So You Want To Make Awesome Screenshots?

Hello, all people of the Garry's Mod community. If you're not part of the community already, then I'm sure this guide will make you join the dark side.
My name's Phil and I'm gonna make you an expert in the creative, beautiful, and non-killing zombies part of the wonderful game that is Garry's Mod. I hope you all will join me on this adventurous guide.

Feel free to share this with your friends, who maybe could need a guide like this. It would mean a lot to me, as I've spent almost half a year on this guide.

The Introduction

Welcome ladies and gentlemen!

So, you wanna get better at Garry's Mod? You've come to the right place, ladies and mentlegen.
WARNING: There is a lot of text in this guide, bare with me. Let's go!

Becoming good at this is sadly not a thing that comes right away, unless you have, like, insane talent. Anyway, like with most other interesting things in life, you gotta train.

But it's no matter, folks. You're going to be better after reading this guide... a lot.

______________________________________________________________________________

I'm gonna teach you a couple of things in this guide, to make YOU the best!
- - -

• Lighting! - How I use lighting, how to use it for the best, find your own lighting-style.

• Color-Modification and Bloom! - Diffrent settings, presets and much more.

• Posing! - How to make those ragdolls look alive and some really geeky ♥♥♥♥.

• Inspiration! - Where to get it, and how to make real pictures taken in the real world, a screenshot in Garry's Mod.

• Scenery and Backgrounds! - Where to pose your stuff and why.

Before we start, there's also a thing I need you guys to do. Later on in this guide, you may or may not realise that the shadows are shockingly smooth. That is because I have an autoexec making it all easier for me.

I'm gonna have to give an enormous shout-out to Dr. Zestaliscsisisosusty and Dr. Lazlo for helping out with this. (Ironically both doctors, eh?)

Anyway, autoexec. stands for 'Auto Executive' meaning that it is a list of commands, that loads up when you start the game, so that one does not have to type in 300 commands before they can get started on actually playing the game. Very nice!

The only autoexec. I have at the moment is one that is primarily based upon the shadows in-game. It will make everything pretty and smooth, so I highly recommend you go and install that for an overall better experience with this project.

My good ole' friend, Dr. Lazlo took the time to set up a link for this:
{LINK REMOVED}THE O MIGHTY AUTO EXECUTIVE FILE THAT YOU NEED DESPERATELY OMG

Here's what you need to do with it after you've installed it.

CLOSE DOWN STEAM FIRST OF ALL. IF YOU DO NOT DO IT, THIS WILL ONLY WORK ½/10 OF THE TIMES!!???
Sit down in front of your computer, get a drink and find a comfortable sitting position> Computer > SSD or your Drive (E:) > Programs (86x) > Steam > SteamApps > common > GarrysMod > garrysmod > cfg.

When you're in the cfg. folder, simply just drop the text document within it. And there you go. You now have the ultimate shadows for you game.
Now you should just open up Steam and boot up Garry's Mod. It will lag a little in the main menu, but that's just the commands loading, do not worry.

Oh, another thing!

Since you're already inside the main menu, go into options and change your advanced video settings. Just set everything to the absolute max. Just set everything to "high" or whatever.

Important Stuff!

Okay, so, for this to work, you people need a lot of addons. The amount of addons may be very overwhelming, but trust me, they'll come in very handy.

I do not blame you for not wanting to install all this, but I promise you, I am not some Korean hacker trying to get you to join the dark side. Feel safe, y'all ;>

THE OUTDATED EVER-AVAIBLE VERSION OF LIFE, WHILE THEY WORK ON THE NEW ONE, YOU'RE WELCOME http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=475986055

Thanks to @Dornek for showing me this.

♥♥♥♥ it, let's go.

Gabe Newell (Come on, you need thy creator of Valve in your game. I mean... Yeah.)
Standing Pose Tool OH MY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GESUS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CHRIST GET THIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥' ADDON GESUS CHRIST IN HEAVEN ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 4,000,000,000,000,000,000% ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NEEDED AND APPROVED BY GESUS!!!
Ragdoll Mover 20,000% NEEDED OMFG GO GET IT!!!
Lens Flare V3-EXTREME (10K% NECCESARY)
(Official) Life Mod: A Realistic Post-Processesing...BLAHBLAHBLAH WHATEVER GUYS (3,000% needed)
Bone Merger (You need this) (200% needed, seriously.)
Hat Painter & Crit Glow Tools (You 200% certainly also do need this addon.)
Enhanced Faceposer (180% needed)
More Post Processing Effects (177% needed)
Cosmetic Face Poser Fix (175% needed)
Drako2k's SFX Pack (166,14592485% needed)
420 MLG DEATHSCREEN (100% needed)
Advanced Particle Controller (100% needed)
Ragdoll Resizer (100% needed)
Anamorphic Lens Flare (100% needed) Install everything that says: "Lens Flare" in the Workshop.
Animated Prop Tool (100% needed)
AvP 2010 Shadow Effects (100% needed)
Basic Vignette (100% needed)
Better Water Effects (100% needed)
HWM Face Poser Fix (99,9% needed)
Cinematic Overlay (99% needed)
Enhanced Textures Hex (98% needed)
Purple Lens Flare (80% needed)
Particle Attacher (75% needed)
Gold & Über Materials (50% needed)
Dynamic Shadows v1.3 (55,1% needed)
Edge Glow Tool (10% needed)
Tf2 Better Phys V2 (reuploaded) (20 - 25% needed)
Explosive Entities (9% needed)
Phaze's Realistic Post Processing (3,14% needed)

Alright, guys. Those are the things I believe are the most important for getting started. There of course exists many more, but I have over 400 addons my self, so you can just get started on adding some noice addons :D

We're done, and right now you're either probably like this:
Orrrr this:

Lighting!

So let's just right into this bad boy, okay?

"AYE AYE, MR. MUSHROOM c:" BTW, of course I am Chuck Norris, pfff!

Now. Lightin'. How'd ya do it? I'mma tell you right here:

There are probably about a thousand diffrent kinds of lighting-methods in Garry's Mod. I'm sure y'all 'heard about some called 3 Point- or 4 Point Lighting and Enviromental Lighting.

Hmm? What's that? You have no idea what it is?! :O

Well, lemme' tell ya then!

Wait... Wait...! I just found out, that I don't really care about 3- and 4 point lighting anyway. So here's a guide to explain it, lol. #firstworldproblems #IDGAF #pffff #rektaudience
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=403465301
Ninja Nub will tell us properly and whoa! There's even a guide on how to use it practically. Gotta give a shoutout to that man. (I really highly recommend you read that throughout and then return to this one.) Take point in that lightingsystem when you pose in Garry's Mod, develop it further so it fits you exactly, or you can simply try both Enviromental Lighting and this one; combine it, that's why I do a lot of the time. A little bit 'o' tweakin' here and there will do you a world of good. I'm sure y'all can make it more personal and better. If the guide over there seems to be too hard, well, then you just gotta try it step by step.

Screenshots in which I've used primarily 4-point lighting:

Oh, by the way! This screenshot has EL MASTER DE GMOD in it (sorta). It's Caetho!. You may or may not already know him, if you don't, I really recommend you check out his guide after you're done with this one. He literally thought me everything I know.




Eventually, no matter your level of skill, you will succeed. Never give up, yo!

Now, to

Enviromental Lighting

This is a lightingstyle which I've used for months, if not a years time soon. It's really good to start off with and, hey, it ensures 200% lag. Wohooo! No, but really, that totally depends on how many lights you're planning to have on the character. Normally, for me to satisfied with it, I have about 20 - 30 lamps (YEA OMG 2 MUCH IKR, EW)This is a fine way to try out lighting. You'll get a feel for the entire surroundings of your character and the atmosphere will, with this techinique, be a whole hundred percent true. As real as you'll get it.
Basically, Enviromental Lighting takes part in using the color of your surroundings in your lamps. Sounds easy, right? Well, luckily, it kinda' is? Great, huh?! Let me show you how it works below.

Alright here's what I did. I've put an orange lamp next to a purple lamp, to simulate the sunsets' colours. Great idea, right? The one lamp that shines really bright is the purple, so it's those two.
Look at the blue lamp over at the far middle left. Why'd I put it there? The blue train-cargo. Giving Scout a little blue colour on his left arm. I did this to add realism but also some colour diffrence in the picture.
The lamp that is closest to us all is a soft yellow/orange lamp, representing a ton of crates of the same colour in the background. (You can't really see them, though, but they're there I promise C:)

The two lamps above the Scout's head represent the sky. Try with a soft blue colour. Not the usual BLU-Team colour, a little lighter.
The one, like, I think behind him is the colour of that disgusting, greasy water. Ew! WTF do they even put in that?
Remember, the ocean is one of the most reflective things on this "blue" planet. The reason the water is blue from where we stand on the ground, looking out on the ocean, and also from satelittes, is because it reflects the sky that we look upon. The sky is blue (mostly) therefore the water is also rather blue. So I thereby recommend using rather strong lamps when simulating the colours of the water. To get it more LE REALISTÍC

So, with fair amount of ONLY camerawork, it should eventually look like this:
Remember, guys. I want this to be easy for you. The reason I really highlighted "only camerawork" is because, that you're able to make it look rather good with just a bit of tweaking with the camera. Ergo, that is why I haven't added all kinds of difficult and strange effects to this screenshot. I will, of course, make sure to demonstrate that later on, no worries. Plus, it looks kinda good without all the weird ♥♥♥♥, right?

Now, I want you guys to take a break from all this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ theoretical ♥♥♥♥, and try this yourself. Practically :). Keep the guide open and return back here when you've tried it.

And if it fails, try again! I believe in you guys <3
There are of course these rules you need to follow, in order to the screenshots actually becoming succesful. Yup, sadly :(

1. Control the brightness on the lamps. If your character is literally indulged with white light, you might have the brightness to high up in the settings. Important, this one.
   
2. Control the amount of colours. You'll understand this eventually, but think of the things, that in real life would shine more than the other. For example, you should have more lamps representing the sun, than a tree. Remember!
   
3. Make the light exiting with Colour-Modification and Bloom! I'll teach you guys in the next chapters. Colour-presets are also a great way to do this. They can be found in the "Life: Post-Processing Addon." Look out for those.

And just a sidenote here. You'll always want to use the "ent_fire" technique for these things to work.
I'll tell you, ok.

Let's say, that your character is perfectly placed, it's the literally perfect spot for you to do your pose, BUT it's too damn bright. Gaargh! Tough luck, right? Nothing to do about it...
Or is there?
Yes. NO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WAY, IKR WTF!?
Alright, listen up, 'cause I'mma tell y'all how to do it right now.

Le Step 1: Go to a place that's dark. So dark, in fact, that you cannot even see anything, like, it's just gotta be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dark! (You might wanna use the noclip thing for this "v", to fly past objects and find a dark location.

Okay, so now you've found the dark spot there on the map? Great. You character is now still standing the place you wanted 'em to be in the first place, and you're probably across the map or something.
(BTW, sorry for no picture guide for this, but it'll still work without ;))

EL STEP NUMBER ZWO: ("Two in german") Put a thing in the dark spot, and no, it should not be your penis or anything like that, you freakin' perverts, ew.
Use, for example, a prop of some kind a crate will do. Or just a typical ctf_2fort lunchbag. Now, place the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bag or whatever in the dark spot. More in the next chapter...

Still going on with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lighting, I guess.

So, erhm... There was no more space in the previous chapter for some odd reason.
I guess I'll just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ start over again.


The Tutorial:
Le Step 1: Go to a place that's dark. So dark, in fact, that you cannot even see anything, like, it's just gotta be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dark! (You might wanna use the noclip thing for this "v", to fly past objects and find a dark location.

Okay, so now you've found the dark spot there on the map? Great. You character is now still standing the place you wanted 'em to be in the first place, and you're probably across the map or something.
(BTW, sorry for no picture guide for this, but it'll still work without ;))

EL STEP NUMBER ZWO: ("Two in german") Put a thing in the dark spot, and no, it should not be your penis or anything like that, you freakin' perverts, ew.
Use, for example, a prop of some kind a crate will do. Or just a typical ctf_2fort lunchbag. Now, place the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bag or whatever in the dark spot. Okay. It is now there.
Just look at it for a while, no I'm kidding. Turn on your flashlight if you haven't already. Then point your aim-thing... Urh... What the ♥♥♥♥ is it even called? Crosshair? IDGAF, whatever.
Point your crosshair at the sack or bag or can or crate or car or, or... yeah, you get my drift.

Now, open your console (your crosshair is still pointing at the thing), and type the magic word(s):

ent_setname thing (or whatever you wanna name your ♥♥♥♥)

Wow, ♥♥♥♥! You made it! Not so hard at all, right? Right, so now you've done it.

AY AY AY STEP NUMBERÕ TRÉS: (Wait is this guide turning racist?)
Nah, it'll be ok. Okay, so listen. You named your thing now, good job. Now it's time to fly back to your character. Point your crosshair at 'em and say the magic words "LUMOS", no, hahah. I'm kidding.
Now, open your console (your crosshair is still pointing at the thing), and type the magic word(s):

ent_setname person (or whatever you wanna name your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing)

So, any normal person would now figure out, that both of the objects have a name now.
That's exactly what we need at the moment.
Now, type this in LE CONSOLE, AMIGOS¡¡¡¡

ent_fire person setlightingorigin thing

Just like that, nothing diffrent. Now, look at your character. She or he now be totally covered in, well, no light. Or at least not as bright as before. If the character is now more dark than before, you've succeded! Wohooo!

It is now time for you to select some lamps in the lamps section. Point them at your character, and there you go. They're now not black anymore :D
Use this technique everytime you do something in Garry's Mod.

Okay, now we're done with all this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ text. I hate it, let's move on to something a little bit more exiting, yes? I suggest some Color-Modification and Bloom! Come join me <3

LAST KNOWLEGDE AND TIPS:

1. I recommend, that you guys use 4 point lighting in dark areas of maps. If they're bright, then they may or may not work completely optimal, be aware of that.

2. If your characters instantly turns super bright by the lamps, try changing the settings in "Lamps".
And also, I always recommend using soft light, unless you got control of the other stuff. If the character is still too bright, you might wanna try changing some Color-Modification and Bloom settings. Try using some dark color-modifiers and maybe turn down the bloom a little.

The last thing I will say here: Lighting does not work for you at the moment you're done reading this guide. You can add me or ask questions that you feel are not answered or told in this guide and I will gladly help you the best I can C:

Even though mastering 4-Point Lighting is fairly hard, there's always other things you can do when you do not really feel like using it.

Here's an (old) example of what you can do with only a single light.

Still fairly good, so don't give up out there.
We're done with lighting now. Before I continue, go get yourself a drink. Staying hydrated is very healthy for you and can even help you loose weight and tighten up skin. So, if you're being a total sloth in front of the pc all day, like me, then do it for yourself. You should drink about 2 - 3 liters of pure water a day, or at least clear fluids. It's good for you, trust me.

Go get that drink right now, buddy.

Color-Modification and Bloom!

Welcome to this new part of the guide.

Alright, so now we're done with lighting and all that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crap. Gesus, it took me forever to write that ♥♥♥♥. Anyway, this should become a lot easier a lot faster. It is not so much about the technique and precision as lighting, this, Color-Modification and Bloom.
It is not about how much you do it, or how good you're at it, CM & Bloom is about what you think looks nice in a given situation. Nobody can tell you wrong at this, as it is purely subjective.
Choose your way through diffrent presets and maybe you could even try making your own Color-Modification and Bloom. (Which is kinda hard, trust me.)

I'mma take you guys through this nice and slow and easy and relaxed and chilled and fresh and nice and cool and... and... ♥♥♥♥ it, let's go!

So, what the ♥♥♥♥ is Color-Modification and Bloom, you may ask? Well, it is simply what makes screenshots exiting. The one thing. Nothing else can do it. No doubt.
Those small settings can do SOOOO much to your picture, you won't believe it, I'm sure.
This is, for me, the most important thing in the world of Garry's Modding.

Let me give you an example of a thing between realism and stuffs below.

Alright, so here we see Scout casually taking a train to the face.

Here there is obviously no Color-Modification or such. Looks kinda boring and empty. Let's make it come alive!


With this next screenshot, I've added more contrast and color by using a Life¨TM Color-Modification Preset.


Already looking a whole lot better, eh? Contrast has its way of making everything a little more clear and nice to look at. You'll of course find more contrast naturally in the darker maps and places, so make sure to use a dark preset in that case.

Use the "Dark" Color-Modification preset in Life in natural dark places. Or just to try some alternative techniques with lighting.
This is the "Basic" menu in the Life Add-on. You should be able to find it by pressing 'q' and going to settings in the 'q'-menu-thing-stuff-whatever.


Another thing you can do with this screenshot is adding some color.
Lemme' tell you what I mean.
Red light indicates attention and/or danger in many real life situations. That, and yellow often.
You can use that on this screenshot as well.

Here, I've done just that. Some people might think it looks better, and some may not. It really depends on who you are and what you want to show/tell your audience with the screenshot.

Make sure to be able to tell whether or not your screenshot looks realistic. If there's obviously too much red light in the picture or something else looks unnatural you might wanna try something else. Unless it is what you want in the picture.
Supernatural pictures with zombies or something would be acceptable.

I'll give you an example where I did something wrong. Now, without reading below, try guessing what looks wrong with this picture, a'ight? It's a little test, don't cheat.




Notice anything on the Scout?
Yup, he's way too tanned. (And if you said that the soldiers right arm looks strange is also correct, but that's a whole another thing, we'll talk about it later, Zesty <3 ~) I clearly failed the Color-Modification on this, people.
Scout would not normally looks to extremely tanned in the real life, if you will. I mean, it sure is a possibility, but you would have to spend at least 20 hours at the beach everyday for that kind of color.

Well, how do you make him un-tanned?
Change the bloom, in this screenshot it worked.


If one of your characters are literally shining, you need to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ turn down that bloom, guys.

FOR BEGINNERS:
If you are completely new to this, I recommend not using the in-game presets, that Garry's Mod already made for you in their Bloom and Color-Modification. Instead, use Life's presets. They're so much better (I think).

FOR SUPER EXPERIENCED PPL:
If you're a complete ninja at that stuff in Garry's Mod, I highly recommend using a preset in Life and then go edit on them in the stock Garry's Mod bloom and CM settings.

A little tip here. You should always go for the BRIGHT color-preset in the Life mod for the bright maps. That is maps such as deserts, snow and other big light-sources.
For example, a huge contrast in a desert would not be appropriate, as the huge amounts of sand create an extraordinary big reflection of light such as snow also does in real life. There would not really be so much darkness.

I've used BRIGHT in this screenshot, as the map takes place in a desert.

Turned out to be a good idea, and this is where I learned it.

Here's a look at the same map with different aspects of the Color Modification:

This is the map without anything at all:

Rather boring and almost grey-looking.


Here it is with the BRIGHT and more realistic color aspect.


Here, below shown with the DARK preset in the Life mod. I think it's rather weird, but it works great in dark locations.


The thing about the DARK preset, and why I think it makes this map look weird, is that it focuses on black and white color aspect. It makes the black and white more strongly-colored and detailed. But that is really only the two colors.

The BRIGHT, on the other hand, is generally making all colors brighter in-game. More realistic, I would say.

And let's be honest: Do not use the normal non-modified color-modification. It's ugly.

I like to tweak the colors and so forth, so that I can go: "Yeah, this is great-looking."
Anyway, when I'm done with that, it looks like this.


The DARK preset do not suck or anything, I actually rather enjoy using it. It's great for creating drama and action in a picture, the way the BRIGHT cannot.


Right here, I've used the Dark preset, as there is no general light-source at all, like, the sun or something. Only the moons glow here is present, and that light is rarely extremely bright. That is a real fact.

Ragdoll Posing

Well then. What does it mean to pose a ragdoll?

A picture from my earliest Garry's Mod days.

For me, Ragdoll Posing, means making an otherwise sloppy and almost dead-looking ragdoll look alive and realistic, without going too far.

Now, there's three ways to do this I believe:

1.

Using the Physgun to pose your ♥♥♥♥:

Now, it's not really that long time ago since I used this technique my self. It's really good to start out with, especially as it is your only option when you just start out on this game. A lot of fairly talented people are still using this technique today, as far as I recall. It's quite nice and easy, but sometimes it can be a bit choppy if you, say, wanna do something very detailed with your character. So keep that in mind. It can also be hard if you do not have the Standing Pose Tool installed inside of Garry's Mod.

How does it look, huh? A little like this, when I was in my best days.



Pros: Easy to start out with, you will master it quickly and people can easily tell whether you use it or not, thereby not judging your skill-level with it.

Cons: If you screw something up, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥, sir. Trying to make something look fairly realistic is almost impossible.

2.

Using the Animated Prop Tool to pose your ♥♥♥♥:

Alright, guys. Let's be for real here. This method is for the lazy, cheeky scrubs who've never discovered this add-on before.
But that's completely fine. I remember first seeing the add-on in the workshop and my face literally lighted up; I was purely happy. "This must be a gift from the gods." I thought to my self. So it was.
Everything was a lot easier and quicker, and this is a great way to try something other than the usual Physgun. You literally only have to select the TF2-animation you want and, bam, there you go. You have yourself a nice little SFM animation... in Garry's Mod.

This is how it looks:

This screenshot here above is probably one of the last times I used the Animated Prop Tool.



This one here, however, is when I just got it. I was ecstatic!

Pros: Fun, quick, impressive and overall just a great add-on to have in stock for any situation. Compatible in screenshots that also include Ragdoll Mover. Great for showcasing items or just making classy SFM-like screenshots.

Cons: There really are a lot of limits with this add-on and I've personally experienced a lot of small technical issues that require extreme Garry's Mod-knowledge to fix. And you will get tired of it rather quickly.
You should still try it out. I really recommend it.

A little side note here:

It has been a rather long time since I've used this technique, as it really sets some harsh boundaries on your creativity and possibilities. I recommend trying this one out for a while and when you get bored ('cus you're gonna get sick and tired of that add-on sooner or later) I recommend switching over to the Ragdoll Mover down below.

3.

Using the Ragdoll Mover to pose your ♥♥♥♥:

Now, this is what I currently use. I had a lot of trouble getting started with this one as of when I first downloaded it, I already had the Animated Prop Tool add-on, making it a lot easier in relation to this.
I really just had a freakin' hard time making this work optimally for my self. It turned out to work out for me in the end and I'm hella' glad it did. Do not give up, kids. And also, do not do drugs even it you think it might be fun. I've never really done drugs, but I really don't think you should even try it out. Stay safe.

This add-on is a thing that results in endless creativity and non-stop new challenges with the tool. You never can get bored with this tool and the possibilities are unlimited. Always fun and challenging, which I've been known to like. Hard at first, but it takes some effort and willpower to succeed at, just like everything else in this world. Work hard, play hard in the most correct sense.
I love this tool and many other professional Gmodders use this tool... and only this tool!
You'll of course require the Stand Pose Tool for this to work, as you cannot simply drag a ragdoll up in place with this tool as you can with the Physgun. So, keep that in mind.

Things made with the Ragdoll Mover:


Pros: This is the ultimate way to make your ragdolls look good, guys. It is rather hard at first, but it will dramatically increase your joy while posing ragdolls in this game. You'll also quickly discover, that the possibilities are unlimited; your only boundaries are yourself, pardner, so get going with this add-on. And, hey, it may just work perfectly in the beginning for you, like it did for my friend Ryan. Some of his artwork will be shown below.

Cons: Well, you'd have to be pretty unlucky to be as unskilled as I was, when I first started out with this tool. Just start from something. A simple handwave or a walking person is a great way to start. I DO NOT recommend trying to start out with something like this, as it is very hard to do:
Things like falling down stairs or crazy acrobatic moves are not really that great to start out with. You will feel strongly dissapointed with your self and it will really just bring your mood down a whole lot.
Start by underestimating your self. What's the least you can do?






(Edit: Some guy in the comments @CHEESEBURGAH, go check out his artwork by the way, it's really good. Anyway, he told me, that he uses the advanced bone tool to pose his characters. Now this is pretty advanced and I've tried it, like, once or twice in my life. I tend to use it on badly ported models and such. It's build upon the same idea as the Ragdoll Mover, although you can only edit inside a "q" menu. Y Z X axes.)

Tips/Tricks and Final Words on Ragdoll Posing

Take the smallest idea of what you're able to do and start by making it extremely simple and easy.
Then proceed to go on a more difficult level with your pose. Tweak new and small things to make it look even more realistic, that way you'll succeed no matter what.

Anyway.

You should still be able to beat my level after using it FOR 5 MONTHS which looked somewhat like this:

THIS IS THE SO CALLED "ARTWORK" I MADE WITH 5 MONTHS OF RAGDOLL MOVER EXPERIENCE!!!?!??! So, yeah... I wasn't really the best, was I? =/

Anyway, do not let my negative attitude reach your mind. With my mental instructions above, you should be able to acquire my current level in something that is surely less than 5 months, gesus, that is so embarrassing.
If you do not, then that's fine. No pressure. Perfection is key.

Things can quickly turn around, and something that used to look like this:


Can with decent amount of experience and a talent become this: ↓↓↓


You can be satisfied, like me, and think about how good you made it look after all those times trying to make it look great.

And, uh, by the way, I really think you should go watch the Men in Black Movies. They're kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazingly well-done movies. And if you have already seen them, see them again. They cannot ever become old with Will Smith in the cast.
Plus, they're like fighting aliens and other cool ♥♥♥♥.

Anyway. I'm gonna show you guys something now. Some small things that easily make your posing make sense with specifically the Physgun and Ragdoll Mover.

So, I'm gonna talk a little 'bout body language and movement in this part.

This is fairly important as it will be able to tell a certain emotion or atmosphere in your screenshots.

Let's start with something really simple:

An overly tilted head and a genuine smile signals sympathy or interest. It can also be involved in flirting with someone. In the real world, it is also commonly used to provocate people, so make sure you do not overdo it. Not too much tilting and other stuff. Also be sure to always use Hardware Models for this kind of posing and/or faceposing. (HWM).

Tilted heads with a high chin usually means that the person is having a hard time understanding what you're saying, confused or challenging you, depending on their eye, eyebrow, and mouth gestures. Think of how a dog slightly tilts its head when you make a funny noise. It is like a big facial questionmark.

A head tilted downwards and a sad or non-expressional face is usually a sign of shyness, anger or general sadness. Good for making sad screenshots. Think of someone looking at the ground when you pose these things.
Another thing to do is to show a mood or a direct feeling about another person with Ragdoll Posing. I am aware that most of this is possible to make with only the faceposer, but I assure you, Ragdoll Mover will make it 200% better.

High Shoulders, High Tilted Face indicates that the person in the situation either is completely disagreeing with everything the other person(s) are saying in a given situation. Or that the person does not care is too good for the company. Also a decent way to provocate someone.

High Shoulders, Low Face. Being shy 101 or the person has just been offended or discovered bad news. The mood is sad at all times. Also good for seeking attention. Can of course work with low shoulders, indicating some sort of giving-up state of mind.

Another thing you can do with faceposing is to try making a character look they're speaking to someone or yelling at and/or after them.
Here are some examples:

And, yes, those two screenshots are almost the exactly same, I do apologise for that fact.


Now you can also have a lot fun with Ragdoll Mover and the Physgun as well, making everything, well, unnatural if you may. I've had some of the best times posing screenshots in this game when I broke everybody's muscles and made them look strange, heh. This is really when you can get creative with those tools, pardner. Here are some examples:

This screenshot above is my first and only attempt, trying to create Iggy Azalea in-game.


Alright. I would say that does it for this part of the guide. I know you guys ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate reading all this stupid ♥♥♥♥, but I don't really care. I like explaining this way. R8T3 OR H8T3 M80.

Now, think to yourself, what the ♥♥♥♥ did I just learn in this part of the guide? If you have no idea, well, you might want to try re-reading it.

Inspiration?

So, in case of one lacking inspiration, there are a few things you can do.
Even if you're not lacking inspiration and you have, like, a ton of ideas, it can still be fun trying to recreate something in Garry's Mod that has already been made.

I'll give you an example. Although this is not from Garry's Mod, as it is something from SFM.
♥♥♥♥ it, I'll show you people anyway.

So I totally DID NOT randomly find this picture of Sean Connery whilst searching for hot men on Google.

I first of all thought: Wow, that guy is really a hottie, and then I proceeded to pose him inside of SFM, just to see if I could pull off that pose. (Which I probably horrendously failed, as you might notice some small clipping errors, pff, whatever, who cares, right?)
Here's the final thing: When I wanted to upload this to the guide, I quickly realised, that due to the fact that Steam is a rather huge troll, I couldn't. Simply because the file was too big.
So if you guys really wanna see it all, then I suggest that you head over to my content.


Anyway, doing stuff like this is a great way of testing just how good you are at posing and stuff.
Take for example a picture with an explosion in it. You don't just have to make it look good, you also have to make it look realistic... but can you actually do that?


It's a great test, if you want to showcase your skill. Go do that, if you ever feel like it.

Now that above was simply inspiration from a picture. Not as hard, as you will make a "picture" yourself, inside of Garry's Mod of course. It is easy to transfer body-language and facial expressions into your picture, if the picture you've chosen to re-create is next to you. Or if you can, like, alt+tab back and forth between game and picture.

There are of course, as you probably guessed by now, extremely many ways of getting inspiration to do some artwork. I'm gonna list below some of the best, in my opinion.

Music.
Books. (Although it has been 4 years since I've actually completed one. Keep in mind, that articles and comics will go just as well.)
Movies and videos.
and
Real life.

The one that I use the most, if of course, DA INTERNET.

Just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ google something

Also, this is to a lot of friends 'o' mine, complaining about: "ARHG DUDE I LACK INSPIRATION I CAN'T DO ANYTHING *cry moar*"

For you guys, who can't even find inspiration in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everyday life, do this:

Just start up Garry's Mod.

Do a simple lightingtest and try adding more characters.

Add objects.

Create a scenery. Any normal human will get creative by now.

And there you go. You've done something. Voilá @Pique C:


I actually don't have too much more to say about this. Perfect creativity is almost impossible to acquire. Unless you're, like, Phineas and Ferb, which you're probably not =/

By the way, I just thought of another way to get creative, lol.
And, yes, I made that my self.

I can therefore also conclude, that turning everything MLG is a great way to get creative.
Well, time to end this topic. Hope y'all got something from it.

Scenery & Backgrounds.

Alright, so.

Scenery is beautiful (mostly), it's what makes us look at pictures and say: "whoa honey this is really something we should go there in the summer with the kids darling"

Now, I wouldn't say, that scenery is the most important thing in Garry's Mod screenshots, really not. The most important thing, I'll say, is the abillity to create a mood or a feeling in your screenshots.

I'm gonna start here with showcasing some BAD USES OF SCENERY:



And here are some examples of GOOD USE OF SCENERY:




BUT PHIL, WHAT MAKES A BAD AND A GOOD SCENERY?
I'll tell ya.

Firstly, good use of scenery is where an enviroment and maybe a nature background is clearly stating where we are. It also shows, that this is a place that looks nice. The foreground must then also match the background with the same color, mood and geographical placement.
As you'll see in the very first picture, featuring me and @Jellyfish there aren't really any background at all, as I posed the picture up against a wall, so... yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with doing it up against a wall, that sounded wrong.

The second picture, you may wonder a little bit. What's up with this?

Alright, for starters, you would never meet two cops on a location that looked like dustbowl in real life. And also, the background is stronger lit up than the three characters in the primary focus. Never a good thing. The whole setting is rather unrealistic. So sometimes it is not just about how good it looks - it's about how it fits in with reality.

Alright, now down to the good ones. The first "good" one is very good in case of scenery. You have a nice and obvious lighting source (the moon) and then the wizardy-stuff-thing, casted by the scout's hand. There's a little spooky porch-looking thing in background, stating that maybe we're at a graveyard or some spooky ♥♥♥♥. Gives a spooky and dark feeling to the whole thing.

Now, the last one here is actually one of the favorite things I've ever done. I'll tell you just how it all went down.

I was having the usual vry srs bsnss talk with @TheWake (heheh, right) He was dropping in and out of steam because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ finnish internet-connection. I then tried signalising what I've heard through the conversation. The background could easily be Finland with the mountain and such and obviously, something that looks like an unplugged TV would never work out here, right? I don't know and with all the pines and stuff; makes a lot of sense to me, that this could be a finnish location, okay maybe not, because of the fact that Wake is not black. His (OC) is though.

We're done with that now.

I've seen people go absolutely nuts with these "lens flares" in their screenshots, which accasionally looks rather good, but if you have it in every single screenshot, it may not be looking as good anymore. You don't have to have a lens flare in all your screenshots, they're highly unneeded.

But there are people who are good with it. I'm lucky enough to know a guy. His name is Ryan and he's damn good with lense flares. Here are some of my favorites, where the lens flare is very, very nicely placed.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=472373449
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=451366922
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=448426756

Funny fact about Ryan, though, he was the one I always came running back to when Ragdoll Mover wasn't working for me. This guy is extremely good with motion in his screenshots, so thanks for helping me acheive a good level of posing :D

Anyway, the lens flares are not disturbing the picture, but rather is giving life to it - creating great atmosphere. Many people use it for the wrong purpose. I don't know if you guys have seen the newest Star Trek movie, there are simply too many lens flares in that movie, omg, you don't even know.
I can actually show you one of the many mistakes I've made with lens flares.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=480928010
Although this is from Source Filmmaker.
Find out what's up with this and you will get a cookie.

But making mistakes is not bad, well, yes, if you can't see them yourself. Mistakes help us learn very much, if someone corrects them. Done with this chapter.

Summary and end.

Yo, you made it to the end of this long and maybe somewhat boring guide.

I would like to recommend, that if you're into GMOD screenshots, you have to follow these people:
Ryan
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398738068

Jellyfish
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450917406

Mr. Larson
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456624703

Dr. Zestalicious
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=316719116

Kilroy0901
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=434630093

Garry#13
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=321364461

Caetho
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=394628589

As De Pique
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=478875282

I want to say thanks for reading this guide and now go try all those things I told ya to do, a'ight?
Big thanks to Caetho, Lazlo, Zesty, Ryan and many more for helping me get decent at gmodding.

And also shoutout to the following people, The Wake, Vandal, Jellyfish and Fredman.

Thanks for 1,000 views!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=481856684

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=490868635

(New) Requests

Alright, yes. Probably one of the last moderations to this guide, but I just wanted to let you guys know, that I take requests both in SFM and Garry's Mod. (Preferably in SFM)

THEY ARE COMPLETELY FREE

Yes, you heard right, they are free. Forever, just like TF2. Unless that you, like, insist on paying me.

Here are some examples of how they may look: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=482105505
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=482461849
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=461133499
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=468866471
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=481550243



Once again, thank you so much for reading this guide and I hope you learned a little bit <3

[darkcyberia]

pls provide

[darkcyberia]

autoexec link is off

[mama mia #savetf2]

wow
I cant believe I've completely migrated over to sfm and blender from this, that's crazy

[✙Savoury Cloth394]

Very gud

[mama mia #savetf2]

Dang, that's a bummer

[Havi]

Well that kinda sucks

[God's Strongest Bob | #FixTF2]

Thank you, Steam

[damwab]

Oh jeez, they actually are... What the hell?

[Nate Archibald ♔]

What the hell, why are all the links removed??

[Nate Archibald ♔]

Wait what!