#ts3:tutorial

There are various people on a mission to add maternity morphs to everything, Which has been done before by @oneeuromutt, @buckleysims​, @sweetdevil-sims​ and many others.  That is great!

HOWEVER be forewarned that you MUST leave adult clothes in each category WITHOUT pregnancy morphs. MUST MUST MUST MUST.  If you do not have at least one outfit/ top+bottom in each category, teen sims will not age up properly.  

Ever wondered how to add a shortcut to “Align Normals” in Milkshape?  You would think it would be as simple as going into Tools-->Edit Shortcuts (filter to plugins).  However, msAlignNormals (the plugin name) does not show up in the list at all by default.  You have to manually add it to the shortcut list.

For windows (sorry I don’t know about Mac), locate the Shortcuts.ini file.  It will be located in your roaming profile. The path will be something like:

\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\MilkShape 3D 1.x.x\Shortcuts.ini

For most people this will be on the C:\ drive but if you are like me, it’s wherever you changed it to...

ANYHOO...  Open that bad boy up in a text editor and add:

msAlignNormals=1,

Don’t miss that comma.  You can stick it at the bottom, or you can be picky like me and add it in alphabetically.  Now it will show up in the list.  You could also go ahead and add a shortcut key after the comma and save yourself a step.

msAlignNormals=1,A

This is what I have - now I just have to hit ‘A’ to perform this action.  You do you.  You might want to check if it is already used, mind you.  If you do it through the app it will snark at you.

Also, if you have CatOfEvilGenuis’s UV Flip tools, you can add:

msCatsUVflipH=1, msCatsUVflipV=1,

Go into buydebug mode and find the hidden lights. You need 3 (1x1) wall lights and 1 (1x1) ceiling light.    Place one wall light directly in front of the sim by 2 spaces, it should be parallel to the sim.  Another goes 2 spaces to the side of the sim, perpendicular to the first one.  It can line up directly with the sim, or slightly in front (mine is 1 square forward).  The third gets turned at a 45-degree angle as shown in the diagram (basically on the opposite side of the second one.  you can reverse sides if you like).  The ceiling light gets placed with the leading edge in line with the first light you placed.  You can nudge it a bit forward or back to your preference.  Make sure the arrows point towards you sim.  Adjust the intensity of all the lights somewhere between 1 and 2 for basic purposes.  The default setting is “okay” but can wash out your sims.

Keep in mind the “label on the tin” reads “basic lighting”.  This is a decent, basic layout for portraiture and “studio” shots, which is what I primarily do.   The same basic principal applies in other situations, though.  You want to light your sims above and at angles around them.  

Bonus tip - it works for outdoor pictures as well.  Sometimes you have to toggle the day/night switch to get the lights to turn on outdoors. 

I would think this is well know by now but I hardly ever see anyone using it.

You can get the simoleon symbol by typing ALT-0167 on the number keypad.  You must use the number keypad, not the numbers across the top of the keyboard.  You can actually get a host of other typographic symbols that way if you know the ASCII (in this case extended ASCII) key codes.

Trivia: This is also the ‘section’ typographic mark...

Tip-torial: Adding a background/reference image in Blender

This is for blender 2.79, since that is what I (now) use for posing.  Your ‘mileage may vary’ with other versions.

To add a background/reference image is super easy and helpful (to me at least). I don’t know how I was living without it previously.  (Making due with side-by-side windows.)  Anyway, to add one, you need to be in Orthographic Mode (hit ‘5′ on the keyboard until you get out of perspective mode.  Hint: see my picture above).  Next, if the properties panel isn’t showing, hit the ‘N’ key to bring it up.  Scroll down to the bottom to ‘Background Image’.  Tick the check box to turn it on.  Then click ‘Add Image’.  In my screenshot, it shows the filename of my image (the bottom green arrow), but yours will say ‘Open’, just click that and select your photo.  Now, you can change the options.  The image will likely be too large and centered down on the axis.  Just poke around on the scale, rotate, X and Y properties to adjust where it shows up.

My “Axis” property currently says “all views”, so my picture will show up whether I look at it front, back, left or right. You can set yours to whatever you like.  You can even add multiple images - one for each view.  Go crazy!

ALTERNATELY, you can drag and drop an image onto the background if you like.  And then go into properties and scale/move it as you like.

Bonus : If you aren’t aware of it, 2 different people upgraded the CLIPtools to be usable with Blender 2.79 - @amuhav​ (here) and @younameitillposeit​ (here). Amuhav’s came out first (that and I follow her!), so that is the one I’ve been using.  I can’t vouch for the other version, but I’m sure it is good too!

All hail the (self-proclaimed) Queen of Thumbnails.

Behold... you can change the thumbnail on your binned sims... 

How is this possible you ask?  Find the sim you want to slap a thumbnail on in your SavedSims directory and crack it open in s3pe.  Look for the resources with the tag = ‘SNAP’.  Mine had 2, but the one with group 0x0000100 is the one (for ME) that shows up, but I changed BOTH just in case.

You can export that file out - it’s a PNG that is 512x512 (but as you can see above, only the middle bit is going to show up) and edit it. OR just make your own picture that is 512 x 512 (crop it square then resize it).  Export to PNG format and replace the image (right click the resource and select ‘REPLACE’).

I suspect - but have not tested - that the same will work on stuff in your Library as well.  They have 3 SNAP resources and the sizes are different.  I’d export and use the existing files as a guide on size.

THIS.

This is why I recommend to anyone who will listen (exactly no one) to set the transform orientation to GIMBAL when posing the body.  And to only use GLOBAL when moving the whole rig around in the scene...  I’ve seen so many (unintentionally) bowed legs/hands/arms.  (And the rotate manipulator is useful in understanding really which way you are moving a bone instead of just using the ‘R’ key)