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Author Topic: How To Make an Infant Diaper Override Recolor (*2ND REVAMP, 1/27/08*)  (Read 32033 times)
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Tenshii~Akari
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« on: July 22, 2007, 04:23:56 pm »

IMPORTANT EDIT:  New pictures are finally in place, and also better texture templates and clearer alpha map included below in the attachments field.  Note that the steps each pic corresponds with is BELOW it.  All pictures are thumbnails, so you will have to enlarge them to see details.  Let me know if there's anything else that I can do to improve this tutorial in any way!  :angel:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tutorial:  Making Infant Diaper Override Recolors

Introduction:

The one area where I felt that Maxis and EA failed us utterly was not giving us the option to do much with infants, other than having them eat, sleep, poop, being played with and talked to, and cry like screamin’ meemies… not that it’s not realistic, but there’s still a lot missing.  They don’t have hair until they turn into toddlers, you can’t sit down and hold them, sims leave them on the floor when they’re tired of holding the poor little things, and my main pet peeve is that you can’t change their clothes like every other age group!  So many can understand now my overwhelming joy when I first found out about files that could replace the original diaper!  

After trying out a few of the diaper replacements, I could say I was satisfied to a point, but I still wanted to see more variety.  In fact, I was ready to try out my hand at re-coloring some of the meshes.  The only thing was, I never found a tutorial that was publicly available on how to make diaper override re-colors, so I thought I’d never figure out how to do it… that is, until I did some fiddling around with SimPE.  It’s almost the same as making default replacement genetics, if you’ve done those before.

I’ve decided to write-up my own tutorial of how to make and re-color your own infant override texture.  It’s not a complete walk in the park if you don’t know how to use SimPE, but pretty soon the new pictures I'll take for this tutorial in the very near future should be of some assistance.  

Tools Needed:

You will need the following…

   •   SimPE
•   The Nvidia DDS tools (Found at this link... this is essential for enabling the "Build DXT" function when importing the texture.)
•   A graphics editing program, like GIMP, Photoshop, or anything else closely related
•   My infant override example posted here on InSim (or any other override of your choosing... so long as you ask for permission if required.)
•   (optional)  The two “.png” files attached at the bottom of this post as a base image/alpha map to work on (And once again, you can also choose to export the textures/alpha maps you need from other diaper overides, unless you'd rather use mine.  If you do... well... please excuse the quality of the textures.  Yes, they look quite fugly, but it's for experimental purposes at the moment...  feel free to make them look 499% better than they are at the moment if you'd like.  :oops:)

Instructions:

(If you plan on making multiple infant override re-color files remember this:  You can copy the file and edit the copies however you like with different styles… BUT you can only have one package enabled at a time.)

The two files that I have included are the actual texture and alpha map for the baby clothing.    Open these two images in your image editing program and alter them to your liking.  Remember to save them after you make any changes (I’d suggest you save them to an easy to remember place, like to your Desktop), then follow these steps…

1.   Open the infant override file (i.e. “(~TA12~)-Diaper_Override.package” if you're using my example override) with SimPE, and make sure that “Plugin View” is selected at the bottom.

2.   After it loads, click on the texture image file name in the “Resource List” box.  Here you will find the skin of the mesh that you will need.

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

(To clarify the following steps:  This is just in case you do not have any "base" textures to go off of, or just in case you're using a different diaper override as a base other than my pale onesie linked above.  I would suggest using the attached images if you are using that file I made, as the textures are quite blurry upon exportation.  If you already have textures prepared at this point to import back into the package file or using the images I provided below, skip to step 8.  Otherwise, if you're using a different override as a base and want to recolor the textures for it, start here at step 3.)

3.   When the image in the “TXTR Editor” box comes up, right click it, and a menu will come up.

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

4.   Select Export…

5.   When the Save box pops up, choose the location of where you want to save the changes to the texture, and click OK.  

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

6.      Repeat steps 3-5, only this time for #4, choose the Export Alpha Channel… option.

7.      Once you have both your original texture and alpha map exported, you can edit them however you like using your image editing program.  Once you've made all the changes, save your work and return to SimPE.

8.      Going  back to the “TXTR Editor” box, right-click the texture image, and choose the Build DXT option.  (...this option actually preserves the quality of the textures, unlike the "Import" option which can lower it.)

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

9.      When a small box with the title of DDS Builder pops up, click on open underneath the small "preview" box to the left, and find the name of your main texture image that you just edited.  Click OK, and a small thumbnail of the image will appear in the box.

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

10.  Click on the second scroll-down menu entitled Sharpen (located to the right of the DDS Builder window), and scroll upward until you find "None".  Select this, and choose Build.

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

11.   After a little DOS window pops up momentarily and disappears, the image in the “TXTR Editor” should now be changed to your edited image.

(At this point, if there were no changes to the alpha map of the outfit whatsoever, you can commit the changes and save.  Otherwise, if there are changes to it (or you find that the infant outfit's whole texture map is covering the entire area of the TXTR Editor like the picture above), continue on the following steps.)

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

12.      Right click the image again, then select Import Alpha Channel…

13.   Locate the name of the alpha channel, and press OK.  The image in the box, if it hasn't before now, should now take the shape of the alpha map that was just imported.  Hit the Commit button.

14.     Now for the slightly confusing part.  Because the alpha map was imported, this will result in the textures becoming blurry and pixelated if you save your changes now and exit.  In order to avoid this,  re-export the image currently in the "TXTR Editor" box, and use the Build DXT function to re-import the exact same image.  The end result should be slightly similar to the below picture.  Afterwards, you can commit your changes, save, and exit without a second worry of image problems.

::smilieiforgetwhi::::smilieiforgetwhi::
(click to enlarge)

15.   Now for the easy part:  Testing!  Load your game and either find a family with a baby, or spawn the Tombstone of Life or Death to create a new baby. (type boolprop testingcheatsenabled true in the cheat box, then shift + click a sim for the spawn option)   Your babies should now be wearing the new outfit you’ve made.


The best part about this override is that it will come off when changing diapers or bathing the baby, along with the ability to fit with any diaper mesh override to your choosing.  If you are recoloring another diaper mesh, (i.e. one of BlooM's multiple override meshes in his section) the mesh is already included... so there's no need for enabling other recolors/override meshes to get yours to work, as you can only have one diaper override package working in your game at a time.  

I hope that this tutorial will help make a difference in the variety of removable infant clothing.  If you have any questions, feel free to post questions here in this thread.  I'll be happy to help you out in any way I can.  Wink

Enjoy!  :angel:


* bubodydiaper-white_txtr_512x512.png (209.49 KB, 512x512 - viewed 12834 times.)

* bubodydiaper-white_txtr_alpha_512x512.png (2.5 KB, 512x512 - viewed 3010 times.)
« Last Edit: July 25, 2008, 08:14:42 pm by Tenshii~Akari » Logged

manfraumanfrau
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« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2008, 11:27:19 am »

Thank you so much for this tutorial!
I'm of to download SimPE. Tongue
*Hugs*

EDIT: I'm having problems. I get this strange effect. Why? And why is the image that I import so tiny compared to the origional yellow one? Sad
« Last Edit: January 23, 2008, 12:06:31 pm by manfraumanfrau » Logged
Tenshii~Akari
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« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2008, 12:12:20 pm »

I should've updated this thread... :doh:  Sorry, manfrau, but I need to tweak this tutorial a bit more before we can officially call it one.  I was using an old photoediting program I'm used to using, and it doesn't use the same techniques as any of the newer ones... therefore the issue you have here.  Sad

I'll be sure to get around to cleaning this up ASAP.  :angel:
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manfraumanfrau
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« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2008, 12:45:26 pm »

It doesn't matter - I managed to gigure out what went wrong, and have now completed a onesie. Smiley
Aaahh.
Thanks again!

Oh, and I think that the problem was I saved the images as they are here, instead of clicking on them and saving the larger version. Wink
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Tenshii~Akari
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« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2008, 01:19:14 pm »

Okay.  Glad you got it settled.  :angel:

I still plan on getting this thing updated for everyone else, though.  Wink

ETA:  90% fixed... all I need now are new and better screenshots.  :smile bi:
« Last Edit: January 23, 2008, 02:27:08 pm by Tenshii~Akari » Logged

Pierre
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« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2008, 03:14:53 pm »

great tutorial tank you very much
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Please do not pm me about happysimmers this site has been close now if you need any thing please look up this forum thank youhttp://delightfulsims.net/index.php
Tenshii~Akari
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« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2008, 07:22:38 pm »

Images have now been included once again in the tutorial.  This time, I even changed the yucky yellow texture blob I called a base that was originally attached into something a bit more pleasing to look at... that is, if you're one that's into pink like I am.  Hey, it's better than the one I had on here before, so change it up however you like.  :lol:  

Hope you enjoy, and please give me some feedback if you see anything that could be improved in this tutorial.  I always like to know what I can do to make things better.  Wink
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mcrudd
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« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2008, 06:37:53 pm »

I use normal paint, I don't have paintshop pro and all those others, but to make it easier I save my clothes tetures as png files, if you save it as a jpeg it smudges and when you have to make the part around the outfit invisible it does not do it properly. Just incase someone do not have the fancy programs like me Sad thought I would mention that Smiley

Fabulous Tutorial Tenshii Cheesy Love it to bits, wish I could save it as a pdf so I could have it handy forever Tongue
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skylark
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« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2008, 09:58:03 am »

Thank you so much!  This was infinitely useful.  Although I can't seem to get Build DXT option...  Hmmm... Will fiddle more tomorrow, thank you!
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Tenshii~Akari
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« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2008, 11:51:32 am »

You have to enable the Build DXT option through the "Preferences" under the Extra menu in SimPE.  

Once the Preferences window pops up, (making sure that the tab to the left highlights "System Folders") look at the line that says Nvidia DDS Tool Folder.  

Click on the "Browse" button next to the box, and search for the directory where you installed the DDS tool (i.e. C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\DDS Utilities), then find and select the nvdxt.exe file and press OK.  

Once you exit out of the Preferences, it should be enabled for your SimPE.  Wink
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« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2008, 05:09:02 pm »

Thank you so much!  When i get home from work I will have to check how much the quality improved.

Yay!  I made my own onesie for a Sim baby!

Thank you so much.
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« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2008, 05:51:46 pm »

You're welcome!  Glad it worked out for  ya.  :smile bi:
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« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2009, 01:21:49 pm »

ummm, i made one using bloom's mesh, and i wanted to point out this:
1. the outfit ended up esactly the same as blooms.
2. i have the dds stuff, i just got it, but, basically steps 9-14 don't work for me. i don't have the option to bulid that or whatever. HELP!!

oh, nevermind, i think i got it...



I GIVE UP. THIS TUTORIAL MAKES ABSOLUTLY NO SENSE.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2009, 02:02:07 pm by 0BretttterB0 » Logged

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« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2009, 06:18:36 pm »

did you actually download and install the DDS tools? There are several different things to download at the site, and it's easy to get it wrong.
I know I had some troubles figuring out what exactly to download, and managed to get it wrong twice - both the first time I tried, and when I re-installed things on my new computer. I actually downloaded the wrong thing first  Undecided

Did you do this, by the way?
You have to enable the Build DXT option through the "Preferences" under the Extra menu in SimPE.  

Once the Preferences window pops up, (making sure that the tab to the left highlights "System Folders") look at the line that says Nvidia DDS Tool Folder.  

Click on the "Browse" button next to the box, and search for the directory where you installed the DDS tool (i.e. C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\DDS Utilities), then find and select the nvdxt.exe file and press OK.  

Once you exit out of the Preferences, it should be enabled for your SimPE.  Wink

Also, remember to click "commit" after you've changed the texture, or the change won't show. Then you save the new file Smiley

Oh, and a couple of other things:

To be as sure as I can be that parts comes on the right place when I recolor the outfits, I use the UVW maps as recolor guides (Bloom added these with some of the meshes), and hide that layer afterwards. Smiley

Remember to save the file as a new file with a new name. Also, make sure the only infant outfit you've got in the DL folder when you're testing it, is the one you recolored. Otherwise it might show up wrong.

For saving texture files, I use the ctrl+alt+shift+S command in photoshop, and save as 24bit PNG (in the window that pops up). I also make transparent textures at once, so I don't have to do the alpha channel step (works with Bloom's meshes). Combined with the DXT3, this usually gives the best result.

« Last Edit: July 01, 2009, 06:28:43 pm by theraven » Logged

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« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2009, 06:38:33 pm »

well there is no commit button when i do it, and could someone please explain to me what program to install??
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