mirror - how to clone and how to recolor it

[LALABUBUS]

Is there any of you who is able/willing to give me a hand with problem of mirror meshing, I shall be incredible grateful.
I've asked something similar while ago but haven't received an answer.


My questions are:

1. does anyone know about any user friendly and not hyper-advanced tutorial about how to make a mirror from the scratch or any tutorial about it at all? I've never seen it.
2. how to clone a mirror properly to solve problems like these - mirror subsets are not in the same position while cloning, the worst nightmare happens when I've tried to resize it.
It sounds impossible to me at this point to make my own one because of lack of basic info, in fact I have to base everything on improvisation which doesn't end well.


As you can see at my milkshape screenshot below, all mirror subsets (frame, reflection, glass etc.) float in strange positions and I have no idea how to put them in right one, one that would work:

http://i50.tinypic.com/2cy3d5j.jpg



3. how to recolor a mirror to give it dirty, slightly broken, cracked look?
The first problem in solving that is adding a subset to and ordinary maxis mirror that is recolorable, I suppose. I've failed with that although I followed a tutorial here:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=103379

OK, when I failed with it, I decided to pick up one and only maxis mirror that already has that subset and...failed again :rolleyes: .
The results of my lousy efforts can be seen below (do not pay attention to landscape recolor, it's just an example of glass recolor):


http://i45.tinypic.com/2r2rcaq.jpg

(Mirror looks almost OK here).




http://i47.tinypic.com/2hx1269.jpg

(This is the same mirror but it's slightly moved off/from the wall).


Many, many thanks in advance for any help offered.

[Echo]

1. does anyone know about any user friendly and not hyper-advanced tutorial about how to make a mirror from the scratch or any tutorial about it at all? I've never seen it.Alas, I do not believe such a thing exists. Mirrors are hard. Really hard.
2. how to clone a mirror properly to solve problems like these - mirror subsets are not in the same position while cloning, the worst nightmare happens when I've tried to resize it.That's the part which is hard, and which I think is pretty much undocumented. I've read some of the theory, but never managed to get it to work. The best you can really do with mirrors is alter their frames, you can't resize or reorient or reshape them.

in fact I have to base everything on improvisation which doesn't end well.Don't underestimate the power of improvisation. Every tutorial and piece of documentation you find on MTS is the result of people improvising until something worked. We don't have any special insider information from EA. :) You never know, you might end up being the person who figures it out and posts the first tutorial on it!

3. how to recolor a mirror to give it dirty, slightly broken, cracked look? I think probably the best way to do that would be to add a transparent subset to the frame mesh, and draw the dirt/cracks onto that subset. Then it's part of the frame, which is both recolourable and remeshable. If you put that subset flat and close to the mirror surface, it would give the effect of having the mirror itself dirty and/or cracked. :)

[LALABUBUS]

Thank you very much for answer and please accept my apologize for being late in reply, I am almost constantly banned at this forum (I've been explained it's by chance, not for violating rules) so I cannot see threads.


Don't underestimate the power of improvisation.

OK, I won't give up :).



I think probably the best way to do that would be to add a transparent subset to the frame mesh, and draw the dirt/cracks onto that subset. Then it's part of the frame, which is both recolourable and remeshable. If you put that subset flat and close to the mirror surface, it would give the effect of having the mirror itself dirty and/or cracked.

Sure, I failed at adding a new subset for now, but I'll try to solve it.

[~Dee~]

Sorry for budding in here, but Echo when you say "The best you can really do with mirrors is alter their frames, you can't resize or reorient or reshape them."
Do you mean the reflection itself, because I've resized many mirrors without a problem, if you mean something else by that I apologise.

Obviously if you want a round or square mirror, you use a clone what already has that shape, but you can reshape or resize it, just mesh the shape you want and replace it.

Mirrors are always hard to do, you've to fiddle with the reflection to get it in the right place, what can take awhile. :)