Framing Photographs for In Game Use

[Darkstormyeve]

The photo's that we take during gameplay, is there a way (simple I hope) to frame them and use them in your game? I have seen it done when reading people's blogs and livejournal stories.

[Hegelian]

You can edit/resize them using an image-editing program and use the Photo Studio function in SimPE to make recolors of the artwork in the game (you need the templates package from the SimPE web site). The trick is to make your edited image the same dimensions as the artwork you're recoloring so you don't get a lot of distortion. Also, save any image you edit as a .png file, since saving and resaving  jpegs results in a significant loss of image quality (each time you save a jpeg, more data is discarded).

[baratron]

If you have both Uni and Nightlife, you can use the Antique Camera object (reward for Artist career, or unlock it with a hacked collection) to take in-game photographs of sims. If you click on the photograph produced by the camera in Buy mode, you can move it and hang it on the wall. It's weird, the only option you get in Live mode is "Sell photo" - but it definitely works in Buy mode. You can also put it in a sim's inventory, to take to another lot.

This is how I took the photos on the wall in this photo: http://pics.livejournal.com/baratron/pic/000fwcby/g30

The outside two photos were taken with the Antique Camera, the middle one was taken with the Photo Booth on a Downtown community lot. All the photos travelled in inventory from one lot to another without problems.

[IgnorantBliss]

If you have both Uni and Nightlife, you can use the Antique Camera object (reward for Artist career, or unlock it with a hacked collection) to take in-game photographs of sims. If you click on the photograph produced by the camera in Buy mode, you can move it and hang it on the wall. It's weird, the only option you get in Live mode is "Sell photo" - but it definitely works in Buy mode. You can also put it in a sim's inventory, to take to another lot.

Why is Nightlife necessary for this? I thought the camera came with and has been functional since University.

[Renatus]

The camera works just fine in Uni, but if one wants to take pictures on one lot and transport them to another, it's impossible without the inventory feature of Nightlife.

[baratron]

Why is Nightlife necessary for this? I thought the camera came with and has been functional since University.

I don't know that it is, but I could never grab a photo from it when I just had Uni. I only found out that you could two days ago, by accident! Possibly you've been able to do it ever since Uni but I didn't know, because I didn't know you had to go into Buy mode to do it...

[skandelouslala]

The antique camera has worked fine since Uni, but I had issues with it at first too..I was like where the hell does the picture come out lol  It took me a few to figure it out

I like using that camera, going into Simpe and actually making in game photos art work is too much effort for me, plus then they're there clogging the downloads and I'm only going to use those pictures in the house of the actual family.

[Baa]

Or, after you've taken a picture, have your Sim paint Still life and take a picture of whatever you want in the green square. Pause the game. Alt-Tab (minimizes) out of the game and go to the Storytelling folder and see a picture called Snapshot or Screenshot or something familiar which is what you JUST took a picture of for your Sim to paint. Basically take your other photo you want the Sim to paint and edit it onto the Snapshot file. Your sim will now paint that photo you took way earlier and you can hang it.

[Darkstormyeve]

If you have both Uni and Nightlife, you can use the Antique Camera object (reward for Artist career, or unlock it with a hacked collection) to take in-game photographs of sims. If you click on the photograph produced by the camera in Buy mode, you can move it and hang it on the wall. It's weird, the only option you get in Live mode is "Sell photo" - but it definitely works in Buy mode. You can also put it in a sim's inventory, to take to another lot.

This is how I took the photos on the wall in this photo: http://pics.livejournal.com/baratron/pic/000fwcby/g30

The outside two photos were taken with the Antique Camera, the middle one was taken with the Photo Booth on a Downtown community lot. All the photos travelled in inventory from one lot to another without problems.

Thanks for that!! I never knew how to get those photos. I had a play with SimPE on the weekend and figured out Photo Studio. works ok but again, alot of trouble for photo's that only below in one sim house. I'll go the camera instead.

Thanks again!!

[baratron]

Or, after you've taken a picture, have your Sim paint Still life and take a picture of whatever you want in the green square. Pause the game. Alt-Tab (minimizes) out of the game and go to the Storytelling folder and see a picture called Snapshot or Screenshot or something familiar which is what you JUST took a picture of for your Sim to paint. Basically take your other photo you want the Sim to paint and edit it onto the Snapshot file. Your sim will now paint that photo you took way earlier and you can hang it.

Aha! I just found out you can do something similar with the Antique Camera! The technique is a bit tricky...

1. Before you start, open the screenshot you want in an image program, like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop. Re-save the image as a bitmap with the name Snapshot.bmp (the capitalisation is important. Also, you have to use an image program, because the game's default save format for photos is .jpg, and you need the picture to be a .bmp).
2. Go into the game and set up the Antique Camera in your lot.
3. Click on the Antique Camera with one of your sims, select "Shoot Picture..." and an option (I pretty much always use "Normal").
4. The green box with crosshairs in the middle will come up. Immediately pause the game.
5. Press C to take a photo of anything at all with the game still paused.
6. Still with the game paused, alt-tab out of Sims 2. Copy the other photo you want into the main Storytelling folder (The one that's in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Storytelling, rather than the usual folders in Neighborhoods\N00whatever.) to replace the Snapshot.bmp that you just took in the game. Don't worry about the screenshot.bmp, that's irrelevant.
7. If you did all of that with the game paused, you can now un-pause - and the Antique Camera will make a photograph of your previously taken photo!

It's absolutely essential that you leave the game paused during stages 4-6, otherwise the Camera will make a photo of whatever crap you shot in step 5. Even if you pause immediately after hitting C, it still doesn't work. You must have the game paused before hitting C. I don't know why.

Anyway, this works pretty well! You can even use this technique to take Portrait shots (long and narrow). This is a bit harder, though, as photographs for the photo album can only be taken in Landscape mode (short and wide), and most of the time when you take a screenshot you aim to centre the photo. Whereas the Antique Camera's Portrait mode takes the left-hand edge of the Landscape photo (yep, the Snapshot.bmp is still the same shape, it doesn't change).

OK! I hope this helps someone. I'm fairly impressed, anyway .

[JadeEliott]

I like that tip! Yeah! Thanks for sharing.

Does the antique camera make photos that can sit on tables?

[Li'l Brudder]

Yup, walls too!

[baratron]

Huh, I never realised the photos from the Antique Camera can be put on tables, but I just tried it. Thanks for the tip!

And I've discovered how to make Portrait photos from your existing in-game photos, but it's even more complicated. What you have to do is:
1. Identify the "middle" region of the Landscape photo that you want to appear within the frame. It should be a region about 300 pixels wide by 450 pixels high.
2. Crop the photo to this size in your image program.
3. Resize the photo to be 600 pixels wide by 450 pixels high. It will stretch and look very strange.

Then do the same steps as before. The strange stretched photo will, in Portrait mode, give a normal width photo.