First topic message reminder :

Warning: This tutorial contains lots of freakin' pictures mayne!

Also, though this tutorial may seem "long" making the process of creating poses seem "long" it is really not that long. I have merely simplified orangemittens pose tutorial at MTS with a few more pictures, and simplified instructions for those of us who really need detailed tutorials. I have also added another step at the very end of this tutorial. This step is what prevented me from creating custom poses for so long because it was left out of orangemittens tutorial.

Also keep in mind that custom poses are actually very much easier than creating CC. Any person can do it really.

Let's start off with what you'll need:

Blender 2.57 | Pose Player | S3PE | AnimToolV05 | Blender SMD Tools 0.15.10 | Custom Pose Files

Before beginning the following tutorial. Please install the "Blender SMD Tools0.15.10" that you downloaded by following the mini tutorial below:

Quote:

1. Start Blender and go to File->User Preferences(or press CTRL+ALT+U). 2. Click the "Add-Ons" button at the top of the User Preferences window. 3. Click the "Import/Export" button on the left, then click the "Install Add-On" button at the bottom. 4. Navigate to where you extracted the file and select the "io_smd_tools.py" and click "Install Add-On". TS3 Tools is added to the the list. 6. Click the check box to the right of the "Import-Export: SMD/DMX Tools" 7. Close the User Preferences window, and hit CTRL+U to save as default(if you want TS3 Tools to be there next time you start Blender).

Creating Custom Poses in Blender for Dummies Tutorial Part 1

Lets start by opening S3PE and opening your Custom Pose Files Folder. In your Custom Pose Files Folder you will see a file named: 'a_xevt_701_clip'. Drag and drop this file into S3PE. If you get a prompt that looks something like this...



...just click okay and then another prompt will pop up that will look like this...



...click "NO".

Now right click on the clip file in S3PE and click "Export and rename..." as seen in the picture below...



A new prompt window will come up, now this is where you actually name your pose. This name is what people will type in to use your pose in game. Please make sure the pose name is unique but short, no one likes to type in a long pose name . Also, be sure to start your pose name off with a_...
See example below:



Now click "Save". A new window will pop up, this is where you choose to save your new clip file. I suggest making a new folder where you store this poses files, I usually name my new folders after the code, for example:

I just made a new pose named: a_evie_21
I named my folder: a_evie_21 and saved it on my desktop.

View example below:



Now click "OK".

You may now close S3PE. (If a prompt pops up, click "no")

Now, open up your "Custom Pose Files" Folder. For this tutorial we will be making a female pose. So you will need to click the "af" file copy this file either by pressing ctrl+C or right click and copy, now paste this file into your new pose folder. Go back to your "Custom Pose Files" Folder and open the "Adult Female Rig Text" folder and copy that file and then paste it into your new pose folder. Your pose folder should now look something like this...



...Now open up your AnimTool and click the "Clip - > SMD" button as seen below...



...A new window will now pop up, here is where you will need to locate your new pose folder and find your CLIP.animation file as seen below...



...click "Open". A new pop up will pop up that looks like this...



...click on "OK" and navigate to your new pose folder again and select the "adult_rigfile" Text Document and click "Open", example seen below...



...Your AnimTool Program should now look like this:



...It is now safe to close the AnimTool Program. If it does not say "No Errors" in your AnimTool as it does in the pic above, please delete your new pose folder and start over from the beginning of this tutorial.

Now open Blender.

Click File and Open once your in blender, example image below...



Now locate your "af" file that you pasted into your new pose folder,click it, and click open blender file in the top right corner, see example below...



...next go to file in the top left corner again, hover over "import" and click "Source Engine (.smd, .vta, .dmx, .qc)" as seen in the example below...



...now locate your CLIP.smd file, it should be the only file that shows up at this point, if not then navigate to your pose folder again to find it. Click "Import SMD/VTA, DMX, QC" located in the top right corner. See example pic below...



...now hover your mouse over the 3d body you see in the screen. Press 1 on your keyboard and then press shift and 2. Your model should now look like this...



...next look to the left of your screen, find the little icon that looks like a person with their arms and legs out with the word "Pose" next to it, click that, the orange dots on your model should now be black... now click the little plus sign next to the little person and word "pose". See example below...



here is where you will work on your pose...

Creating Custom Poses in Blender for Dummies Tutorial Part 2

Blender Hotkeys:
A - Select entire model (pressing a again will deselect the entire model)
B - Select a section of the model (draw a square over the joint you want to move)
R - will rotate whatever joint you have selected (pressing R again will rotate a different way)
G - grab and move selected joints/joint
Ctrl + Z - Undo

In the picture below you will see a section in blender where you can choose what specific angle of the model you want to look at. This section is important for creating poses.



Now after you have created you pose press a on your keyboard until all of the dots highlight blue (if they do not highlight press a again)

Once they are highlighted press I on your keyboard and select "LocRot as seen below...



Next select File in the top left corner, hover over Export, and select "Source Engine (.smd, .vta, .dmx, .qc)" and click as seen below:





...now click "Export SMD/VTA" in the top right corner as seen below...



A warning will pop up as seen in the image below, just ignore it.



It is now safe to close blender...

Now open your new pose folder. A new folder should now be inside named "anims". Select the file with the extension ".smd", right click, and select rename. Press Ctrl + C on your keyboard. The name of this file should now be copied to your clipboard.

Now open the "anims" folder and select the file inside. Click rename and paste what you have copied. Now replace the .smd file inside your pose folder with the newly renamed .smd file inside your anims folder.

(I usually just drag and drop and click "move and replace")

Next open your AnimTool and select "SMD - > Clip" as seen below...



Navigate to your new pose folder and select the .smd file and click open. Your AnimTool should now look like this...



It is now safe to close your AnimTool.

Next open S3PE and your new pose folder.

Drag and drop the file with the extension "CLIP.animation" from your pose folder into S3PE. When the following prompt pops up click "OK"



Now click on the CLIP file in S3PE and select Resource from the navigation bar and hover over "Export", then click "to package". Example below...



Now name your package and save it somewhere you can find it.

It is now safe to close any programs you may have open. Drag and drop your new package into your mods/packages folder. Run your game, and try your pose in game!

Be sure to make sure you have followed this tutorial perfectly before reporting problems. :D

Tips:

a lot of tips can be found on orangemittens tutorial over at MTS. Link is at the beginning of this tutorial.

Don't ignore the hands! there is nothing worse than creating a great pose with stiff hands.

If you would like to make your poses combined as a set, follow the tutorial for every pose you make and drag and drop all CLIP.animation files into S3PE, select them all and export to a single package.

I hope you guys like this!

Can I ask if you would mind posting the link for blender? I think that might be my problem also. Thankies!! ;)

I meant milkshape and which blender tool would I exchange it for since it list 2 different kinds. Or do I use neither and just use milkshape only?

I still can't get mine to work. At first, it wouldn't show up in-game, and then I found out that you have to follow another tutorial to get it to show up in the pose player. But after I got it to show up in the pose player, when I clicked my pose, nothing happened...my sim just froze in a regular standing position. Also, I retraced my steps a little and realised that when I convert the .smd back to a .animation, a .bak file shows up. Is this supposed to happen?

Re-read the tut, If I'm not mistaken I think Evie mentions this or maybe I saw it on another tut. I'll keep my eyes open if I see anything.

Orangemittens said they'd look at my pose! I'm so happy! They're my hero.

I think i get the .bak file im not sure. BTW.. I apologize but I've already lost the links but one thing that has helped me greatly is to have blender version 2.59 i think and the smd file version is 1.0.0 thats what ultimately got it to finally work for me. as for the icons on the launcher for some reason I didn't really get how to do it until I read the tutorial here:

http://cloudwalkernz.blogspot.com/2011/06/adding-pose-tags-to-your-pose-tutorial.html

for some reason I realized I was missing things when I just read the how to that comes with it. I hope that helps someone

@Akasha...fantastic!! I hope you get it worked out! Can't wait to start seeing some poses from you and I know they will be different and unique!

@JK...thanks for the added info...I think I'm going to start fresh and brand new and not try to pick up in the middle of where I was. I have confused myself already enough!

Now that I've learned how to make poses work, I've been thinking about making a video on how to do it. I'm an audio/visual learner, so a video would have helped me a lot. Do I need to ask orangemittens' permission before I do as I'll basically be following her tutorial, or is this stuff kind of fair game?

I think I would ask just to be safe.



On another note, is there a list of steps to get another pose in Blender as an object to pose around it? I've seen some stuff on milkshape but not blender. I'm completely clueless with this kind of thing hehe

Hey! This is a great tutorial - but I'm afraid I'm having a problem ><... I get up to the stage where I click 'export smd etc' and then select on the first option, then my model goes orange and this error message comes up:



Anyone have any idea what's wrong ?

I agree with JK Akasha, just to be 'safe'; I'd ask them first but I truly don't think it will be a problem as long as you also give credit. I'd LOVE to see it visually!!

@JKA - I have Blender 2.59 and the 0.15.10 SMD tool - I think I'll try the SMD tool you suggested earlier and see if that works .

Yaaaaaaaay! It worked :D!

Bodyshot:



Close up of face:


I think the right leg (her left) should have been twisted at a slightly different angle, and the elbow mucked up a little (but I fixed that with editing) but apart from that I am quite pleased with the results considering it is my first ever pose :D! I am sooooo excited to try out more! Thanks again for the tut Evie <3

Awesome!! I'm so glad you figured it out!!

Glad it worked!!!! I think it looks great!

Okay so I know how to import another sim as an object to make two poses that work together, but is there anyway you can work on both sims at the same time when working on a couples' pose? thanks :D :D

Never mind what I asked before. Thank you so much for the tutorial!

EDIT;
What do I need to do now? :



I'd press 1 and 2 but nothing happend...

Thanks it worked!

EDIT;
I can't open the pose in S3PE, I get an error:

Ok first make sure when your open the S3PE program to import your .animation file that you click the "file" tab and select "new" so that you have the option to click the "resource" tab. Once you have done that then go over to the resource tab, select import>from file and choose the .animation file. Also, make sure you choose the .animation file and not the backup animation. If you've done this and it still gives you an error let me know and I'll see if I can figure out what is going wrong. ◕‿◕

Thanks again, it worked ;3

So when I've got 1 pose in my game the pose works fine, but when I've got more in my game all the poses look like this:



What did I wrong?

You mean all your OTHER poses look like thatonce you add them? Or when you add more poses to your game they all stop working and show up like that?

No, only with my own poses, I've got 5 of them in my game and now all my own poses show up like that ><

Usually that's an SMD or Clip problem. That used to happen to me when I didn't convert one or the other properly. Delete your .bak animation files and reopen the poses in Blender. TheAn follow the steps to re-export the SMD from Blender again. (press A to highlight all bones, press I then LocRot and export the SMD) After you change its file name and replace your old SMD with the new one, make sure you convert the SMD to clip (the 3rd button on the animTool) so that you get a .bak file. The .bak file lets you know that the SMD successfully converted to a Clip file. After you turn it into package form and put in your game, if it still doesn't work then I can tell you how to completely redo the pose without losing what you have done OR you can try doing poses the upgraded way so that you don't have to deal with SMD and the animTool conversion stuff.

It works! Thank you so much <33

this is so helpful that i did it and it actually worked XD

i only have two questions though, is there anyway to make the face look like eyes and skin (i am having a nightmare making facial expressions) and is there a trick to knowing the heights for chairs and stuff for them to sit?

thank you

i figured out how to lift them up and down
still having some face trouble :\

here is my first ever pose XD i know it needs some tweaking but i thought id share :D

I'd like it <3

My lastes question, how do I get the pose "on the ground". I tryed with changing Location, but in my game my sims, when they use the pose, are in the air. Thanks again for helping me out <3

Deleted...repeat post

i am using the one from the tutorial (i tried downloading the newest blender and the newest smd tools, but i got that glitched blob that some others were getting) .

i feel like such a pain for asking another question but how do you make a couple pose?

thank you! thank you! thank you!

I cannot get past this part

Quote:

1. Start Blender and go to File->User Preferences(or press CTRL+ALT+U).
2. Click the "Add-Ons" button at the top of the User Preferences window.
3. Click the "Import/Export" button on the left, then click the "Install Add-On" button at the bottom.
4. Navigate to where you extracted the file and select the "io_smd_tools.py" and click "Install Add-On". TS3 Tools is added to the the list.
6. Click the check box to the right of the "Import-Export: SMD/DMX Tools"
7. Close the User Preferences window, and hit CTRL+U to save as default(if you want TS3 Tools to be there next time you start Blender).

I click install addon, find the right file, and click to install it, but ts3 tools is not added to the list, and I can even click the check box for the SMD/DMX Tools part. Any help? I redownloaded the 2.57 version too.

Well, I really want to make some poses but I get stuck at the mini turtorial

1. Start Blender and go to File->User Preferences(or press CTRL+ALT+U).
2. Click the "Add-Ons" button at the top of the User Preferences window.
3. Click the "Import/Export" button on the left, then click the "Install Add-On" button at the bottom.
4. Navigate to where you extracted the file and select the "io_smd_tools.py" and click "Install Add-On". TS3 Tools is added to the the list.
6. Click the check box to the right of the "Import-Export: SMD/DMX Tools"
7. Close the User Preferences window, and hit CTRL+U to save as default(if you want TS3 Tools to be there next time you start Blender).


I get stuck at point 4, when i select the file nothing happen, and i don't see a TS3 Tools in the list.....
hope somebody could help me.

Here ya go it's over here in these drop down menus.

I unfortunately cannot understand what you said here....

"4. Navigate to where you extracted the file and select the "io_smd_tools.py" and click "Install Add-On". TS3 Tools is added to the the list.
6. Click the check box to the right of the "Import-Export: SMD/DMX Tools"

I've downloaded everything needed but this blender thing is so foreign haha. Help? (:?

EDIT: Oh and i tried downloading the S3PE thing and i have a Mac OS X so i had to download this Mono-- somethin' or other but i can't find it now on the computer DX. So as of the moment i need some serious help cause i'm like....

Try using this tutorial its more up to date
http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?topic=862.0

ooooohhhhh I had the wrong Blender version ;O