CelebratingMachinima

A guide to making movies with The Sims 2 written by Michelle of Britannica Dreams Productions. (V.2 : Updated 30/11/06)

FOREWARD

With this guide we hope to pass on some of the tips we've learnt, objects or hacks we've found invaluable, tutorials and resources that we use. It's very much a work in progress and we'll attempt to update it regularly. On the right of the page are the various tips and links, broken down into topics.

All links were correct at the time of publishing, please report any broken links to michelle[at]mprem[dot]com.

ABOUT THIS TUTORIAL

This guide was written with machinimators new to The Sims 2 game in mind, as well as experienced Sims 2 players. Please note though, that this is not by any means a guide to Sims 2 gameplay and the only places where gameplay tips are given is in reference to making movies with The Sims 2 itself.

FURTHER READING

We also recommend you read these Sims 2 tutorials as well as our own:

The Official EA Sims 2 Guide to Movie-Making - a very basic guide for beginners

WelshRogue's Sims 2 Tutorial

TheSidDog Machinima Tutorials

Jaydee's Movie-Making Help

Sims 99 Resources

WHY USE THE SIMS 2 FOR MACHINIMA?

If you're new to The Sims 2 game as a machinimator, you may ask why use The Sims 2 as opposed to any other video games engine. The Sims brand has a long history of being used as a storytelling tool and the addition of the inbuilt video capture has enabled players to go a step further and turn these stories into movies. This coupled with the advanced architecture system, allowing custom set design, and the huge Sims 2 modding community, makes The Sims 2 an ideal choice for many budding machinimators from beginner upwards.

If you're still not convinced check out this "sales pitch":
10 Reasons TS2 Rocks For Machinima

article index
select page page 1 - current FOREWARD page 2 USEFUL PRE-PRODUCTION LINKS page 3 A GUIDE TO SET-BUILDING page 4 CREATING THE CAST page 5 FILMING: CHEATCODES page 6 CAMERA TIPS page 7 FILMIMG TIPS page 8 ANIMATIONS ON DEMAND page 9 ANIMATIONS ON DEMAND: PART 2 page 10 FILMIMG WITH SMOOTH EDGES page 11 EDITING page 12 GETTING YOUR MOVIE ONLINE page 13 ABOUT CUSTOM CONTENT page 14 CUSTOM CONTENT BY THEME page 15 USEFUL OBJECTS & HACKS LINKS page 16 MODDING THE SIMS page 17 CREDITS & NOTES