UPDATE: 25/07/25: I have had at least 3 hits from ChatGPT on this
blog. If this is a result from one of you running this through ChatGPT
to summarise it - DO NOT RUN ANY OF THIS BLOG THROUGH AI. I explain
things at length to ensure CLARITY OF INSTRUCTION. If you screw up your
project because you let your misinformation robot friend summarise the
thing I spent HOURS writing, don't come crying to me asking for further
help. And don't ask your misinformation robot friend for help either -
READ THE DAMN TUTORIAL.
This is a very simple mini-guide on how to edit a pose to fit fat Sims better. This could be for a personal edit of someone else's lookbook. Maybe you use custom body presets and want to edit poses to work with those better. This could also help for if you want to edit poses to fit better with pregnant Sims as well.
This is ideally designed for people who've never made a pose before and who want to personally edit a pose / pose pack to fit their fat Sims. It only really explains the basics of moving points on a rig enough so that you can edit a ready-made pose. It doesn't explain everything and is basically a REALLY quick and dirty pose tutorial, if you want something that explains everything, this tutorial is the one you need!
I would like to say that, PAID POSE CREATORS, you SHOULD be making alternate poses that lessen clipping on fat Sims for your pose packs. It's not that hard to do if you already know how to make poses, and you're being paid for your content so you should at least try to maximise its potential use for your customers. If I can do it for free, you can do it for cash money.
NOTE: I don't want you being chewed apart by CC creators, so PLEASE read a pose creator's TOU before actually UPLOADING the edited poses you make! If they don't allow reuploads of edits please don't reupload them.
My own Pose Terms of Use ALLOW EDITING AND RE-UPLOADING under the following conditions:
- Poses based on mine MUST credit me in the pose pack's in-game description and on the post you share it on, and you must link back to the original pose pack you used as a base.
- No paywalls, AdFly, SimsFinds/Simsdom or CurseForge.
Almost all of my pose packs have alternate poses that fit fat Sims better, just as a heads-up.
YOU WILL NEED:
- Blender (I am using 2.79)
- Sim Ripper
- Sims 4 Studio
MAKE SURE your Sims 4 Studio and Sim Ripper are up-to-date to prevent unexpected errors!
The pose I will be using for this tutorial are my own.
Step One: Exporting the .blend file and the .dae file
- Open Sims 4 Studio. Click 'My Projects' in the top right-hand corner and open the .package for the pose pack that contains the pose you want to edit.
- Select the pose that you wish to edit. At the bottom where it has the rig dropdown and says Adult Female, click Export and export the .blend file.
Now we open up SimRipper. We need to export our Sim as a .dae file to use in Blender, so we can edit the pose to fit our Sim!
At the top you'll see a long white bar and 'Select'. Click Select and open up the save file that has the Sim you want in it (There might be a bit of trial and error if you use multiple saves finding the right one.)
On the left-hand side, a list of ALL the Sims in that save will appear. There are checkboxes to narrow down species or age to find a particular Sim, and you can also change how they are sorted (First name, last name etc.) Click the Sim you are after to use in Blender and wait a bit until the model appears.
Following the above key...
1 - Set this part to say 'Solid and glass meshes and textures'. (I always do this when posing with custom rigs because I need to delete the glass from the glasses to pose the eyes. You probably won't be posing the eyes if you're doing an edit for fat Sims, but I always do this.)
2- This is just picking the outfit out. I went with Everyday.
3- This slider alters pregnancy stage on a Sim of any gender. Whilst pregnant base rigs do exist, for whatever reason you might want a custom pregnant rig.
Once all the above has been decided, click the DAE button in the top right corner. Save your .dae file.
Now for the fun part everyone has been REALLY looking forward to...
Step Two: Blender (ugh)
Open up Blender 2.79. Go to File > Open, then open up your .blend file with the pose in it.
Since this tutorial assumes Blender is a mystery to you, I will explain a few things:
- If you do not have a mouse, go into File > User Preferences > Input and check 'Emulate 3 Button Mouse'. This allow you to use Alt + Left Mouse Click to make up for not having a middle mouse scroll / click. You will need this to move your camera around in the 3d Viewport. (Alt, Left Mouse hold-down and then move your cursor to do this). I use this as well as the mouse for ease's sake as I am used to emulating 3 button mouse.
So you have the best examples of how your pose will look in-game, press 5 on the NumPad on your keyboard to change the view to Ortho view (it will look flatter). You can use the other NumPad buttons to change the view of the 3d model.
Press 5 on the NumPad and then 1 to get a front view of your pose.
- We won't need any of the highlighted green information on the left.
- We will need to edit some stuff right on the bottom row (where the play buttons are) later.
- The middle bit with the grid and your Sim is called the 3d Viewport.
- The box on the top right with all the objects is called the Outliner, but for clarity's sake for the unfamiliar I always call it either the assets box or the box with all the objects in it.
Go to File > Import > Collada (.dae) and import the .dae file of your Sim that you exported with SimRipper.
In the box with all the objects, you will see a rig labelled 'rig.001'. Right-click it and Delete it. DO NOT delete the one just called 'rig!'
You can optionally delete the Lamp that has also been imported, for me it's too bright and a bit annoying.
Once you delete the rig.001, two upside-down triangles will appear. These are meshes, the models of your Sim. They will be named after your Sim. If your Sim has any glass meshes (this includes transparent alpha bits as well) it will appear as a separate mesh. If your Sim is wearing glasses, delete the glass mesh. If not, then you can leave it be.
Now, where you see the tiny plus sign on the left next to 'rig'. Click it, and it will show all the meshes of the base adult female rig.
Delete all of those meshes, but DON'T delete the actual rig!
Once you've done this, select the mesh that is named after your Sim (the non-glass one for now). Your Sim will become wrapped in an orange glow.
- Click the little 'wrench' icon that is underneath the objects box.
- You will see a little modifier come up underneath the wrench, with 'Object' and a little drop-down with a box underneath it. Change it so it says 'rig' and your Sim will snap to the pose of the rig...
...and poor Reynold's arms are clipping right through his stomach. So we're going to change that.
First off, SAVE the .blend file!
If you are keeping your 'glass' mesh as well, then do the same with that. Select it, click Wrench icon, click the drop-down next to the box under Objects and select 'rig'.
Where it says 'Pose' next to the little grey man in the objects box, expand it by clicking the Plus button. Then, highlight the b_ROOT_bind. You will see that point come up in blue on the rig, and your rig will come up with points and dotted lines. MAKE SURE you make your pose whilst you have your Pose selected in this way or it won't work. You'll know you've done it right if this drop-down at the left-hand corner of the bottom of your 3d viewpoint says 'Pose Mode'.
They might be difficult to see. If this is the case, go to File > User Preferences > Themes. Find the bit at the top that says 'wire' and change the colour so it's more visible. For the sake of this tutorial, I changed it to white.
To rotate these points when they are highlighted in blue, press the R key and move your mouse / cursor. Click R twice in succession if you want more control over the rotation.
For editing poses to fit fat Sims, you will likely be moving the Shoulder and Forearm joints. You may also have to move the legs a bit as well.
By using the R key twice to more freely rotate the two highlighted shoulder joints forward (one at a time) I have made it so that the arms don't clip through his stomach.
Now, to 'set' this pose, click A so that every joint turns blue and is highlighted. With your cursor within the 3d viewpoint, press the I key and select 'LocRot' from the dropdown that comes up. Now, SAVE the .blend file. We'll be re-doing this anyway, this is just to make sure your pose saves.
- Underneath 'rig', you will see Animation. Right-click it, and select 'Clear Animation Data'. Your pose will remain where it is.
Right at the bottom of the screen you'll see some play buttons and three little boxes to the left of it. All 3 will have a number in it. Set them ALL to '0'.
The reason we do this is because some exported poses will have more than 1 frame. So then when you save your new pose on 1 frame, the actual 'animation' will rapidly animate between the original pose and fat-sim-edited pose which we don't want.
When you do this, press the A key in the 3d Viewport again, then the I key and LocRot. Click the 'play' button on the bottom to triple-double-check that the pose remains as your static fat-sim-edited pose. Once you've done this, you'll see Animation re-appear under the Rig again which is what we want.
Save the .blend file.
Now go back to Sims 4 Studio. Open your pose pack again. Next to all the poses you'll see 'Add'. Do this to make a new pose for the pose pack and name it. Underneath 'Export' next to 'Adult Female' you'll see Import. Import the new saved .blend file, then save the .package file. Now, to test in-game...
Woohoo, much less clipping!
Almost all of my pose packs either mostly fit fat Sims or have alternate poses that fit fat Sims better (I don't use custom presets however). I also have these pose packs:
-
Confident and Casual - male plus-size lookbook
- These edits of nell-le's lookbook poses done with their permission:
Male N2,
Male N5, and
Female N6.
These aren't mine but I also recommend helgatisha's pose packs:
Pack 3,
Pack 1.
Most poses
here and
here. SFS links are up-to-date, but MediaFire isn't always.
Patreon is the best place to browse CC, it's all free no AdFly of course.
