WCIF a sims 3 to sims 2 conversion tutorial?

[DigitalSympathies]

Hey!

I've spent about the last hour on Google looking for a thorough, clear tutorial on converting a sims 3 object into sims 2. My main objective is taking the bicycle from Sims 3 and converting it as a static object for Sims 2, as I need it for machinima purposes. I don't need it animated as camera angles can suffice. :) Is there anywhere I can find one of these tutorials on how to do this? I have all the tools I'll need otherwise and can use them fairly well, simPE more than s3pe to be honest. Thanks!

[Honeywell]

I just needed a refresher on this the other day and found the one Jonesi wrote up at BlackPearl Sims easy to follow (http://www.blackpearlsims.com/showthread.php?31726-Sims-3-Mesh-Conversion-Tutorial-Using-MTS-Tools).

ETA:
Once you have the mesh extracted you'll probably need to follow another tutorial for creating an object for Sims 2 if you haven't made anything before this.

[DigitalSympathies]

Thanks, Honeywell. I have done a few objects (my first one was a lit-up school announcements front-lawn-type sign back in '07, I believe, and then a ceiling lamp) but I have one question, is there anything different about this (ie, will any problems arise) if the object is intended to be animated in TS3 but not in TS2?

[Honeywell]

You won't have any problems because all you're keeping from the Sims 3 package are the 3d mesh and textures you extract. Once you have those two things it's just a matter of cloning an object in SimPE and replacing the mesh and textures with the bike ones.

[bleueyedbrunette]

Sorry to bump, but when I went to the link supplied, it looked like it was for converting sims 2 objects to sims 3 objects. ( from this line: 'This tute is how I managed to get a mesh converted from Sims 2 to Sims 3) 'x_x Am I just sleep deprived, or am is this the case.

If it is, is there another tutorial out there for converting TS3 clothing into TS2 clothing? Thanks a bunch!! There are some outfits i REALLY want for my sims 2, that are hard to find in such nice quality. So it's a huge bummer if I can't find a way to convert them. D:

[simmer22]

I've used TSR Workshop for extracting meshes and textures. The nice thing is that it's easy to extract the whole texture, and that you can recolor the mesh while in TSRW (patterns and colors)if you intend to use the same UV-mapping. Perhaps best for objects, though.

I have yet to see a tutorial about clothing conversions (but I'd like a link if anyone finds a tutorial...)

Outfits are much more difficult, as the UVmapping for bodies is completely different from TS3 to TS2, so if you want skin showing (hands, feet, legs, arms, neck...) you're in for a big job. You can use alpha meshing if the UV-mapping is too dificult to convert (put the mesh parts from TS2 on an original layer and parts from TS3 on an alpha layer, so they can use different UV-maps without problems). Also, the TS3 clothing comes in more parts. There's shoes, pants and tops, so if you want full body outfits you might also get in trouble with UV-mapping. There's also the problem with bone assignments. I know there's a plugin that converts TS2 bone assignments to TS3, but I'm not sure if there's one that takes it the other way. So be prepared for a long ordeal with bone assigning.

Parts like shoes and such are probably much easier to convert than full body outfits. There's a reason there's very little TS3-to-TS2 clothing. Hairs, shoes and objects are much simpler to convert than clothing.

Do you know how to make TS2 clothing? If not, try making some meshes first, to get the hang of it. Conversion meshes from one age to another, or part-swapping is nice to know, too (shoe-swaps are easy, but swapping parts on the top half of the outfit gives you better practice). Then try alpha meshing. If you know those things, you've actually gotten very far.

[Miss SugarKiss]

Thanks a bunch. I have a fair amount of experience with UV mapping, (even to the point where I managed to fix a mangled Zion mesh with no UVs from BBS from the kingdom hearts franchise)... so that doesn't scare me too much. Too bad I don't have a ton of time on my hands now though. Thanks again though! :)

Edit: I just realized I signed in under an old username I totally forgot I had. Doh. *facepalm* This is BleuEyedBrunette. lol