How to Make Sims Stand Still in CAS: The Sims 4 Trick You Actually Need

Ever spent forty minutes trying to get a Sims’ eyeliner perfectly symmetrical only to have them toss their head back and laugh at a joke nobody told? It is infuriating. Honestly, it’s one of those tiny things in The Sims 4 that makes you want to close the game without saving. You’re trying to navigate the delicate pixel-work of a nose preset or a detailed tattoo placement, and your Sim is busy doing the "active" trait idle animation, shadowboxing the air like they’re in a Rocky montage.

We’ve all been there.

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The struggle to make a Sim stand still in CAS isn’t just about vanity; it’s about functional design. When you’re using sliders—especially if you have high-precision mods like those from obscurus or mawemous—any movement at all ruins the coordinate placement. You click a cheekbone, the Sim moves, and suddenly you’ve accidentally dragged their jaw into the next zip code.

Why Do Sims Keep Moving Anyway?

Basically, Maxis designed Create-A-Sim to feel "alive." They wanted the characters to showcase their personalities through idles. If your Sim is "Gloomy," they sigh and look at the floor. If they’re "Snob," they admire their fingernails. While that’s great for a life simulator, it’s a nightmare for a digital sculptor.

The game triggers these animations based on the traits you select in the top left corner. However, even if you haven't picked traits yet, the default "neutral" idle still involves a lot of swaying, blinking, and looking around. It’s "human," sure, but it’s not helpful.

The Best Way to Make Your Sim Stand Still in CAS

If you want the most reliable, "set it and forget it" method, you have to talk about the casclockspeed cheat. This is a built-in engine command that doesn't require any external downloads. It’s the "vanilla" way to handle the chaos.

First, you’ll need to open the cheat console. Hit Ctrl + Shift + C on your keyboard (or all four shoulder buttons if you’re playing on a console like PS5 or Xbox). Once that thin white box pops up in the top left, type in:

casclockspeed 0

Hit enter. Suddenly, everything freezes. Your Sim becomes a statue. They won't blink, they won't breathe, and they certainly won't do that annoying "Cheerful" trait giggle.

Understanding the Clock Speed Values

Most people think it’s just a toggle, but it’s actually a decimal scale.

• 0 is a total freeze.
• 1 is the default game speed.
• 0.2 or 0.5 creates a slow-motion effect.

Slow motion is actually kinda genius if you’re trying to capture a specific frame of an animation for a screenshot, but for general editing, 0 is your best friend. Just remember that if you want them to move again—maybe to see how a dress flows or how a hairstyle looks from the back—you have to type casclockspeed 1 to reset the timeline.

Modded Solutions: The "No CAS Items" Approach

If you’re a PC player, you probably already know that the modding community solved this years ago. While cheats are great, they can be a bit of a hassle to type every single time you enter a new game session.

The most famous fix is the "Stand Still in CAS" mod by creators like MizoreYukii or Luumia. These mods work by overriding the animation files themselves. Instead of the game pulling from the "idle" library, the mod forces the game to pull a "static" pose file.

What’s interesting is how these mods have evolved. Early versions used to make Sims look a bit... creepy. They’d have dead eyes and a T-pose vibe. Modern versions, like the ones updated for the 2024 and 2025 patches, keep the Sim in a natural, relaxed standing position but simply disable the "Flavor" animations that trigger every few seconds.

The Problem with Occult Sims

If you're making a Vampire, Werewolf, or Mermaid, you know the struggle is ten times worse. Vampires hiss. Werewolves howl and scratch the air. It’s loud, and it moves the camera.

Even with the casclockspeed cheat, sometimes the "Occult" transition animations can be buggy. If you find that your Vampire is still snarling while you're trying to fix their teeth, try switching to their "Human" form first, applying the cheat, and then switching back.

Technical Nuances: Why Your Cheat Might "Break"

Sometimes you'll type the cheat and nothing happens. Or, even weirder, the Sim freezes but the UI starts lagging. This usually happens if you’ve been in CAS for a really long time—we call it "CAS Bloat."

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The game’s engine is trying to process a lot of high-resolution textures (especially if you use 4K CC skin overlays). When you freeze the clock speed, you’re stopping the animation engine, but the rendering engine is still working overtime. If the game feels "stuck," try setting the clock speed back to 1 for a second, let the Sim finish their current movement, and then freeze them again. It sort of "clears the pipes" for the game's memory.

Also, a quick tip for the perfectionists: if you use the cheat while a Sim is mid-blink, they will stay mid-blink. It looks terrifying. Always wait for them to have their eyes wide open before you hit enter on that command.

Practical Steps for a Better CAS Experience

To get the best results and actually enjoy the process of making Sims without the headache, follow this workflow:

1. Don't Pick Traits First: Pick your traits after you’ve finished the physical look. This prevents trait-specific idles (like the "Active" shadowboxing or the "Erratic" twitching) from triggering while you're working on the face.
2. Use the "Neutral" Pose: Before freezing, make sure the Sim is standing straight. If they are leaning to one side, the symmetry of your mouse movements will be off.
3. The Toggle Macro: if you have a gaming keyboard (like a Razer or Corsair), you can actually set a macro to type "casclockspeed 0" and "casclockspeed 1" with a single keypress. It’s a total game-changer.
4. Check for Mod Conflicts: If you use "Pose Player" in-game, sometimes it can conflict with CAS stand-still mods. If your Sims are doing weird "statue" glitches where they sink into the floor, check your Overwrites folder and clear out any old CAS poses.
5. Lighting Matters: While your Sim is standing still, take the opportunity to rotate them into the light. The CAS lighting is notoriously "flat," and a frozen Sim allows you to see exactly where the shadows fall on the nose and jawline without them moving out of the sweet spot.

Stop fighting the animations. Whether you use the console command or a dedicated override mod, having a Sim that stays put is the only way to truly master the art of Sim-creation. Once you get used to a static Sim, going back to the constant fidgeting of the base game feels almost impossible.

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To keep your game running smoothly after using these tricks, always remember to reset the clock speed to 1 before exiting CAS. This ensures that the transition back to the live world doesn't cause any "simulation lag" or frozen animations once you start playing in your household. If you're using mods, keep them updated after every major EA patch, as animation overrides are usually the first thing to break when new occults or traits are added to the game code.