Difference between revisions of "Sims 3:Creating A New Base Texture"

Revision as of 08:08, 12 July 2009

Base Textures

Base textures can be thought of as the "canvas" the game "paints" the patterns and colors onto. The game uses the Alpha layer of the base texture to determine what parts of the texture you want displayed. Altering the base texture can turn bland boring opera gloves into beautiful tattoos like these.

What This Tutorial Will Do

• Teach you how to alter the base textures of CAS parts in the Sims 3.
• Teach you how to add transparency to base textures.

What This Tutorial Will Not Do

• Make new meshes.
• Make new patterns.

Take a look at HP's Custom Pattern Tutorial for that

• Add multicolored masks

Take a look at Hanlon Razor's tutorial for that.

Difficulty

This tutorial is written for beginners, however, some basic knowledge on how to use your imaging program is needed.

What You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop (purchase) or GIMP 2.0 (free)
• Delphy's CAS Texture Unitool
• DDS Plug-in for Photoshop or GIMP

The Tutorial

Extracting the Base Texture

Step 1

Open the CAS Texture Unitool (CTU).

Step 2

In the "Find A Mesh" tab, set the mesh details to the parameters of the mesh you wish to change the base texture of. (i.e. Adult-Female-Accessory) Next choose the mesh you want to use from the drop down list. For the purpose of this tutorial, the afAccessoryGlovesLong_fitted mesh will be used.

Step 3

Move over to the "Designs" tab and click "Add New Design".

Step 4

Under the "Other Details" sub-tab click the base texture key to highlight it.

Step 5

Being sure that the base texture key is highlighted, click on the "find" button at the bottom of the window.

Step 6

A DDS Preview window should pop up. Click the Export button at the bottom right corner of the preview window. Choose a destination for the file, give it a name, then save it.

Editing the Base Texture

Step 7

Open up the newly exported DDS file in your image editor. If asked, load default sizes and do not generate MIPmaps.

Note: If you get an image that looks like the one below, then you accidentally generated the MIPmaps. Close the file and reopen it, being sure to NOT GENERATE MIPMAPS!

Step 8

There are three methods to do this: the "subtractive" method, the "trace" method and the "cut-out" method. Note: For now the cut-out method only works for Photoshop users, hopefully an experienced GIMP user can add an easier method :)

A Little Info

• Black areas in the Alpha are ignored by the game
• White areas are completely opaque in the game
• Grey areas between RGB values 151/151/151 - 149/149/149, give a translucent affect to the texture. 151/151/151 is the lightest whereas 149/149/149 is the darkest.

Subtractive Method

• Make sure your canvas background color is set to black
• Click on the channel view in your and hide all channels except the Alpha channel.
• Using the eraser, erase the major parts of the Alpha image that will not be a part of your new base texture.
• Use the paint brush to add details using the colors mentioned above.

Trace Method

• Change your canvas background color to white
• Create a new layer on top of the base texture
• Design what you want your new base texture to look like. (Use the existing base texture as sort of a guide.)
• When you finish, switch over to the Channels view, and delete the existing Alpha channel.
• Create a new Alpha channel and make it visible.
• Pick one other color channel and make it visible as well.
• Erase the general area of where your base texture design is located
• Using the paintbrush, fill in any unwanted areas with black. (Note: although black might be selected, your paint might appear as a different color).
• Next, hide the other color channel, keeping the Alpha channel visible. Add details using the grey scale colors mentioned above. (This part is optional)

Cut-Out Method

• Create a new layer on top of the base texture
• In that new layer, design what you want your new base texture to look like. (Use the existing base texture as sort of a guide.
• When you finish, hold CTRL + Layer (click the layer with your new base texture design on it; if your design spans over multiple layers, merge them down into one layer. DO NOT MERGE IN THE ORIGINAL BASE TEXTURE) This should select
• Switch over to the Channels view, and delete the existing Alpha channel.
• Create a new Alpha layer
• Make sure the base texture design is still selected, and hit ALT + Delete (this should make a basic cut-out of your new base texture design). If ALT + Delete doesn't work, try CTRL + Delete
• Using the eraser and the paintbrush, clean up the cutout and add details using the colors mentioned above

The End Result

Depending on how complicated your new texture is, you might have to use a combination of the two methods. Regardless, your end result should more or less look like this:

Note: It does not have to be as intricate as this!

Step 9

Make all layers visible again and flatten the