My first Sims 3 movies

Hey guys!

Here's my first two Sims 3 movies, ''Dramatic Lunch'' and ''I go to Sleep''.

Best to watch both on youtube, if you want to view them in the highest quality.

Some details:

Dramatic lunch features music by Within Temptation, ''Intro'' from their album ''The Silent Force''. Edited with Sony Vegas 8.

I go to Sleep features music by Sia, ''I go to sleep'' from her album ''Some people have real problems''. Edited with Sony Vegas 8.

I'm quite happy with both of them, considering the limited possibilities the Sims 3 offers at the moment. With the current lack of animation boxes and hacks, though, this feels just like making Sims 2 Machinima back in the 'ol days (That's back quite a bit :p). However, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.

My expectations aren't that high, because I realize, and I may be wrong, that the Sims 3 won't be that different from Sims 2 when it comes to making Machinima - the lighting is probably going to be the biggest improvement, and the overall graphics are nicer, but apart from that it doesn't seem to offer that much more than Sims 2 did.

Still, it's nice to have something else to fiddle around with after spending my time with the Sims 2 the last couple of years, and considering Sims 2 is great for Machinima, this one will probably be too!

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!

Some useful tips to film with the Sims 3

If you are going to make Machinima* with the Sims 3, there are some useful things to know about.

*I've noticed a lot of people don't know what Machinima means. Machinima is a term used for movies filmed in a virtual space, such as video games. The word Machinima comes from Machine and cinema. Get it? Machine > Sims 3 (For example), cinema > film.


Basics

When you're in your game, and you want to start filming, you press ''V''. This makes the game record everything you see. When you're done with your shot, you press ''V'' again to stop filming.

Your recorded video will be saved here:

Documents>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3>Recorded Videos


Video Capture

You should also know about the Video capture settings. You can access these through the options screen.

It's all self-explanatory, but there's something I'd like to add:

When you're going for the best quality, you need to put video capture size to ''large'' and video capture quality at ''Highest (uncompressed)''. This does however demand a lot more from your computer, so be cautious not to strain it too much resulting in your footage becoming choppy.


If you want, you can also manually change the size at which your footage is recorded. For this, you need to go to:

Computer>Local Disk>Program files>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3>Game>Bin>Sims3

ATTENTION EXPANSION-/STUFF PACK OWNERS:

If you have a stuff pack or expansion pack installed, you need to alter this file in the directory of the newest game instead. If you have the Sims 3 + World Adventures, for example, instead of going to the 'The Sims 3' directory you go to the 'The Sims 3 World Adventures' directory. If you have the basegame + WA + High-End Loft Stuff, you need to go to the 'The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff' directory.

This will probably be an on-going trend, so be sure to keep that mind.

This ini file (Sims3, which you can open with Notepad, for example) contains the recording properties, which are on top of the list.

Let's assume you want to increase the recording size, so you'd get HD images on youtube. For this you'll edit the numbers behind ''Large'' to 1280x720. When done, you simply save the file.

Make sure that you have the recording size in-game set to large, or whatever value you edited the numbers for (And also keep in mind that increasing these values will make filming more demanding on your computer).

It doesn't matter what resolution your game is set to, because the recorded footage will automatically be converted to the assigned resolution.



Editing

This is the real technical part. There's a whole mirage of editing programs out there, one being easier to use than the other.

For starters, windows movie maker is a good tool. It doesn't offer much tools to edit your video, but it's a good way to learn your way around editing. You should have this on your computer if you're using Windows.

Also, with the new Sims 3 website you have a similar editing program on there. You can read more about it here.

I use Sony Vegas 8, which offers quite a lot of tools, yet isn't too complicated.


First person camera mode

This allows you to control the camera more freely, and position it at places you wouldn't be able to by using the default camera.

You can access this by pressing ''TAB" on your keyboard.

There's multple ways to move around, but I use the WASD keys to move.

W is forward
A is left
S is back
D is right

To zoom in and out, you can use Z to zoom in, and X to zoom out.

To ''roll'' the camera left or right you press Shift + A or D.

You might have seen some movies where they've used impressive pans, these can be done by using preset angles, or some insane camera control :p.

To make the movement faster or slower, you'll need to edit the camera file. You can read more about that here.

Preset angles

If you want the camera to smoothly move from one point to another, you can use preset angles to do so.

I believe this is only possible when using first person camera mode, but I'm not sure because I never use anything else.

To begin, you'll need to save at least one angle. You can do this by simultaneously pressing CTRL+5/6/7/8/9. Any of those numbers will do, but anything lower than 5 or higher than 9 doesn't work.

When you've saved one angle to a number, you move your camera to anywhere else in the world.

Now, when you're at a different angle and want the camera to move to the saved one, you press the number (NOT control too, or you'll save the angle you're at now) you've assigned to that angle. If you did everything right, your camera should ''jump'' there now!

You can assign angles to every number, which makes for a total of 5 different angles to jump between at one time!


Making Sims do what you want them to

This is the biggest obstacle with The Sims 3 at the moment. Because of the lack of hacks and animation boxes, we can't easily make them do what we want them to do. Therefor, you'll have to rely on your timing and really get to know each animation there currently is.

Edit: There are some hacks around now which allow you to play animations on command. One such hack is the 'Chaos Mod Painting', by 'ChaosMageX'.

It has all kinds of neat features that are useful for us Machinima-makers. Check it out here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=356513