Skyrim - Screenshooting Tips

The most important thing is, press tilde on your keyboard to open the console.

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The Easy Stuff:
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1: Flying Camera Mode - You can activate flying camera mode by typing "TFC" into the console. This will allow you to move around freely, separately from your character, and take shots from different heights and angles. Type "TFC" again to return to normal camera.

2: Flying Camera Mode with Time Freeze - You can also freeze time while in flying camera mode by typing "TFC 1" into the console. This can be great for actions shots, to freeze things mid swing. Once again, type "TFC" to return to normal camera. This is also how to use my pair poses, in conjunction with the various "complicated" parts below to position characters.

3: Camera Zoom - You can zoom in and out using the command "FOV" from the console. Your camera is set at FOV 75 by default, so typing "FOV 70" will zoom the camera slightly, whereas "FOV 10" will zoom in a lot. You can also zoom out, but beware, once you pass FOV 120 things start to get a little heavy on the system. Type "FOV 0" to return your view to normal.

4: Toggling Your Menus - You can turn off your in-game menu by typing "TM" and then closing the console. This will allow you to take clean screenshots with no menus in the way. Remember to turn the menus back on when you're done! You can do this by again opening the console and typing "TM", though you won't be able to see it, until you've done it.

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The Complicated Stuff:
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There are a number of other tweaks available to you for "serious" posers. Take that with a pinch of salt. It's only a game, folks. :D But it's always nice to turn out a good screenshot.

1: Toggling Collision - For those of you who want to get your character into just the right spot, you can use the command "TCL" in the console to turn off collision. This will allow you to walk through walls, more importantly, it will allow you to get closer to objects than normal collision rules allow.

2: Moving Your Character With the Console - There are 2 relevant commands here. "getpos" and "setpos". They both work on 3 axes. That is axis X, axis Y and axis Z. X and Y vary, since the values apply to the world, but Z is always up and down. To find out where your character is in the world, select them from the console (open the console and click on them with your mouse, you should see a reference number appear, like 0000014) and type "getpos x", "getpos y" or "getpos z", this will allow you to find out where on any of the axes your character is already. The next step is to move them, using the setpos command. This is done like so "setpos (axis) (relative position)", the actual command will look something like "setpos x 2020.4". I always recommend using small increments to start with, to find out what direction your character will move, and how much they need. If your getpos x tells you "1000" then you try "setpos x 1001" and see where they go, and how far.

3: Changing your characters rotation - You can also change the direction a character is facing. The commands for this are "getangle z" and "setangle z", where z is the way you're looking. It works on 360 degrees. Getangle z will return something like "210", to turn left, you would type "setangle z 180" or to turn right, "setangle z 240". Once you reach 360, you start again at 0, so to turn right at 360, you would use "setangle 10". This will also work in TFC 1 mode, but you will have to bump it into action using a very small setpos. Getangle/setangle will also work on the x and y axes, but ONLY for static objects.

4: Toggling your NPC's AI - If you're working with an NPC then the above commands will work. As an added bonus, you can use the command "TAI" to turn off a character's AI and freeze them exactly where they are.

5: The TC trick - Skyrim comes with a TC command. This stands for "toggle controls", and it's extrmely convenient for getting that troublesome follower or NPC into the right spot. Once you've posed the NPC in question, open your console and first click on your player character. Type "TC" and hit enter. This will deactivate control of your player. Now open the console again, click on the NPC in question, and again, type "TC" and hit enter. This time when you close the console, the camera will take up position behind the NPC and you can walk them around freely until they're in position as best as you can get them. When you're done, do as you did before, but in reverse, so you take up control of your player character again. This trick is best used in conjunction with TAI, to prevent the NPC from gliding off again.

6: The foot trick - A great many of my poses pose your character's feet in some way, however due to a process called "inverse kinetics", your character's feet will always try to stand flat on the ground. Even in sitting or laying poses, the foot IK will take over and the feet will be incorrectly positioned. The way I get around this issue is to move my character at running speed. When moving, in pose, at running speed, you'll notice your character's feet will go into the positon they were meant to in the pose. As you're moving, open your console and use TFC 1. Your character will now be posed as they were meant to be. Now you use getpos/setpos/getangle/setangle to put them where you want them. Of course, this is the most advanced and also least often used trick, and most of the time you won't have a need for it, but it's good to know. Think of it the next time you have a character in a laying or sitting pose with their feet in the air. It's also worth noting the same trick works while using TC, so if you want to freeze your NPC with their feet in the right position, open the console and type TAI as you would TFC 1 for your player character.

An alternative way to do this one is to set your game to SGTM 0.0000001 (or some other ridiculously low increment) and then jump in place. Obviously, when you SGTM 1 afterwards, your character will jump out of pose. This also works if you are currently in control of an NPC with TC.


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Wrapping it up:
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One thing to remember is that you can't take screenshots (at least not with Skyrim itself) when you're in the console, so always remember to close the console after you TM and open it again once you're done, to turn your menu back on.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Some of the best screenshots make good use of a lot of these commands. FOV is my personal favourite. Getting just the right level of zoom can really give focus to a shot.

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Notes:
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If you don't understand these tips, then I apologise. I've never been the best at writing "how to" pieces. I just thought that people might like some tips on how to make their shots shine. One thing I'd ask is that you don't request me to explain it another way, I have written it the best I can right here.

Halo.





Console Commands - essentials

tfc 1
Freezes action and enables free movement of the camera. tfc without the "1" frees the camera but does not freeze action.

sucsm 1
sucsm allows you to set the speed at which �the camera moves... the lower the number the slower. Useful for getting the camera in just the right location since the default free camera speed is very high. 1 is very slow - I use it mainly for fine positioning in close to characters. 2 is roughly double that speed, 5 is still slower than the default but better for larger camera moves, etc.

tm
Hides all on-screen HUD and menu elements.

fov xx
Set the Field of View (FOV) of the shot, where xx is any number. Higher numbers are great for more wide-angle, panoramic shots but tend to distort objects near the edge of the screen or near the camera; low numbers are better for closeups but can show less on screen at once.�

Examples of use: I use FOV of 20-30 for most closeups where I want little or no distortion, play at FOV 75 most of the time, and often up it to 90 for wide-open outdoors areas. Low FOVs also allow for use of some cool cinematic camera tricks like forced perspective - more on that later. Tinkering with FOV can have a lot of interesting and unexpected effects on an otherwise mundane shot.

sgtm xx
Sets game timescale multiplier, where x=1 is standard Skyrim time, and lower numbers slow time down. Again, really useful for catching just the right point in a pose or combat sequence to freeze action and take a shot. This is different from the "set timescale to xx" command which sets the number of minutes that pass in-game for each minute of realtime - it's more like a bullet-time slo-mo effect that effects the speed of every actor and action on screen.

Example: sgtm .1 slows playback of most actions to 1/10th standard speed.

tgm
Toggle God Mode. There's nothing more annoying than getting killed while trying to take the perfect dragon-abuse screenshot. I'm shameless these days about toggling toggling God Mode on so I am immune to damage while I line up just the right heroic action pose.

tcl
Toggle clipping. Allows you to clip through scenery and to essentially "fly". Useful for positioning your character very close to another actor without pushing them away or to place your character on a roof or rock where you otherwise couldn't reach.

csb
Clears the screen blood decals from the camera, often useful when trying to capture a combat scene.

Console Commands - Advanced

tai
Toggles actor AI processing. Call up the console, click on an actor, and type "tai" to basically freeze them in place in the game - they'll stop mid-motion, even in mid-air, and won't react to any action you take until you toggle their AI processing back on the same way you turned it off. Very useful to pose an NPC or monster while you then go to position your character (or another NPC).�

Entering this command when no actor is selected will, in theory, cancel all AI processing.

tcai
Toggles combat AI processing. Kind of like the above but less extreme. This just shuts down NPC or monster combat processing so they wont see you as an enemy. They'll still react to your presence, they just won't fight you.�

If you click on an actor before typing the command, it only affects that actor. If you type it with no actor selected all active actors are affected.

tdetect
Toggles AI detection - again sort of like the above, but it renders you effectively invisible to AI actors. As usual if you click on an actor before typing the command, it only affects that actor. If you type it with no actor selected all active actors are affected.

tc and player.tc
Toggles controls. This is a bit of a weird one - if you click on an actor and type "tc" in the console you basically control that actors movements the way you would control your own character. By default you'll actually control both the actor and your character simultaneously unless you then type "player.tc" to relinquish control over the character. This is very useful to position an NPC in a position or pose, freeze them using tai, then move your character into position to take a screenshot.

disable and enable
Toggles engine rendering of an actor or object. Thinks you've got the perfect shot lined up but there's one annoying bandit who's blocking the camera? Click on them with the console up and type "disable" and they effectively disappear. Use "enable" to put them back into the game when you're done. Or not.

openactorcontainer 1
Opens an NPC's inventory the same way you can with a follower. Very useful to remove an NPCs helmet or shield, or to give them a different weapon in order to get just the shot that you need.

pushactoraway xx
Just what you think it'd do - it pushes the actor away with a force set by a number in place of the "xx". It's usually easier to use TC to move a character where you want them, but pushactoraway is a lot more fun since it acts on them physically - generates great ragdoll stumble/stagger effects as a side benefit.