I thought it was finally about time that I updated my WMS recoloring tutorial, since it’s quite outdated and my “technique” has changed a lot since then.
Again this is going to be a very long and slightly complicated tutorial, just for your information - a lot more than the former one. But when you get this method down, it’s 10 times easier and quicker to recolor!
I’ve tried to make this as beginner-friendly as i could, but it can be a bit hard to understand if you have no knowledge of either PS or S4S.
If you have any questions regarding the tutorial, please shoot me an ask and I’ll help you as much as i can :)
Also please keep in mind that english is my second language, and because of that some sentences or expressions may be weird! Thank you.
Press keep reading to go to the tutorial vv
What you will need for this tutorial:
- Photoshop (PS) of any kind that is compatible with Nvidia DDS plugin (you can get CS2 for free right here)
- Sims 4 studio - S4S (you need to register to download it)
- A DDS plugin for PS 32 bit (the download is called texture tools)
- WMS recoloring actions by @wildlyminiaturesandwich (we’ll be making our own later, but we use these as our “base”)
- A WMS color palette for S4S made by the lovely @valkryiesims
- An action that turns the dirty blonde swatch into the white swatch by me
Before starting you should read these posts, since we’ll use the information from those in the tutorial:
- WMS recoloring actions (you should read everything she has to say about her actions)
- @neverloores post about SecondayDisplayIndex - also called SDI
- @verdigrisss post about making an all-in-one recoloring action. (this is a bit complicated so take your time reading it)
If you’ve read and downloaded everything, you’re ready to start the tutorial!
1. Install PS, S4S, the S4S palettes, the actions and the DDS plugin.
The DDS plugin only works with CS2 if you download the 32-bit version, since that’s what CS2 is.
To install the WMS actions in PS go to ‘actions>load actions’ (the little round icon with the triangle in it) and then find the downloaded actions in your download folder. Press okay and the should be loaded in now.
To install the WMS palettes into S4S, go to ‘documents>Sims 4 Studio>palettes’ and copy+paste the downloaded palettes into that folder.
2. Find whatever hair you want to recolor.
To check if that hair has already been recolored check out this spreadsheet by @celebi88. Press ctrl+f to search inside the spreadsheet
Put the hair into the S4S mods folder, which is found in ’document\Sims 4 Studio\mods’
Keep in mind that there are a lot of hairs and recolors out there, so the spreadsheet may be out of date. You can join the WMS recolors discord right here by @namea and @celebi88, and we can help you find a recolor if you’re unsure if the hair has been recolored before!
3. Create your recoloring file in S4S.
Open S4S, type in your username in the down right corner and go to the CAS section and click on ‘Add CAS Part Swatch’. If you don’t do this, the recolors will show up as a standalone file, and will not be a part of the original hair file in game.
Click ‘CAS’ and it will take you to the different meshes EA has created.
To find the hair you want to recolor go to the top right corner and click on the ‘ALL’ button next to ‘Content’ and sort to ‘Custom Content’.
Find the hair you want to recolor and shift+click it, to select all swatches.
A new window will pop up and this is where you save your file. I’ve created a folder for the CC I’ve made (called homemade), and in that I’ve made a folder for my WMS recolors. From there I create a folder for every hair creator, and in every creator folder I put a new folder for every hair I’ve recolored. And lastly in the specific hair recolor folder I make 4 folders, one for each of the palettes and one for pictures. So the path will look something like this: ‘documents\homemade\wms recolors\*creator name*\*hair name*\’. The four folders are then created and named ‘un’ (for unnaturals), ‘na’ (for naturals), ‘ne’ (for neutrals) and pics (for pictures if you want to upload the recolors).
Then create the file after you’ve made your folder, and name it after whatever palettes you’re recoloring in.
4. Get ready to recolor.
Your recoloring file will now open up in S4S, where you can see all the swatches. First we have to access the white swatch to see if it matches the other EA white swatches, or if it is ‘too white’. It should look something like this: (refer to the picture under this section)
If the white swatch looks fine you can go on ahead and export that swatch as a .dds file (important). Remember to rename it to ‘base’ - we’ll use that later on. Also skip the next steps if the swatch looks fine!
If the white swatch doesn’t look perfect, export the ‘dirty blonde’ swatch as a .dds file and rename that to ‘base’.
Open up the ‘dirty blonde’ base in PS and use this action (by me) to make it look like an EA white swatch.
Save the file and close it! (Very important). If not saved and closed before using the actions, the actions will go back to the dirty blonde base, and the EA white wont be used.
If recoloring a childrens or toddlers hair, export the ‘dirty blonde’ swatch and use my action on it!
5. Making all-in-one recoloring actions
Open up your base in photoshop. Make sure it’s called ‘base’ and nothing else. (this goes for every hair base you’re ever going to recolor, it has to be named base)
Create a new folder on your desktop, or somewhere where you’re never going to move it. I called mine ‘currently recoloring’. Inside that folder there should be 3 folders; one for each of the palettes. If you ever move this folder, you’ll have to redo your all-in-one recoloring actions, so make sure you have found a nice place for the folder!
Now it’s time to make the action. Your ‘base’ is open and now you navigate to actions. Start by creating a folder for your new actions called ‘all-in-one wms actions’.
To make the first actions, click ‘create new action’ and name it ‘unnaturals’ (for the unnaturals), ‘naturals’ (for the naturals) and ‘neutrals’ (for the neutrals). Make sure the set is set to ‘all-in-one wms actions’. Press record.
Now it’s time for the tedious task, which is to play all the actions provided by WMS. Go to history and make sure you haven’t done anything to the image. Play the first in action in whatever palette you’re choosing, and press ‘ctrl+shift+s’ to save your file as a new file. Relocate to the folder you made a little while ago on your desktop (or where else you placed it), and go into the folder with the matching palette. Name the first action ‘1′. Once saved it’ll send you back to your base that is recolored. Go to history and press ‘base’ or ‘open’, whatever is the first thing you can press. Now it’s time for the next action in the palette. Do the same but name that file ‘2′. Keep doing this until you’ve gone through all of the actions/colors. There are 35 unnaturals, 20 naturals and 20 neutrals.
Once you’ve run all actions in each palette, click on the small record button under actions, to stop your action. And there you have your all in one actions!
6. Importing recolors into S4S
Open up your folder in which you placed your .package file in (fx. documents\homemade\wms recolors\*creator name*\*hair name*\). There should be a folder for each of the palettes in there (+ one for pictures).
Open up another your folder in which you placed the recolored .dds files (fx. desktop\currently recoloring).
Go to the first color palette named folder (fx. un (for unnaturals)) and cut those files (ctrl+x). Paste those into the other folder (with the .package file) and into the matching palette folder. Do that for all the palettes.
You should now have 3 filled folders with .dds recolors in your ‘homemade’ folder.
Open up your recolor in S4S. There are 18 different hair swatches. Delete swatches until you have only one swatch left.
Go to the warehouse tab in S4S. Here there are two sections, the right and the left section. On the left you should see the same swatch as the one you have in the studio. Go to the right and locate the search bar. In the search bar type ‘sec(ondarydisplayindex) and the SDI (secondarydisplayindex) will pop up. Change whatever number you have there to either ‘195′ (for unnaturals), ‘395′ (for naturals) or ‘595′ (for neutrals. If it’s easier for you to remeber, you can add five to each number so it’ll be 200, 400 and 600.
Now go back into the studio, and press ‘tools’ in the bar at top. Under that press ‘color palette’ and a new window will pop up. Find whatever palette you’re recoloring in and apply the palette to the package. It will then ask you if you’d like to keep the existing swatch, press no.
The palette you’re recoloring in will be imported into your .package file. Now you have to import all the .dds files into each of the swatches. Click import and locate your recolored .dds files (they should be in documents\homemade\wms recolors\*creator name*\*hair name*\*palette name*).
7. Finishing up the packages
Now that all the swatches has been imported, the recolor is almost done. Save your .package file. Repeat section 6 with all three palettes.
Go to the folder where your .package file is located in and rename it so that people can identify it when they download it (if you’re uploading the recolors of course). Mine are normally called ‘-CUBERSIMS- *hair creator* *hair name* recolor WMS *PALETTE* ADDONS. But you can customize any way you’d like!
Now you should have 3 files named after each palette. To merge the packages into one .package file, go back into S4S. Go to the tab bar and click ‘content management’ and then ‘merge packages’.
A new window will pop up. Click add and add/import the 3 recolored files. Click ‘merge’ and save the new .package file with a new name (fx. mine looks like this: -CUBERSIMS- *hair creator* *hair name* recolor WMS ALL ADDONS MERGED)
Now you should have 4 .package files. One for each of the palettes, and one for all the palettes.
Put the merged .package file into you game (where you put cc) and test your recolors!
And that is it! You made a recolor! Good job!
I hope this tutorial could help you guys out there, who wants to either start recoloring, or update their recoloring method.
If you used this tutorial, feel free to tag me in your posts with WMS recolors! I’d love to see what you guys create, and reblog it to my cc finds :D