sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

A guide to different height kissing:

Height differences between lovers can add a lot of realistic value to a story, but the in-game standing kissing animations can get pretty wonky. This is always one of the first complaints people bring up when they consider using different heights in their game, and was also my biggest complaint until I found some work-arounds. In these romantically-inclined stories, you know how we need to get our kiss on around here!

So nobody specifically asked me to do this one, but I've been using different heights in my game for some time now, and discovered a few tricks, so I thought I would share them.

Dallas and Lucy are happy to oblige us in the demonstration of these techniques ;)

First you need your toolbox. Dallas is sitting on the shiftable OMSP, and Lucy is showing off the Freezer Clock. I can't say enough good things about these two mods, and if you don't have these things in your game, I highly recommend you run out and grab them ASAP!!! If you stage story shots in even the smallest capacity (or if you simply want to amuse yourself with these techniques), these tools will be useful to you in so many ways!

Some other mods you'll want for this session: Look at Player (Fourth-Wall), and Decorgal's Custom Modeling Poses with Face Overlays, which is the only handy-dandy pose box I use in my game.

And your cheat dictionary:

moveobjects on
boolprop snapObjectsToGrid false
boolprop allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true
plumbbobtoggle off
showheadlines off

First we'll demonstrate that he is actually taller than she is, as you can see here.

And LOL, looks like Dakota's been at that trash can again! :)

(and a quick disclaimer, since I'm using a teen and YA for this demonstration: for anyone wandering through for this entry, let's just explain that there's nothing shady going on here. Lucy is seventeen, Dallas is nineteen, and they've been best friends for five years, dating for about three years, and are just about the sweetest couple you ever met.

I remember in high school we used to think it was so funny that we were sixteen and our boyfriends had all just turned eighteen, and we were like, "He he, you're kissing a minor!" Come to find out that the age of consent is 16 anyway and we could have been kissing an old man and it wouldn't have mattered. But ick, anyway, on the old man!

The author, residents, and fans of Lakeside Heights do not condone grown adults kissing minors!)

The OMSP trick (kiss = romantic): this one is simple. I'll just start the kiss as usual, and stop wherever I like. As you can see, they don't actually line up.

So I'll grab my OMSP (you might have to try out a few different sizes before you get the right one), stick her on it, and line them up.

(Remember to make sure you pop back out into live mode for a split second to make their hands and arms snap back into place. Get aquainted with your ` key for split second unpause/pausing.)

So this one is easy, but this doesn't hold the illusion that he is actually taller than she is, since they're kissing straight on at the same level. But again, it's easy, and pretty convenient.

Lucy says, "Yay, I get to do it again?"

Again, and again, and again, Lucy.

See, told you she was excited. This got old after about a dozen times, and yes, she did this each and every time!

The freezer clock trick (kiss = makeout): This one is a little trickier, but quite fun to play around with. It uses the in-game animations, but out of sync by use of the Freezer Clock.

This is the makeout kiss, at one of its more calm points. You'll focus on one or the other to start. I've chosen Dallas to start here. So I watch very carefully as the animation plays through, and at the point Dallas's head is pointed the most downward, I pause the game and freeze him.

Then I unpause the game (intermittently, using the ` key), watching very carefully as Lucy continues through the animation. There will be single micro-points where her head is tilted upward. I grab one of those, and then stick them back together.

If you catch the right moments, his head will tilt down, and hers up, lips aligned, and I don't even need to stick her on a OMSP. I like this one better because it holds the illusion that he's taller than her, since she's kissing upward to meet him.

You may need to watch the animation play through once or twice first, so you know when to snag the right angle.

The camera angle trick: this one's a quick-fix, and probably the simplest of all - the point being that they aren't actually lined up, but you use one of your Sims' hair or bodies to obscure the kiss. Which means it also doesn't show much, so it's useful when you're feeling plain old lazy.

This is also useful for non-significant kisses, like when a couple has been together for a long time, or the actual kiss is not really the focus of the scene. Let your readers imagine the kiss instead.

The photoshopped trick (kiss = tender): this tip requires a very basic knowledge of photo manipulation using layers. You can manipulate the photo to artificially tilt his head down (or hers up).

I've selected a large area around his head with the lasso tool. This is important because I'll want that large space of sky behind his head for later.

I'll copy and paste this into a new layer.

edit > transform > rotate.

Then I delete where needed, carefully along his jawline, and then in front of his face, keeping the large space of sky behind his head. This sky will cover the place where his old head was in the first layer.

Then I flatten the layers and use the clone tool to retouch anything I need to.

In the end, it looks like this.

I could have moved them in a smidge closer in the original picture, so that their lips would end up touching, but you know, I didn't, lol!

The manufactured trick: This uses either one half of a kissing animation, or entirely manufactured poses. These are actually not too hard to get a good combination with, since you can direct their heads with your "look at player" and freeze them with the Freezer Clock.

These are my favorite kind of kisses when I have the time to do them. They're completely unique, and each particular scene you create has never been done before in your game or anyone elses. And note (!), you will probably never be able to recreate it again, so don't unpause that game until you get your shot, lol! Take five shots! From thirteen different angles each!!!

I'll show the half-manufactured first: Lucy is doing the tender kiss animation, frozen, then Dallas is manufactured with poses and face overlays. I won't go through the mashup I used, since there are so many overlayed on top of each other, and honestly, I wouldn't even remember. So he is using about five or six random poses, three face overlays, and "look at player" pointed down toward her.

I basically just stand him next to her, selecting through poses until something looks right, moving his head last of all.

Here's another half manufactured. This time Lucy is manufactured, and Dallas is using flirt > hit on.

Then this one has both Sims fully manufactured, several random poses and face overlays.

Another fully manufactured.

I find the manufactured kisses tend to look more true-to-life than the in-game animations, which are quite extreme and over-animated. When real people kiss, they're rarely as animated as Sims are in-game.

Other workarounds:

-sitting: in my experience, most sitting kissing animations look okay between different heights.

-the almost-kiss: just take your shot either before the kiss happens, or after. Maybe useful if you want to create a lot of sexual tension, but lol, could also be very frustrating or unsatisfying depending on the story. Sometimes you just need to see "the money shot," you know, lol!

-the fake-out: a lot of flirt animations can be paused at different points and moved around to convey intimate moments. It's not a kiss, but looks like it could be one.

So that was fun! And probably not just fun for them ;)

I encourage you to try these out. Don't be limited by your game, get creative! And if you do try some of these out, I'd love to see what you come up with!

(This last photo is photoshopped too, by the way. His head is tilted down.)