I’m working on finishing up this “mixed use housing” build. It’ll have a bakery/restaurant and a clothing boutique downstairs, and two apartments upstairs. It’s come along further since this screenshot.
Hayley aka loobysims is only £280 (or $435.70 USD) from her goal! Let’s help her reach it this weekend!
I added another £15 via PayPal. Now, it’s your turn! http://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair4hayley
Let’s make a sizable dent, and I’ll release this build I’ve been working on for awhile to help the cause.
I’ve been wanting to make some CC nerd girl shirts for my friend Hayley (aka @loobyloucreations) for a while now, but I don’t know how to make CC. Instead, I made CAP patterns to use on t-shirts.
This is my first time using MediaFire, so hopefully I did it right. The folder includes both the t-shirt recolors and the CAP sims3packs.
DOWNLOAD
There are 5 shirts.
SouffleGirl: “Keep Calm and Bake Soufflés” (Doctor Who)
Stunning: “Set Your Phasers to Stunning” (Star Trek)
Raichu: “I’m Not Gonna Raichu A Love Song” (Pokémon)
My intention was to make shirts of Hayley’s favorites, but I think I accidentally did my favorites instead. Oops.
For those who aren’t aware, Hayley has a seizure disorder that confines her to a wheelchair. Unfortunately, the wheelchair she is currently using just isn’t the right for her body and is on it’s last legs. Please consider donating a little something to help Hayley buy a new wheelchair. http://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair4hayley
What a great day! It always helps to start the day with a good laugh. Humor is contagious, too. Thank you everyone for making this so much fun and using laughs to spread the word.
We have some target CC pledged for when we hit gofundme goals! Pleyita has a darling world to offer us for when we reach £1500 and Demonwolf is prolifically creating fabulous retextures to mark these milestones.
Tonight I want to thank you especially for sharing this campaign outside of Tumblr, on other websites, email, twitter, and reddit. Remember that with paypal you can still donate even if you cannot spare a full £5 by using the email listed on the gofundme page:
If you follow the #CCforHayley and #SimsForHayley tags, you will have seen some of these great posts in the last two days, featuring awesome sims creations and promoting Hayley's gofundme:
TS4 builds by historicalsimslife, littlebrokenplumbob, and simkea
TS3 objects by Everlasting Garden and a TS3 house by whitsims
TS4 CAS creations by morganabanana and habbie sims
TS3 hair by demonwolf and danjaley
tutorials by historicalsimslife and aminovas
an incredible default Moon commemorating the October 8 eclipse by simsl3gacies
Thank you, everyone SO MUCH for sharing your creations with us, and promoting and donating to Hayley's gofundme! We are completely amazed and touched by how supportive this community is. Together we can help Hayley get her new wheelchair and make a profound difference in the life of a fellow simmer.
Make your Own Graffiti Mod:
University Street Art for the Sims 3
This is a DIY mod. You can see my old Graffiti mod here. In the longer tutorial, you can find a lot more detailed description of how to work with the images. I show you how I used this to make this street tag to express my solidarity with my friend and fellow-simmer Hayley. If you haven't already, consider contributing to her gofundme. It takes only $1.62 US to be able to contribute and our small change can really add up a big life-changing item for Hayley. With this post I'm going to break the ice on small donations and make a £1 donation. Will join me donating £1? Thank you! And a big thank you to Spladoum for the ask that inspired this!
edit: You can donate smaller change through PayPal! It doesn't even have to round off to a full pound: [email protected]
Download the Solidarity with Hayley graffiti tag: mediafire
(This will only replace one of the many high-skill 3x3 murals in the University street art skill.)
The short tutorial:
1. Download the original images (dropbox or mediafire) or go hunt for them yourself (why would you do that? I have done it for you!)
2. find the four images you want to mod, open them in a DDS-capable graphics program. You can also work from one of the three "blank murals" or even my PSD files which have pre-extracted alphas for making your own alphas, and simply "save as" whatever file you want to mod.
3. modify them, save them as DXT5 ARGB 8 with the original file name.
4. Import these altered images into a new package in S3PE and name it something cool. Voila!
For the long tutorial with lots more images and tips, read more below!
The long tutorial:
Requirements:
S3PE*
a program that can edit DDS files (this is written for Photoshop)** and the ability to use it and look up stuff you don't know
The original University graffiti image files (download: dropbox mediafire)
images that you want to make graffiti out of!***
Steps:
1. Identify the image you want to modify and the FOUR files that go with it. Files are named by talent rating (low, med, high, master), size (1x1, 2x2, 3x3), a letter designation, and then a number indicating which of the four stages (1,2,3,4).
In photoshop they look like this (with their alpha channels next to them):
2. Set your original images aside in a seperate folder for reference and copy the files you want to mod to a new folder. This is important in case you make a mistake, so you can go back to see the original and their associated file names. You will create new images and save them over these duplicate images to make your mod.
3. Layering your image:
I suggest starting your mural by opening one of the three "blank" images (find them in the "blank mural frames" folder. I find it helpful to work in a new layers and use the background frame image as a reference.
I also recommend using multiple layers to represent the first, second, and final stage of your painting. If you aren't creating the image from scratch, think about decomposing it as if you were painting it from scratch: what is the underpainting or outline? what gets layered on top? what is the final detail? The more these three layer sets look good actually layered on top of each other, the more realistic the progression will be. Working in layers will also make it much easier to coordinate alpha layers
Keep in mind that if you want to increase the resolution of your image, you may do so, doubling the image size (but keeping the same proportion).
tip: Try adjusting brightness and contrast and using filters such as poster edges and photocopy to create stencil like effects
tip: there are awesome fonts out there! The font I use in this example is MostWazted.
4. Making Alphas: Once you have your image finished, you hopefully have a background image (the "blank" canvas with the slight shape of the tape), your first image, second image, and final image, and the alpha layer with the tape outline. The next step is to make an alpha layer for each one. There are lots of ways to generate an alpha from a layer with transparency, and this is my way:
duplicate your image and make that new layer active
go to image --> adjustments --> hue/saturation. Crank the lightness ALL THE WAY to the top, so the opaque bits of your layer are entirely white.
make a layer below the layer in step two and make it entirely black
merge these two layers together. this will be our alpha layer for that image
For the first and second images, they need to have the frame included in the alpha. To isolate this, you can either work in one of my PSD files (included in the "blank murals" folder), OR you can isolate it yourself. There is probably an easier way to do this, but this is my precise but convoluted way:
copy your alpha layer and past it into your regular RGB layers
add a mask specifically for that layer
paste that same alpha layer into that mask layer
apply the mask layer, and you will get the isolated "white" frame
Place the white frame above the appropriate alpha layer for the first and second images that need the frame ONLY. Simply merge it into your alpha layer.
Again, the final and faded image DO NOT need the frame in the alpha!
5. Making your "faded" image. You may simply use your third "finished" image to create the fourth faded image and just muss up the alpha like in the EA examples. You can do this by using a black brush on the alpha, with a low opacity. You can also get crafty and decompose your actual image so it drips, blurs, and fades in some places and not in others. You may want to look for grunge filters to help you do this. Remember to match the alpha and the image.
When I am all ready to start saving the images, my PSD file layers look like this:
5. Saving your file: You can either open up each image you want to modify and COPY the appropriate RGB layer and alpha layer into the image and its mask, and then save. Remember to merge your new image with it's blank background before doing this. OR you can save directly from your file with multiple layers, making each image you want visible one at a time, swapping out the appropriate alpha layer with the actual alpha channel of the file, and doing "save as... (whatever the name of the image you want to mod is)". Save as DXT5 rgba 8. (above: the highlighted layer is what I have copied to the alpha channel; and the first image is made visible above the background, and all I have to do is "save as" and click the first image DDS to overwrite it.)
6. Take your finished images and import them into a new package in S3PE. Name it something awesome myname_graffitimodTHEBEST or whatever. And that is pretty much it! I hope this makes sense!
requirement notes:
* and the ability to open and make new packages, andimport/export files from packages
**Gimp is free! Photoshop requires an NVidia plugin that may not be available for Mac. Gimp may also require DDS plugins, and these will also be free.
*** You can also use my existing graffit mod and modify it however you please. My TOU on that states that even if you just swap out one image you are welcome to share it (please be sure to blame me for the images that aren't as awesome as yours)
Simmers rock! One of the donators (not to name names) gave up fast food for a week to be able to give! So great (but, please, don't starve yourself! Eat!). The small change really adds up. Every single contribution helps! Even if it is only a couple of dollars or pounds.
For those who have missed it, we are rallying to help Hayley reach her GoFundMe goals so she can get a desperately needed new wheelchair, for her comfort and the mobility to meet her basic everyday needs. Hayley is a Simmer, so of course we are using Sims to get her there!
Thank you so much to everyone for all the likes, reblogs, and lovely comments, and THANK YOU to the CC contributors who promoted Hayley's campaign along with their creations:
Sad Girl Pose Set at noelyely.tumblr.com
Photography Paintings at catchingpixels.tumblr.com
Mel's Yoga Mat at mspoodle1.tumblr.com
THANK YOU!!! And of course a massive thank you to everyone who donated! A million thanks, from Hayley!
You can follow the campaign and the creations and the Sim shenanigans at NewWheelchair or you can follow CCforHayley for CC exclusive updates ONLY or SimsForHayley for Sim shenanigans ONLY. For all of the above, follow NewWheelchair. All sites have information about how to join in the fun. There is a long way yet to go, and so if you've got some ideas in mind for CC or for Sims photos and stories and gameplay, please consider using your posts to promote Hayley's campaign, or using them to make a mini-campaign.
