Tutorial: Basic Clothing Mesh Tutorial Bodychop/Milkshape

[NeptuneSuzy]

This tutorial is outdated, and the bodychop plugin is no longer available - it has been replaced by the Unimesh plugin, it remains for information and for those who are still choosing to use the old plugin, but is now unsupported.

See this tutorial for using the Milkshape Unimesh Plugin:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=142305

Btw, if you do follow this tutorial, be sure to NOTE the bone assignments made on the morph before deleting it, and reassign them or your sim will have sharp shoulders and some animations will be less smooth.

--- end edit ---

Several people have asked me how to make a clothing mesh, so I decided to make a Basic Clothing Mesh Tutorial.
This Tutorial is meant for the beginner who has never made a clothing mesh before. However, basic knowledge of BodyShop, SimPE and Milkshape would help greatly!

I will be using:

1) The newest graphical version of SimPe (as of 11/20/2005)
http://sims.ambertation.de/

2) Milkshape
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/

3) WesH's Bodychop Milkshape Plugin
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=50219

WesH's Plugin allows us to remove and add vertices to our mesh, as opposed to the Meshtool which is limited in that it only allows us to move vertices around.
WesH's Plugin allows us to assign/reassaign vertices to joints, the meshtool doesn't
WesH's Plugin allows us to edit the different bodygroups, fit/fat/pregnant, which the Meshtool doesn't.

And, thanks to Numenor, I have used the most up-to-date information available to correctly create a working package.

My goal is to introduce you to Body Mesh Creation. How far you would like to go with it is up to you. I intend to show you the way that I alter a mesh, move vertices etc. There are other tools and other ways to go about this. This is just one way and one set of tools. But I wanted to share with everyone the way I do it, so here it is!


I hope it helps some of you on the road to making Sims2 Body Meshes!

Suzy
:)

[Numenor]

Thank you NeptuneSuzy for this well-explained and easy-to-follow tutorial!

(Thread moved to Tutorial forum)

[roxy99]

Wow! Excellent congratualtions. Its about time we have an upto date Clothing Tutorial. The BriAnna tutorial is starting to become old now.

[tiggerypum]

This tutorial is not a replacement for Brianna's though. This one is a bodychop tutorial, whereas Brianna's is basic meshtool. It is well put together from what I could tell at first read.

[darkpsyfox]

does it work only for females? I tried it on a child swimming shorts mesh, but ended up with blue lines all over the place in milkshape...

[roxy99]

It works on all clothing meshes

[Jerzidoll]

Much thanks susie this is just what i was trying to find, something for someone who has no clue at this point where or how to start lol Thx.:P

[yourRumor]

This is a wonderful tutorial but...I'm having some problems.

One, I'm confused about Step 2. It says "Open SimPe, Go to File, Open and navigate to the Saved Sims folder to open the temp texture from bodyshop.

How did Temp Texture end up in Saved Sims? I'm guessing when it was imported in body shop but I'm not finding any Pants.package (I'm editing the NL bottom wide jeans) in the Saved Sims folder. I only have Pants.package in my Projects > Pants folder. Clarification on that part would help.

Second, I complete the tutorial, go to check my project in bodyshop and there is no change. I suspect it has something to do with what I mentioned above. I've gone through this tutorial numerous times now to get the same result. My preview of the mesh that's shown in SimPe is perfectAny help is appreciated.

[yourRumor]

Nevermind, I figured it out. :P

[amel213]

Thank you so much!! i tried many times to make meshes and i never get any result.. with your tutorial i made my first mesh at the first attempt!

[lalena2248]

Thank you so much!! i tried many times to make meshes and i never get any result.. with your tutorial i made my first mesh at the first attempt!

Same here. I tried over and over again w/ Brianna's tutorial and was unsuccessful. I had the dreaded exploded mesh, the one where a totally different dress showed up and I did EVERY step correctly. But, my first mesh turned out completely awesome with this tutorial Thank you! :beer:

[Kristos_Kazare]

Ok, I was able to follow the tutorial and it all worked. So I figured I would do something based off a shirt. It only had two peices to it. The top part and then BODYMOD.1. So, it saying that if the vert count isn't the same, then it wouldn't export. So I created for both of them, regrouped and rename, but when I go to export, it says the the morph for bodymod.1 is missing? When you create a new face it makes a new object and you have to regroup and rename, or is there another way of doing it that I'm missing?

[amberandcarlos33]

I can't seem to Import the mesh I created when using the tutorial. I downloaded WesH's Bodychop Plugin for Milkshape but when I click on File Import, Milkshape automatically closes. Could the problem be caused because I have only downloaded a trial version of MilkShape and have not registered it? I can't import anything nor can I open anything without MilkShape closing on me. Any suggestions/solutions?

Thanks,
Amber

[Menaceman44]

OK. I have read through this tutorial and it seems easy to follow but I have not tried it yet as I don't have the sims2 on this computer. I was just wondering. What would I do different if I wanted to replace a mesh instead of creating a new one?
(thanks for this. I'll let you know how it goes when I manage to try it)

[Fanordi17]

Where do you download Sim PE? I tried the link on one of the other tutorials but the Download section didn't work...

[Numenor]

http://sims.ambertation.de/en/download/

[Xianah]

I tried this as after a year I had never been able to follow other tuts (anyway with the newer versions of SimPe, I see no 'export to OBJ' anyway). I did finally edit a mesh in a very basic way - I just edited the bodyshape of the basic bikini mesh. It turned out well, the meshes chest jointing is a teenzy bit off I noticed in the game, I was carful not to move the chest out of jointing zone - and the overall mesh its not as smooth as the original esp around the shoulders ( i didn't export the LO version).
I think from making meshing for other things *non sims* editing 'human' meshing in a zero-pose (arms up legs slightly apart) can produce jointing probs when the mesh is animated or moved back to a normal pose, anyhoo - but I was very very pleased I had actually done it!! I really miss meshing *grin*

Then I tried one of the UNI adult trumpet dress and I don't know what I did wrong but it kinda exploded... I had all these juts and spikes from the mesh very odd.

Oh for the day when some bright spark invents a plug-in that does the million fiddley steps to get the mesh into Milkshape and back in the game for you!!... LOL

Also i'd love further advise on how to add verts, like ading new boots and what I would do as far as assigning the new parts joints and what area is best to move. I had been meshing for TS1 for years so I know how the jointing works on them and how far I can push things before things totally disort. I would probably want to add new boots, so i would love to know how to do this as far as jointing ( i know you should never move sims knees) and what to do about adding new mesh parts. As I am totally cluless how this works for TS2 meshing.

Thanks Neptune Suzy & MTS2
-Xianah-
xXx

[h-master]

Thank you Susy for this wonderful tutorial! It helps a lot...
But it doesn´t seem you visit this thread anymore.

@Xianah:
When you follow this tutorial there is no need to use the SimPe Export button. If you want to attach more vertices to a mesh you must use the milkshape plug-ins made by Wes_h (the "Body Chop" ones).

Anyway, the Export Button is still there: Highlight the GMDC of your Mesh in SimPe and, down in the bottom area, choose the tab "3D Mesh". There you will see the Export, but also an Import-, Previewbutton and some more useful checkboxes.

I followed the links in Suzy´s Tutorial and found more interesting tutorials.
Another good one was written by "Dr Pixel":
http://drpixel.noneto.com/Al_tut.htm

Always look out for Dr Pixel, he´s a guy who know much about meshing and such stuff ;)

Have nice meshing everybody...

[NeptuneSuzy]

h-Master, I was just about to post DrPixels' Tutorial!

Doc is my body meshing Guru! LOL!

When it it comes to adding parts etc, I'm still no expert!

Anyway, I've been really busy at work the last few weeks......but I'm still here!


amberandcarlos33......when it comes to Milkshaping closing/crashing, I don't have much of an answer, but I don't think it's because you have a trial version
You could try to re-install it.....
Or, Maybe someone else out there knows why it closes on you when you hiy import.


Kristos_Kazare..........I've never regrouped and renamed the bodymorphs......I've always edite dthem as they are and left them named accordingly, so I'm not really sure how this would work.......
I hope to have time this wekend to look into some of these things....I'm very curious


Thanks to all for your comments!

:)

[Menaceman44]

I said I'd let you know how things went once I had managed to have a go so here goes; I found it VERY easy to follow and managed to get a new mesh successfully into the game on my first attempt! It had a few holes in it were I had stretched points too far away from the "seam" but I know what to do in future. I suppose I made things more difficult for myself though because I went straight to a mesh I wanted to change and didn't bother with the dress. If anyone can tell me how to replace meshes now then I will be a very happy bunny! :D Thanks for the brilliant tutorial.

[Menaceman44]

Ok. Through trial and error I have now managed to successfully replace a mesh! but with a slight problem...
The mesh I was editing was the unisex child mesh. The change that I made and wanted to only effect males also effects the girls as well!!! Does anyone know how I can get the file to only override males?
If nobody knows I'm going to keep trying to sort it myself anyway.

[tiggerypum]

Sounds to me like you skipped the fix integrity part when you were first building your mesh. The changed mesh should not replace any meshes in the game.

[freakdi]

I just want to say thank you. :) This is a fantastic tutorial! I've been able to follow it so far with zero problems. GREAT work! I'm not done with my mesh yet so we'll see how it turns out. I just couldn't resist the urge to drop back in this thread and say something.

[ladydrb58]

I have gotten as far as importing the mesh created using this tutorial into Milkshape. I am using Milkshape version 1.7.6 which is the latest one. It is registered. When I use the Bodychop to import this is the way it loads.

Someone stated that it is surpose to be this way, but if that is the case how do you see to edit the mesh.

Need some help with this.

Thanks

[NeptuneSuzy]

ladydrb58....Those blue lines are the joints. For some reason the default size is huge! But it's no problem, all you have to do is go to the "File" menu, pick "Preferences"..............In "Preferences" click the "Misc" tab. Where it says "Joint Size" change the value to .01

Now they should be very small blue circles.

You can go to the upper right area and click on the "Joints" tab, then uncheck "show skeleton" and the blue joints will disappear making it easier to work with the mesh.

I attached a picture

Hope this helps
Sue

[Sims2DW]

Does this tutorial work for making new hair? Im having a very hard time following the other hair tutorials.

[Menaceman44]

I have a new problem! I edited a young adult mesh but now I can't import it back into SimPE. You say in your tutorial that all meshes must have the same number of vertices, well these don't to start with! There is a normal body mesh and then the only other mesh is of some flaps that attach to the boots and seem to have no use although their name implies it has something to do with the alpha channel. I can't understand why there is no fat mesh either. Just in case it helps at all, the mesh I was trying to edit was afbodyurbanprimitive from the university 3D file.

[Nouk]

I have a problem working with Bodychop, my BODYMOD.1 mesh has incorrect verticles, ad I cannot export. How do I fix this? I'sure I did not add anything...

**Edit: I started over and now it... does not work! lol. It's the darn nightlife mesh I'm using :(

I'll start on another mesh ;)

[Nouk]

I cannot thank you enough!! *Hugs NeptuneSuzy untill she turns blue*

[romancereads81]

I was wondering if there is a tutorial out there for someone who is not using milkshape...my trial expired and i cannot afford to buy it right now. i am using wings 3d. so far, i have tried the best i can only to have a floating head. i think i am importing wrong or something, i am not sure. i am also using the latest version of simpe.
i am totally ready to rip my hair out here. the tutorial makes it sound so easy, i follow the steps, but when it gets to the milkshape steps i have to do the next best thing, except i am not getting even close for a result. please, please help!

[RaggedDoll]

I followed all the steps up to the part where we have to import the TS2 BodyChop plugin by WesH and when I did and open up the "extracted gmdc" file, no models were displayed on my milkshape program screen. Why is that?

I'm using milkshape free trial version 1.7.6 and my SimPe is the same one as the tutorial attached on this thread.

PS My milkshape trial version is new and NOT expired.

[romancereads81]

ok, i managed to discover why is was not showing up in game, a few small things...first i have to open it in notepad and change it from g body_default to g body, and, i was importing improperly with the mesh tool. but, now i have issues with the mesh having weird cracks, seams, and pieces sort of extending out of the body.
this is not the laying down mesh problem (i worked through that using suggestion smentioned in previous pots) nor is it the exploding mesh, as these problems are on a smaller scale than exploding meshes have. like the top part of hte arm being bent and extended wrongly.
now, it shows up looking fine in the previewer in simpe, and i am certain i did not delete anything from the mesh since it says it has the same number and i am only trying to make some pants slightly longer. ( i am using wings, by the way) is it possible that simply moving things that dont like to be moved could cause this? any tips would be helpful. i think i may try to get 3ds and see if i have better luck at this point, because i have made it so far, but not quite there, and i am determined. if anyone has any suggestions, please please help!

MAggie


edit; ok, i am including a picture. i would like to point out that trying to change the mesh alot less did not change where these errors in the mesh are occurring.

edit edit; ok, someone finally told me that wings just does not work for clothing. but i wanted to leave this post here in case switching 3d editors does not work, because maybe it is not even that.

[WesHowe]

I want to thank evertone for the nice comments, and the tutorial, which, unfortunately, I got a corrupted download of and wasn't able to read. I live out in a rural part of a rural state and my dialup internet is Slooowww... so I have to budget my time on downloading big files.

There were mistakes made in the design and implementation of BodyChop. Some of them were too hard to just patch up.
One mistake is that models with multiple bones and skin weights do not necessarily have "morphs". Forcing morphs to be made to edit bone assignments was a mistake... and it is ugly, all the way to the bone.

As wordy as I am, some of you know I spend a lot of the warmer seasons working hard outdoors (I raise Cattle and have been busy improving my ranch). Since winter arrived, I have fewer tasks to do daily, leaving me with a lot of time to play with indoor activities, like hacking.

There is a new version of the plugins that will be released when the next upgrade of MilkShape does, or soon thereafter. Mete Ciragan (of MilkShape fame) has made some modifications that will allow me to store the values of imported bones and corresponding skin weights on importing a GMDC.

Importing "morphs" will be optional. They will still require a seperate model with a special naming technique. But the bone assignments will be made and edited with a seperate plugin that will be under the vertex menu. One, or multiple selected vertices, may be edited at once. Vertices may have one, two or three assignments and weights (expressed in percentages). Models can be imported, then exported unchanged and will retain the default Maxis assignments.

The idea about morphs is to look at the originals, hide them, and make the main mesh like you want it. Then you delete the original morph, make a copy of the main mesh, give it the proper name (following the naming rules) and only MOVE existing vertices (and not faces) to accheive the desired effect. The bone assignments for the morph models will not need to be edited, because the base model contains the bone/skin weight data. Morphs are created by comparing vertex positions between the base model and the morph model, and exist inside the GMDC as a set of numbers to be added (or subtracted) from the base model to create a fat effect.

So far, the design is in keeping with the idea of only needing a single plugin for both clothing and regular objects.

Progress report:
The work is done for bone assignments and skin weight import/export, along with the edit tool.
MilkShape exports models to a plugin that "combines" all the vertices that are at the same location. Many of the other plugins require this. But Mete has promised to come up with a way to export all of them to plugins that ask for them the right way, to maintain compatibility (there are a lot of MilkShape users that can't even spell "Simms" right. This will allow me to eliminate the issues that occur with unwanted shadowing at areas like a dress hem.
Besides testing and more testing, one problem I have yet to be able to solve is properly recreating the "Tangent Normals" section that allows bumpmapping to work on models with an alpha layer. I may lick this yet, but something is escaping me on recreating tham in a fashion the game will tolerate.

Release could be a while off. Mete has not finished all my requests, and has other user issues to deal with, too. But MilkShape 1.77 exists in a beta test format right now. You can make your own guesses as to the release date. I hope to release my plugins at or soon after the release of 1.7.7. (No, they will not work with earlier versions), although BodyChop and the 2.16 object plugin should continue to function as they do now.

I expect to phase out any further support for the older plugins once it is determined the new ones are stable.

<* Wes *>

[Nouk]

Thank you, Wes! I think it's amazing you are willing to share all your work with us!

I wonder, with hair, if I want to add part of the mesh, should I use groups, or should I use the merge option? (Both don't work for me :( )
And then, When I'm finally finished and want to export, it still complains about BODYMOD.1 not being there, but that hairmesh is not supposed to have a morph. When I duplicate and rename that group BODYMD.1, it still gives the same message.
Is there a way to work around that?

[quincymelinda]

Hi, i'm new here and followed this tutorial and it worked!!!! yay. i'm so technically challenged that it's not normal anymore so i have 2 questions if some1 would be so nice 2 answer them.
when i have imported the mesh the pregnant shape becomes the fat one, is this normal?
and i tried to start from scratch again with the afbodylongloose mesh by making all the steps again, but when i got o the step where you import it in milkshape i got my old shape back instead of the original one. can some1 plz help me?

[Brickwall847]

Hey, I'm brand new to creating meshes, but your tutorial seemed great. It went into a lot of good detail that was really helpful to me. THe only thing is, after I got aabout halfway through step 3, I realized that my "EAGames/TheSims2" folder did not contain another folder named "TSData". Is this somethign that can be fixed? I have found some aspects of my game in places that are slightly different from other people's, and I was wondering if perhaps that information was stored somewhere else. If you know what I'm talking about, and have anything that can help, please tell me. I can't downlaod because of somethign on my computer, so I would love to be able to create my own meshes. Thanks a million, and great tutorial! :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

[romancereads81]

brickwall, are you looking in your documents folder for eagames/sims2 folder? because the folder she reffered to is in your program files, seperate from where you keep your downloads.

[NeptuneSuzy]

Sims2DW and Nouk..........The tutorial is made for clothing only. There a few differences for Hair, which I can try to point out briefly if you want to give it a try:

First, we use a different plugin by WesH........v2.16...you can find it here: http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=398

In the clothing tutorial, go through step 1 and make your temporary hair mesh.

Now Step 2 will be a little different....yyou will see a few "Property Sets" in the right column. These are for the different age groups. You want to look for the adult hair "Property Set" af......... We can edit only the Adult, Elder, and Young Adult meshes at the same time. Look at the "Property Sets" and see which ones are Adult, Elder, and Young Adult, (af.....) now remember the placement of these...they are usually the 4th, 5th and 6th, but not always. Ok, so now we have the name of the hair, and there placements. (pic below)

Go through Step 3 and gather the Mesh parts the same as we did for clothing.

Go through Step 4 and build the new package the same as we did for clothing, remember to extract the "copiedcres" and "copiedshape"

In Step 5, add the "copiedcres" and "copiedshape" the same as for clothing, but here is where the process differs a bit: When you click "3d ID referencing File" you will see 6 or 7 of these files on the right, just the way we saw a few property sets. This is why I said to remember the order of the 3 "property sets"...Adult, Elder, and Young Adult, because now we need to go through the Step 5 process of clicking "package" and so on, for the "3d id referencing file" for Adult, Elder, and Young Adult...they are in the same order, so go through the process for the "3d id referencing file" that are in the same positions..

Step 6 remains the same.

In step 7, you will import the gmdc file using WesH's v2.16 plugin (not the BodyChop plugin). (pic below)
You can now play with your hair mesh in Milkshape. You don't need to worry about different body groups, hair does not have these.
You do need to pull the area where her hairline meets her neck down a bit. The way we pulled her neck up a bit with clothing. Otherwise she will have a crack in her neck.

We export using v2.16 (not Bodychop). And the rest of the tutorial remains the same.

Hope this was helpful
:)

[Gielos]

Suzy, i must say.
Very easy, well written. Quite funny too

Hurray

[WizardDaniel]

Hey, I have exactly the same problem as Amber (in page 1). Did you fix it? Can you help me, if you can?? Wen I try to import from the BodyChop, milkshake autamatically closes.... HELP!
Dani

[Brickwall847]

Oh! Thank you so much Romancereads81! I can't believe I overlooked that. What an idiot! THanks a million!

[Serasims]

which simpe version did you use in that tutorial?

[Serasims]

i have problem..at the step where i have to export the mesh it says: vertice count for bodymod.1 incorrect....what do i have to do??? i havn't delete any vertexes or added some

[romancereads81]

no problem brickwall...and don't feel silly, i have made that mistake a hundred times when i wasn't paying attention to which folder i wanted to naviaget to.:-) I am glad i helped!

[NeptuneSuzy]

Lakritze83...........version 50

Did you add/remove vertices from the regular Body group mesh?
If so then you need to be sure to remove/add the same number of vertices from the other bodymod groups

:)

[Serasims]

no i havn't as said above

[NeptuneSuzy]

Lakritze83, if you didn't remove/add any vertices from any of the body groups then I must confess that I have no idea why it would say "vertice count for bodymod.1 incorrect". The only thing I can think of is that maybe a vertice was deleted by accident???

Maybe someone else knows something....

[Serasims]

no i have only moved them...i am gettin very sad with meshing :( before nightlife came out it all worked fine but now it doesn't work anymore and i wanted to mesh so much beautiful things for my page :(

[Serasims]

when i modify my meshes in milkshape i always press the left and the right button at the same time to get a better view to the parts of the mesh, cause so i can move it around....is that maybe the fault why my meshes are damaged?

[nadascreations]

Ok, I've used this tut and everything worked out great. I have one slight problem. How do I get the legs to appear?
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a257/fexygurl/newmeshproblem.jpg

[tiggerypum]

Very interesting. Did you shorten long pants by somehow pulling up on the bottom of the hem? Did you delete anything? Do you see the missing legs in your milkshape window?

If there is a blank spot like that in your mesh, you need to carefully make the new faces (or start over) in order to connect the feet to the bottom of the pants.

[nadascreations]

How do I make new faces?

[Serasims]

nadas, which simpe do you use??? and do you have nightlife?? i am searching for a simpe version which works in nightlife...

[nadascreations]

i have the latest version and i do have nightlife.

[tiggerypum]

uhm faces, let me see if I can find a milkshape tutorial for you

Here's a tutorial that shows the command and the order to click the points to make the faces (it's got good screenshots even if it's not making a body mesh)

http://www.tutorialguide.net/modelling_a_gun_tutorial.html

it shows what to click and says to click the points counter-clockwise.

I hope that helps.

[nadascreations]

Thanks, still couldn't figure it out. I'm gonna try something else.

[sugar1412]

im stuck,what programme should i use to veiw the tutorial,i cant read it in notepad,or wordpad and i havnt got microsoft word.

[Serasims]

acrobat reader----sugar

[sugar1412]

thankyou. :)

[bigkiller3]

Well i just read the tut and it sounds good and easy...
funney enough i already have a problem at page 1...
The link you gave to Wes h Body chop plugin isnt working...
http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=495
And if i search at google i cant find it either...
can somebody help me?

[nadascreations]

The link worked for me.

[tiggerypum]

Bodychop is on this very site http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=50219

[bigkiller3]

YAY I FOUND IT...

Now ive gotten pretty long in the tut and im having another problem...
I am at step 7
and im going to widden her skirt... but do i make et look like she does on the picture? if i highlight some of her skirt and moves it it lookes really bad...

[WesHowe]

I want to thank everyone for the nice comments, and the tutorial, which, unfortunately, I got a corrupted download of and wasn't able to read. I live out in a rural part of a rural state and my dialup internet is Slooowww... so I have to budget my time on downloading big files.
<* Wes *>

I finally got a complete look at Suzy's tutorial, and it is nicely done.
There is a more convoluted, but more reliable, way of finding the right mesh for a bodyshop item. It involves using the "shape" line mentioned in the 3DID, going to that SHPE in the Sims03.package, and from it's reference taking the referenced NAME of the "GMND", and using the nametable in Sims04.package to find it. Then find the mesh in Sims03.package by the instance filter.

The game definitely uses the mesh referenced by the four values in the reference tab of the GMND: type (0xAC4F8687), instance hi, group and instance as the link between the GMND and the GMDC. The name the mesh was given is immaterial to the internals of the game engine, and the similarity of the names was probably due to Maxis' internal conventions and practices. In some cases, the mesh (GMDC) may not have a name that is so similar to the shape that you will be able to find it by visual identification.

My last comment would be, if you want to make complex and far ranging modifications to the main mesh, you would, ideally, look over the way the bone secondary assignments are made in the morph models and create new models from the original base model (as opposed to trying to make the same exact sets of changes three times), only you move vertices now to make them fat or pregnant (like suzy shows, select and move vertices).

In the next set of plugins, which are now awaiting the release of MilkShape 1.7.7, this will be much easier, as the bone assignments are imported and stored all in the main model, and only the vertex location differences are used to make the morph data.

Tying both secondary bone assignment and vertex location to the "BODYMOD" models was a mistake I made in the BodyChop plugins. With the help of Mete from MilkShape, we will now be able to handle the multiple bone assignments issue much better.

<* Wes *>

[tiggerypum]

Bigkiller, when I've wanted to widen or narrow a leg or skirt, I usually carefully select the points all around the circle (you must be careful on the very bottom edge to only get the outer points and not catch part of the underskirt/ankle/etc)

Then I used a scale command. I don't have milkshape here right now, but you need to experiment both with the numbers (they must be very small) and with the settings in scale. Try the options 'center of mass' and 'origin' and see which one prevents your skirt from splitting open at the seams that are in your mesh but you can't see them in milkshape. (they are usually running down the sides of the skirt)

Sometimes I select multiple rings on the leg or skirt, sometimes I select only one row of them, because I might want to scale that row out the most, and use a slightly smaller number for the row above. I'll repeat this, the numbers are small, I believe you'll be use decimal points, like scaling it to be 1.1 larger, stuff like that. Don't be afraid to use two digits behind the decimal - if 1.1 is not enough and 1.2 is too much, try 1.15 .

I hope this helps

[bigkiller3]

Thank you for the quick answer...
I think i understand it now ;)
Great tut

[DGenerate]

I love the tut Suzy, but I have a few questions I cant seem to figure out on my own. When I follow your tutorial, everything works out fine.. and I import it into milkshape and get the 3 body shapes like Im supposed to. However, if I try doing the same step using a different mesh (Im trying to mod one of the Tenn formal dresses) I only end up with Body, and not the other 2 groups. This causes problems when trying to export from milkshape, and Im outta ideas :/ Any help would be much appreciated...

[romancereads81]

som meshes just don't have them....i had this issue too. i wanted to know if you can add your own bodymod.1 and 2 and have them work, say if i cloned the body mesh, then named it bodymod.1 and made it look ruebnesque and gave it the proper names (bodymorphs fat) or whatever it is. can this work? i think i will try and post back.

[tiggerypum]

That sort of question is probably answered in the bodychop thread itself someplace, as that's really the spot people have been asking the detailed questions in.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=50219

Btw, Wes should have a new much improved plugin soon, which will make some of these issues (like the bodymod.1 and 2 issue) cleaner.

[LittleDevil25]

ok im here i love the tut but im haveing probs in step 7 where you are suposed to import ts2 body chop to milk shape well i cant find it in the import list but i have it on my desktop so now what do i do? Question 2 with out importing the ts2 bc i tried to open my extraceted gmdc file and its not there can someone please help me please.
Im so lost and confussed

[romancereads81]

uhm, for step 7, do you have the plugin installed properly? there is a readme in the file that you download for hte plugin which tells you where to put it.

for question 2, by default it will say "simpe" files, under where the filename would go if you clicked on something, click the srrow so it says 5gd files instead. if hta tis not why, i don't know, i am no pro. but that is probably what it is.

good luck, littledevil25!

[LittleDevil25]

ok now that i got further now im stuck again in the groups thingy in milkshape you are suposed to have botton, modbody1, and modbody2 well i only have 1 now what do i do?

[romancereads81]

littledevil...some meshes are like that. read back a few posts for more information.i guess that wes is working on a newer plugin that repairs that particular issues. i had a few things to try but haven't gotten to tehm yet. good luck.:-)

[LittleDevil25]

ok thanks for the help i couldnt have did it without you but i have another question lol all the blue line that are on the four squars in milk shape how do i get rid of them so i can see the accual body or are they suposed to be there .

[DGenerate]

A few posts back Suzy answered that too. I was having the same problem. Apparently those blue lines are the joints for the model, and the default size if huge... Just go to file->preferences, click the misc tab, and set the joint size to 0.01

[LittleDevil25]

ok ty so much:)

[romancereads81]

little devil-
did you uncheck "show skeleton" under the "joints" tab in milkshape? try that. i am not certain which blue lines you are reffering but i bet those are it. also, if that doesn't work, go to file->preferences-> and select the misc. tab, and set joint size to 0.010000.

:-)

[LittleDevil25]

i got it maggie ty so much i have another problem but ill work on that tomarrow will you be on

[romancereads81]

sure..i will help you as much as i can:-)

[todd]

Great tutorial! Very easy to follow.

I'm having a problem though. My entire body mesh (adult male - a Darth Vader mesh) is completely invisible. From the neck down the sim is invisible in bodyshop, as well as in the Sim creation screen. I made a hair mesh (Darth Vaders helmet) which follows this exact same process, and it turned out great without a problem. I'm not sure what I could of done wrong in this case to cause this problem.

What are some reasons why a whole body mesh could be invisible? I have a feeling it has something to do with the linking between the mesh file and bodyshop file, but as far as I know I've done everything correctly. I've seen the problem around, but haven't really seen many answers. I attached the files if anybody wants to take a look. I did a lot of moving around, so I hope everything in the packages is still accurate.

Thanks!

EDIT: Solved. Attachment removed

[Corsetcrush]

Second, I complete the tutorial, go to check my project in bodyshop and there is no change. I suspect it has something to do with what I mentioned above. I've gone through this tutorial numerous times now to get the same result. My preview of the mesh that's shown in SimPe is perfect. Any help is appreciated.

So what did you do that fixed it? I'm about ready to burst into tears over this (seemingly) simple thing but I feel like I'm missing something I just can't figure out. I even did the tutorial from scratch with my husband following step by step and the same thing happened. I'd dearly love to give something back to this wonderful community, but I'm about ready to give up.

Sad and discouraged, :cry: :banghead:

~Corset

[cjanefly764]

My first attempts at meshing weren't showing up in bodyshop either. I was deleting the blue "Pigpen" cloud around the pants I wanted to mod. That was my mistake. So I tried not deleting it and it showed up. Now, I didn't know you could uncheck that little box and they'd go away. Nice. That's going to make things much easier now.

I have a problem though. I was trying to make lower rise jeans but I just keep cropping the stomach out. I'm thinking I may have it figured out, but does anyone know how I might fix this for sure? I was going to try adjusting the texture map instead of the mesh itself, if I can figure out how to do that and reassociate it with my package. Am I close?

[cjanefly764]

The number of vertices have to be the same for all groups in the mesh. There's an information window in tools that will tell you how many vertices are in the total mesh and how many are in the selected group. Some how I lose vertices while working with a mesh. I haven't yet figured out what to do if even one is lost. I attemted to add a vertex but I'm a beginner and that just didn't work. I just scrap the whole project and start over when that happens now. No use beating myself up over it.

[tnkwsim]

ok new to this how do i import a skin mesh into milkshape

[Garand]

I have a problem when I get to step 4. When I import the resources, only the GDMC actully shows up in SimPE.

I'm 99.9% sure I followed the directions.
I didn't snag the resources with lod15 in the name.

What could I have done wrong? Is it even something I did?

EDIT

Oy! I'm a dofus! Forgot to clear the filter!

Now I know. And knowing is half the battle! :banghead:

[kevinsimsmaniac]

Thanks!!!! I do my first clothing Mesh!!! :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

:banana:

[romancereads81]

cjanefly...i actually have this same problem at times, where one morph will have more or less than it is supposed to. i havent figured out quite what to do, either, though i have added and deleted vertices on this one mesh for hours and then finally discovered that sometimes when i weld it together it changes the number back. weird.

[WesHowe]

cjanefly...i actually have this same problem at times, where one morph will have more or less than it is supposed to. i havent figured out quite what to do, either, though i have added and deleted vertices on this one mesh for hours and then finally discovered that sometimes when i weld it together it changes the number back. weird.

The BODYMOD and it's newer cousin the MORPHMOD (in the new UniMesh plugins) are mythical creatures in the sense that they are COPIES of the base mesh, with the vertices moved to new locations based on data from special parts of the GMDC.

On a really custom mesh, it might be best to create a new BODYMOD/MORPHMOD from your edited mesh (in BodyChop reassign the bones) than to struggle needlessly with mismatched vertice counts.

You would delete the original bodymod/morphmod, and then select the base mesh group (in the group panel) and use MilkShape's "Duplicate Selection" function (in the Edit menu) to create a new one. Rename the duplicated group to the original morph group name (e.g. BODYMOD.1 in BodyChop or ~00MORPHMOD.0 in the newer UniMesh plugins), fix the comments, and make a custom morph by only moving existing vertices (you could make fat as big as you want, or leave fat the same as fit by not moving anything).

The exporter plugin looks at the location differences vertex-by-vertex between the base model and the morph to rebuild the data tables associated with the morph process. That's why it gets upset when the vertice count doesn't match. But nothing prevents you from substituting your own morph for the original one (provided you get the name and comments right).

<* Wes *>

[cederlina]

Dear NeptuneSuzy (or Everyone who knows the answer),
This is maybe a stupid question,but when I open my clothing mesh file in Milkshape,I see also hands..does that mean that the clothing is attached to the body in the file? like that there is no body underneath it because the body is replaced by clothing? Because I thought the file was only the clothing,so in the file you have got only the pants for example and the legs are in another file. I want to delete parts of the clothing. Is that possible or will I have a girl with no body then??
thanks in advance if you answer

[tiggerypum]

There is no 'body'. When the sims change clothing they switch from one entire body mesh (from the neck down) to another body mesh. The idea that they have a 'body' and 'clothing' separately is not so.

So indeed, if you delete the 'pants' or 'sleeves' from a sim, there will be nothing there. You need to change the shape to look like properly formed bare legs (or go get them from another mesh and then go through the steps to attach them and reassign all the bones.

[Morbidjunkie9]

hi, I am following your tutorial and i have just loaded the mesh into milkshape. I notice that the mesh is very squared off and i was wondering if this squareness is permanent or did I do something wrong?

[tiggerypum]

Not sure what you mean by 'squared off' If you're noticing that the mesh is made of polygons and not actually 'round', that is because the mesh *is* made that way. It's a display thing that smooths things out (called normals). Try making one very obvious change to your mesh and save it out (just as a test) and load it into your game and see if things look right. If they do not, post some pics and more explanations.

[Morbidjunkie9]

Not sure what you mean by 'squared off' If you're noticing that the mesh is made of polygons and not actually 'round', that is because the mesh *is* made that way. It's a display thing that smooths things out (called normals). Try making one very obvious change to your mesh and save it out (just as a test) and load it into your game and see if things look right. If they do not, post some pics and more explanations. what I am talking about is there is a line between the front half and back half. It might not be noticeable in the game but it is simular to the squareness around the shoulders in this mesh http://thumbs.modthesims2.com/images1/MTS2_187046_whiteshadows_BODYMESHVIEW.jpg

[tiggerypum]

Okay, well, there's two different issues going on here.

The first is that using bodychop, you need to weld along the seams - that should eliminate most of what you see going up the legs and arms. As milkshape doesn't actually show you the seams, just select the points along those edges that you can see on the mesh and use the command. You probably don't want to weld the very center point at the crotch or under the arms.

The second is a flaw in the tutorial. While indeed you do need to have the two bodies be identical in their vertex count, the 2nd body should be the 'fat' morph **and** it stores the secondary bone assignments - some of the vertexes in the sims' meshes have 3 (and in nightlife apparently a few have 4) assignments. By deleting and replacing the 2nd body, those assignments are deleted, which will give you a sim with rougher animation behavior and more pointed shoulders.

---
My best suggestion is that you switch to the unimesh plugin, which is Wes' newest. You have accomplished the basics here. If you use the unimesh plugin the bone data is stored differently and replacing the 2nd body won't mess up the bone assignments. ALSO with the unimesh plugin you will NOT weld any seams. You can adjust the 2nd body to look 'fat' as it actually should, or ignore it and the sim won't get fat.

Wes provided a guide (it's not exactly a tutorial) with the Unimesh plugin. You can start over with the gdmc and meshfile you already have saved, make the changes again, and export using the unimesh plugin - which will create a replacement gdmc just like for the plugin documented here.

You will need to start from your original gdmc you saved, so that the unimesh plugin will get the right bone assignments and also upgrade to milkshape 1.7.7. If you do go this route, post any questions you have in the unimesh thread.

---
My other suggestion is that if you saved the milkshape file *before* you deleted the second body, you can check it for bone assignments and write down where they were and make the same changes to the one you replace it with. But the animation will still be less perfect than with the new unibody plugin - which really is going to be the plugin of choice. It's just that it's very new.

[WesHowe]

what I am talking about is there is a line between the front half and back half. It might not be noticeable in the game but it is simular to the squareness around the shoulders in this mesh

Single bone weighting does that. The transitions between body parts is too abrupt to render well without multiple assignments... but until recently there were few options available to fix that.

Update to the UniMesh plugins. They are much newer and can handle multiple bone assignments for a smoother looking mesh in-game.

<* Wes *>

[mickey_inlimite]

thanks it looks basic enough but i hope i will manage, since i tried dozens of othes and it always turned out really bad. :(

[SemiCharmedQuark]

Thanks for a great tutorial, but I ran into a problem. When I open MilkShape, I can get my mesh, but it is so small, that trying to zoom in on it takes forever. What can I do? Also, is there anyway to zoom in on one particular part? I went through the Milkshape tutorial you suggested, but I didn't see anything. Thanks :)

[tiggerypum]

This is from memory, but to zoom in what you can do is go to the select tool, and select whatever parts (or all) of the mesh you'd like to zoom in on. then right click on the window... and there's a command that's something like 'frame selection' that will appear on that popup menu.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

Thanks so much!

[tindòmiël tinùviël]

hi, i have a little problem in milkshape: when i select the vertices and i try to delete them, i only undo the selection and the vertices don't go away. am i doing something wrong?

[MyFairDiva]

Hi all, :)
I was wondering, after the trial with Milkshape expires, does anyone know about another 3d editor that would work to make this? I know they're basically all work the same way, some are more complete than others, but without these plugins... just wondering here.

Thanx.

[Morbidjunkie9]

Hello, i am having trouble exporting a mesh back into the package. it says "bone count incorrect". is there anyway to fix this problem easily? I joined two meshes, so i assume this is why there is a problem. I used doctor pixels tutorial for shoes and snapped together all vertexes so I am clueless. Please help me..

thanks

[tiggerypum]

It's the bone count between your first mesh and the 2nd one that is supposed to be the fat morph. You need to make the fat morph be identical (like put the same shoes on). OR.... you need to copy your first to the 2nd, and then change it to look fat -- but you also (and this was left out) need the secondary bone assignments in order to get smoother animation - so you will need to check your second body before deleting and write down the bone assignments so you can reassign them. (for best results)

Better would be to use the unimesh plugin instead - but it has it's own set of quirks and you cannot follow the instructions in dr pixel's tutorial to put the shoes on, because you can't weld the seams.

Oh - and myfairdiva - unfortunately the answer is 'no'. Actually most of the 3D editing programs do something or another to the mesh (like reordering all the vertices) that put limits on what can be done with other tools, like Meshtool. You can get some results with meshtool and xsi modtool, both are free. We don't have a beginners tutorial for that, but if you succeed here, you might be able to switch to modtool.

[mininessie]

i finally had made a mesh with your help.
thanks,i hope that my meshes will be good.

than ks to you very much

[Chloe5230]

I can't find a place to download SimPE will someone help me?

[tiggerypum]

I added the links to the first message.

[sexybeast]

YAY! my first mesh!!!!! (Picture Below)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/japansims/Numesh.jpg

[dogj1]

i dont get this

[tiggerypum]

Dogj1, sorry, you'll have to read it again. And actually sit down with the tools and *try* it. And ask an actual specific question if you get stuck on a step.

[ShadowSuzuki]

How do you install the BodyChop into Milkshake...I dont understand the directions.

[LadyFe]

Ok, I've finally made my first clothing mesh using the latest version of milkshape with the unimesh plugin and very happy to see it turn up in bodyshop, but I just have two question one is how do you fix the dark shadow at the bottom of the dress? second when I import the mesh to milkshape only 1 body show up. By the way I'm using the uni long formal dress.

[kevinsimsmaniac]

Hey look....I when i open milkshape it tells me that i'm expired or something like that... What i have to do??????? :sadpanda:

[constantina]

Thanks for the tutorial.

[simskid94]

I cant download tutorial!!!

[LadyFe]

Single bone weighting does that. The transitions between body parts is too abrupt to render well without multiple assignments... but until recently there were few options available to fix that.

Update to the UniMesh plugins. They are much newer and can handle multiple bone assignments for a smoother looking mesh in-game.

<* Wes *>


I have the same problem with the arms, see the first picture is fine on the arms but it has a problem with dark shadow at the bottom of the dress, because I weld it together the second dress have the square arms, this one I did not weld together. Both meshes I made using the new version of milkshape with the unimesh plugin.
Any help with what I can do to fix this?
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9404/meshproblem4xt.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[tiggerypum]

Did you make sure that autosmooth was turned off before you started? You should not see those seams with unimesh if you had autosmooth off. Do not weld anything.

[LadyFe]

Thanks! that must be the problem with the autosmooth being on. So it's been a lot of changes since this tutorial was made and with unimesh.