Sit down to feed infant

On anims:
The thing with the anims is this: of course they look as if they're called from within the package, because they ARE! But they don't need to *be* in the package. If they're in the main game files, they're probably globally accessible, which means you can call them without having to define the STR# list for them But indeed, to add more anims, it's probably a good idea to put them all together in a brand spankin' new list, because I wouldn't know how to call anims from two different sources.

On BHAVs:
If both BHAVs have the same group number, then it's very simple: in the first BHAV, just make a new line where the OpCode is the Instance number of the second BHAV. That way, when that line is executed, the second BHAV is called and will do its thing. And if the second BHAV is a global, it doesn't even need to be in the same group as the first. Those are the simple cases... the more complicated cases would be tough to explain in small words. My words aren't small enough.

However, you don't have to worry yourself with that... just create the Animation, the corresponding list, and the BHAV that runs the overlay anims, and let *me* handle how it's incorporated in the calling routines

Censor goes up? You haven't brought that down yet?

I'm an idiot; I wasn't paying attention to the group. *headdesk* With a custom group, the anim BHAV will sternly tell you that it has to resort to a fallback if you want it to call an animation that isn't defined in the STR#. But the Run Anims BHAV is of course a completely different group, and thus won't shout "FALLBACK!" at you for in-game anims (or bother with silly things like custom anims) - which is what confused me. Sorry! What can I say, it's way past my bedtime.

And don't worry, I didn't mean that *I* should mod your mod for public consumption, but my mind went into general overdrive about how it might work, and "ooh, I could do that, no wait, I can't, but I wanna..."

The OpCode! I thought it would be much more complicated. Thanks!! And I have brought the censor down in my main game, but I checked out the nursing BHAV in a much faster loading AnyGame first; I haven't bothered with the censor in that one.

I'll get the animation and friends to you tomorrow. Right now, I hear my bed calling to me...

Ah, now see how much you've learned in such a short session... Can you really say with certainty, that that's an idiot's accomplishment? Because I can't! It took me a lot longer to get this far!

Anyway, sleep well. I'll be here tomorrow to pick up your present and see if I understand what to do with it

Aww, you're sweet. All right, so maybe I'm not a complete idiot - but I still feel stupid, because I really should have caught the group thing, but it wasn't until you said the magic word "groups" that it hit home. I really shouldn't try to think after midnight, I fail miserably every time.

Anyway, there be stuff here!

I've actually made two overlays, so you can decide for yourself which looks the least silly. (I've also included a very simple little posebox so you can see what they look like before you incorporate them into your mod. ) With the one named sittingdownoverlay, the Sim sits straight down (and ends up a metre or so in front of any chairs that might be behind her, unless you've first moved them with snapobjectstogrid false); with sittingdownoverlay2, she does end up on the chair on her own accord, but instead it looks as if she jumps there. It's a lesser of two evils thing.

But! I've found something interesting in the Sims00 file. There actually is an animation called a2b-soc-holdBaby-start-sit (and ditto stop), which I think sounds very promising for this project. Unfortunately, it's the kind of animation that requires two Sims to run, and since I have no clue how to do person IDs and whatnot, I haven't been able to check if it actually does what it sounds like. But I know someone who can do things like that. So I've included the two holdBaby anims in the STR# (that way, they can be called like my overlay), so you can mess around with them yourself.

Thank you, dear. The way you tell it, it sounds like both these overlays have some issues, but I think I can at least have a look, see if any of it would work
Then I'll see if I understand how they work. If so, I'll try to incorporate them into the Feed Baby mod, and also make something similarly useful for bottle-feeders BHAVs are truly my thing, anims not so much, really...

Ok, I don't understnad how you made these anims; it's a complete mystery to me. But I think I *do* understand now how to use them. Also, I've been looking at those overlays in-game, and though I must admit they *do* get the sim in question seated, they also look a tad stiff, don't they? Anyway, if nothing else works, we still have these... But for now, I guess our first obligation is to investigate any other options that may be available.

You were mentioning "a2b-soc-holdBaby-start-sit", and I think I'll want to check that one out as well. The "a2b" prefix clearly indicates that it's an "adult-to-baby" interaction, so I guess the two Sims involved will be an Adult and a baby (in that order). I'll make an attempt at calling that one, see if I can get that to work. Your preliminary work may come in useful in this process.

Milkshape and I get along quite well. And I completely agree that they do look stiff, because - well, they are. They're just a static pose on an otherwise moving Sim. (Some of the stiffness can be alleviated by changing which bones the pose affects, but it's a fine balance between having the Sim sit nicely and having her wriggle her legs all over the place...)

There is one other option, though: I could simply learn how to make proper animations, and not just static poses. I mean, there wouldn't be a problem if the Sim could just take a couple of steps back first so that she's a the farther edge of the grid when she sits down, and it would look more natural if she could, say, move a leg a little while breastfeeding...

Custom animations have been on my "would be useful to know" list for quite some time, but I haven't really felt inspired to actually buckle down and learn. But I do feel inspired now; no matter whether or not it's anything you'd actually be using, it's still useful to know.

I'm very curious about the a2b-soc-holdBaby-start-sit (who knows, it might be all our dreams come true ), so please keep me posted on how that works out!

Ehhh, when I said "stiff" I was actually talking about the motion, not the posture. I mean: people don't just bend at the knees and the hip and fold like a board, there's more to it. But maybe that's easy for me to say, while not having any animation skill whatsoever myself...

Yeah, I'm curious about that other animation too. It could what we're looking for, but it could also be how a parent puts a baby in a chair, for all we know. We'll see...

Ah, I thought you meant that she isn't so much as moving a toe once she's sat down. And I agree completely. That's the problem with static poses; they're just slapped onto the Sim with no preambles whatsoever. With an animation, the progression is smoother, because then you have two or more keyframes, where the game calculates how to move smoothly between them and how to blend them in with the previous and following anims. A static pose only has one keyframe, so there's nothing for the game to move smoothly between, and the only blending you get is in the fact that she actually folds a little and doesn't just magically appear sitting.

Yup, this definitely needs to be an animation...

Given how it's named, I don't think it's about the baby sitting, but about the adult. You see, there's also an anim called a2b-soc-holdBaby-start (that I know I've seen being called somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember where), which is the standard baby-on-the-arm anim, so the a2b-soc-holdBaby-start-sit should be the sitting version of that - unless they weren't thinking when they named it, that is. In any case, I'm very curious to see it in action, so I hope you can figure it out! I have every confidence in you.

Ah, so the stiff thing is a problem with all overlays... Thanks for explaining that to me So that means I will just HAVE to get that EA animation working if it's ever going to look as good as I want it to.

Yeah. I agree on the naming thing... if they applied even the slightest bit of logic, then you must be right...