Picture Mods (Screen Arching)

[MrFlyte]

Hmm, guess my previous mod request was too daft for anyone to answer

 

I was wondering if there were any mods to make screen-archering a little less awkward in game? First off, it would be kind of cool to have an in game camera (like the item) to take pictures with, but I would also want to take pictures of my character too, of course, so, maybe a camera item wouldn't be best for that.

 

I wasn't sure. I know some people take the screen-arching thing quite seriously, so I wasn't sure if some brilliant minds had come up with ways to make it more efficient.

[United_Strafes]

No camera that I know of, here's a guide written by Halofarm listing most of the tricks you'll need for good screenshots:

 

"The most important thing is, press tilde on your keyboard to open the console.

--------------------
The Easy Stuff:
--------------------

1: Flying Camera Mode - You can activate flying camera mode by typing "TFC" into the console. This will allow you to move around freely, separately from your character, and take shots from different heights and angles. Type "TFC" again to return to normal camera.

2: Flying Camera Mode with Time Freeze - You can also freeze time while in flying camera mode by typing "TFC 1" into the console. This can be great for actions shots, to freeze things mid swing. Once again, type "TFC" to return to normal camera. This is also how to use my pair poses, in conjunction with the various "complicated" parts below to position characters.

3: Camera Zoom - You can zoom in and out using the command "FOV" from the console. Your camera is set at FOV 75 by default, so typing "FOV 70" will zoom the camera slightly, whereas "FOV 10" will zoom in a lot. You can also zoom out, but beware, once you pass FOV 120 things start to get a little heavy on the system. Type "FOV 0" to return your view to normal.

4: Toggling Your Menus - You can turn off your in-game menu by typing "TM" and then closing the console. This will allow you to take clean screenshots with no menus in the way. Remember to turn the menus back on when you're done! You can do this by again opening the console and typing "TM", though you won't be able to see it, until you've done it.

--------------------
The Complicated Stuff:
--------------------

There are a number of other tweaks available to you for "serious" posers. Take that with a pinch of salt. It's only a game, folks. But it's always nice to turn out a good screenshot.

1: Toggling Collision - For those of you who want to get your character into just the right spot, you can use the command "TCL" in the console to turn off collision. This will allow you to walk through walls, more importantly, it will allow you to get closer to objects than normal collision rules allow.

2: Moving Your Character With the Console - There are 2 relevant commands here. "getpos" and "setpos". They both work on 3 axes. That is axis X, axis Y and axis Z. X and Y vary, since the values apply to the world, but Z is always up and down. To find out where your character is in the world, select them from the console (open the console and click on them with your mouse, you should see a reference number appear, like 0000014) and type "getpos x", "getpos y" or "getpos z", this will allow you to find out where on any of the axes your character is already. The next step is to move them, using the setpos command. This is done like so "setpos (axis) (relative position)", the actual command will look something like "setpos x 2020.4". I always recommend using small increments to start with, to find out what direction your character will move, and how much they need. If your getpos x tells you "1000" then you try "setpos x 1001" and see where they go, and how far.

3: Changing your characters rotation - You can also change the direction a character is facing. The commands for this are "getangle z" and "setangle z", where z is the way you're looking. It works on 360 degrees. Getangle z will return something like "210", to turn left, you would type "setangle z 180" or to turn right, "setangle z 240". Once you reach 360, you start again at 0, so to turn right at 360, you would use "setangle 10". This will also work in TFC 1 mode, but you will have to bump it into action using a very small setpos. Getangle/setangle will also work on the x and y axes, but ONLY for static objects.

4: Toggling your NPC's AI - If you're working with an NPC then the above commands will work. As an added bonus, you can use the command "TAI" to turn off a character's AI and freeze them exactly where they are.

5: The TC trick - Skyrim comes with a TC command. This stands for "toggle controls", and it's extrmely convenient for getting that troublesome follower or NPC into the right spot. Once you've posed the NPC in question, open your console and first click on your player character. Type "TC" and hit enter. This will deactivate control of your player. Now open the console again, click on the NPC in question, and again, type "TC" and hit enter. This time when you close the console, the camera will take up position behind the NPC and you can walk them around freely until they're in position as best as you can get them. When you're done, do as you did before, but in reverse, so you take up control of your player character again. This trick is best used in conjunction with TAI, to prevent the NPC from gliding off again.

6: The foot trick - A great many of my poses pose your character's feet in some way, however due to a process called "inverse kinetics", your character's feet will always try to stand flat on the ground. Even in sitting or laying poses, the foot IK will take over and the feet will be incorrectly positioned. The way I get around this issue is to move my character at running speed. When moving, in pose, at running speed, you'll notice your character's feet will go into the positon they were meant to in the pose. As you're moving, open your console and use TFC 1. Your character will now be posed as they were meant to be. Now you use getpos/setpos/getangle/setangle to put them where you want them. Of course, this is the most advanced and also least often used trick, and most of the time you won't have a need for it, but it's good to know. Think of it the next time you have a character in a laying or sitting pose with their feet in the air. It's also worth noting the same trick works while using TC, so if you want to freeze your NPC with their feet in the right position, open the console and type TAI as you would TFC 1 for your player character.

An alternative way to do this one is to set your game to SGTM 0.0000001 (or some other ridiculously low increment) and then jump in place. Obviously, when you SGTM 1 afterwards, your character will jump out of pose. This also works if you are currently in control of an NPC with TC.


--------------------
Wrapping it up:
--------------------

One thing to remember is that you can't take screenshots (at least not with Skyrim itself) when you're in the console, so always remember to close the console after you TM and open it again once you're done, to turn your menu back on.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Some of the best screenshots make good use of a lot of these commands. FOV is my personal favourite. Getting just the right level of zoom can really give focus to a shot.

--------------------
Notes:
--------------------

If you don't understand these tips, then I apologise. I've never been the best at writing "how to" pieces. I just thought that people might like some tips on how to make their shots shine. One thing I'd ask is that you don't request me to explain it another way, I have written it the best I can right here.

Halo."

 

One thing not mentioned in that guide is the use of the "sucsm" command which toggles the in game camera speed which is good for lining up the perfect framed shots. So you'd want to open the console and type "sucsm 1" one being the slowest speed then go up in numerical values from there to get your desired speed.

 

One newer mod I've discovered that helps a lot with lighting called "Photons" that basically has a bunch of different candlelight and magelight spells specifically for taking screens can be found on GoD here:

http://gameofdovahs.co.vu/

 

just scroll down till you find the Photons mod.

 

Hope some of this helped!

[Jexsam]

...am I the only one who thinks "screen-archery" is an incredibly stupid phrase?

 

 

What said. Mr. Strafe's copy-paste of Halofarm's tips is pretty much right on, covering all the technical bits you'll need to screenshot like a champ.

 

I haven't tried Photons myself yet, but from what I'm reading, it's just a bunch of magelight and candlelight spells. Sounds like a great tool, but they have that 60 second limitation, meaning you'll have to recast them, which further means having to re-enter all your positional tweaks just to take more shots after the spell wears off. I imagine they're also about the same intensity as the vanilla lights, which is fine for small areas and focused lighting but useless for lighting a room.

 

To that end, I also recommend SS Assist Tools, a mod that gives you placeable gemstones that float and emit colored light. They don't require recasting and can illuminate larger areas than the magelight spells. This mod also includes rings that allow you to manipulate time passage and weather, so you can slow down or freeze time and take all the time you need to set up different shots. The weather ring is okay if you don't have the Clear Skies shout, though it overrides mod weather temporarily, so keep that in mind. Coupled with Photons, this should give you basically everything you could want to light scenes. But that gets less into the nuts and bolts of screenshooting and more into the artsy side of it, which is outside the scope of your initial question.

[Shivalala]

I am currently doing a mostly RP Dibella themed playthrough. (3rd playthrough!) and everything in this RP will be about beauty in all forms, so taking screenshots will be amongst them, this is really nice information! Thanks @United_Strafes @ Jexsam

[MrFlyte]

 

[snip]

 

Hope some of this helped!

 

I appreciate the guide I know about most of this, the console commands and all that. I've done some screen arching before in the past, I just find it so awkward to do in game, so I was hoping maybe someone might have found a way to make it easier...like, as mentioned, effectively a camera item that would automatically apply all the necessary console commands and even better would be built in FOV control, but I think I'm just dreaming at this point.

 

This does bring up another question, not necessarily mod related, but, do you have any useful screen shot tools? Firstly, I have 2 screens, so any time I print-screen I have to crop out the second screen. I know Steam has a built in screen cap thing, which I suppose I could use too, but like I said, I was just curious if anyone has any specific tools they they prefer.

 

As for SS Assist Tool, I'm definitely going to look into that, so I appreciate the link!

[Shivalala]

 

 I know Steam has a built in screen cap thing, which I suppose I could use too, but like I said, I was just curious if anyone has any specific tools they they prefer.

 

 

 

 

Steam is really easy just F-12 and at the end of your game you can choose what you want to do. Show on disk is my favourite and then browse and select the best. I have to use Steam because my videocard doesn't play well with other methods in Skyrim.