Changing the Language Preference in GIMP When You Can't Read the Language it Started Out in. WITH PICTURES!

Gemma, you're just having an awful week darling. I do hope this helps!


First off Open your GIMP. Yours is NOT going to look like mine as I've tweaked my User Preferences pretty heavily. But the Menus should be in the same place and that's what matters.

Of course, it should still look something similar to this.

This is currently in English to help you see what's going on and understand. I will be reverse engineering my GIMP to Belorussian for this tutorial. (I picked randomly from the languages list.)

So once you've got it open the first menu you will hit will be the second one from the left. This is your Edit Menu.

This menu is divided into 4 sections. The First Option of the fourth section is the Preferences option. It will have a little screwdriver and hammer crossed icon to the left. It's a little pastel in color and looks like it might be greyed out, but it's not.

This is the box you should see now (Ignore the screen cap in the back there. lol. Oops.) It is going to come up on an Environment Panel. We want the second option on the list on the left side of this window.

So you click on that second option and the right panel will change to something similar to this. The first drop down menu is your Language Preferences. Go ahead and click on the arrow on the right to drop the menu down.

Now, I could get my lovely Thai next door neighbor to go ahead and type in what English would look like in Thai for me, but that would be moot I'm afraid. And I don't like to bother Chen too much. She's such a wonderful neighbor. But what are you looking for then? You are looking for this in particular " [en_GB] " It will appear just like that without the quotations select this option and then click OK and promise me you're going to keep reading and Not Panic! DON'T PANIC! REALLY!!! I know that nothing will happen. After clicking OK, you have to close GIMP and reopen it to see the language change.

Like so. Look at the red boxes above and you can see that my language has been changed to Belorussian. Following the same steps above got me right back to where I started.

And OMG. Gemma! You have my pity darling. Looking at my GIMP without my familiar language was really frustrating even if I knew where to go. I hope this helps at least.  KISSES!

Global vs. Gimbal. Let's Discuss!

So I took a look at Spladoum's Big Sister posepack on MTS and read that she had used a tip from another user but she didn't give the tip and she didn't give a location. Well, I dug around and found the tip. It's about changing a single setting in blender to get a better rotation on joints and bones in Blender. Let's take a look and compare shall we?


Before we get started I have to say that early on I found out that I had to have my own personal Order of Operations to make posing easier for myself. And if I messed up on that order, sometimes I just had to scrap stuff and start over. My own PEMDAS (if you will. *giggles) Was face, fingers, hand, waist down, waist up, head. And when I say waist down I mean I started at the waist, then posed hips, then knees, then ankles, then toes with minor tweaks in between of prior posed joints until it all aligned and looked right. Waist up is the same. Waist, back, Spine 2, the clavicles, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, neck, head with tweaks in between to distribute rotations and movements evenly.

Now then, this is a pose I made on the laptop and I'm wanting to check things with it because the laptop didn't have the textures and I was working in solid mode only. The problem was I needed the eyes to move but the head was tilted. Using this tip I moved the eyes in perfect alignment and didn't need to fiddle with moving the head (since on the laptop Fred had no hair his hand is only lightly touching the scalp- as I want. But I know if I move head or hand I'm going to lose that position.) But now getting the eyes to move right would be tricky since one eye is lower than the other.

In our above example I have Fred's shoulder selected even though I have hidden the bones. Right now my Blender is in Global mode. Take a peek in the red box and you can see that we are in Global for yourself. But even the shoulder is tilted and moving along a pure x, y, or z axis is not going to be natural looking. You'd have to rotate along multiple axes to get a natural movement to untwist his shoulder. So I'm going to click on the word Global and from the menu that pops up I'm going to switch to Gimbal.

Look in the red box and you can see that I've made the switch. But look at my axis alignment! It's no longer along true x, y, z lines. It's alighted the axes with the tilt of the shoulder to get a movement that's along the lines of the musculature you've created. So if I were to make a follow pose of this one swinging his arm down would now be much easier and natural looking. Or if you're working on tweaking a face you can rotate and move your elements (joints and bones) along an axis that aligns with where that element is.

How I did it with the eyes is I rotated Fred's right eye around the z axis first (in Gimbal mode) 12 degrees, then along the x axis 2. Then I selected the left eye and rotated it around the z axis again 12 degrees, but only 1 along the x due to the position of the eyelid. If I had attempted that in Global mode I would not have had such an easy time on the x axis rotation since Fred's head is tipped.

This is Fred's original eye position. Using Gimbal mode helped keep his eye rotation aligned even though his head is tipped.




Also, though you cannot see it, I had forgotten to soften Fred's right hand and fingers but didn't want to move it so that it was perfectly straight out just to pose the fingers and get them correct.

Alrighty. Here I had forgotten to do anything with Fred's hand. He's worried here. His hand should be a little more tense than it is. The thumb needs to be rotated forward so that the nail is sideways, the last joint on the pinky isn't bent to make a crooked pinky, the fingers have no bend at all and the lowest knuckle doesn't turn the fingers toward each other to make the palm curve. But I'm in global and if I'm still in global it's a mess to make all those rotations without accidentally 'breaking' a joint. I'd be constantly moving my view and fiddling around with 'r+x,z,y'.

This is what I used to do to get the joints in a position where I could work with them if I'd forgotten to do it earlier. And when I would finally get the fingers right then I'd have to untwist that wrist with hopes it would go back to normal.

In Gimbal I was able to leave the hand where it was and still get the hand to show some stress and rigidity naturally without too much flex and I didn't have to move the wrist grotesquely to do it.


Give it a try! It really frees up tweaking. However, after playing with it for a while on several poses, I personally would recommend doing your actual pose in Global mode first saving the Gimbal for tweaking only as joints seem to twist a little more easily out of place.

If anyone would like to share their own experiences between the two I'd love to hear it! Leave your thoughts in the comments section and lets all help each other be better posers! (Wow that sounds old school, doesn't it? Posers. lol)

Adding Props to Your Pose in Blender

Another Tutorial for my Darling Fiance Gemma. Enjoy Deary.

For starters you will need to have whatever prop you are wanting to use in package form in a place where you can find it on your computer. If the object is in Sims3Pack form then you'll need Delphy's MultiPack Extractor to convert the item from .sims3pack to .package. If you already have the object as a .package you can skip this first part.

If the object you want to use as a prop is a game item (as in it came with an EP, SP, or Base Game) you'll need the latest version of s3oc to make a .package file of the item. We're going to do just this as the 'prop' I want to use is a loveseat for my simmies to sit on while posing for me, and it came with the BG.

The first thing we've got to do is open s3oc. So I click on my start button and navigate the menu until I get to s3oc and I'm going to open it up. (Also please ignore the mess my desktop is. That's really abnormal for it to be that crazy. I've got far too much going on right now.)

Once it's open I'm going to click on the Cloning menu, and choose Normal Objects from the menu. If you're needing counters you'd click on Modular Objects. Obviously there are other selections if you want a fence, or stairs, or fireplaces or CAS bits, etc.

Give it a second to process your request. The more stuffs you've got, the longer this will take. Unless you've got a computer like Misty and it flies like the wind. Then I'm totally jealous.

Alrighty, eventually a nice long list of everything you can make a prop out of will come up. For me? I like to click on the word 'Name' above the list so it sorts it all alphabetically and I can find things easier. However, click on the word EP/SP and you can sort the list by what the items came with. Anyhow, go through and find the item you want. You can click around until you find what you need. When you finally find your prop in the list you will click 'Clone or Fix' in the right half of the window.

Take a peek at the name of your item just so you know what it's called to find it easier later. The name will be in that red box above. But DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ON THIS SCREEN. Just click the Start button.

Navigate through your files and folders until you've found a nice place where you can find it for later and click 'Save.'

It has to think about itself for a moment again.

Once it's finished creating you prop package it will tell you. Click OK.



Once this is done, open up Blender and open the rig you want to work with.

I'm using Harriet today as I need a female pose. If you haven't already, import the blank animation. Then on the right hand side of the screen make sure you are in Scene mode in your toolbox and then scroll until you see the S3PY tools. (It always starts on Scene Tools for me.)

Once you've go the S3PY tools up click on Load Prop.

Navigate to where you saved your prop. Click on it and then click Import Sims 3 Prop in the upper right.

This is how your screen will look when you come back. With the prop tipped over backwards. Since I want the prop to load as it loads in game I'm going to rotate it to where I need it. To get a nice clean rotation I'm going to change my view first by hitting the 3 on the keypad.

And just so I can see a little better I've shifted the screen down. Make sure your object is selected and not your model and hit r and rotate the object forward until it's where you want it for your use. (NOTE: My props always start out selected so I never have to click on it or anything.)

I've now got my prop in game and it doesn't matter right now that Harriet is standing in the loveseat. She'll get fixed once she's posed.

And here's Harriet in her finished pose. (She's off center like that because that's where I need her in relation to Fred who has a corresponding [though not a couples] pose here.) Once you're finished (make sure the Hide Bones button is off) hit 'a' until all the joints are selected, hit 'I', select LocRot and then Export your pose as usual. Anytime you want to open than pose again and want your prop you'll have to reload the prop and put it back where you want it. So I suggest not using overly complicated positions for your props if possible. Don't forget, you've also got to get it in position in game also.

Uh for your phone Gemma, I'd suggest paying close attention to the degree you rotate your prop. As you are rotating in the lower left corner of the 3d view screen it will say by how many degrees you've rotated whatever it is you're rotating. Just keep it to 15, 45, or 90 and you'll be able to use a tipsy OMSP much easier on it. (Is there a 30 in the Tipsy too? I can't remember.)

I hope that made sense to you! If not, just let me know!

Snapping Tutorial for my Dearest Gemma

Alrighty hon. I've got lots of pics for you and little arrows and, I hope, a nice clear explanation. However, we'll see just how clear it is after we're through. Before we begin, right now this tutorial is assuming the poses are already finished. I can add instructions if this is not the case though. Just let me know.

Step one: Open blender with a nice clean rig. I will be starting with the Adult Female rig, but you can start with whatever rig you need.

Now for pictures!

Step two: Click File:

When that menu drops down you will select Import and when the submenu comes up select Sims3Animation

Like So.

This is the next screen you will see. Navigate to wherever your animation you want to make snap (that corresponds to the rig you've got open. I had a nasty booboo earlier when I accidently imported the male pose into the female rig. What a face! Actually, it seems I've got pics of just that. See below to see how I put her in his pose. Ha!) Anyhow, Select the animation you will be using and then click Import Sims3Animation in the upper right. NOTE: However, if you are starting the pose from scratch you need to import your blank pose  and then pose your rig . You don't have to finish it right now either. You need the blank pose in place to make the pose keep it's position in game. If you did not start your animation with blank pose you will sometimes have to repeat this process a time or two before it takes.


(Here, briefly, we are going to diverge: First Gemma: This link is for you Go and grab these. Download them. Then you need to create a new folder in your Clip Tool Rigs folder. Title it: Blank Poses Originals and unzip this into it. Then create another folder titled Blank Poses Copies. In the blank poses folder you need to select the rig size. So I titled one of the rigs a_gemma_adultblankpose. You are going to have to look inside the file name to see that ok? The original name is something like this: S3_6B20C4F3_00000000_5C13BF8552873E1C_a_gemma_adultblankpose%%+CLIP.animation Only there is no bolding to point out what you are looking for. Before you import your premade animations you need to import this. Really. Then go ahead and import the premade animation. Now it will work to snap. There is one in there premade for adults, children, and toddlers. Anyhow, this is where I got the how to on that file. I also included the original package for you if you want to attempt that yourself.)

So here's our animation looking all happy but wait! It's not in a good spot. So we need to move her. The easiest way is to grab her crosshairs and move her. So lets select her crosshairs.

Right there in the middle. Then grab the red arrow (Not the one I drew on) and click and hold and drag her where ever you want. I'm going to move her to our right (her left) since that's where she's going to be in this pose anyhow. We'll still have to move her again so it doesn't matter if it's an exact science.

Now she's moved out of our way so we can get the Male Rig in here. Or whatever other rig you'll be using. NOTE: IF STARTING WITH ONE RIG YOU CANNOT REIMPORT THE SAME RIG!!! Really. If you're starting with the afrig.blend you cannot reimport it. It will give you an error. However, who says you can't copy that rig, rename it, and plug in the copy? ;) But just an FYI here.

(Really, if you're wanting a two female pose, or a two toddler pose you need to make a copy of the rig, rename it [I suggest something like afRig-copy.blend or afRig2.blend] and have it in your Clip Tool Rigs File folder.)

To get our second rig in so that things will snap we're going to go to the File menu and then we're going to select Append.

Your Blender should automatically open up your Clip Tool Rigs file, if it doesn't, then that's where you need to go. From this menu select the rig of the second sim you want in this pose. For this example I need the Adult Male Rig. so I'm going to double click on the amRig.blend file. I don't know if you need to double click on that or not. It's most likely just my ADD needing the double click.

Anyhow, this is the next screen you will get once you've selected your second (third fourth fifth etc.) rig. From these folders we're going to select Object.

The files that come up next have lots of names. You want the files that begin with whatever letters your rig starts with. So if you're using the toddler rig you're looking for all the files that begin with 'pu'. This is eyes, hair, scalp, teeth, etc. In our example with the male rig, we're selecting all the files that begin with 'am.' To select them all at once hold down the shift key while clicking. Once you have all of them selected click the link/append from Library button in the upper right.

You may need to give your machine a second to think about what you've just done (contemplate the ANSWER Hahahahahahahaha!) it depends on your machine how quickly this works. Anyhow, now that we're back we have that wonderfully orange Male Rig and the female rig. Note that the female rig is currently selected. We need to select him.

Click on him until you get him highlighted. Now, at the bottom of your screen (It's probably not quite in the same place as mine is, but the toolbar will look the same) You're going to see a box that says either Pose Mode, or Object Mode. If you have him correctly selected you will see Object mode. Click on that and this menu will pop up. Select Pose Mode. Now you can pose him!

So, again, his animation is already complete so we're going to import his animation.

Ack! What happened? Well, because I created both of these animations in the same appended screen and saved them in the middle they both snapped to the middle. lol. (Also, silly me accidentally put her in his pose. Oops. So I'm changing her back to her animation) So we're going to grab ahold of one of the rigs and move them over as we did earlier. Note: Grabbing the Arrow instead of using the g key means you move along the axis that coordinates with the arrow you've grabbed. This makes your movements a lot more precise for later on. I like to keep my poses aligned with these arrows if possible for ease of posing in game.


Anyhow, rotate your rigs until they are where you want them. Check lots of angles to make sure you're not clipping.

So, now I've got my rigs all lined up with each other and in position (I'm not entirely happy with this, I don't think either of them are leaning forward enough, but I want to test this in game before I make further changes. So this is just for demonstration purposes.) Yay for lined up rigs!

So with his rig selected I'm going to hit a until all of his joints turn light blue.

And then hit I and select LocRot from the menu that pops up.

Now I'm going to select her rig and do the same. Hit a until all of her joints are light blue, and then hit I, and select LocRot. Note: Do not Export your rigs until you've done the LocRot on both of the Rigs! If you do export, the rig you did not do LocRot to will revert to it's original position when you imported it (or created it) and you'll have to position it all over again!

But for this demonstration we've done LocRot on both rigs. So with hers selected I'm going to go ahead and export her rig.

Remember to name it something unique!

Save that animation!

When it's finished saving that particular rig you'll come back to find this again. Hit CTRL+Z and they'll move back to the position of the last LocRot. Not a problem.

So now select the other rig and export it. You might get something that has a .001 at the end of the original pose name. Just get rid of it if you do.

Like So. Now create a package of your poses and test them in game. They should snap together now. If they don't, do the same steps again until it will work. Trust me, I know. lol. The next shown pose didn't snap at first. Now it does because of the steps above. As noted earlier though, you can begin to create your poses this was as well as import premade poses. The ones I've made starting like this I haven't had to snap. Just know, that if you start with the blank pose you won't need to repeat these steps. If you start like this (remembering to import the blank pose before you pose your sims) you will have already done all of this without the need to rinse and repeat.

Like on this one. It's so nice that they snap together with the lacing of those fingers and all. Also, my poses snap onto that loveseat all nicely because of these steps. Ease of positioning! A story tellers dream!

Ok deary, I hope that helps a little.