#custom content tutorial

[sleepyz-sims]

if anyone is interested in seeing my process for converting hairs, here is a video! its not a full on tutorial but i do have captions at the bottom explaining what im doing. i figure it could probably be helpful to someone wanting to learn how to convert hairs, since theres not a bunch of recent tutorials for this kind of thing. i would recommend learning the basics of blender and cc making/terminology before starting your own conversions, i promise it will make your life so much easier.

i am by no means an expert, this is just how i do it and it works for me. however, please feel free to correct me if you see something that i do wrong! i am always open to learning more <3

if there are any questions you have, please ask away! i will try to reply as soon as i can

update: i've also made a video for converting the accessories that come with hairs! (works the same for hairs with multiple versions as well) you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/Tz0PuBdMERM i recommend watching the other video before this one, since i don't go into much detail in this one.

[evellsims]

As requested, here’s a lil tutorial on how to edit my piercing sets to your liking! I tried to make this as beginner-friendly as I could so that everyone can have fun with them :) (also beware, I'm not the best with words or explaining things, so go ahead and hmu if things are unclear lol)

Tutorial under cut!

You'll need Sims 4 Studio and Blender (don’t ask me what version, I have no idea which ones work or not for S4S lol. I'm using v.2.78)

Step 1 - Cloning the .package

(This step creates a copy that won’t conflict with the original .package)

First put a copy of the .package you want to edit into the S4S Mods folder (the path should be: Documents\Sims 4 Studio\Mods) Open S4S and select the "Create 3D Mesh" option then click CAS (actually I think the CAS Standalone option would work just fine as well lol, I barely know the difference between them tbh)

choose all swatches (or just the ones you want) of the piercings. Change content to Custom, to find the piercings easier. Click Next and name the .package whatever you want and save somewhere.

Then export the mesh

Step 2 - Modifying the mesh

The fun part! If you’re unfamiliar with blender, here’s a useful guide to help you with some controls and navigating around, but I will also mention some of the controls you might need.

s4studio_mesh_1 is the only thing in the menu on the right we care about, since that’s the mesh for the piercings. Hop into edit mode (by pressing tab button while having that mesh selected in the menu) and now do whatever you want to the piercings.

Tip: press numpad 5 for a more manageable view

Press A to select or unselect all

Press L while hovering over a piercing to select that entire one (Shift+L to unselect it)

Press S to scale selection

Press R to rotate selection

Removing piercings:

Select the unwanted piercings and press Delete or X and select “Vertices” option

Moving piercings:

Press G to move selection, then LMB to confirm or RMB to cancel

Adding Piercings:

Press Shift+D to duplicate selected piercing

-

Important!

If you move or add piercings they need to stay within the original area. This is to ensure that they’ll work fine in game with different facial expressions and sliders.

Example: In the pic below, the copied piercing is still in the left upper lip area as the original piercing is, which will still work fine in game.

However, if I were to move it to the bottom lip or the right side of the mouth (or any other part of the face that isn’t the upper left lip, which is the original placement of the piercing I duplicated) it would not move or function correctly in game. 

If you want to add/move piercings to different areas of the face you’re going to have to fix the weights. (sorry but I will not explain how to do that lol. If you want to do that, look up an existing tutorial on how to transfer weights ;) )

-

Don’t forget to save when you’re done editing the piercings! 

Step 3 - Finishing the .package

Import the finished mesh into S4S and then save. 

Since we only modified the mesh of my original .package we won’t have to do anything else in S4S. 

Now it’s finished! In game it’s going to be next to my sets and without a custom thumbnail.

Extra notes - This isn’t really necessary because of the (usually) already low amount of  polys for face piercings and since they’re small and not very visible from far away. But if you want to make proper LODs add the decimate modifier in blender and lower the ratio. I usually put it somewhere around 0.5.  So LOD1 should have around half of LOD0′s amount of polys, while LOD2 has half of LOD1′s amount and so on. But it would work just fine to either leave the original existing meshes in there or import the modified mesh we made for LOD0 into all of the LOD’s, as long as that one doesn’t have too many polys.

- This modified .package needs my original .package that we cloned to work in game. If you want it to function without needing to have mine installed as well, open it in S4S, go to “tools>modding>embed all externally referenced resources(CAS)”

I hope this tutorial was helpful! As I mentioned, feel free to hmu if anything is unclear and I’ll try to help out :)

[pictureamoebae]

PAINT.NET: MAKING PALETTES & USING THE RECOLOUR TOOL -- tutorial by amoebae

I’ve created an imgur album with a tutorial covering the basics of how I recolour items in Paint.NET for The Sims 4, all without actions. You can of course use it to recolour anything for any other reason, it doesn’t have to be for this game.

Click on the title above to view the tutorial.

The tutorial covers:

a link to download Paint.NET (free)

creating a blank/empty palette

creating a palette of your favourite colours using the eye dropper tool

setting up the recolour tool

recolouring a basic texture with your new palette colours

some quirks of the recolour tool that can be both useful and annoying

Please let me know if anything in the tutorial isn’t clear, and I’ll try to add in any additional steps you need.

[sexyirish7]

To view the tutorial, you will need to visit my patreon page here. The tutorial is available to view for free and is safe for general audiences.

[simduction]

Tutorial #1

@antionicia ask: How'd you get the hair to not intersect with the shoulders?

Hi, i'm going going to explain how to do it for all those who are asking me.

You need: Sims 4 Studio and TS4 CAS Tool

Open S4S and create two new meshes, the first is the hair that you want to fix and the second is a hair that you are going to use as reference (obviously needs to be a hair that does not contract with the shoulders).

Now open TS4 CAS Tool

1: Select Clone Package Editor

2: Select Mesh Manager

3: Mark By Meshpart

4: Mark TS3

5: Select and open the hair that you want to fix  

Export the Lod0_2

1: Select Close Package

2: Mark TS4

3: Select and open the hair that you are going to use as reference

Export the Lod0_2

1: Select Mesh Tools

2: Select Auto Conversion

3: Select and open the Lod0_2 of the hair that you want to fix

4: Select and open the Lod0_2 of the hair that you are going to use as reference  

1: Mark Hardcode vertex color

2: Select Hair and

Mark Keep original shader (optional)

3: Select Go! and save a new Lod0_2

Now go back to Clone Package Editor

1: Select Close Package

2: Select and open the hair that you want to fix  

3: Select Import and open the new Lod0_2 that you create 

4: Select Commit Changes

5: Select Save as New Package

And that's it, let me know if you have any questions or problems about the tutorial.

[starrynitesims]

Updated Recolor Tutorial for Sims 4 CC

Hey Simmers!  I've updated my tutorial for beginner's interested in creating custom content in The Sims 4.  It includes information on creating your own custom swatch as well!  

Beginner's Tutorial for Creating CC in The Sims 4

Please try it out and let me know if you have any questions or problems!

*I've also created a separate tutorial that focuses JUST on creating the custom swatch for those who are already familiar with the process of creating CC but need to know how to create and add a custom swatch (by request).

If you use one of my tutorials, please tag me!  #starrynitesims