Sirona Sims » Tutorials

How to make default eyebrows

admin — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:07:48 +0000

How to make Default EyeBrows using existing default replacements
(the same method can be used for making other defaults , like eyeshadows and lipsticks for example)

WHAT YOU NEED
-SimPE
-existing default eyebrows:here.
-non-default eyebrows you wish to make as defaults either downloaded or your own.Make sure if you use downloaded eyebrows to ask permission from the creator first if you are planning on uploading them.If it’s for personal use you don’t need to do that :-)

DIFFICULTY
Easy, assuming you opened SimPE before and know the very basics.I’ll be -hopefully- quite explanatory and i’ll use pictures also.

PREPARATION:

First of all you need to select(collect) the eyebrows you want to make as defaults. There should be 3 different types/5 colors each. The colors must be : black/brown/blond/red/grey and as for the type that’s up to your liking.If you are planning on uploading the eyebrows, well…don’t select a pink to replace blond, that would be kinda silly.Make the right choices :-)

Because i have many downloads i had to resort to a kinda silly but effective nevertheless method to collect my eyebrows. I created a sim , put the eyebrows i wanted on him, and packaged the sim to a file.I did this 15 times. Then i moved my downloads to desktop and installed the 15 brows using the packaged sims. So back in bodyshop there was only me myself and the eyebrows. :!!: If you are more organized than me you can skip STEP ONE and simply use SimPE to open the brow files directly from your downloads without having to use the exported to projects method. Ok..next step for the non-organized:

STEP ONE:
Open bodyshop and start a new project for all of the 15 brows. It is really important to name your project clearly so you know what you’re doing next . I have named my projects like that :

bushyblack(brown/blond/red/grey),

normalblack(brown/blond/red/grey),

combedblack(brown/red/blond/grey).

If you don’t do that you’ll have trouble finding the appropriate PNG’s later.

Ok ,after you export all the 15 brows make a new folder in your desktop named PNG’S FOR BROWS or whatever else you want.(i use caps because of short span not sight)

Open SimPE. Click File>Open and go to Eagames>Sims2>Projects and open the brow bodyshop projects.Let’s suppose we start with the BUSHYBLACK project.

In SimPE select TEXTURE IMAGE and plugin view. ( it doesn’t matter which one you choose, there are two,either will do,i used the first one)

In Plugin VIEW right click and export file as PNG.Give it the same name as your project, for example BUSHYBLACK and save to the PNG’S FOR BROWS folder at your desktop.

Do that for all the 15 brow projects in bodyshop and you should have 15 PNG’s now.

Images in order(just to give you a further hint of the above step):

STEP TWO:MAKING THE DEFAULTS

Now that we prepared and organised all the brow files(png’s) we are going to make them into default replacements. For that we open( one at a time of course) the default existing eyebrow replacements files (either normal,bushy,combed) .Once you open the file in SimPE you will see that there are 5 textures named very clearly as black/brown/blond/red/grey. Take them in order so you won’t get confused.

Let’s assume we start with bushy type brows and black color. Select the black and then in Plugin View right click on it then select build DTX. A window will pop up, click Open> then browse your PNG’S FOR BROWS folder and select the file BUSHYBLACK.

Set smoothen to NONE , leave DTX3 as it is and click BUILD DTX.

Wait a second or two, when it’s done building click Commit and Save.

Do that for the 4 remaining colors.

Then Save, then> File save as and type a name for your file making it always clear what it is ,for example defaults_for_bushybrows.First set of Defaults is done, follow the same procedure for the remaining 2 maxis types of eyebrows.

Images in order(just to give you a further hint of the above step):

It is really important to make sure you did everything right.In your downloads there are still the defaults you used as a base but your new defaults as well.Before opening bodyshop to test remove the previous defaults and keep only yours. Now you are ready to Open bodyshop and test your defaults.

HOW TO TEST

It is really IMPORTANT to test the eyebrows especially if you want to upload them.Make a sim ,use a maxis or any other binned black hair and go to change his brows, select all 3 maxis(now yours) types and see if they are replaced correctly.Then make your sim blond,then red, then brunette,then into an elder to see if they grey brows are fine as well.

If everything is done correctly it’s time to LOAD GAME and test the defaults there, if they are fine in bodyshop they should be fine in game also but you never know , so better be safe than sorry.

If you made a mistake no worries.Open your defaults again with SimPe and correct the mistake then save and overwrite.

Hope that tutorial was helpful, if you have any questions or problems feel free to ask.

The same method can be used to make other bodyshop defaults as well.

Similar Downloads

Skintones-alternative importing method and template

admin — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:05:21 +0000

DARK skintones-Alternative importing method+TEMPLATE

Introduction

This is not a tutorial on how to make darker skintone recolors.Usually I just play with hue/saturation , brightness/contrast and then apply a photofilter to balance colors if needed.There is a photoshop tutorial on making recolors by navetsea here

This is a tutorial on how to get your DARK (or other hard to get color) skintone recolor to game and avoid fugly pixelation which happens almost always (unfortunately) when you import via bodyshop.

This is a tutorial to use if anything else has failed and your skintone is very pixelated when importing via bodyshop.

What is the tutorial skintone template?

A skintone template package which when you open in SimPE you will be able to see what each image is because it’s typed(i typed it i mean) on the texture itself! So you will just need to browse and find the appropriate BMP/or PNG to replace with the BuildDTX method.

Level of Difficulty:

Medium if you aren’t familiar with SimPE and very easy(though a bit time consuming) if you are.It is worth it however .(Look at the comparing pictures on the end of this post to see the differences.)

What you will need

1.Your finished skintone recolor.( not an already imported and extracted from bodyshop one because the pixelation damage has already been done there)

2.SimPE which you can download here

3.Download the template>>>>Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

Let’s start!And please read carefully!

The pictures provided aren’t exactly step by step ones, obvious stuff are excluded, because well it’s obvious.Pictures are to help you if you have trouble following the tutorial.Also i will be able to help you if you have trouble so feel free to post your questions here.

!!!STEP 1: PREPARATION IN BODYSHOP!!!

Do not ever use the “TUTORIAL_SkintoneTemplate_corvidophile2 package” directly. Then your recolors will not work and you will only end up with duplicates.This template is just for use with the tutorial and for re-importing it to bodyshop to create a unique file and not a duplicate.

Here is how:

1. Unzip the TUTORIAL_SkintoneTemplate_corvidophile2 package in your downloads folder.
2.Open bodyshop and start a new skintone project by exporting the “skintone recolor template” skintone and not any other skintone.
3.Export it and give your project a unique name eg: DarkSkinREC so you can find it easily later in your saved sims folder.
4.Go to your projects folder and ONLY change the swatch of the template skintone with the one you will be using for your recolor.
5.Import back to bodyshop ( give again your project a name while importing, eg. skintone recolor by “Your name” ) and then exit .
6.Go to your saved sims folder and right click on the package you just created eg: DarkSkinREC(step3) , select open with SimPE and wait for SimPE to load.

:!!: if you want to create a second or third recolor without overwriting the previous ones ,repeat STEP 1 accordingly and then proceed.

STEP 2-Replacing the files in SimPE

Go to texture images(TXTR) then click the first file in the resource list on the left.

Then click plugin view.

You will see the skintone template texture image with the name of the file written on it.Right click then click BUILD DTX.

Open your Skintone project folder and select the matching BMP file.What you see in the texture template is what you pick there.

Then set format to DTX3format and sharpen to NONE and click BUILD.Wait a few seconds if it is a body texture ( which is huge) it will take a while.

Click commit and don’t save (saving here will remove the italics from the text and you might get confused, so it is better not to save if you are a beginner, save away if you know what you are doing.)

With exactly the same steps above BUILD DTX for all 39 texture files.

Then of course go to File> Save .

STEP 3-Compressing the files

If you now check the saved skintone package you will see that it might be a whooping over 20mb one lol We need to compress the files to reduce the file size.

How to do that:

in TXTR , click on resource tab in the bottom of SimPE and select the first one on the resource list on the right above. Wait a second till it loads, then where it says” compressed” use the drop down menu and change it to “yes”.Some numbers will start changing and the file text will become blue bold italic.You know then that it’s changed. On to the next one and follow the same procedure for all of them!

After you have finished all 39 TXTR’s Save again . This time it may take a minute or two(or more didn’t count but it seemed like forever), just wait and don’t worry, your SimPE is not frozen.

Now if you check your saved package file you will see its filesize reduced dramatically.It will still be a bit more higher than your average skintone package but you will get a nice non-pixelated DARK skintone in return.

Now it is time to close SimPE and load game to see your recolored skintone.

IF YOU FORGOT TO GIVE YOUR SKINTONE PROJECT A UNIQUE SWATCH AND NAME IN THE PREVIOUS STEPS YOU CAN DO NOW LIKE THAT:

Changing the swatch image

In the resource tree go to jpg/tga/png image (IMG).Right click and select replace (use open all files extension). Use the swatch you made for your skintone. Save.

Editing string and package name
To do that go to Text lists and in plugin view simply edit the text where it says “string”. Save.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
I don’t suggest doing this for lighter skintone recolors because there the pixelation is most of the times not even noticeable and we DON’T want big file sizes unless absolutely necessary.

Then again who would want to repeat all these for so many skintones? I wouldn’t.

Hope you found this tutorial and the recolor template useful.

Corvidophile2

See the differences

Similar Downloads

How to make a swimmable sea for your sims

admin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:26:10 +0000

OUTDATED If you have the Bon voyage Expansion , you don’t need it.

I decided to write this tutorial because in the beginning i had problems creating swimmable lakes myself but after playtesting i have found and use a method that is really safe and the sims will actually stay in the lake and won’t swim all over the lot.Very easy to do , all you need is custom terrains.Let’s start and pay attention!

Start by picking a place at the back of your lot and using the small lower terrain tool click EXACTLY 6 times. (The size of the lake is up to you the same method goes but it is important that the lake is extended from one side to the other in horizontally or even vertically because we want one part of the lake to be at the edges of the lot so we can ensure safe enclosing of our sims )

Then using the level terrain tool drag to level this area

and again drag to level here

and here

Now it looks like that and all you have to do is paint with terrains of your liking, water/rock/pebble/sand whatever you think it’s appropriate for your lot.Do NOT use the smooth terrain tool here cause smoothing the edges would enable the sims go through them.By painting this flat hole will look like a real lake/river/pond you name it!

Start by using the medium terrain tool to apply water

Some rock ( it looks ugly now but in the end it will look better, using terrains is like painting a canvas, use your imagination)

I have applied dirt and moss

A note:As we lowered by 6 clicks the ground this part at the edge of the lot can’t be painted good enough unless we raise the last set of tiles by 2 clicks to look better and not very flat.

Starting from here do this for all the tiles only at the edge of the lot in the back

I am almost done.

And now i can use the water terrain to paint appropriately

Now let’s add a 3×2 column deck foundation as shown here

Done.The deck can be any size and shape you want to ,as long as you ensure that it is placed at least one tile inside the lake and not in corners .

Add stairs and use the moveObjects on cheat to place the ladder and diving board.

To ensure that our lake is even more safe add plants at any edge that it is slopped like in the picture.

Done.Only thing left is to test it.Sims will go through the ladder sometimes when diving but that’s no biggie and not causing problems.The important part is that our sims won’t escape the lake and swim all over the lot and this is a very safe method for succeeding this and has always worked for me.

They can climb out , dive in and after play-testing they won’t leave the lake.Success!See the other sim he is at the edge of the rock and can’t go out, our lake is working like it should!And of course they gain bodyskills and raise fun like in the pool.

Have fun creating your own safe and glitch-free swimmable lake!

I have used this method in my houses prior the Bon Voyage expansion many times .

Here are some of my lots that i have created a swimmable sea for.You can view them for landscaping inspiration or try them in game to see how a swimmable sea works.