gwillewyn
18th Oct 2006, 1:13 PM
I’ve done two requests for these now, and I’m not in a mood to do any more, so I thought I’d make a quick tutorial.
Let’s start with explaining what we’re going to do:
Most maxis hats are enabled for everyday wear only (a very few are also available in formal), that’s fine; sims look strange sleeping with their hat on anyway. What we are going to change is the hair the sim wears when the hat comes off. The default is usually the Elvis hair or the short cropped one for males, and the shortish tucked behind the ears hair for females; neither of those are very inspiring.
In this example I’m going to use all maxis hairs and hats, but the same principle can be applied to any hair package with or without hats.
Tools you will need:
Bodyshop
SimPE
Theo’s Colour Binning Plug-in for SimPE
Difficulty: Medium at worst
Step one: Bodyshop
Open Bodyshop.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/000354tz Select “Create Parts”.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/000365fa Select “Start New Project”
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003733d Pick “Create Genetics”
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00034dy4 Click on the Hair icon.
Choose hair colour. (I’m using blond since it shows best in dark pictures.)
Find the hat you want to work with. For this example I’m using the straw hat.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00033p6s
Select it, and click the export button. http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00038q00 Give the project a name; I’m calling mine TheHat for simplicity’s sake.
The preview window should now show you the hat, and all its current states.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00039a04
This hat only shows as a hat for teens to elders, children and toddlers only have the basic “underneath” hair. This is worth noting for later when we need to find out what to do with those ages.
Since I’m not actually going to change anything about the hat, I’ll just import it straight back into the game.
The file will go into your SavedSims folder, and it will have a name along the lines of 634c1f45_TheHat.package
Now let’s find a better hair style for when the hat comes off:
Start a new project just like the first one, and look for a hair you like.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003a6hp
I’m going to go with the knotty hairstyle, because it’s so noticeably different from the original and because I know it works for all ages. I call this project TheHair and export it.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003bg45
Again, I’ll just import it straight back into the game, and end up with a file called 3f961029_TheHair.package
That’s all we need to do in Bodyshop so let’s close it.
Step two: SimPE
A lot of people run away as soon as SimPE is mentioned. However, in this tutorial we’re only going to use the colour binning tool, and that’s not nearly as frightening as most aspects of the program.
Open SimPE.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003cfr7
From the tools menu, select the colour binning tool.
An almost blank and quite scary window opens:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003d14c
I’m going to select the blond tab, since I’m using a blond hair as example. If you don’t care about colour binning you can use the custom tab.
Click on the package menu, and select open... Find your SavedSims folder and open the hat package.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003e61q
Now we need to sort out what’s the hair and what’s the hat. In this case you can easily see the difference, both in the file name and the texture preview.
Our hat is the ones named XXhairhatclassicstrawup_blackribbon_blond the hair, which we are not going to use, is XXhairacorntuck_blond.
Uncheck all the hair textures. There should be one for each age group, including child and toddler; we’re not using any of them. Make sure all the hat textures are checked (the elder texture is unchecked by default).
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003frt7
Now we’re moving on to the properties tab in the smaller window in the bottom right corner.
This hat is only enabled in the Everyday category. Since it’s such a nice hat, I think my sims will want to wear it in formal wear as well, so I’m checking that box too.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003g4wg
Make sure you do this for each age. Take note of which categories the hat uses.
Now, go to the Package menu and select Options. Pay attention; this is the most important part of the process!
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003h5z6
Copy down the GUID number! This is the unique number that tells the game which hair it’s dealing with and we’ll need it to tell the other hair that it belongs to the hat.
You should also stop by the Output tab and make sure “Remove unchecked recolors” is checked (this deletes all the textures for the hair we disabled, and will reduce the file size considerably) and probably “disable source package”.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003k03z
Lastly you can go to the hairtone tab and check the Hat box. It’s not important, it just affect turn-ons and turn-offs if you have nightlife, but since this is a hat you might as well check it.
Click OK.
Now, we save the file. Click on the package menu and SaveAs... I’m going to save mine in the Download folder as Strawhat.package
Since I’m using the blond tab, the package will actually be saved as Strawhat_Blond.package. And since I have “disable source package” checked, the original hat package will be renamed to 634c1f45_TheHat.packagedisabled and the game won’t try to load it. We can delete that when we’re done and sure everything is working.
That’s the hat; now let’s start on the hair.
We’ll open the hair package we made earlier in the blond tab.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003pp67
You’ll see that there are fewer files in this package. Now, remember earlier we noticed that the actual hat is only available from teens and up, so here we have to decide what to do with children and toddlers. We can either leave them with the adult hair style in all categories, or remove them entirely. Since this hair is an exact copy of the one in the game, I’m going to remove them so it won’t clog the child category with unnecessary duplicates. If you want to keep them, just leave those boxes checked and don’t change their properties.
Now we open the properties tab again:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003q2ac
We start with the Young Adult hair, and UNcheck the categories the hat uses; in this case, everyday and formal. Do the same for adult, elder and teen.
Now comes the “merging”.
Open Options from the package menu like you did for the hat.
This is important! Paste the GUID number we copied from the hat.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003rhc6
These have to be exactly the same, or the game won’t understand that the hair and hat belongs together.
Click OK.
Save. I’m naming my file Strawhat_hair.package and saving it next to the hat file.
Believe it or not, that’s it. The hair and hat are in two separate files, but because they have the same GUID the game understands that they are the same hair.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003sq82
Let’s close SimPe and open up the game and see if it works.
There it is!
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003t5z6
And look, she’s still wearing her hat in formal, but she takes it off to go to bed. That’s a relief.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003wczf
This can of course be applied to any kind of hair. Maybe you just want your sim to undo their pony-tail when naked, or have a slightly more sophisticated do in formal wear, or have messy undone hair while in PJs. You can do them all at once if you want: different hair styles for each outfit. As long as the GUID is the same and you don’t have duplicate categories it’ll work.
Let’s start with explaining what we’re going to do:
Most maxis hats are enabled for everyday wear only (a very few are also available in formal), that’s fine; sims look strange sleeping with their hat on anyway. What we are going to change is the hair the sim wears when the hat comes off. The default is usually the Elvis hair or the short cropped one for males, and the shortish tucked behind the ears hair for females; neither of those are very inspiring.
In this example I’m going to use all maxis hairs and hats, but the same principle can be applied to any hair package with or without hats.
Tools you will need:
Bodyshop
SimPE
Theo’s Colour Binning Plug-in for SimPE
Difficulty: Medium at worst
Step one: Bodyshop
Open Bodyshop.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/000354tz Select “Create Parts”.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/000365fa Select “Start New Project”
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003733d Pick “Create Genetics”
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00034dy4 Click on the Hair icon.
Choose hair colour. (I’m using blond since it shows best in dark pictures.)
Find the hat you want to work with. For this example I’m using the straw hat.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00033p6s
Select it, and click the export button. http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00038q00 Give the project a name; I’m calling mine TheHat for simplicity’s sake.
The preview window should now show you the hat, and all its current states.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/00039a04
This hat only shows as a hat for teens to elders, children and toddlers only have the basic “underneath” hair. This is worth noting for later when we need to find out what to do with those ages.
Since I’m not actually going to change anything about the hat, I’ll just import it straight back into the game.
The file will go into your SavedSims folder, and it will have a name along the lines of 634c1f45_TheHat.package
Now let’s find a better hair style for when the hat comes off:
Start a new project just like the first one, and look for a hair you like.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003a6hp
I’m going to go with the knotty hairstyle, because it’s so noticeably different from the original and because I know it works for all ages. I call this project TheHair and export it.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003bg45
Again, I’ll just import it straight back into the game, and end up with a file called 3f961029_TheHair.package
That’s all we need to do in Bodyshop so let’s close it.
Step two: SimPE
A lot of people run away as soon as SimPE is mentioned. However, in this tutorial we’re only going to use the colour binning tool, and that’s not nearly as frightening as most aspects of the program.
Open SimPE.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003cfr7
From the tools menu, select the colour binning tool.
An almost blank and quite scary window opens:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003d14c
I’m going to select the blond tab, since I’m using a blond hair as example. If you don’t care about colour binning you can use the custom tab.
Click on the package menu, and select open... Find your SavedSims folder and open the hat package.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003e61q
Now we need to sort out what’s the hair and what’s the hat. In this case you can easily see the difference, both in the file name and the texture preview.
Our hat is the ones named XXhairhatclassicstrawup_blackribbon_blond the hair, which we are not going to use, is XXhairacorntuck_blond.
Uncheck all the hair textures. There should be one for each age group, including child and toddler; we’re not using any of them. Make sure all the hat textures are checked (the elder texture is unchecked by default).
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003frt7
Now we’re moving on to the properties tab in the smaller window in the bottom right corner.
This hat is only enabled in the Everyday category. Since it’s such a nice hat, I think my sims will want to wear it in formal wear as well, so I’m checking that box too.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003g4wg
Make sure you do this for each age. Take note of which categories the hat uses.
Now, go to the Package menu and select Options. Pay attention; this is the most important part of the process!
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003h5z6
Copy down the GUID number! This is the unique number that tells the game which hair it’s dealing with and we’ll need it to tell the other hair that it belongs to the hat.
You should also stop by the Output tab and make sure “Remove unchecked recolors” is checked (this deletes all the textures for the hair we disabled, and will reduce the file size considerably) and probably “disable source package”.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003k03z
Lastly you can go to the hairtone tab and check the Hat box. It’s not important, it just affect turn-ons and turn-offs if you have nightlife, but since this is a hat you might as well check it.
Click OK.
Now, we save the file. Click on the package menu and SaveAs... I’m going to save mine in the Download folder as Strawhat.package
Since I’m using the blond tab, the package will actually be saved as Strawhat_Blond.package. And since I have “disable source package” checked, the original hat package will be renamed to 634c1f45_TheHat.packagedisabled and the game won’t try to load it. We can delete that when we’re done and sure everything is working.
That’s the hat; now let’s start on the hair.
We’ll open the hair package we made earlier in the blond tab.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003pp67
You’ll see that there are fewer files in this package. Now, remember earlier we noticed that the actual hat is only available from teens and up, so here we have to decide what to do with children and toddlers. We can either leave them with the adult hair style in all categories, or remove them entirely. Since this hair is an exact copy of the one in the game, I’m going to remove them so it won’t clog the child category with unnecessary duplicates. If you want to keep them, just leave those boxes checked and don’t change their properties.
Now we open the properties tab again:
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003q2ac
We start with the Young Adult hair, and UNcheck the categories the hat uses; in this case, everyday and formal. Do the same for adult, elder and teen.
Now comes the “merging”.
Open Options from the package menu like you did for the hat.
This is important! Paste the GUID number we copied from the hat.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003rhc6
These have to be exactly the same, or the game won’t understand that the hair and hat belongs together.
Click OK.
Save. I’m naming my file Strawhat_hair.package and saving it next to the hat file.
Believe it or not, that’s it. The hair and hat are in two separate files, but because they have the same GUID the game understands that they are the same hair.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003sq82
Let’s close SimPe and open up the game and see if it works.
There it is!
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003t5z6
And look, she’s still wearing her hat in formal, but she takes it off to go to bed. That’s a relief.
http://pics.livejournal.com/gwillewyn/pic/0003wczf
This can of course be applied to any kind of hair. Maybe you just want your sim to undo their pony-tail when naked, or have a slightly more sophisticated do in formal wear, or have messy undone hair while in PJs. You can do them all at once if you want: different hair styles for each outfit. As long as the GUID is the same and you don’t have duplicate categories it’ll work.