Tell your own personalized stories with Custom Poses!
Sims 4 custom poses serve a variety of uses. Storytellers use them to depict scenes that they ordinarily wouldn’t be able to using the in-game animations. Custom content creators find them useful for modeling their creations, and CAS enthusiasts love them for showing off their Sims in the best possible light in the Gallery.
If you’re wondering how to use Sims 4 custom poses, wonder no more! We have the ultimate guide to poses right here. We’re going to walk you through how to use in-game poses, CAS poses, and Gallery poses.
Everything we’re going to show you is installed the same way; through the Mods folder. If you’re new to installing mods and CC and need more detailed instructions on how to install poses, see our article Getting Started with Mods and CC.
Table of Contents
In-Game Poses
All in-game poses require the Pose Player. None of your poses will work without it so make sure you download and install that first before doing anything else. You are also going to need the Sim Teleporter, especially for poses involving more than one Sim.
Once those are installed, you can start looking for poses! TS4 Poses on tumblr is by far the best pose finds blog out there. If you need any pose for anything at all, you can bet it’s going to be there. It’s a fantastic resource so check it often!
When you’re looking for Sims 4 custom poses, make sure you read the description carefully! Don’t just go blindly downloading things without paying close attention to what you’re downloading. Many pose sets require objects and accessories to look right in your game. For example, you may need a specific CC car for a pose with Sims sitting in or on a car, or you might need to download a CAS accessory if the Sims are holding something in their hands. Always read the description and download any required extras.
After installing your Sims 4 custom poses and anything else they require, start the game and go into Build/Buy while playing a household. Search “teleporter” and select the Sim Teleporter object. It looks like a big suit of armour. Place the teleporter own wherever you want your Sim to pose.
For poses with 2 or more Sims, place enough teleporters for each Sim in the pose directly on top of each other.
If a pose requires an object, the teleporters almost always go directly in the centre of the object but check the creator’s description to see if they’ve included any special instructions for their pose.
Go into Live Mode and click on the Sim Teleporter to teleport any Sim or pet you want to that spot. Teleport Sim brings up all Sims currently on the lot. Summon Sim brings up all Sims in the world. The summon option is useful for quickly posing Sims that aren’t in your active household. If there are multiple Sims in the pose, all the Sims will be standing inside each other but don’t worry; this is normal.
When all Sims have been teleported to the same spot, pause the game. Select each Sim, go to Pose by Pack and scroll down the list to find the pose pack you want to use. Each Sim in the pose has their own clip you need to select. For example, a pose with two Sims will have two clips listed; one for each Sim. Creators will usually clearly label which pose and which Sim a clip is for. Thumbnails help players distinguish this as well.
Assign all the corresponding clips in the pose to the correct Sims and unpause the game. Give the Sims a second to move into their Sims 4 custom poses. Sometimes they like to do a random idle animation before they pose. And voila! You have your Sims in a nice pose for picture taking! To have Sims stop posing, you can either cancel the action in their queue or click them and select Stop Posing.
One thing to remember when using in-game Sims 4 custom poses is that poses cannot be used outside of their intended age group! A pose for a toddler can’t be used for a child. A child pose can’t be used for an adult. You will get scary results if you try to do this. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- All adult Sims 4 custom poses can be used for teens-elders
- Male poses can be used with female Sims and vice versa
- Child poses can only be used with children
- Toddler Sims 4 custom poses can only be used with toddlers
- Pet poses can only be used for that size and species of pet. Large dogs, small dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens are all separate types of poses and cannot be used interchangeably
- Mermaid Sims 4 custom poses can only be used with mermaids
Another thing to remember is that Sims 4 custom poses will never 100% perfectly fit with every Sim’s body type. If you have a larger Sim and the pose you’re using is meant for an average-sized Sim, you will experience clipping and it may not look right. Try searching for plus size poses specifically, as there are creators who make poses that fit larger body types.
Some pose packs are actually animations instead of still poses but they work exactly the same as still poses. Use them the same way you would use any other pose pack.
CAS Poses
CAS Sims 4 custom poses are good for modelling your lookbooks. You never need to leave CAS to get cute posed shots of your Sims but they work differently than in-game poses.
CAS poses override the existing animations that play when you click on a trait in CAS. For example, instead of the angry animation that usually plays when you select the Hot-Headed trait for your Sim, they will do the custom pose, instead.
Because CAS Sims 4 custom poses are overrides, you cannot have more than one CAS pose for the same trait installed at the same time! When you look for CAS poses, pay close attention to what trait that pose overrides. If you already have a CAS pose that overrides the same trait, you will have to remove it before you install the new one.
Once you have some CAS Sims 4 custom poses installed, using them is very easy! Just select the trait associated with that pose in CAS and your Sim will pose! Now you can take pictures for your lookbook or anything else you’d like.
Gallery Poses
A lot of avid Sim and pet creators don’t like the default poses Sims have in the Gallery; they don’t really have much personality. Custom gallery Sims 4 custom poses can make your households stand out from the crowd and the best part is they don’t flag your household as modded (as long as the household itself is CC-free, of course).
The downside to Gallery Sims 4 custom poses is they can be kind of a pain to use. To make your life easier, you should download the No Randomization mod, especially if you’re trying to pose multiple Sims in a household.
Just like CAS poses, Gallery Sims 4 custom poses are overrides, so you cannot have more than one custom Gallery pose overriding the same default Gallery pose! Since it’s not always easy to tell which default poses a Gallery pose overrides, I recommend saving yourself headaches by only using one Gallery pose set at a time.
Once you have the Gallery pose you want installed, create your household in CAS like normal and then save it to upload to the Gallery. Before you upload, click the camera icon underneath the household to select a new random pose for the Sims in the household. The game will randomly select a pose for each household member so you will have to just keep clicking until the poses eventually match up with each other. Without the recommended No Randomization mod, this can take a very long time. The more Sims in the household you’re trying to pose together, the worse it is so I really recommend that mod.
You cannot use a Gallery pose that doesn’t match the number of Sims/pets in your household and their genders/ages exactly. So for example, if you download a Gallery pose for two male adult Sims and a toddler, no other household setup will work with that pose. Your household must only consist of two male adults and one toddler.
Other Resources
We hope this guide to using Sims 4 custom poses has been helpful! Here are a couple other things we recommend checking out!
- How to Make Your Own Custom Poses – If you want to learn how to make in-game poses yourself, our guide for beginners will show you how!
- TOOL Mod – The TOOL mod can be really helpful for nudging Sims who posed in the wrong spot back to their proper place or adjusting the placement of multiple posed Sims at once. You can also pose Sims off of a lot using TOOL.
- MCCC – This mod has a lot of useful features you can use alongside poses, such as teleporting Sims to an exact spot off of a lot or quickly changing outfits without having to break a pose or wait for your Sim to spin into the outfit you want. You can also make occult Sims switch to their occult form. This is especially useful for mermaid poses.
