Hello.

I swear to Will Wright that if this thread too gets deleted or if no one replies
then I will be very sad. Do you really want to make me feel sad?
What kind of monsters are you?

I'm not sure if I should officially upload this mod because I think it's not
deserving and is below the standard level, but on the other hand it is
driving me crazy because I'm not good at doing animations and if I don't
release it soon I'll end up deleting it myself for the frustration. So I'll upload
it here first to get some feedback, help, criticism, insults, whatever.
I'm posting this in Modding Discussion because I'm shy and I feel more
comfortable in this section of the forum, and also because Creator Feedback
doesn't seem very lively.

What is this mod? I cloned a 2x1 rug and created a object script to make a
basegame compatible beach towel out of it. The towel still has the 3 presets
of the rug, I was only able to slightly change their textures. I'd like to leave just
one preset with a neutral solid color (then anyone can use Create A Style to
personalize it) but I don't know how to do it. I'll gladly accept a RTFM answer,
but please specify what manual/tutorial I should read and keep in mind that
for strange reasons I can't use TSRW (I guess that will be handy for this kind of things).

So, let's start with my custom animations: the child animations were done very
quickly (the one for standing is basically the one for lying down reversed) and
only because I felt guilty: it was a shame that that sim category couldn't use it;
the adult animations simply suck, I mean, the overall idea is good, but some
movements are not natural (I rotated too much the pelvis in the first frames,
you can see when the sim bends how bad his lower back looks) and doesn't
adapt well to a teen sim: he sinks into the ground. This last problem is probably
the worst because I don't know how to solve it. I've looked at EA animations
but I don't get how they handle this issue (they seem to use the root_offset
joint but I couldn't reproduce the final result, there must be something else).
As a temporary patch, I added another animation, a 1 frame animation
(a pose basically) played only on teens, that raises the teen so at least when
he is motionless he is not sinking in the ground (but of course the transition
is ugly to see).

Now let's talk a bit about the code.
Technical solutions I used for which I'd like some feedback.

Routing to the object: I don't use a routing slot, mainly because I don't know how to
add one, but I think it is for the best in this specific case: I use a radial range destination
with the position of the object as centre, a 9 degrees angle and a 0.2 tile distance
margin for the range of the radius. In this way there are many combinations of
angle and distance, so sims will rarely stop at the exact same position/orientation
before starting the entry animation and this helps avoid that feeling of repetition
and "it's all the same". Sorry, I'm not able to explain that well but if you place a few
beach towels in a row, all with the same orientation, and then make 3 or 4 sims use
the Sunbathe interaction you'll understand what I'm talking about: look at their
orientation in regard of the towel and the distance of the feet (or head) from the side
of the towel. Isn't that clever? Sly Arsil! Allow me to cheer me up a little cause I'm kinda blue.

I also think I used a good solution to deny routing/walking/trampling over the towel
when it is being used (because the rest of the world will think that the sim using it is
still standing in the point where the animation started and so it's like the towel is free):
I activate a second footprint (for the towel) that doesn't allow routing and shooes possible
sims already over it, then when the sim stops using the object I disable that footprint
so sims can walk over the object again.
Why all this trouble? Why don't leave only that second footprint always active?
Because when no one is laying on the towel I want sims to be able to step over it
in order to avoid routing problems (even 1 towel alone represent an obstacle and
can create corridors or small passegeways). My question is: are there any counter
indications or bad side effects that I can't see in this approach?

The Sit interaction is pretty much pointless at the moment (I disabled its autonomous
use), I added it as a test and decided to keep it because it looks nice and could be
useful for taking screenshots or something like that. The animations are flawless
because they are the ones from the picnic blanket (they are included in the
basegame, so there's no problem in using them in a mod).

Another possible issue is that sims using the Sunbathe interaction autonomously
will/can repeat that action again and again looking like idiots. How to avoid that?
Using some kind of cooldown? A hidden moodlet that when active doesn't allow
to use the interaction till its expiration? I'd like to receive some feedback about
this behaviour to understand if it is annoying like I think it is or it's tolerable.

Another possible issue is that this custom beach towel requires a plain spot of
2x1 tiles to be placed (I don't remember how the one from Island Paradise works)
and beaches usually have a very irregular ground so you have to plain it (and that
doesn't work very well in my experience, it can cause some routing problems
especially in a small area). Son of a beach! Sorry, I had to say it.

Do you think this mod is worth to be uploaded or I should wait till a make new animations
(especially for the teen issue). But the thing is that I'm not sure that I have the strength
and the patience to try again doing the animations, they devastate me and I don't
have fun making them.

Anyone want/can help me with the object's presets/textures?
Anyone want/can help me with animations?

You'll find the beach towel between the other rugs or in Entertainment/Misc.

EDIT: removed the upload since it's now available HERE.