RL posed photos, because they see it as photographing something that didn't really happen..... Or at least that wouldn't have happened without force! I don't take sim photos of them flying etc, just of stuff that they *could* do in game if Maxis/EA had added more posing options with Bon Voyage!

Yet, right now I am viewing the official photos from a friend's wedding that I went to in August. 95%+ of them were posed, if the photographer had just stood around taking photos of what happened he would've got some nice natural ones, yes, but most of these lovely ones wouldn't exist! And some of them are going to look lovely in a wedding album :-)

So in the Sims I like my simmies to have nice posed wedding and bridal photos, too, to put in a nice album. Sure, them posing didn't add anything to the game, but being able to have their great-great grandchildren "viewing" the album many simyears later does, in my opinion. And there are always a few unposed shots too, of the ceremony itself and toasting and cutting the cake and the first dance :-) Even the group shots are normally done using the BV poses.....

In general gameplay I don't bother with posing, but I do use poses so that my sims can have wedding photos and family portraits on their walls and in an album :-D

Oh, and the fact that on the family loading screens sims are shown with their arms round each other but can't actually do it in game? Daft! Thank goodness for custom content!! :-D

[dadebabe09]

In general gameplay I don't bother with posing, but I do use poses so that my sims can have wedding photos and family portraits on their walls and in an album :-D

Oh, and the fact that on the family loading screens sims are shown with their arms round each other but can't actually do it in game? Daft! Thank goodness for custom content!! :-D

I completely agree with you! I am a photographer in RL and it drives me crazy that my Sims stand one square away from each other in all photos! I would never pose people like that!!!

I use the poseboxes for the exact same reasons, weddings, birthdays, family photos. But, as someone else mentioned, I have used some that have caused my sims to be (what looks like) screwed together backward!

:deal: I don't know if it is against the rules, but would you mind sharing here (or PM'ing me if you have time) some of the best Poseboxes you have come across. I am very interested in the couple ones like you said. Thank you for any suggestions.

[iCad]

If I'm going to document a neighborhood, then I'll give each Sim their one lifetime photo session, either when I create them, when I make a townie/NPC playable, or, if they're born-in-game, when they transition to adult. And I'll take one "group photo" of the founders of a given neighborhood. For those photo sessions, I use pose boxes and I will generally heavily Photoshop one or two of the photos for use as their "profile" image, just because I enjoy doing that. I used to have a bunch of pose boxes, but I found myself only regularly using three of them, so I deleted all the ones that I never/hardly ever used. For all other picture-taking, I just use regular snapshots. And if I'm not documenting a neighborhood, just playing it, I don't bother with photos at all.

For the record, the pose boxes I use are this one (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=272312), this one (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=321988), and this one (http://nene.modthesims.info/download.php?t=325934).

[Maranatah]

I have few of them, yes. Mostly animation boxes from different EP's. I use them for photos to upload with sims to my LJ and Pixel_trade. I don't like to use modelling poses, because they look really weird in most cases. :rolleyes:

[lauratje86]

Dadebabe09: Exactly! I have just been viewing the professionally-taken photos from my friend's wedding, which I attended in August. And guess what - none of the shots have everyone standing at a slight distance from each other and completely ignoring everyone else in the photo! :-D Especially not the ones of the bride and groom!

If you'd like to know which pose boxes I use, have a look here (http://nene.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=420465) for a list of my top three :-) If you like, when I PM the person who started that WCIF with details of some of the others I use I will also send it to you. I also use the three that iCad linked.

Some pose boxes can be a bit weird, especially when you first start using them, but I have read a few tutorials on how to use them properly and now I get much better results! :-) In the beginning I had the old "sims stuck together" problem as well, but I haven't had that issues in a while now!

[CleoTheMuse]

I completely agree with you! I am a photographer in RL and it drives me crazy that my Sims stand one square away from each other in all photos! I would never pose people like that!!!



Yes! I worked as a portrait photographer when I was younger, and I find myself always wanting to shove my Sims closer together when I take pics.

However...pose boxes kind of freak me out too. There's something strangely unnatural about them.

[dadebabe09]

Dadebabe09:
If you'd like to know which pose boxes I use, have a look here (http://nene.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=420465) for a list of my top three :-) If you like, when I PM the person who started that WCIF with details of some of the others I use I will also send it to you. I also use the three that iCad linked.



Yea!! Thank you so much! I am going to try the baby poses Post haste!!!!!

:up:

[el_flel]

I have pose boxes but I only used them for pictures for my story, and the occasional picture of a sim I liked (rather than have them in some generic pose). I probably would have them otherwise.

[AmphyPrincess]

My friend gave me a huge posebox collection, I have, oh, 100+?
I use them for all sorts of things, stories, pictures...
And sometimes I use Paul's Reaction Tester. :P

[dadebabe09]

Paul's reaction tester? Is that an opportunity to make someone cry when necessary? *devious smile starts to appear*

[AmphyPrincess]

Paul's reaction tester? Is that an opportunity to make someone cry when necessary? *devious smile starts to appear*
You can ask Fricorith and Kvornan Tricou for that answer; they've used it, oh, 20 times by now, each?
But yes, it does make people cry when necessary. And it's easier to just grab it from the cheat menu than dig through the buy catalog and possibly get the wrong one. :D

[dadebabe09]

You can ask Fricorith and Kvornan Tricou for that answer; they've used it, oh, 20 times by now, each?
But yes, it does make people cry when necessary. And it's easier to just grab it from the cheat menu than dig through the buy catalog and possibly get the wrong one. :D

What do you do? Use boolprop testingcheatsenabled true? Then what? I have used so few boolprop cheats in my day. Sorry for acting like a noob *blushes*! Thanks for any help.


**********
Never mind! Found link to cheat info and there it was! Thanks anyway!

[Nalia]

Then you Shift + click on your sim to get the cheat dialogue options, one of them being Paul’s Reaction Tester, which spawns a box with various reactions for your Sim to use.

[dede6464]

Im looking for them because im making a story. I currently have 2 or 3
heres a website for downloading more. MayPink (http://www.maypink.com)
They really help.
:P

[The SimWhisperer]

I've only discovered the antique camera as a fun object a few months ago. So, it's the one object I use a cheat for for every household! I only knew of the poses that are given as options. That being said, I take birthday, wedding, baby/toddler and vacation pictures. I've never ordered a photo album, because I know the vacation pictures will suck! But, having people take pictures at a wedding, sounds like a great idea to try. The only thing I find frustrating is getting a great pictures of children, the camera only zooms so far in. Any tips on that one?

[simmer22]

I had over 100 pose- and animation boxes last time I checked, which is a while ago. I try to use animations where I can, as it gives a bit of life to the poses. I try to make the poses look as natural as possible in the situation, though it's not easy. Whenever I get to it I'm planning to learn how to make poseboxes, and perhaps make some myself. Would make things a lot easier.
Could never manage without the freezer clock, though. I have no idea how I managed without it before I installed AL...

GOS has a very long list, here: http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=1082.0

[ieta_cassiopeia]

I have a handful of pose boxes for certain situations that don't come up naturally in the Sims but do form logical parts of my neighbourhood story (it's quite hard to make a Sim look like they're pushing objects round with their minds using standard Sims behaviour...) My favourite one is a posebox that overlays certain arm positions onto an otherwise-regular Sim. Among other things, I find it useful for my neighbourhood prison because the prisoners look like they are handcuffed when they're being arrested and when moving between different parts of the prison.

[MattShizzle]

No.
:lol:

[Simsica]

I've been checking out some pose boxes. I want a photo studio OFB business - the photographer will come to every event to take photos - so I've been wandering around looking for some pose boxes that would fit the bill - like Laura said: even though I prefer what Sims do "naturally" for other occasions, events like weddings etc. require certain amount of - posing.

I'd however like it if I could get at most a couple of good pose hacks - my downloads folder is already presenting issues for my navigation and I'm real picky with my CC these days.
Not an WCIF - but at least could anyone give me advice on the best out there - for weddings, grad parties, engagements, birthdays, etc.?

[RowenaLupin]

I've started using poseboxes within the last month or so, especially after reading this awesome Sims 2 story called SimTopi! It's really good, and inspired me to test a new way of playing. I have too many to name but that GOS list that was posted is where I got most of mine, and using the freezer clock to freeze time or the sim. However if you freeze a sim with a baby/tot/child on the lot and no other adult living in the house the Social Worker will pay you a visit. Also OMSPs work like a charm with putting two sims together for weddings and group photographs.

Every generation I take one or two family photos with FRAPS, and then I get a border for it and have them paint their family to stick over the fireplace or somewhere that can be seen. Its nice when you have the Founders and Gen 1 portrait in the house with Gen 5-6 living there.

[lauratje86]

I've only discovered the antique camera as a fun object a few months ago. So, it's the one object I use a cheat for for every household! I only knew of the poses that are given as options. That being said, I take birthday, wedding, baby/toddler and vacation pictures. I've never ordered a photo album, because I know the vacation pictures will suck! But, having people take pictures at a wedding, sounds like a great idea to try. The only thing I find frustrating is getting a great pictures of children, the camera only zooms so far in. Any tips on that one?
Do you use cameraman mode, accessed by pressing TAB? I find that very very useful when taking close up photos of sims. I couldn't live without it any more! :-) If you haven't seen it, I'd suggest you have a read through this Taking Pictures tutorial (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=431044) as you may find it helpful. I think it's an awesomely wonderfully amazingly brilliant tutorial, but that's probably because I wrote it! :-D

Not an WCIF - but at least could anyone give me advice on the best out there - for weddings, grad parties, engagements, birthdays, etc.?
Depends on what you're looking for really :-) Do you want poses that will work for formal (or casual) portraits of large groups of sims, poses for couples, poses for families or other things I haven't thought of?

One of my favourite poseboxes is Jaydee's Loading Screen posebox (http://www.jd-movies.com/loadingscreen.php) - I mainly use it for the couples poses but it's also handy for a bit of variation when posing single sims - normally I use the BV poses (or from now on the UNI camera poses, as that includes a few extra ones which I love) but variety is the spice of life and all that! :-D

Maypink's poseboxes (http://honeypetal.hanabie.com/menu/downloads/submenu/posebox.html) are also great. She has quite a few, including some couples ones, ones specifically for men and women and some rather more specialised ones. I have most of them in my game :-)

Its nice when you have the Founders and Gen 1 portrait in the house with Gen 5-6 living there.
This. This is why I have become so keen on in-game and FRAPS photos and pictures. When I play my new 'hood, which I'm quite determined is going to hold my interest, I want to be able to have lots of photos and pictures around my sims' houses to show how their families changed over the yeardays.

[Simsica]

Thanks, Laura! Exactly what I want. And these poses, as I understand it, even give you Sims "natural" poses, too (I mean, those from the loading screens).

I want to be able to have lots of photos and pictures around my sims' houses to show how their families changed over the yeardays.

Exactly. Some of them are going into the future Elsewhere's Town Museum :)

ETA: Not on topic. Regardless: in TS3, the only thing that kept my attention over a longer period of time was the photography skill. But then I lost all of my photos to a bug. The rest is history.

[lauratje86]

Thanks, Laura! Exactly what I want. And these poses, as I understand it, even give you Sims "natural" poses, too (I mean, those from the loading screens).

Exactly. Some of them are going into the future Elsewhere's Town Museum :)

Yup, Jaydee's one is all poses that are found in game but that you can't access to use as poses without his posebox - as well as the loading screen ones it also includes the close-up facial/upper body ones that you get if sims have their photo taken in the photobooth and the ones used for the icons of your sims on the blue bar when you're in Live mode.

Yay for town museums! My Middleground is going to have a Local History exhibit which will definitely include photos and paintings of the founders and of other important sims and events in the town's history (and present, and future when I get there!) :-)

[RowenaLupin]

Also if you want a wedding in a church or on some comm type lot the best way I've discovered is to make a residential lot, put a single sim that you don't really play (for me its Julien Cooke, poor guy gets bounced around from place to place.) set up the lot and then save, after saving use Inge's teleporter and bring the sims you want in and make them selectable. (its a good idea to have their clothes situated beforehand unless you're using a hacked clothing mod of sorts, and they can get married there and pictures can be had! Its much easier to do things like that on a residential lot rather than a community lot.

[lauratje86]

Also if you want a wedding in a church or on some comm type lot the best way I've discovered is to make a residential lot, put a single sim that you don't really play (for me its Julien Cooke, poor guy gets bounced around from place to place.) set up the lot and then save, after saving use Inge's teleporter and bring the sims you want in and make them selectable. (its a good idea to have their clothes situated beforehand unless you're using a hacked clothing mod of sorts, and they can get married there and pictures can be had! Its much easier to do things like that on a residential lot rather than a community lot.

I do something similar to this but I use OFB owned business lots, as I play all the sims in my 'hoods in strict rotation so I don't want a placeholder sim :-) Anywhere in my current 'hood that may be used for weddings will be an owned lot - so far that includes the church, the beach and the restaurant with function room, but I intend to add a park at some point too. But being able to access Buy Mode is very very useful when doing something like this - without it it's hard/impossible to use most poseboxes and the UNI camera.

[Simsica]

You can access inventories on com lots. There's a hack.

ETA: A link (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=204467) to the Buy/Build Enabler here on MTS - allows you to use inventories on com lots too.
I have BV version, all EPs and SPs installed and it works like a charm.

[RowenaLupin]

This is a great site for borders, and its free so I don't have to use paintshop or photoshop because I can't afford those.


http://anymaking.com/


And this is the latest photo of gen 0, 1, and 2. The entire family, and in three or four more generations I'll get to see the famiily line change. I'm still new at the whole posing, but with a little practice and a lot of screw ups you get better. The picture below is far from perfect, but I've improved a lot, and I'm starting to memorize the various poses.



http://i48.tinypic.com/246jedw.jpg

[Simsica]

Rowena, that Granny with kidletts surrounding her while she sits on the floor - I love that part of your photo especially.

[lauratje86]

You can access inventories on com lots. There's a hack.
There is indeed, and this post of yours reminded me to seek it out and download it, so thank you! :-)

Rowena, that Granny with kidletts surrounding her while she sits on the floor - I love that part of your photo especially.
Same here! Totally adorable! :-) It's a lovely picture.

[RowenaLupin]

I'm not happy with my baby pose that was HARD to do. I wanted him to stand up and stand out, but most poseboxes don't work with babies so I have to do natural things, freeze him, and then place him somewhere. His arms kept flying backwards trying to hold onto his grandpops.

[simmer22]

Pretty sure no poseboxes as of yet work properly for babies/infants. Their skeleton is different, and several bones are lacking or placed differently. You can set the baby as toddler in SimPE, though all animations are stretched and look weird. Poseboxes might or might not work if you set them to baby, though most poses will look stretched or otherwise wrong.
Toddlers is another matter entirely, as there are even some poseboxes made specifically for toddlers. Tarihsims and mybsims have quite a few of those. Some parent+child/toddler poses, too.

Tarihsims: http://www.tarihsims.net/index.php?board=732.0
Mybsims: http://www.mybsims.net/f207-cajas-de-poses-poseboxes
And a pointer to different poseboxes: http://www.mybsims.net/f46-poses-ls2
(both require registering)

I often use the baby toys (danglemonster/bouncy seat) for baby poses. Makes really cute pictures if you use them right. Angled OMSPs is also a neat trick, but it might be hard to get an exact pose.

And a little tip:
Baby/infant = the first age, toddler = the second age ;)
Creates some confusion if you talk of "babies" when you mean the toddler age.

[sushigal007]

I do something similar to this but I use OFB owned business lots, as I play all the sims in my 'hoods in strict rotation so I don't want a placeholder sim :-) Anywhere in my current 'hood that may be used for weddings will be an owned lot - so far that includes the church, the beach and the restaurant with function room, but I intend to add a park at some point too. But being able to access Buy Mode is very very useful when doing something like this - without it it's hard/impossible to use most poseboxes and the UNI camera.

Ooh, I like that idea. So far I've been making poseboxes usable on community lots in SimPE, then making over community lots for weddings and hiding them somewhere on the lot, such as in the foundation or roof space. Having someone own the lot would be hella convenient. But I don't like my sim to cheat for money and all my wedding lots would be very expensive. Hmm. I'll have to think about how this could work. Maybe promote a townie to playable purely for weddings and let them motherlode to their hearts ontent.

[lauratje86]

Ooh, I like that idea. So far I've been making poseboxes usable on community lots in SimPE, then making over community lots for weddings and hiding them somewhere on the lot, such as in the foundation or roof space. Having someone own the lot would be hella convenient. But I don't like my sim to cheat for money and all my wedding lots would be very expensive. Hmm. I'll have to think about how this could work. Maybe promote a townie to playable purely for weddings and let them motherlode to their hearts ontent.

Hehe, glad to have given you a potential idea! :-) I'm just setting up my new Middleground 'hood and it includes a very wealthy "founding" family - I'm not starting the neighbourhood from the beginning, I'm setting it up as if it's been populated for a few generations. So I have no problem with motherloding a few families enough money to afford the wedding community lots - the founding family, the Harringdons, will own the beach and Pine Tree Walk, the Dreamers will own the restaurant and the Pleasants will own the church (as one of them is going to be the vicar). So all my wedding lots will be owned right from the start. And if I do eventually build a nice park that is suitable for weddings then that will also be owned by the Harringdons, I expect. Problem solved! Though I have also just downloaded a mod that allows you to access Buy mode on community lots, so if that works as expected none of this will be an issue in future....

[sushigal007]

Is it a good idea for the Pleasant's to run the church? They've ruined every party I ever throw with their insane urge to beat up Lilith forever, seems like that would be pretty bad for weddings. Not to mention the business rating! XD

[lauratje86]

Is it a good idea for the Pleasant's to run the church? They've ruined every party I ever throw with their insane urge to beat up Lilith forever, seems like that would be pretty bad for weddings. Not to mention the business rating! XD

Ah, well, these will be some of the next generation of Pleasants - by the time my Middleground starts Daniel is dead and Mary-Sue is an elder :-) The son who'll be the vicar was born after the point that the premades are at in Pleasantview when you start the 'hood :-)

[Simsica]

Like Laura, I too started all my hoods thus far as already established communities. They do vary in the degree of wealth and opportunities though, cause I like to set them up for an economic challenge.

Elsehwere, for instance, was practically abandoned when some 15 years before the hood's story begins the founding family was hit by a series of tragedies and murders. Since they owned the Fishery and the Harbor - the sources of income for the town, all their employees went seeking other opportunities somewhere else. The only remaining members were a Romance daughter of the founders (never was a business oriented Sim) and two teens. Now, a resident from Elsewhere, Tory Fish, who used to be a friend of the family and is a fortune Sim, very ambitious, decided to turn the town's destiny around. Also, some new evidence was found about the murders.

The hood's story begins when Ava Adams, one of the teens, returns home to finally get the family affairs in order. So now, after she decided, mostly because of her own kid, to stay and give it a try (his father still lives there), they have to climb the steep ladder of success I've set up for them (a strictly defined line of town "leveling up", you might say).
So there's a town, there are lots, but there's not all that much of money going around - still very challenging.