General Picture taking Tips for The Sims 3

kosmokhaos:

So I thought I would publish this as well as add it to my Resource/FAQ Page. I know that there are people who are new to the sims and would like to take better pictures. Whether you want to take pictures for regular game-play, stories or editing, these tips and mods can help you.

THIS FACT SHEET IS NOT ABOUT EDITING, IT IS ABOUT TAKING PICTURES

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First a bit of advice

1. When you take pictures in the sims it’s better that you DO NOT stretch them. They will lose quality. If you want to make them smaller, cropping the picture is better than shrinking it in size. Shrinking and stretching usually makes the picture distorted.
2. Take some in-game pictures of your sim! Uploading pictures that are taken off your computer screen with a digital camera, cellphone or any other camera that isn’t on your computer will result in blurry and often low quality pictures. Even if your graphics are not top quality, that is not a problem. Not everyone has a super hi-powered graphics card to produce super HD pictures.

 If you are REALLY new to this and do not know how to get in-game pictures of your sims then follow these simple steps:

• When in-game, press the letter “C” on your keyboard to snap a picture

• After you are finished taking all your pictures just take them from the “screenshots” folder which can be found in My Documents under Electronic Arts.

Taking The Pictures

• Basic in-game camera controls (on your keyboard) 

  Take A Snapshot :: [C]
  Move Left/Right :: [←] / [→] and [A] / [D]
  Move Forward/Backward :: [↑] / [↓] and [W] / [S]
  Move Faster :: [Shift] + [←] / [→] / [↑] / [↓] or [Shift] + [A] / [D] / [W] / [S]
  Zoom In/Out :: [Z] / [X] or [+] / [-]
  Rotate Left / Right :: [,] / [.]
  Enable Movie Making Mode (VERY USEFUL WHEN TAKING PICTURES) :: [TAB]

  Movie Making Mode
  Lower/Raise Camera Height :: [Q] / [E]
  Roll Camera Counterclockwise/Clockwise :: [Shift] + [A] / [Shift] + [D]
  Level Out The Camera Roll :: [Shift] + [S]

• Camera Mods 
  Also these camera mods are VERY helpful for closeups and different angles of your sims:

  Aikea Guinea’s No Drift/Lower Level Free Cam Camera Mod
  Cmomoney’s No Drift/Lower Level Live Mode Camera
  Claeric’s No Camera Fade for Sims