I am Having a Very Frustrating Time Adding Laces with Gimp

[slar]

Basically, I'm trying to create this acid-goth sim with fantastic combat boots. However, I'm basically resorting to trial and error to make sure that the photoskined laces go in the right region of the shoe. Are there more efficent methods available?

[CatOfEvilGenius]

There's two ways, easy, and not quite as easy but not hard either.

1 - Use a Maxis texture as a guide
Take a Maxis texture that has laces where you want them. Put that in one layer. Put your texture in another layer, under the Maxis texture. Make the Maxis texture semi-transparent. Now you can paint your laces on your texture, using the Maxis texture as a guide.

2 - Use the UV map
Fire up MilkShape or LithUnwrap or UV Mapper Pro or your favorite meshing / UV mapping tool. Import the mesh, and texture it with the UV map. In your drawing program (PhotoShop or GIMP), make a layer with the UV map above your texture. Make the UV layer see through except for the lines, of course. Now you can see where your texture will get mapped to the mesh. Of course, you can also just texture the mesh with your texture. ;)

If method 2 makes no sense, you can learn all about how to export meshes and UV maps in the Create beginner tutorial section.

exporting UV maps (http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Exporting_UV_Maps_for_Better_Clothing_Recolours)
previewing textures in MilkShape (http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Using_Milkshape_to_Preview_Body_Shop_Textures)
using LithUnwrap to view recolors (http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Using_LithUnwrap_to_view_Recolours_in_3d)

You can also use LithUnwrap to get the UV map. Can't find the tutorial for that, but it's ridiculously easy.

Open your mesh *.package file with SimPE.
Right click the GMDC resource.
Select "Export". You now have *.5gd mesh file you can open in MilkShape or LithUnwrap.

Fire up LithUnwrap
File -> Model -> Open (select your *.5gd mesh file you exported earlier)
File -> UV Map -> Save (now you have *.bmp image of your UV map)