Finally! Took me a while, huh. This is the updated version of the Tattooer project. It skips some steps, making the workflow much, much faster! Huge thanks to @applewatersugar for his
suggestion on how to bake textures while preserving the transparency. This is kind of a repost of the original Tattooer post, but it actually has some new stuff and a few changes here and there, so please take a look if you want to learn how to use this new version.
This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. The different Blender files will allow you to:
-Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female)
-Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male)
-Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male)
-Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!]
-New! Bake face textures from TS4 to TS2 (Unisex) [Bonus!]
-Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) (Unisex) [Still experimental]
Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give.
Everything you see in the render above was 100% converted using those Blender files.
Download here! SFS / GD
Update: Version 3.4.1 (27/08/2023) Fixed some issues on the shoulders for the AF-body-4t2-1024 and AF-body-4t2-2048 templates. Now the top straps on most converted underwear/swimwear should look right.
Update: Same version (13/12/2023) As requested, added a new spanish version of the included pdf guide!
These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2:
-Tattoos.
-Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details…
-Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body.
-Socks, stockings and maybe leggings.
-Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins.
-Makeup, eyebrows and beards. In the old version this was just a proof of concept, but now I’ve added a new Face file template which gives some pretty decent results!
-Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.
Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!
You will need to download Blender, at least version 3.4, but you could always use a newer version. It is only incompatible with versions older than 3.4.
-You can download Blender for free here.
-You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want.
In the first version of these Blender files, there was a necessary step using Photoshop, but that’s no longer needed. However, there’s still a tiny extra step which requires resizing the newly baked texture on some of the high resolution templates, so you might need a 2D editing program like Photoshop. More on that later.
So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a video projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.
This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example (properly credited at the end of the post). Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!
·EXTRACTING TEXTURES IN SIMS 4 STUDIO:
First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. It should be pretty straightforward. Just open the packages and export the Diffuse textures. Keep them organized in a folder for easy access.
·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER:
PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS:
Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it up correctly.
If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).
PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE:
Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (3) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). You might need to do this second step with the other Blender files, but once you have it done and saved, you won’t need to do this again. Okay, time to get into the good stuff!
·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE:
In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily preview your textures here. The icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load the texture into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.
·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE:
On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.
·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE:
Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).
You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). And that’s it! You’ve successfully converted your baked texture. Congrats!
·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1:
Alright! If you’re done with your textures, you can close Blender without saving and call it a day. But let’s say you want to keep baking other swatches. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select “ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load your next swatch.
Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.
In case you’d like a video tutorial on how to use these files, the amazing @platinumaspiration recorded this fantastic video showcasing the process! You can watch it here.
One final note: some of the baking .blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution (or lower if needed). I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that might look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution texture, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them using your 2D editing software of choice.
In Photoshop, in the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.
For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender (512 for the face and scalp).
And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I still have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.
Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me here and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!
Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration:
-Skin by Sims3Melancholic.
-Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds.
-Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie.
-Tattoos by xtc.
-Top by SerenityCC.
And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim.
Last but not least, a huge thanks to all the people who somehow contributed to make this project and update possible, either by doing initial testing, finding issues to fix, or teaching me new Blender tricks to make the workflow way faster and easier. So thanks again to @elvisgrace @moyokeansimblr and @applewatersugar on Tumblr! <3
And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this (not so) new toy hehe.
Hi paluding! i recently saw you have set up your game in spanish... i didn't know you were spanish speaker!! genial. the question is, can you PLEASE translate your sim tattooer tutorial for us who doesn't really know english very well? ¡gracias!
¡Dicho y hecho!
Added spanish translation for the Tattooer guide :D
Descárgalo otra vez y verás un nuevo pdf con la guía en español. Si tienes dudas con algo, házmelo saber y estaré encantado de echarte un cable en lo que sea.
Hi, folks! Today I have a couple sneak peeks of what's coming up soon here. First of all, damn, you really liked that Tattooer project, huh. Thank you so much for the interest and love, and I have to say, there's more coming soon! So that part of the process that involves removing the alpha channel and then adding it back using some actions in Photoshop? Yeah, forget about that. A really cool simmer here told me about a neat little trick with the most recent version of Blender that preserves the transparencies during the texture baking process, so expect an update on the entire project and tutorial in the coming days.
Obviously I've been working on new stuff to add and update to the Tattooer project while I was there, so here goes a sneak peek under the cut!
I was not happy at all with the first face tattooer thingy version I did, hence why it says it's experimental, so I had to make a new and improved version.
Surely that face does not look impressed, does she? Well, I decided to sit down for a few hours and put into practice what I've learned in this fantastic free masterclass on youtube remapping the Sims 2 face so it matches the Sims 4 face UV mapping. If you want to learn about UV mapping and unwrapping in Blender, I totally recommend watching that video, such a life changer! I've tested texture baking with this new version using a few S4 makeup cc and honestly, I'm quite happy with the results for now!
And finally, as a bonus, I came up with a new way to make our own tattoos from scratch, as easily as possible.
This one is focused on the arms and legs, which usually are the most problematic parts of the body to texture. Unfortunately this project will also require just a little bit more knowledge about how to use Blender, but I think it can still be really useful! It's basically a cylinder that automatically wraps around the arms and legs, kinda like a sleeve, and then you can just bake the texture from the cylinder directly into the Sim body. You could wrap that cylinder around other parts of the body, but don't expect it to look as good as around the arms and legs… So for those cases I will also add a square plane object that also adapts to the shape of the body. It works literally like those tattoos you could find inside those Cheetos chip bags back in the day lol. Want to know the coolest part about this? As you can see on the image, those objects' UV maps are extremely simple. No more messing around with that weird original S2 UV map, trying to stretch and match your texture to fit it in Photoshop. You can just slap your texture in, bake it, and it will mostly look good and seamless, just like that!
So yeah, this is what I've been working on these past couple weeks. I can't wait to properly share them all! Can't say exactly when it's going to happen, though. I've been pretty busy lately with my studies, and also got sick, yay. But oh well, let's just say "coming soon", at least for now.
if you somehow make a sims 4 to Sims 3 tattooer...my life will literally be yours! 💕
Hi! I do plan on adding 3t2 templates in the next version of the Tattooer, so while I'm there I'll probably put together a few extra 4t3 ones. Thanks for the interest, and sorry it's taking me so long to update it! I've been receiving so much valuable feedback and suggestions for it since the last update, thanks to everyone who did, you know who you are, and I'll make sure to credit you all when I post it <3
As of when I'll post said update, I know I said it would be soonish... like ages ago. Apologies for that, I've been busy with other stuff and I figured since the current version gives decent results, it wouldn't be that much of a rush to update it (though I definitely need to post a fixed version for the Face template, that one desperately needs fixing around the lips). So I still can't make any promises on when I'll get the next version ready, but do know that I'm still on it.
I keep learning new stuff in Blender, and I was hoping someday I would find something to automate the baking process but uh... yeah that's still more on the Python programming side of Blender, not exactly just 3D modeling. That to me is alien territory lol.
But yeah if you're interested in what should be coming in the next big update, that would be completing all the missing ages, adding 3t2 support (and 4t3, sure why not!), and fine tuning the workflow so baking each texture takes a little less time, which adds up if you have a huge swatch to convert. Also, also, some experimental templates! One for bodypainted high boots, I've seen a couple for ts4 and this template gives pretty decent results. And finally fully custom templates, so you can slap a decal anywhere and bake your very own design. Even supports sleeve designs seamlessly wrapping around arms and legs. It might look wonky in some areas, but I'm really happy with those templates hehe.
Of course all of this still using the same Blender 3.4+ version. I don't want people switching Blender versions everytime I release an update if it's not necessary.
could the tattooer theoretically be used to convert sims 2 tattoos/skins/etc. to sims 4? if so, how do i reverse the process?
Hi! Of course, it would be a matter of swapping the materials and doing the baking process the other way around, selecting the ts2 mesh first and then the ts4 mesh. Pretty easy stuff! It shouldn't take you more than a couple minutes to set up. I'll put the process on how to do it under the cut.
First, with the "ts4 body" mesh selected, click on the black and white ball icon and on the drop down menu select "Material".
Then, do the same for the "ts2 body" mesh. Select it and on the drop down menu select the other material, "Material.002" in this case.
You're almost done. All that's left to do is making a new texture for baking that will work well in the Sims 4. Select once again "ts4 body" and unlink the texture by clicking the X icon.
Click on that "New" button to make a new texture.
And on the menu that shows up, give it a new name (I named it "Bakedts4" this time) and change the height from 1024 to 2048 pixels. Leave the width at 1024. Then click OK.
And that's it! Save a copy of this template if you want to use it in the future. This "materials swapping process" should work with any of my 4t2 templates I think. So once again, to bake textures with these new templates, you will need to load the Sims 2 texture on the Sims 2 mesh, then select first "ts2 body", hold down the Ctrl key and select "ts4 body". Then click the Bake button and you will find your new Sims 4 texture in the UV Editing tab on top, just like the regular Tattooer process.
I have to say though, as I already said when I shared the original templates, these are not 100% perfect, so you might find some stuff looking warped, or some weird pixels getting baked where they shouldn't, like here.
It'd be a matter of manually editing them out using a 2D editing app. Sorry for the inconveniences you might find! If you run into any issues or struggle swapping the materials, feel free to DM me and I'll see what I can do to help :)
