Long time lurker and first time poster here.
I want to change the animation of a sim eating from the picnic basket. Long story short, I’m making a world, and for that world I need a specific table, and the animation closest to fitting that table is the picnic one. But it doesn’t fit still. I want to keep the legs/positioning from sims eating from the picnic basket, but I’m not exactly happy with the top part of the body. The main issue is that the object replacing the picnic basket is bigger/taller than the picnic basket aka the sim's arm will reach through it. Is there a way to change this? Or is there a way to put the sims plate from the picnic basket on the object. To be more precise, like I stated, a small table will be replacing the picnic basket. Is it possible for a sims plate to rest on said table, functioning like a regular table. Would this be modding the picnic basket/table itself? Is there a way to do this?
TLDR: 1. can i change the animation of a sim eating from a picnic basket so their arm wouldn't reach through (imaginary; for now) table
2. Can I make it so the plate rests on said table
3. would it be easier to just mod a table/table animation?
Any input/feedback appreciated.

Do you mean when sims sit on the ground to eat from the picnic basket? If I remember right, the picnic basket can also be used on a table/picnic bench but that doesn't sound like it makes sense for what you want to do with the basket being a table itself.

Some pictures with what's happening and how you want to change it might be helpful, but from what you've explained these are my thoughts:

1. You can edit the animations, though it would also affect how sims eat with regular picnic baskets. You'd have to override the CLIP(s) and copy over any events stored in the CLIPs with S3PE's Grid view (there's an S3PE addon that lets you do it, if you don't already have it) and possibly IK target information
2. I'm not sure if you could make the plate rest on the table/picnic basket without editing the script and stuff (like if it's coded to have the sim eat with the plate in their hand when sitting on the floor) which brings me on to
3. It wouldn't be easier if editing the animations does the trick, but if that doesn't work how you need it to, then making a new custom object based on the picnic table might be the best way. It would involve scripting and making a jazz script but I think it should be possible, just quite a bit of work especially if you are new to modding

Hope this helps