How I do TotK posts

A lot of this has been posted elsewhere, but after doing both Katherine Managan and Tails of the Khajiit for over 50 posts now, I do feel I’m pretty qualified to give a bit of instruction on this topic.  Primarily on creating screenshots in Skyrim, but also just to give anyone interested an idea on what goes on behind the scenes to do these.

This is a pretty long post, but here’s a summary of console commands/mods I use in FAIRLY chronological order.

~ key – Toggles Console mode
prid <RefID> – Targets a particular character if you know their RefID.  Can also be done by clicking on them in console if you’re near them.
moveto player – moves targeted character to your player character’s location.  Invaluable.
tc – toggles control of targeted character.  Let’s you move them around as if they are your character.  (note, your PC will move too unless you first toggle this OFF for them!)
tai – toggles AI.  Stops targeted character from doing ANYTHING (including responding to other commands so only use when they’re set like you want them.)
tfc – toggles free camera mode.  So you can position your camera prior to screenshots.  Note, got to turn it off to move a character though.
tfc 1 – toggles free camera mode BUT also stops all movement.  Good for catching unusual situations if you managed to get to Console mode just right.
sgtm 12000 – Makes time go by very fast.  Good for spinning the world to the next day or nighttime.  sgtm 5 or 10 or so to go back to normal time mode.
mfg commands (mfg expression x y, mfg modifier x y, mfg phoneme x y) – use to change expression, eyes, speech (mouth).
inv – lists all possessions of currently targeted character. PgUp key allows you to scroll up if it extends past one “screen”.
equipitem xxx – forces targeted character to wear or otherwise equip item.  xxx taken from inv command.  
unequipitem xxx – forces targeted character to remove item.  xxx taken from inv command.
setalert 1 – I THINK this causes the target to draw their weapon.  Not 100% sure on that.
getpos (x,y,z) – shows current x, y or z coordinate of targeted character.  Only useful for setpos
setpos (x,y,z) xxx – sets targeted character (or object – good for moving things around too) X, Y or Z position.  X is like north/south, y is like east/west, z is up/down.
set timescale to x – slows time.  Can be good to catch rapidly changing scenes but I don’t use it often.  NOT the same as sgtm.  This controls player movement, sgtm controls the sky essentially.

non-Console commands:
ENB Mod, enter with Shift-Enter by default – allows changing lots of things, for me just color saturation.
Halo’s Poser Mod – allows selection and posing of PC and NPC characters.  LOTS of poses, but damned hard to decide which to use.  Experiment seems best.  Each pose has VERY short description.  I once did a screenshot of EVERY POSE, thinking that would help.  In reality, it takes too long to even go through all those screenshots.

1 – Write the plot line for the next post.  This is usually a conversation, but also while writing it I conjure images of what’s happening too so I’m also beginning to get an idea of what each screenshot should look like generally.  While I do have an overarching story in mind from the beginning, little details tend to present themselves at this stage.  It’s also probably the fun-est part for me as bits of the story begin to come to life.  I just do this in Textpad.  No need for anything more complex than that.  

2 – Figure out where in the post I’ve written the screenshots will go.  Tumblr really only wants 10 images per text post.  In general I try to make the image match the text just below it (as opposed to just above it).  However, sometimes I may have a couple screenshots I REALLY want to both be used, or just can’t get one to match what’s in my head – so this isn’t always possible.  Also I have no problem with posting 2 shots without intervening text when it makes sense.   And sometimes my post runs long.  If so, I try and figure out if I should cut some parts out or, if all are pretty important, to just go ahead and split it into 2 posts.  I’ve done posts with 13 or so screenshots – but the later shots tend to just say “image” in Tumblr and require the reader to click on them so I’d rather split them in 2.

3 – Fire up FRAPS and Skyrim and load the most recent save (usually).  I just find FRAPS easier to do screenshots with than the built-in method in Skyrim.  This at least gets me to where I left off, but for me is harder than it seems.  For whatever reason, a LOT of my saves CTD and I have to start up Skyrim again.  I’m blessed in having a decent SSD in the laptop I do these in so it is fairly quick to start over, but I tend to have to find a save that DOESN’T CTD.  Oddly enough, once I get it fired up, I can THEN reload the latest and it doesn’t CTD.  This process probably takes 5 minutes to get to where I left off.  Also, my laptop tended to overheat – causing the whole laptop to shutdown – in the middle of doing these.  I’ve since solved that with a decent Coolermaster laptop cooler underneath.

4 – SETTING THE SCENE
A – Get the characters into place.  This can be an involved process, especially when switching from exterior to interior or similar.  First, it’s imperative that you have their REFID number.  It seems no matter what I do, some tend to wander away.  But if I have their RefID number, I can always type MOVETO PLAYER in the console and grab them back to wherever my main character is.  So the simplest way if I’m entering a tavern for example, is to enter the tavern, CONSOLE, type PRID <RefID> (to select them), then type MOVETO PLAYER (to move them).  Then, still in the console, I’ll typically type TC to take control of them and move them to where I want them.  I’ve not posed them yet, just got them where they should be.   Another annoying thing, when controlling NPCs this way, they don’t like to do things (like sit on a bench – or even jump onto a bed).  I have to get them close, type GETPOS X (to get their current X coordinate) then SETPOS X (xxx)(to get them to move INTO the bench or whatever).  THEN TC them and typically have them jump which gets their Z (up/down) position right.  Or I can just GETPOS Z and SETPOS Z (xxx) to force-move them upwards.

B – Now time for posing.  Hopefully I know what pose I want them to take.  If not, I try lots of different poses till I get something at least close to what I want.  This is where Halo’s poser mod comes in.  I select a pose from the hundreds (thousands?) available and select the “magic ring” appropriate and use Z to cast the spell to get them to pose.  Most of the time it’s not what I want and I have to select/pose again till I get one I like.  But wait, not done yet!

C – Now it’s time for MFG.  There’s a whole series of mfg commands like:
mfg expression 2 100 – (expression 2 is HAPPY expression, 100 is “full happiness”.  There are 15 expressions possible.)
mfg modifier 9 100 – (modifier 9 is Look Left, and again 100 is “full left”.  Other modifiers include brows raised, squint, etc.  Mostly I just move the eyes up,down,left and right with these)
mfg phoneme 0 100 – (phoneme 0 is “normal” speech.  These control the mouth.  I find its usually simplest to have all characters have their mouths open as they’re PROBABLY going to be talking.)
mfg reset – resets all mfg values to default.  Good way to start over fresh.

D – I didn’t mention clothes/weapons did I?  Well, those need to be in place before any of this.  Also console command setalert 1 seems to make them draw their weapons out.  Handy in battle scenes.

E – Now everything is theoretically in place, at least for this one character.  But even when posed, sometimes they have a mind of their own and want to wander off anyway.  And nothing quite says Hilarity Ensues like when a model, posed to perfection, decides she wants to go join in the revelry inside a tavern by wandering off still in a sitting position.  Talk about gluteal dexterity!.  To prevent this, again in the console and while having them selected, the console command TAI comes to the rescue.  Toggles AI on and off.  When it’s off, they Will Not Move.  (except via setpos commands).  That’s a good thing usually.  So I do that and then repeat the process with the next character.

5 – Ok – now, assuming everyone is in place, wearing the right clothes, weapons, expressions etc, I pose my PC.  Pretty much the same process, though activating poses is done slightly differently in Halo’s Poser mod.  And assuming the PC didn’t overheat.  But not quite done yet.  The default Skyrim is very… grey.  I liven it up by increasing the saturation with ENB from 1 to 2.  I’ve seen people REALLY into screenshots that do much, much more with ENB (it’s another mod btw) than I do.  I just use it to increase the color saturation.  Maybe someday I’ll do more.

6 – Take the screenshot.  In the console again, I enter TFC (toggle free camera) or TFC 1 (does the same thing but locks down EVERYTHING including flying arrows) and then TM (ALL UI things become invisible).  Just be sure you remember how to get the UI stuff back!  Then exit console.  Take lots of screenshots from lots of different angles.  Don’t forget that crotch shot or boob shot you horny devil, you may need it to spark interest at Furaffinity!  (Those guys eat that stuff up!)

Great!  Now with luck you have a screenshot good for one, two, maybe even 3 images in your final post (from different positions).  Remember, if it’s a conversation, you may use one shot from behind a character’s shoulder to the talking character from one, then another from the reverse position for the other.  You want to get as much out of each scene as you can.

But… you’re going to HAVE to go in and do it all again for the next shot.  Fortunately, MOST of the time the next shots are in the same basic area so you just need to re-enable their AI (TAI command), Take Control of them to move them to the new position (TC command), maybe adjust their expression/mouth (mfg commands), change their pose (Halo’s Poser mod), repeat with other characters, then take a new round of screenshots.

I end up with TONS of unused screenshots.  If I particularly like one, I’ll  use it as a bonus shot in Disqus comments, or as an “ad” of sorts on Furaffinity.  I’m obviously not adverse to erotica, though I still maintain I don’t do porn – nothing inserted in any bodily orifice that is.  Ok, soft porn I’ll admit to.