Snapshot Editing Tutorial

Thistutorial has been written to help those who wish to edit their snapshots forstory telling purposes. I am going to cover how to achieve the image belowusing photo editing software.

Idecided to write this tutorial after several people asked how I achieved animage like this in my “Stupid Cupid” story.

Requirements

Sims 2, and photo editing software. I am using Macromedia Fireworks 8 but any program that allows editing withlayers and has a masking facility will do the same job

For Example:

AdobePhotoshop

CorelPhotopaint

PaintshopPro

But not Microsoft Paint; as it does not have the functionto allow layers.

Step One – TakingYour Shots

Setup your shot in the normal way. For this picture I have sat my Sim at the pc,and instructed them to chat to other Sims. Once I have them in the desiredposition I pause the game and then press “C” on my keyboard to take a camerashot, alternatively you could use the camera icon from the menu .

Keepingyour game paused, minimise the game screen, using the windows key or Ctrl +Esc. I prefer to play in windowed mode, so that I can use other programs that Ihave running.

We are nowgoing to create a custom desktop for your Sims PC, using your own desktop.Configure your desktop wallpaper to your choice of pattern or picture, in thenormal way;  Start > Control Panel > Display > Desktop Tab > Ok

Nowopen and sign into your choice of messenger programme. I’m using windows livemessenger. Once messenger is running, open a conversation window and leave thecontents blank. Arrange the messenger windows on your desktop to suit your requirements. Oncesatisfied with the layout of your desktop hit the Print Screen (PrtScn) key onyour keyboard.

Tip: If you notice I havepositioned my conversation window over the top of the programme window, as notto reveal any of my contacts details, be sure, if you don’t do this, to editout all your contact details in the picture, otherwise you maybe displayingpersonal information in your stories.

Nowopen your photo editing programme, as stated earlier I will be using MacromediaFireworks 8.

SelectFile > New; if your Print Screen function key worked correctly your editingsoftware will open a black page in the size of your monitor resolution. Mymonitor is set to 1280 x 1024 pixels. (If the Print Screen key hasn’t workedyou may need to enable a Function Lock key, on the keyboard, to capture yourdesktop)

Onceyou have your new blank page open, select Edit > Paste or use Ctrl + V, to pasteyour screen capture onto the page. Sometimes it is necessary to centralise yourimage on the page, use the programmes alignment facility to do this.

Save2 copies of this desktop image somewhere accessible on your PC. Its advisableto save in the programmes file extension i.e. .png, .psd, etc.

Step Two – Opening All Your Shots

Now we have our desktop background image, open the Sims camerashot you took earlier (Picture One), story telling snapshots are usuallylocated in: My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X\Storytelling (Snapshots are saved in the neighbourhood you’re currently playing. N00Xwill relate to your own neighbourhood.)

Whilein your Neighbourhood Storytelling directory also open the CAS Family snapshotof the Sim you are using in your picture.

Andthe CAS Snapshot of the Sim you’re supposed to be conversing with. 

Step Three – Editing Your Shots

Nowwe have all the snapshots open and the desktop screen capture, we can beginediting.

Tip: Remember to save often whenediting, save in the programmes file extension, i.e: .png .psd; etc. as thiskeep all your work in Layers.

1. Mask  anarea of 94 x 94 pixels around the Sims head in the CAS screen snapshot, cutthis masked area. Edit > Cut or Ctrl + X

Switchto the picture of the desktop, Window > filename or Shift +Tab; zoom in on the messenger area of the picture.

2. Create a New Bitmap Image   andpaste the cut picture from the previous screen onto the New Bitmap Imagelayer.Manoeuvre the pasted picture to fit in the window provided for themessenger picture.

3. Duplicate the New BitmapImage layer you have just added, Edit > Duplicate or Ctrl + Alt + D.

Manoeuvre the picture to the Messenger programme window; reducing the size to fit in the area provided.

Repeatthis stages 1 & 2 for the other Sim appearing in the conversationwindow.

Asyou can see you now have 4 New Bitmap Images.

Tip: Lock the layers containingthe new messenger pictures; this prevents any unnecessary movements of yourprecisely placed graphics. Close the CAS Snapshots without saving.

4. Now we will begin editingthe conversation and programme windows. First we need to remove any contactdetails appearing at the top of the windows. We do not want to be displayingpersonal information in our stories, and we want to change this information tosuit our stories.

5. Zoom in closer and Mask  thearea for editing. Use the dropper tool change the paintcolour to match the background colour of your masked area, select thePaintbrush tool  and paint overthe masked area; change brush sizes if necessary.

6 If the messenger window has agradient background use the blend/smudge  tool to make thecolours appear as seamless as possible. Change the pressure and edge asrequired

Repeatthe stages 4, 5 & 6 for to edit all personal information from theconversation window.

7. Mask the conversation areaand use the Paint Bucket  to flood fillthe area with the same background colour

Haveyou Saved? Only save 1 copy, so you still have your original desktop pictureand the edited one, this is in case you need to refer back to the original atany time.

8. Now lets add some text,depending on how realistic you want your messenger screen to look, you can addas little or as much as you like.

Adda New Bitmap Image layer , choose the Fonttool , and select adesired font and size, I’m using Trebuchet MS, size 12, keeping the appearanceof style and proportion.

Nowthe messenger is looking authentic, we need to add some typing text, to displaya conversation.

9. In the white area of the Conversation window type your dialogue. Choose your font and font size as desired.

10. The work on the messengerscreen is now complete so Save your edited document.

11. Now we need to use Save As;File > Save As or Ctrl + Shift + S.

Thistime instead of saving in the programmes file format (.png, .psd, etc) selectJPEG (.jpg) from the “Save File Type” drop down list.

12. Now close you desktop image,and re-open the .jpg version you have just saved

Onceyou re-open you will see all your layers have been flattened into one.

Tip: If you have been saving theimage as the programmes file extension (.png, .psd, etc) you will still have aneditable version with all layers in tact, in case you need to make adjustmentsor wish to reuse the file for another Snapshot.

13. You may want to show a closeup of your conversation in a story, so take another in game snapshot or use anexisting one that is no longer required.

Openthis Snapshot from the file location: My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X\Storytelling

14. Verify the size of yoursnapshot, my snapshots are taken in 600 x 450 pixels, I use the all the highestsettings possible within my game so this snapshot size will vary depending onyour own settings.

Switchto your Desktop picture, Window > file name orShift +Tab; and reduce the size to match that of your snapshot, 600 x450 pixels. Modify > Transform > NumericTransformation or Ctrl + Shift + T.

Select the layer and cut. Edit > Cut or Ctrl + X.

15. Switch back to your new snapshot, Window > file name orShift +Tab, created in stage 13 and paste the Desktop image onto a NewBitmap Image layer . You now havetwo layers.

Selectboth layers and merge them into one, make sure that the Desktop image layer ison top, and the snapshot is underneath. Modify > Flatten Selection or Ctrl +Alt + Shift + Z

Nowyou image is one layer again. Save

16. Now we need to match thethumbnail, so open the matching thumbnail image, from the Snapshot filelocation:

My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X\Storytelling

Tip: The thumbnail will have asimilar file name to the snapshot, the word “snapshot” is substituted for theword “thumbnail” at the beginning of the file.

Asyou can see the thumbnail is considerably smaller, so verify your thumbnailssize. I am using 128 x 96 pixels.

Switchback to your desktop snapshot you saved in stage 15, select the layerand copy, Edit > Copy or Ctrl + C.

Goback to the thumbnail picture, Window > file name, Paste the copiedimage onto a New Bitmap Image layer . You will noticethat once you paste your image will be way too big for the page, so reduce thepasted image size to match that of the thumbnail 128 x 96 pixels, as in stage 14, Modify > Transform > Numeric Transformationor Ctrl + Shift + T.

Now align the pasted image to the centre of the page using theprogrammes alignment function.

Selectboth layers and merge them into one, make sure that the Desktop image layer ison top, and the snapshot is underneath. Modify > Flatten Selection or Ctrl +Alt + Shift + Z

Younow only have one layer. Save.

Close your thumbnail and snapshot files; do not saveany changes to the snapshot.

You can now see this snapshot within your game available for use as a screen close up within your story.

Step Four – Nearly Done.

Rememberthe picture we took in Step one, all the way back at the beginning.

Ifyou haven’t got this picture open, then open it from the following filelocation

My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X\Storytelling

If you haven’t got your desktop picture open already then open the.jpg file created earlier in stage 11.

We are now going to fit the desktop picture on to the computerscreen in our snapshot.

Reduce your desktop picture to approx 200 x 150 pixels, using thefree transform tool

Cut the desktop picture, Edit > Cut or Ctrl + X and paste onto a New Bitmap Image layer  in your snapshot picture.

Changethe Transform tool to the Distort tool  and Select

Youwill notice that the desktop picture now has adjustable handles on the corners.Move the picture over the monitor area in your snapshot, place the top lefthandle over the top left area of the monitor. Move the centre point to the topleft handle.

Dragthe corner handles until the perspective matches that of the Monitor

Onceyou’re happy with the perspective, adjust the brightness to about -30, so thescreen appears a little darker. Filters > Adjust Colour > Brightness& Contrast

Nowselect both layers and merge them into one. Modify > Flatten Selection or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Z

Saveyour snapshot. Remember to create the thumbnail, use the same process outlinedin step 3, stage 16.

Voilayou now have custom desktop for your story…

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