Tutorial: Creating Clothing Stencils

[daluved1]

Creating Custom Stencils Tutorial (http://www.sims2wiki.info/Sims_3:Creating_Custom_Clothing_Stencils)

If you have any questions or feedback, leave a post here.

Also, editing/improvements are greatly appreciated ;)

[Delphy]

Nice tutorial, but instead of / in addition to a PDF version, why not try putting it on the wiki? This way people can view it only in a browser and wont need Acrobat.

If you need help doing this, we'd be happy to help. :)

[jokera_us]

hmm another tutorial. thanks! at least i have a hard copy of mee game. i can reinstall if i screw it up har har

[Gillianivy]

Thank you for the tute. ;D

[JanetteRaven]

I wish people would start doing tutorials in something other that photoshop. Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.

I am really frustrated at this point because everytime I try to follow a tutorial I find some function of photoshop that doesn't seem to be replicated by Gimp or Paint.net. Then I'm just stuck. :( I'm getting sick and tired of all the half finished projects I have sitting around on my PC.

[daluved1]

Ah, I understand where you're coming from Janette. I was actually considering going back and doing a Gimp version for those who don't have photoshop. But, I don't know much about how to use it =/

I wrote this assuming that you knew how to do basic operations with your image editor. Usually the same functions are there, but they're under different paths and/or called something else. However, If you need help try posting your question on a forum, I'm sure someone out there uses Gimp faithfully.

So I'll play around with Gimp and see if I can figure it out.
Until then, best of luck! :D

[Celebriton]

I love the PDF version. Wiki should provide the PDF version too.

Since my connection is slow, when loading a long page, it takes forever and some pictures many times fail to load or stop in the middle.

For several pages of tutorial, I also can't back or forward between pages freely and fast, since the browser will redownload again the pages and pictures.

Thanks for the tutorial.

[Srikandi]

Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.

a) it's not that expensive if you can get an educational discount from a university, and b) who says everybody's using the latest version? ;)

[Saikatsu]

a) it's not that expensive if you can get an educational discount from a university, and b) who says everybody's using the latest version? ;)
Ditto on both. Been using 6 (not CS6!) for years and years now.

[phatboi2017]

ok, ifollowed the tutorial to a T, and everything was going great , everything looked like the screenshots until I opened The Sims 3 to see if it worked, and all I get is an empty shirt. There is an extra one shirt in the shirt section, I guess it's supposed to be the custom one but the shirt is empty, nada. Please Help!!! :!: :|

[daluved1]

ok, ifollowed the tutorial to a T, and everything was going great , everything looked like the screenshots until I opened The Sims 3 to see if it worked, and all I get is an empty shirt. There is an extra one shirt in the shirt section, I guess it's supposed to be the custom one but the shirt is empty, nada. Please Help!!! :!: :|

Hmm, can you post some screenshots....although that won't be much help...

This may sound ridiculous but did you commit the DDS and save the package? Not to insult your intelligence but sometimes it's simple steps like that people miss.

Let's see, if that's not it then check to make sure that the Alpha layer is done right, usually that's what'll mess you up.

I'm trying to think back at all of the mistakes I made at first, but nothing is coming to mind at the moment. Then again, I haven't slept in forever...

While I ponder over this, go back over the tutorial again and see if maybe you missed something.

:Pint: I'm gonna need some more coffee -__________-

[daluved1]

I wish people would start doing tutorials in something other that photoshop. Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.

I am really frustrated at this point because everytime I try to follow a tutorial I find some function of photoshop that doesn't seem to be replicated by Gimp or Paint.net. Then I'm just stuck. :( I'm getting sick and tired of all the half finished projects I have sitting around on my PC.

Okay lovely, I decided to forgo sleep and make a version using only GIMP. It wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be =/ I never really knew how different they really are.

[daluved1]

ok, ifollowed the tutorial to a T, and everything was going great , everything looked like the screenshots until I opened The Sims 3 to see if it worked, and all I get is an empty shirt. There is an extra one shirt in the shirt section, I guess it's supposed to be the custom one but the shirt is empty, nada. Please Help!!! :!: :|

I just followed my tutorial from start to finish and I ended up with a working shirt =/

Maybe you should try editing directly on the extracted mesh texture. Like, instead of making the blank canvas, just paste the stencil directly onto the texture then go about the rest of the steps. Just remember change the alpha.

I don't see how that (^) will make a difference but you never know...

[Kiara24]

Congratulations, the tutorial is fantastic.
Thanks! :)

[Saikatsu]

A minor suggestion for improvement...

In part IV (alpha channel), there is a much simpler way to do this with Photoshop. Hold the Ctrl key and click on the layer (in the layers palette) containing your decal to select the decal itself. Select the alpha channel, make sure your background color is set to white, then hit Ctrl+Del. (Alternatively, if your foreground color is white, you can use Alt+Del instead of swapping your colors.)

[Syera]

ok, ifollowed the tutorial to a T, and everything was going great , everything looked like the screenshots until I opened The Sims 3 to see if it worked, and all I get is an empty shirt. There is an extra one shirt in the shirt section, I guess it's supposed to be the custom one but the shirt is empty, nada. Please Help!!! :!: :|
That's the exact same problem I'm having.

Personally, I'm using PSP, but what I'm doing should be doing the exact same thing she's doing in PS. I mean, it's worked this far for making patterns. :P

[daluved1]

That's the exact same problem I'm having.

Personally, I'm using PSP, but what I'm doing should be doing the exact same thing she's doing in PS. I mean, it's worked this far for making patterns. :P

I know you don't want to hear this, but try starting over from scratch =/
And by sratch, I mean delete everything...the extracted files, the clean stencil image, everything. Use the updated tutorial, preferably the Wiki version if you can, and follow the steps. It's rewritten and some of the steps have been modified and switched up to make it easier to follow. Also, I added some short cuts and alternative methods to use.

A few tips:
*Instead of creating the new blank canvas, you can paste the stencil directly on the shirt texture. Just hide the extra layers when you finish aligning the stencil, then flatten it. Make sure to hit Save As, not Save...and give the DDS a name
*Make sure that "Export MIPmaps" is selected when you export the DDS
*Make sure that you saved the DDS file in the right format. This may seem redundant, but sometimes it turns out that you picked the wrong one. "Signed" and "Unsigned" make a difference, as well as the number of 8s.

Anyhoos, I'm sorry for all the constant changes but the more I work with Photoshop/GIMP, the more short cuts and easier routes I learn.

Bear with me please :D

[Snaitf]

There also seems to be an issue with some Adult Female Tops, paticularly the t-shirts, if this is where you are having a problem, try doing a different shirt, or on a male t-shirt, see if this helps.

[daluved1]

There also seems to be an issue with some Adult Female Tops, paticularly the t-shirts, if this is where you are having a problem, try doing a different shirt, or on a male t-shirt, see if this helps.

ah ha! So it wasn't just me! I kept running into road blocks with the Adult Female mesh, but I thought I was just tired and probably missed something somewhere.

So instead this morning, I went back over the tutorial using a Teen Female mesh and I got it to work.

I wonder what's up with the Adult meshes...

[kookiekween99]

I feel really stupid right now, but I'm not sure how to get the DDS plugin to work on Photoshop. I clicked the link, downloaded it, and ran the exe, but it's not letting me open DDS files in Photoshop. Was there something else I was supposed to do first?

EDIT: Never mind, I'm an idiot. XD
I realized that I had Photoshop loaded when I ran the .exe. I just had the brilliant idea of restarting Photoshop. Everything's fine now.

EDIT2: Okay, another problem. When I try to save the file at the beginning of Part V, it gives me the error message "Too many channels to export (5)." Please help!

[Saikatsu]

EDIT2: Okay, another problem. When I try to save the file at the beginning of Part V, it gives me the error message "Too many channels to export (5)." Please help!
I had the same problem, the error made no sense. I got around it by saving it as a TGA (select 32 bit when it asks), closing the file, reopening it, then saving as a DDS.

[JigsawAnalogy]

Is there any chance that someone has tried this in paint.net and would be willing to post a tutorial? (Or to tell me there is no way to make this work with paint.net, and I really do have to go learn the Gimp; I will if I have to, but I'm impatient.)

And I should add a huge thank you for the tutorial, Daluved1, and the tool, Delphy, since they make me feel like I *can* learn how to do mods.

[kookiekween99]

I had the same problem, the error made no sense. I got around it by saving it as a TGA (select 32 bit when it asks), closing the file, reopening it, then saving as a DDS.

Thanks, I was able to save it that way. :3

But now, I'm getting another error, this time in CTU.

I was doing Part V Step 5, and I clicked find, and this popped up:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/amberdslovick/sims/Error.jpg

I wonder if this has anything to do with the workaround I had to use to save it...

Also, I agree with JigsawAnalogy. Thank you both for the tool and tutorial. I feel so much less stupid now. ^^:

[daluved1]

Thanks, I was able to save it that way. :3

But now, I'm getting another error, this time in CTU.

I was doing Part V Step 5, and I clicked find, and this popped up:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd19/amberdslovick/sims/Error.jpg

I wonder if this has anything to do with the workaround I had to use to save it...

Also, I agree with JigsawAnalogy. Thank you both for the tool and tutorial. I feel so much less stupid now. ^^:

Okay, I think I see why you're getting the "too many channels" error, that means you probably need to flatten the image before exporting it to a DDS.

Flattened simply means that there is only one layer in the image. In Photoshop, from what I can tell from my own experience, any transparency in the image is seen as another layer, even if it shows that you only have one background layer.

In part 4, step 7 when you delete the duplicated background layer, the image should automatically be flattened. However, if the canvas color is set to transparency for some wonky reason, then simply try reflattening the image again. This should give you an all white background with your stencil somewhere in the middle. In short: If you see the grey/white checkerboard when you try to save it as a DDS, then you need to flatten the image to turn the background white. This should solve that error...I hope...

Now, GIMP is another story, I believe that you indeed can export a DDS with the transparency showing. So that shouldn't throw you off, however I'll go check that out and verify if it's true.

-------------------------------------------------

Now, this funny business about the unsupported DDS error might mean that you saved it as the wrong file type. I've never tried to save it as a Targa first, so it might be that saving it as a targa then exporting it as a DDS is doing something weird to the file.

First, go back and look at the DDS file you saved. Make sure the file size isn't 0kb, if it is, then that mean something went wrong while saving.

Hopefully you saved your psd (if using photoshop) or your xcf (if using GIMP).
Re-open your psd/xcf and try saving it as a DDS again. (Make sure all 4 channels are there correctly and that the image is flattened).

If using the NVIDIA plug-in make sure you selected "DXT3 ARGB 8bpp | explict alpha" -OR- "DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | interpolated alpha", and MIPmaps were generated.

If using the plug-in for GIMP make sure the "BC2/DXT3" -OR- the "BC3/DXT5" format was selected and the the Generate MIPmaps box was ticked.


I really hope that helped, but if it doesn't...let me know and I'll ponder over this some more.

And, I also wanted to say thanks for all the lovely compliments! Although I haven't slept much since I first made the tutorial, staying up late to answer questions for you guys is worth the insomnia :D If it wasn't for MTS/TSR tutorials, I wouldn't know how to do much of anything for the Sims 2 or Sims 3. So I figured that I should give back to the community.

Much love!
-Alaina :Pint:

&&Amber, I love your deviantArt :D You should check out mine.

[daluved1]

Is there any chance that someone has tried this in paint.net and would be willing to post a tutorial? (Or to tell me there is no way to make this work with paint.net, and I really do have to go learn the Gimp; I will if I have to, but I'm impatient.)

And I should add a huge thank you for the tutorial, Daluved1, and the tool, Delphy, since they make me feel like I *can* learn how to do mods.

I'll toy around with Paint.net and see if I can figure it out. But it won't be anytime soon, I need to get some sleep :P

[Snaitf]

make sure you selected "8.8.8.8 ARGB 32 bpp | unsigned"

Please, do NOT use 8.8.8.8 ARGB as this is a completely UNcompressed image format, and you will end up with HUGE files. Use either DXT3 or DXT5 for images with an Alpha layer, or DXT1 for images with no alpha layer.

[kookiekween99]

Okay, I think I see why you're getting the "too many channels" error, that means you probably need to flatten the image before exporting it to a DDS.

Flattened simply means that there is only one layer in the image. In Photoshop, from what I can tell from my own experience, any transparency in the image is seen as another layer, even if it shows that you only have one background layer.

In part 4, step 7 when you delete the duplicated background layer, the image should automatically be flattened. However, if the canvas color is set to transparency for some wonky reason, then simply try reflattening the image again. This should give you an all white background with your stencil somewhere in the middle. In short: If you see the grey/white checkerboard when you try to save it as a DDS, then you need to flatten the image to turn the background white. This should solve that error...I hope...

Now, GIMP is another story, I believe that you indeed can export a DDS with the transparency showing. So that shouldn't throw you off, however I'll go check that out and verify if it's true.

-------------------------------------------------

Now, this funny business about the unsupported DDS error might mean that you saved it as the wrong file type. I've never tried to save it as a Targa first, so it might be that saving it as a targa then exporting it as a DDS is doing something weird to the file.

First, go back and look at the DDS file you saved. The file size should be 5,462 KB. If it's less or--God forbid--more than that, then your image was corrupted in the saving process.

Hopefully you saved your psd (if using photoshop) or your xcf (if using GIMP).

Re-open your psd/xcf and try saving it as a DDS again. (Make sure all 4 channels are there correctly and that the image is flattened).

If using the NVIDIA plug-in make sure you selected "8.8.8.8 ARGB 32 bpp | unsigned", and MIPmaps were generated.

If using the plug-in for GIMP make sure the "RGBA8" format was selected and the the Generate MIPmaps box was ticked.


I really hope that helped, but if it doesn't...let me know and I'll ponder over this some more.

And, I also wanted to say thanks for all the lovely compliments! Although I haven't slept much since I first made the tutorial, staying up late to answer questions for you guys is worth the insomnia :D If it wasn't for MTS/TSR tutorials, I wouldn't know how to do much of anything for the Sims 2 or Sims 3. So I figured that I should give back to the community.

Much love!
-Alaina :Pint:

&&Amber, I love your deviantArt :D You should check out mine.

The first part worked out quite nicely. ^_^ Thank you very muchly. <3

As for the second part... I got slightly confused at one point, but I figured it out right before I was about to ask you another question. ^_^

No one ever looks at my dA! I am truely touched someone actually took the time to look at my links! :'D *will check yours out later* Is your username the same as it is on here?

EDIT: I have finally finished the tutorial with my test subject! 8'D

Now I just have to steal the disc back from my mom and test it out...

[Saikatsu]

Okay, I think I see why you're getting the "too many channels" error, that means you probably need to flatten the image before exporting it to a DDS.
Could swear I flattened mine before attempting to export as DDS... guess that's what I get for playing with the utility at 1am when I'm supposed to have gotten to bed since I have work less than 6 hours after that. XD

[kookiekween99]

Tested it in CAS, and I got a shirt with a black background and white where the image was supposed to be.

I'll try starting over tomorrow and going through the entire process again, but I'm too tired to do any more with it right now.

[daluved1]

Please, do NOT use 8.8.8.8 ARGB as this is a completely UNcompressed image format, and you will end up with HUGE files. Use either DXT3 or DXT5 for images with an Alpha layer, or DXT1 for images with no alpha layer.

can I ask why? A lot of places that I've looked suggest to use the aforementioned format. I'm no expert or anything so I'm definitively not saying that you're wrong. I'm just curious as to why many people suggest that format.

[HystericalParoxysm]

daluved1 - Snaitf explained why. 8.8.8.8 ARGB is uncompressed and makes HUGE files. DXT images are compressed and make for -way- smaller files.

Uncompressed works better for patterns, where the texture size is small and having perfect colour separations without crunchyness is extremely important (especially as DXT images have increased compression on the blue channel vs. other channels and there's no way to fix that), but for clothing textures and patterns, that's way less important and it's better to have smaller files.

If you do end up with any quality loss on a DXT format file, you can add a tiny bit of noise to your textures before saving to confound the compression routine in the areas you're having problems with, and reduce the compression artifacts you may get.

[Sadisticpyro]

If you've already worked with 8.8.8.8 ARGB files (and don't want to backtrack and redo everything over again), just download jfade's TS3 Compressorizor Redux. It works like a charm: a 5mb file reduced to 68 kbs.

[t0b1a5]

You know how people have been having problems with there pic not showing up in CAS? Well I was having that too. I think it's because when you save the picture, ut's not 1024/1024 pixels anymore (In GIMP anyway. Thats what I use.) So I changed the layer boundary size at the end of the tut. Its pretty easy. You just have to have your measurements so that the stencil can still be aligned.

[Delphy]

Sadisticpyro, DBPF compressing 8.8.8.8 still means that the actual texture itself in memory takes up 5mb in size. Lots and lots of these (which I can see happening) means you quickly chew up texture memory. There is a reason DXT was invented you know. ;)

Considering that to save in DXT is exactly the same dialog as 8.8.8.8 (and less clicks, to boot), this is the prefered method for clothing.

[kookiekween99]

Sadisticpyro, DBPF compressing 8.8.8.8 still means that the actual texture itself in memory takes up 5mb in size. Lots and lots of these (which I can see happening) means you quickly chew up texture memory. There is a reason DXT was invented you know. ;)

Considering that to save in DXT is exactly the same dialog as 8.8.8.8 (and less clicks, to boot), this is the prefered method for clothing.

So do I chose the one that says "DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha"?

[kookiekween99]

Tested it in CAS, and I got a shirt with a black background and white where the image was supposed to be.

I'll try starting over tomorrow and going through the entire process again, but I'm too tired to do any more with it right now.

I figured out what I did wrong. In Part IV, Step 7, I deleted the original instead of the duplicate, causing it to still be white instead of giving me my original image.

[daluved1]

ah..I'm still learning guys :D I'll change that asap

[Rose_Reveries]

Just suspicious, but can you do this in Paint.NET? It seems like you can because you can save in DDS, but I can't follow the tutorials in it...

[daluved1]

Just suspicious, but can you do this in Paint.NET? It seems like you can because you can save in DDS, but I can't follow the tutorials in it...

I'm sure you can but I've never used Paint.NET before.

As I mentioned earlier, I'll take a look at it and see if I can figure it out. But, I'm not making any promises that it'll be be done anytime soon.

In the mean time, try using GIMP, it's free :bunny:

[Sadisticpyro]

Sadisticpyro, DBPF compressing 8.8.8.8 still means that the actual texture itself in memory takes up 5mb in size. Lots and lots of these (which I can see happening) means you quickly chew up texture memory. There is a reason DXT was invented you know. ;)
Oh, I see. Didn't realize this. Does this apply to custom objects as well (buyable paintings, etc.) or just clothing? If so, I'll have to go back and redo pretty much everything I've been working on. *facepalm*

ETA: also, when saving .DDS files on photoshop, I'm getting DXT1/3/5 options. I'm assuming 1 (1-bit) is the lowest quality, and 5 (interpolated) is the highest? Which one would you recommend choosing?

ETA 2: Never mind. I figured out the game itself uses DXT3. :P

[jonha]

Oh, I see. Didn't realize this. Does this apply to custom objects as well (buyable paintings, etc.) or just clothing? If so, I'll have to go back and redo pretty much everything I've been working on. *facepalm*

ETA: also, when saving .DDS files on photoshop, I'm getting DXT1/3/5 options. I'm assuming 1 (1-bit) is the lowest quality, and 5 (interpolated) is the highest? Which one would you recommend choosing?

ETA 2: Never mind. I figured out the game itself uses DXT3. :P

Hmm, The textures I see in the game are either DXT1 when they have no transparency ot DXT 5 when they have transparency. I would recommend DXT1 for non-transparent textures, as the quality is good and they have the smalles file size.

[Godofgame1st]

I do everything right from start to end but i cant add new design it blank and i tried it with two more man meshes please help

[daluved1]

Hmm, The textures I see in the game are either DXT1 when they have no transparency ot DXT 5 when they have transparency. I would recommend DXT1 for non-transparent textures, as the quality is good and they have the smalles file size.

Hmm I never thought to use DXT1, I always assumed that that was the lowest quality. Hm...I'll go try that out.

[Godofgame1st]

and my question?

[Misty76]

Hi. I've been trying to create my own clothes but I'm really stumped about the alpha files. Can some one give me a really easy step by step way to get through this part?

[daluved1]

and my question?

I thought I messaged you back -________-
check your inbox.

[jonha]

Hmm I never thought to use DXT1, I always assumed that that was the lowest quality. Hm...I'll go try that out.

DXT 1 has the same quality as DXT 3 or DXT 5, or maybe even better. It just stores no alpha channel and has the half filesize.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression

[daluved1]

DXT 1 has the same quality as DXT 3 or DXT 5, or maybe even better. It just stores no alpha channel and has the half filesize.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S3_Texture_Compression

I tried dxt1 and it came out looking horrible =/
Or maybe I'm just tired...eh... :Pint:

[t0b1a5]

Can someone tell me how to make translucent(sp)/transparent clothing?

[daluved1]

Can someone tell me how to make translucent(sp)/transparent clothing?

you should ask that on modding discussion forum...i think....

you'll get more answers that way.

[Delphy]

t0b1a5: Use the alpha channel to make transparent or semi transparent clothing. :)

[Godofgame1st]

c'mon i need help

[Delphy]

Godofgame1st you weren't exactly forthcoming in actual details. "it blank" is not enough to guess as to whats wrong. You need to provide more information.

[afturburn]

The dds files in the package 2 file are denoted with the _m as the material i guess, and they have a transperncy channel, alpha that allows you to adjust the transparency of the object. Using texture replacement in the main package file, i can alter the look of the items, ie.. and a crosshatch to the thigh highs to give them a fishnet look.

Can this same tool be used to create custom alpha channels so that we can mod the shape of the object? I can do it with texture replacements in the package2 file, but was wondering if packages could be created with this util that change the alpha of the final product, without disrupting the orginal.

[afturburn]

Can someone tell me how to make translucent(sp)/transparent clothing?

It's not too hard to do, the alpha channel is a greyscale channel, black being completely transparent -> white completely opaque. See my previous question, as to wether we can create seperate instances of the object to be changed, so that the orginals can be left alone.

[daluved1]

It's not too hard to do, the alpha channel is a greyscale channel, black being completely transparent -> white completely opaque. See my previous question, as to wether we can create seperate instances of the object to be changed, so that the orginals can be left alone.

Hanlon Razors tutorial gives a brief explanation:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15481.0.html

[kwinycakes]

CAN YOU HELP ME PLS? I always get this message :/

I have no problem with the whole Photoshop process, but the thing is, when i open the package i did, it wont open and the "Add New Design" Button is disabled. All i get is this msg:
http://i43.tinypic.com/noak2o.jpg

I'm kind of new of doing things like this, sorry for being dumb with this.

[daluved1]

Make an entirely new package with the same age/gender/mesh type/etc. and then try adding the design ;)

That should do it

[kwinycakes]

thank you. now i get it. :D great tutorial!

[daluved1]

anytime :D

[kwinycakes]

btw, the size of my .package file which is a trial is 0 kb? is that rly 0? or i did something wrong :?

[kookiekween99]

When that happens, you need to redo your package. Basically, it means that something messed up while it was saving.

[kwinycakes]

do i have to do the photoshop procedure again? or just the CTU thing?

[kookiekween99]

Just the CTU.

[kwinycakes]

ok i tried it many times but whenever i save it, i still get that message :<
and it's still 0 kb :help:

[TheRev]

Hy! How could i install the package to the sims? cause is in .package format and not .Sims3Pack please help me :| :cry:

[kwinycakes]

any clothes should be in .package (thats what i know) you should paste it on the mods/packages folder.

.sims3pack is for lots/houses and sims. pls correct me if im wrong.

and pls help me with the CTU thing. :help:

[kookiekween99]

@TheRev: Try using the Installer Helper Monkey. ~Link~ (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=344611)

@kwinycakes: Did you try closing CTU and reopening it? Sometimes it decides not to work right after it's been open for too long.

[daluved1]

Kwiny: how many designs are You trying to add to the .package? Because some meshes can have up to six at a time, whereas others can barely handle one.

And are you going to file->new or file->open? You want to make an entirely new .package not open an existing one. Theoretically you should be able to open and save over existing .packages however, the ctu has a few bugs that cause that to fail. So instead open ctu again and make a new file.

Edit: just saw your post on the other thread. If you're getting that error message, then most likely you're missing the .NET Framework

[LiliRubes]

Hi, thankyou for making this tutorial..Im having a dumb moment and wondered if someone could help me. Im using photoshop 7
I have followed the tutorial up to step 6..without a problem. When the alpha and the blue channel are visable it does go pink but I can't tell if its misaligned it looks fine to me..the logo isn't moved so I really have no idea what I am suppose to aligning.
At first I thought that all was good and nothing needed to be changed so I moved on to step 7..I ticked all the channels and went back to the layer tab but the image remained pink..not sure if this is correct?
I went back in to channel layers but everything remained ticked. Just to check if it would work I followed on with your tutorial but when it came to finding the dss file it fountthe file with the logo without any problems but when I ticked alpha the image remained coloured and the alpha never stayed ticked.
I followed everything to the tutorial except steps 6 and 7 as mentioned above.
I am good with photoshop but never had to understand Alpha's.
If someone could enlighten me to what I am doing wrong I would be most grateful.
Thanks

[daluved1]

Lili did you delete the whitened layer after you made the alpha channel?

Did you flatten the image?

Did you try the shortcut instead? It's much much MUCH easier than making the alpha channel manually.

[LiliRubes]

HI daluved1, yes I did delete the whitened layer after I made the alpha channel.
No I don't think I flattened the layer after though..I will try that..if it doesn't work then I will try the shortcut...not sure why I didn't do the shortcut in the beginning, lol.

Ok so, I used the shortcut and it worked..kind of, I finished the tutorial and then I opened up with delphy's unitool and replaced the file and it show up when I clicked find and when I clicked alpha it changed to white. So I thought I would save install after I pressed commit but when I went in cas and clicked on tops..the tee showed but it was a purple tee background with the default logo.
I don't know what Im doing wrong :(

I've just noticed that the size of the package is only 9.09KB is this the reason why it might not be working?
Thanks again,
Lili

[kookiekween99]

I never use the shortcut. XD

It was too confusing for me, and I already had an idea of how to do it your way.

[daluved1]

Yeah I think that's too small for a package but I'm not sure (i'm not at home so i can't check)

you didn't use an adult female mesh right?

And when you made your package did you make a new one or save over the one that we made while extracting the base textures? For now until ctu is updated, you should always make a new .package instead of saving over an old one.

[red_dragons]

I got quiite confused when following this part in the tut, so I tried something different & it works fine for me.

After you complete Part IV, step 1, use the magic wand & click anywhere around your stencil but not on it.
Then click Edit > Copy
Next, click 'new channel' in the channels area & this will give you your alpha channel.
Next click Edit > Paste
Then click Select > Deselect
Lastly click Image > Adjustments > invert

Then continue to Part V: Linking the Stencil to the Mesh

[lazywnch]

Am I right in assuming that once you get your new design in game, you should still be able to recolor the shirt behind the stencil? If so, I'm not able to do that for some reason. Any thoughts on what I might have screwed up? :}

Thanks in advanced!

[Nikao]

How do you upload the new stencils to sims exchange? Every time I try the item cannot be found on the exchange itself.

[daluved1]

lazywnch - Can you post a shot of your design and your alpha layer?

Nikao - I don't think the exchange allows uploads of custom clothing, mods, etc. Why don't you try uploading it here? At least here, your creation won't be snatched by some random person and lost forever.

[Nikao]

Yeah, I was thinking about uploading it here. I will once i get some more stencils to the mesh.

I just wanted to share on the exchange too :( There are other creations on the exchange with logos and such. Like Star Wars, Adidas, etc. Even pictures of twilight and micheal jackson. But I don't know how they are doing it.

[daluved1]

Yeah, I was thinking about uploading it here. I will once i get some more stencils to the mesh.

I just wanted to share on the exchange too :( There are other creations on the exchange with logos and such. Like Star Wars, Adidas, etc. Even pictures of twilight and micheal jackson. But I don't know how they are doing it.

ah, I didn't know that seeing as I've never been to the exchange before. Have you thumbed around the exchanges FAQ pages?

[lazywnch]

lazywnch - Can you post a shot of your design and your alpha layer?

Nikao - I don't think the exchange allows uploads of custom clothing, mods, etc. Why don't you try uploading it here? At least here, your creation won't be snatched by some random person and lost forever.

Sure, sure. I was pretty sure I missed something or screwed something up when creating the Alpha channel. Thanks for taking a look; I appreciate it. :}

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9390/tshirtscreenshot.jpg

And here's my blankety-blank Alpha shot. ;P

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8153/tshirtalphascreenshot.jpg

|*|lazywnch|*|

[daluved1]

You didn't make your alpha channel correctly. The game reads any white area as sort of an "open window", grey as "tinted glass", and black as "closed shutters".

So my reason for using bad metaphors is to say that the alpha should be completely black with the exception of where your stencil is located. The way you have yours set up is nothing but a big open window.

Reread how to set up the alpha channel. Remember you want all black, and only white where the stencil should go. Hope that made sense...
(Take a look at how my alpha channel is set up in the screen shot. Notice how it's all black except for where the chess piece is?)

EDIT: Before even fooling with the alpha channel make sure that shirt texture layer is hidden. And once you have successfully made the alpha channel, be sure to flatten the image before saving. Your resulting image should be an all white (or pink if you have your alpha channel visible) background with only your stencil showing.

[lazywnch]

It took some fiddling, but I got it. :} Thanks so much. Would never have been able to do something like this without your tutorial and help.

[LiliRubes]

Hi Daluved1,
No I used the teen,female,top,shirt_cew.
Yes I used a new file,first I extracted the files..closed Delphy's unitool and then started new..added the logo and then saved the package that way.

Edit:- I restarted over again and finally got it to work..I changed the dss format to explicit from Interpolated and it worked...the file instantly changed to 1.34mb..showed up in game perfectly..the background was still pink but there was no problems changing the colour :)

I've added a picture of my end result..thank you again for the tutorial and for being so helpful with my little problems.

Lili

[Nikao]

I have looked around the FAQs and stuff on the Sims exchange. Can't find anything.

I have a question about hats though. Is there a specific thing you have to do with hats in order to get the hair to show back up in the game? I put the stencil on the hat and the stencil shows up fine. The multiplier image even has hair on it and I'm not changing that at all. When I go into CAS everything works fine but the hair doesn't show.

I'm using the adult -> male -> baseballcap mesh.

[kookiekween99]

Added a tip to Part III Step 2. A lot of people (myself included) tend to forget that the mesh wraps around the body.

[daluved1]

Added a tip to Part III Step 2. A lot of people (myself included) tend to forget that the mesh wraps around the body.

that's a great tip! There's nothing more aggravating then having to resize once you get everything all finalized.

[TheRev]

thank you :rofl:

[Delphy]

Nikao: Probably becuase hats aren't supported in the publically available CTU. :)

[xxnae]

I wish people would start doing tutorials in something other that photoshop. Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.

I am really frustrated at this point because everytime I try to follow a tutorial I find some function of photoshop that doesn't seem to be replicated by Gimp or Paint.net. Then I'm just stuck. :( I'm getting sick and tired of all the half finished projects I have sitting around on my PC.

i agree, i dont use photoshop
i MUCH prefer fireworks 8

everyone tells me i should update it,
i did for a while use MX but it was missing so much :(


this is kind of unfair
i dont have photoshop either so i cant get photoshop plugins,

and i doubt photoshop plugins go into fireworks :(

[Srikandi]

Fireworks is a web graphics app, not a general-purpose graphics app. Still, it accepts some photoshop filters (least it did when I was using it for web development a few years ago), so it's possible it can do the .dds export. Check the documentation.

[daluved1]

i agree, i dont use photoshop
i MUCH prefer fireworks 8

everyone tells me i should update it,
i did for a while use MX but it was missing so much :(


this is kind of unfair
i dont have photoshop either so i cant get photoshop plugins,

and i doubt photoshop plugins go into fireworks :(

I used to use Fireworks and Dreamweaver a lot when I did web design and I absolutely fell in love with the both of them. And I know you'd hate to switch over but consider downloading GIMP or Paint.NET, they pretty much do the same as Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro sans the price tag :)
But still, if you don't want to use something else, you might want to reconsider updating Fireworks. I think you'll have a lot better luck finding a .dds plug-in for MX or MX 2004.

[buba3d]

i'm having a hell of a bother trying to create a alpha channel in photoshop elements, the only thing i can see is this, i'm not to savvy when it comes to editing

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/buba3d/Image1.jpg

[daluved1]

Wow.....I have never actually seen/heard of phtoshop elements. Now, just from looking at your screenshot, I'm not seeing a Channels view at all...This may sound silly but do you know how to get to the Channel view at all? Once you get there, that'll make things much easier :)

EDIT: it seems that Photoshop elements doesn't allow for channel mixing/adding/etc. In fact, it doesn't do much at all. However! You can download a plugin for it that'll allow you to do all above ;)

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/30/supercharge-photoshop-elements-channels-and-layers-and-masks-o/

that's a free one that I found that looks pretty useful, but you might want to some more google searching just in case.

[buba3d]

new problem
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/buba3d/ertt.jpg

[daluved1]

Simple just delete the existing alpha layer, make a new one then hit ALT + Delete (make sure you keep your stencil pieces selected like you have them now)

[buba3d]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/buba3d/678678.jpg
this is what i ended up with

[daluved1]

What do you have selected? Remember to hide the layer with the shirt texture. And DELETE the existing alpha layer and make a new one.

[buba3d]

now i got this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/buba3d/ttyu67.jpg

[daluved1]

Perfect! Now flatten the image and save it as a .dds with a new name

[buba3d]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/buba3d/rrtyui.jpg
i must say, it's took me just under 12 hrs, i'm pleased on how it turned out :)

thank you very much

[daluved1]

You're welcome :)

[theaxis2009]

You're welcome :)

to "add new design" and .. ERROR :(

I have read the whole guide and I managed to make the
designs but the applications will not work so I can not
resolve the issue of moving the files dds. to package.. is correct??
? any solution? (sorry english translation powered by google :)
post the error detail for u.

THNX.

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application.... bla bla bla.
Value of '223635' is not valis for 'red'. 'red' should be greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 255.

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: Value of '223635' is not valid for 'red'. 'red' should be greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 255.
at System.Drawing.Color.CheckByte(Int32 value, String name)
at System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Int32 alpha, Int32 red, Int32 green, Int32 blue)
at System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Int32 red, Int32 green, Int32 blue)
at MadScience.Helpers.convertColour(String colourString)
at CASPartEditor.Form1.showCasPart(Int32 chunkNo)
at CASPartEditor.Form1.listView1_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WmReflectNotify(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3082 (QFE.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///c:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
CASPartEditor
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/CASPartEditor.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
MadScience.Helpers
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/MadScience.Helpers.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3082 (QFE.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
heawzc_n
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
OX.Copyable
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/OX.Copyable.DLL
----------------------------------------
Gibbed.Helpers
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/Gibbed.Helpers.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Security
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Security/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Security.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Data.SqlXml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Data.SqlXml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Data.SqlXml.dll
----------------------------------------
Gibbed.Sims3.FileFormats
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/Gibbed.Sims3.FileFormats.DLL
----------------------------------------
Gibbed.RefPack
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/The%20Axis/Desktop/tool/Gibbed.RefPack.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

[daluved1]

Try looking at the cas texture unitool thread. I've seen that error posted there before.

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=348082

[ZimZ]

I'm having a weird problem, I've made a shirt with a little picture on top. It works fine in game but they shirt just stays grey. It won't let me recolour the shirt at all The only colour is the picture. I'm not sure what's happened. Can some one please help? Thanks.

[daluved1]

You probably forgot to hide the shirt texture layer before flattening the image ;)

[ZimZ]

yeah :lol: I did soemthing like that. Thanks, They work now! XD

[vistaboo]

Opps...I wanna ask sth here.
I generated a package file and it is found in the game.
However , I cannot design the color of the cloth in the sims creating interface.
Once I clicked on the design color button, the cursor turns busy (i.e. the loading circle)
Is there any mistakes I've made ?

[daluved1]

What mesh did you use? I think you may have used one of those uneditable meshes....
Did you see the stencil image before you tried to design/recolor? If so, are you positive it wasn't that your game needed te to load?

You may want to go look at the list of uneditable meshes on the wiki.

http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Meshes_not_recolourable_in_CAS

[vistaboo]

Of course I can see my design in he game.
I have compared with another player-made shirt, it runs normally.

Maybe the problem is about uneditable mesh, let me try another mesh.

[r_cobleigh109]

I'm having trouble using this with GIMP. I have followed the steps and it doesn't work in game. :/

Do you perform steps 1-9 in part IV when using the GIMP program?

[daluved1]

No. Use the GIMP shortcut.

Note: I don't use GIMP and I wasn't the one to add the GIMP alpha step....so...try it again, and if you still can't get it, post a screen shot of your dds and I'll take a look. :)

[r_cobleigh109]

okay! and using gimp, you can see the alpha layer the whole time, so I wasnt sure what it was talking about when it said that the background says there is no alpha channel, because when you set it to transparency when making a new canvas at the beginnning, it shows right to the alpha channel.

[r_cobleigh109]

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/r_cobleigh109/GIMP.jpg

Alright. here is a shot of my DDS in gimp.
this is right before i would merge down the layers.

[daluved1]

Everything looks good, just make sure you hide that shirt texture before merging.
But I was really looking for a shot of the channels....

That's too cute by the way!

[r_cobleigh109]

would you like a shot of the channels?
in GIMP the ones that are given automatically are Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha


*Edit*

So I would get this look using GIMP and now i tried with Paint.Net and I still got this when I clicked find to view:

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/r_cobleigh109/SCREENSHOT-15.jpg

Does this look wrong to you?

[daluved1]

Yes, it should have an all white background.

I think you need to change the canvas background setting on GIMP to either white or transparent, then try re-merging the objects.

[r_cobleigh109]

so using paint.net, how do I get it with an all white background? do i keep the background layer visible instead before I flatten the image? sorry for all the questions.

[guth75]

I am using delphy's cas editor, but I don't see the "Replace" button for the textures. Its my first time making clothing for sims 3, and I looked around, but I can't find the replace button.

:help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

*edit* ------
I have noticed that part of the program is "Hidden". I am using vista, and have tried adjusting the screen resoultion. There are no scroll bars, like on IE an such. Does anyone know how I could un-hide this?

[daluved1]

RCob, I really have no clue what to do when it comes to Paint.NET. However, I do know that Paint.NET makes the alpha channel automatically. So get your image to look like the screenshot. You want only one layer with your image sitting in a sea of transparency (grey checker board). One you get that, you can save your file as a DDS.

guth75, I have vista and the CTU runs just fine. Which version are you using? And have you look on the official ctu thread for a solution?

[r_cobleigh109]

I get to that, then I save as a .dds . then I open up the CTU, click on new and do the same gender,age, and style as before. then I go to the stencils tab, then I replace stencil A, and when I click find, to view what I selected, It looks like the screenshot I posted with the black around the Logo.
I am so confused as to why its doing that and need help!

[guth75]

daluved1, I think I am running Windows Vista Home Premium, on a Lenovo Laptop. I will check the official CTU thread.

Edit-------
Delphy has uploaded a new version, and I can see the buttons correctly. Thank you!

[amvalvo]

Everything works fine for me until I go to add a new design...
http://i32.tinypic.com/343pwu8.jpg

it says that for every mesh and I've tried a new file, restarting the program, and everything else I could think to do about a dozen times.

[r_cobleigh109]

did you just make a new one with the same perameters?

[xxshowt666xx]

I made a shirt with this tutorial and it worked great....so thanx....but the one problem is after it's in game and all I can't change the pattern or color....is that cuz I did somthin' wrong or is that just somthin' I'm gonna haveta deal with....Pleas help

[fluttereyes]

I wish people would start doing tutorials in something other that photoshop. Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.

I am really frustrated at this point because everytime I try to follow a tutorial I find some function of photoshop that doesn't seem to be replicated by Gimp or Paint.net. Then I'm just stuck. :( I'm getting sick and tired of all the half finished projects I have sitting around on my PC.

I pay for all my software, I might not have the most recent versions but they're mine. I got a student discount when I was at uni too :)

Still, what you're accusing people of isn't nice

[daluved1]

xxshowt666xx,

Is it grey? If your shirt shows up grey with your stencil on it, you didn't hid the shirt texture before flattening the image.

[r_cobleigh109]

So i figured out how to make the shirt with the stencil, but I can't change the shirt color and the logo comes out all fuzzy for some reason.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/r_cobleigh109/Screenshot-4-2.jpg

[daluved1]

If the shirt color stays white, then you might not have done the alpha right. Then again , I've never had that problem before =/. Try again, and if you still can't get it, I'll take a look at your file.

[amvalvo]

did you just make a new one with the same perameters?

Yes, and I also made one using a different mesh (more than once), and I restarted then used that one, restarted then used a different one... No matter what I do it always says that the mesh cannot have extra designs added. :(

[daluved1]

Yes, and I also made one using a different mesh (more than once), and I restarted then used that one, restarted then used a different one... No matter what I do it always says that the mesh cannot have extra designs added. :(

I remember someone else having that issue with the old ctu. I don't know exactly what they did to get it working but you might want to take a look at the ctu thread.

[Agapi R]

Hi, can you tell me where this is "At the bottom tick the Alpha box just to verify (the image should turn white-ish). " I cant see any alpha box

[sims3website]

I followed the Paint.net tutorial steps, everything seemed to go okay up until installing the item into the game - it's a .package file, aren't clothing items for The Sims 3 supposed to be .sims3pack files?

[daluved1]

It might not still be there, are you using the newest ctu?

If so, I haven't used it yet...so give me some time to figure it out and I'll get back to you :)

EDIT: sims3website, no...well I mean they can, but generally anything non-EAmade comes in .packages.

I take it, you've never used .packages in TS3 yet?

If not, read this http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Installing_Package_Files

[Agapi R]

I downloaded the ctu this week and I didnt find the alpha, now I have got the new one that come today and that one look´s different from the old one but I guess that it works the same way, isn't it?

[xxshowt666xx]

Ok so I allready came here with one problem but I've had more since then....OK.....I make a shirt I follow all the steps and when I put it on the game either the shirt is white with my picture and I can't change it or theres the shirt and I can change the pattern but theres no Picture what in the world am I doin' wrong now

[nanoune972]

Hi, I've follow all the instruction on the web site sims 2 wiki for create clothes.
But my creation doesn't appear on the game. When I try to save my package I've got a error message saying that " The specified filed is untraceable". If i save anyway,the size of my package is 0 octets. Is it normal ?
The file must be saved in "savedsims" or not ?

I'm sorry for all the mistakes, I did in my text, but I'm french so ...

[daluved1]

Hi, I've follow all the instruction on the web site sims 2 wiki for create clothes.
But my creation doesn't appear on the game. When I try to save my package I've got a error message saying that " The specified filed is untraceable". If i save anyway,the size of my package is 0 octets. Is it normal ?
The file must be saved in "savedsims" or not ?

I'm sorry for all the mistakes, I did in my text, but I'm french so ...

I've never heard of that error before....but 0kb is not normal. Yeah...I don't really know how to solve that....did you check the CTU thread?

[nanoune972]

No, I don't know how to make that

[xxshowt666xx]

I need help....I don't understand the whole Alpha layer thing....no matter what I do it just won't turn out right....I'm using GIMP by the way...

[lauramoon_2]

hi, I feel a little fool for asking this but... where should I save the file? I have followed the tutorial step by step but when I finally finished all the steps, I don't know what to do with it!! I don't know where to put my saved fiel...How can I get it in the game!? sorry if this is foolish... but I really want to see what I have done in the game...
sorry if my Elglish is not perfect... I'm spanish!

[daluved1]

Nano- I meant look at the MTS2 thread about the ctu
look here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=348082

Showt666- I'm not really a expert at GIMP...but I'll take a look at your file. Can you post it up here?

Laura- read this: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Adding_Custom_Stencils

[NBS]

First off thanks lots to Daluved for doing this, I've gotten some awesome shirts in game now, and its all thanks to you, and I guess Delphy and Gimp, too.

So anyway, this is more of a Gimp related question, but is there a way I can use the bucket tool and use that as my background eraser tool thing? I'm really new at this, I started using Gimp for making custom stencils, so I'm very unfamiliar. Again, is there an easier way than erasing the white of an image, the "magic wand" equilavant in Gimp is shotty at best.

Thanks!

[NBS]

Omfg I am really really stupid. Looks like I need to learn Gimp more. Disregard my above post, but keep the thanks!

[lauramoon_2]

Laura- read this: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Adding_Custom_Stencils

thanks for your answer, but something wrong happens when trying to save.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8310/errorg.jpg

maybe I did something wrong with the photoshop... I don't know

[daluved1]

thanks for your answer, but something wrong happens when trying to save.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8310/errorg.jpg

maybe I did something wrong with the photoshop... I don't know

That looks like the dreaded framework error. Make sure you have Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 installed.

Read this thread for more info: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=348082

[nanoune972]

I've got the same problem lauramoon

Daluved1, I read the page and I find that :
"I get a System.Core error when saving
You don't have .NET framework 3.5 installed or installed properly. Go get it and install it. If you have it already, reinstall"

Maybe it's that I'll try, Thanks you anyway

[NBS]

Ok, after figuring out Gimp so well I realized that all my clothes stayed white even if I tried to change the color, so I figured it was problems with the Alpha, so I decided to switch over to Paint.NET and try my luck with that. I cranked out a couple designs, dumped into CTU and package-ified. Only problems is that when I see them in game, it reverts back to the stock stencil. For example, I made my sister a peace sign on teen female crew tee, but when I open it in game it's always the sunset thing, even though its it's own design and has its own row.
So here's what I've done to try and fix it;
First I redid the CTU part. Saved everything and double checked the Stencil Pool image and the design previews. Saved then dropped into Mod/Packages folder. Then I opened it back up to double check, it's still the peace sign, everything's fine and dandy. So then I load up Sims 3, enter CAS, and BAM!!! My design has been replaced by the stock stencil. So then I quit, reload the package with CTU, and BAM!!! It *IS* the stock stencil, the peace sign has been replaced.
So...WTF IS HAPPENING?!?!
This only seems to be happening with clothing that already has stencils assigned to it, blank tees and such appear fine.
So I appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

[freak.ya]

really nice

but im a MACuser...

is there any way to do it with a mac??


THX :P

[spike_xp]

i'm having the same problem as r_cobleigh

So i figured out how to make the shirt with the stencil, but I can't change the shirt color and the logo comes out all fuzzy for some reason.

the color's unchangeable. but not too fuzzy as it looks....

[daluved1]

i'm having the same problem as r_cobleigh



the color's unchangeable. but not too fuzzy as it looks....

check the alpha.

[spike_xp]

check the alpha.

i'm using paint.net... can't figure out how to create those alpha thingy...

[daluved1]

Paint.NET should make the alpha automatically. Just make sure that the stencil image is surrounded by transparency.

[spike_xp]

Paint.NET should make the alpha automatically. Just make sure that the stencil image is surrounded by transparency.

i made 2 layers, one for the shirt front and second for the shirt back. i copy-pasted the images to the layers. so basically, i have 4 layers. the white background, the shirt template, and 2 images/logos. i used DXT3 and ticked generated mipmaps. the .dds file flattened (of course). where'd i go wrong?

[daluved1]

Get rid of the white background. You want a 1 layer image with nothing but your stencil floating in a sea of transparency.

I would post a screenshot of what I'm talking about but I'm not at my laptop at the moment.

[candybear]

I am sorry, but can someone give the super dooper dummies version of this tutorial? I am really crap at using photoshop.

I get part II, Step 1 - Create a new canvass but step 2 has me confused. Did you just go to file and then open the DDS image or do you create a new layer and place the DDS image on the new layer? Because the next step (Step 3) says to open the stencil in a new window but all of mine open in a new window.

Please help, I really want to learn how to do this.

[spike_xp]

Get rid of the white background. You want a 1 layer image with nothing but your stencil floating in a sea of transparency.

I would post a screenshot of what I'm talking about but I'm not at my laptop at the moment.

the white background was the canvas. so should i work only with the shirt template?

then what's the function of the canvas?

man, i'm confused....

[daluved1]

Candybear, open the dds file...

Spike, you should be able to delete the white area around the stencil...and when you do that, you should only have your stencil left, floating in transparency (grey checkerboard).

So hid the base texture and the white background layer and flatten the image. If the background turns white again, use the eraser and/or the magic wand tool and delete everything that is not part of the stencil.

I hope this is making sense....if not, I'll post a screenshot up when I get back in town.

[spike_xp]

Candybear, open the dds file...

Spike, you should be able to delete the white area around the stencil...and when you do that, you should only have your stencil left, floating in transparency (grey checkerboard).

So hid the base texture and the white background layer and flatten the image. If the background turns white again, use the eraser and/or the magic wand tool and delete everything that is not part of the stencil.

I hope this is making sense....if not, I'll post a screenshot up when I get back in town.

so the saved file only consists the stencil, not with the base texture?

now that makes sense.... i'll try it!

[nanoune972]

I'm sorry to ask this stupid question again because daluved has already gave a answer
But where do you save the file, I've read the whole page and I didn't find. They just say to save and that's it. I've saved on electronic art > sims 3 but my shirt doesn't appear on the game

[daluved1]

Spike, Yes! That's what I was trying to say :)

Nan, read this article :)
http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:Installing_Package_Files

You did make your package file, correct?

[crechebaby]

I wish people would start doing tutorials in something other that photoshop. Where are all you people stealing your copy from anyway? I refuse to believe everyone but me can afford to buy such an expensive program every year when they release a newer version.


I purchased Photoshop.
I don't update every year, only when the changes are significant enough that I think it's worth the expense.

I'm sure there are alot of people who haven't purchased Photoshop, and are using pirated software, but don't make a blanket assumption. Some of us are actually (gasp) professionals.

[candybear]

Firstly, excellent tutorial. It took me a day to figure it out but I got there. I would have been even more clueless without. Thank you daluved1 and thank you Delphy.

Ok, so the shirt shows up in the game and I can recolour it but I have the white box of where I copied the stencil with the marquee tool (Step 4-
Using the Marquee tool, draw a box around the now-white image and make a copy) and I cannot recolour that. How do I work it, so that the white box does not show up on the tshirt or how do I get it to blend in so I can recolour it?

[daluved1]

I think you forgot to hide the whitened image after you made the alpha channel.

[candybear]

I think you forgot to hide the whitened image after you made the alpha channel.

It Worked!!! Thank you.

[nanoune972]

Thank you daluved, my clothes appear

[candybear]

I take that back, it did not work. For some reason I have that pink colour behind my stencil image. It that supposed to be like that?

[spike_xp]

thx for your infos, daluved1! it worked!!

[stregha]

ok, i read this whole thread, and the links :) my question is, i fallowed the tute, had no problems, learned alot by trial and error, my first question is, the preview of the stencil (the background the stencil is on) is it supposed to be pink or white? the other question i have, is that when trying to install the file with the monkey, or otherwise i get this..

nameof.package: Please make sure your game has the latest software updates and try again.
done!

i have the latest version available.. prehaps i too made an error?

[daluved1]

Are you talking about the DDS preview in CTU? If so, it should be white. As far a the pink background goes, that only happens in Photoshop when you have the alpha channel visible, but if it doesn't show pink, don't worry about it. I just included that info as a means of verfying.

Now about the TS3 package installer, I don't really know what you did wrong....you did make a .package with the CTU, correct? Have you tried just dragging the package to your mods folder manually?

[stregha]

yes to the background, thats what i thought..white, i just wanted to be sure, i discovered both ways, but wanted to be on the safe side. no i havent tried putting it manually, i take it doing it manually means i wont have to double click to try and extract it?
thanks ahead of time, and i really appreciate you answering my question, and putting up the awsome tutorial... i learned much from it, and from doing the patterns as well. and not just how to make the two, but also the use of the color channels in my paint programs..so thanks a bunch for that! its not really as difficult to do as when i first looked at it and went HEH?? very nicely done!! :)
i will try the manual way, and let you know what happens with that.. imma go finish watching my movie, it has the rock in it... (sigh)

[ibayayjorge]

yesterday i made my first mod after thousands of tries, i used the cas toturial, but after that i triet again and again i dirint have any luck. Pleas help me, here i send you wahat i have done:

[ibayayjorge]

What is the next step and how i make the alfa channel? Sorry for the question but i am spanish and i undestand very little the tutorial.
Thank´s.....

George

[stregha]

daluved- that did the trick, everything works great..thanks a bunch!

[stregha]

yesterday i made my first mod after thousands of tries, i used the cas toturial, but after that i triet again and again i dirint have any luck. Pleas help me, here i send you wahat i have done:

you have to hide the background layer... and the layer with clothes on it, before you go to channels. you may be trying to use the shortcut instead of the other steps, its kinda confusing when you do that, so ignore the shortcut method, and use the steps instead, they are much better layed out and easier to fallow. .i know i might be late trying to help with a answer, but i hoped it helped :)

[AmberSelfish]

I was fine until this point

Paint.NET: Chose the DXT3 (Explicit Alpha) -OR- the DXT5 (Interpolated Alpha) format and tick Generate Mip Maps.

Make sure the MIPmaps are generated.

Note:

* DXT1 RGB 8bpp | 1 bit alpha is also an acceptable compression format.
* You may have to play around with the three different DXT compressions to find out which one works the best for your particular image.

Huh??

I feel incredibly stupid right now, but what am I supposed to do from here?


-EDIT because I'm off today-

OH, and to previous post, this is the first time I have EVER done any form of modding or even use of photoshop...

ultra noob.

but I really want to be a creator for sims 3 :D

[daluved1]

If you're using Photoshop then you can skip what it says about paint.NET. Now, the bulleted items are just little pieces of info. You can ignore them if you want.

[AmberSelfish]

I'm using paint.net... ha

Through a couple minutes of research i think I have to package the file, which I have no idea what to do about that? I'm so lost

[cameranutz2]

I have read and reread everything in this thread and still, not working. Is there something I am missing?

Using Gimp 2.6...

I set up a new file

Copy/Paste the stencil and mesh images

Hide all but the stencil image

Flatten file, all images are merged and I end up with the stencil on a white background in the Layer & the RGB channels.

The alpha channel - which Gimp auto generated when I opened the files - is now gone

Save As...dds, DXT5, MIPmaps generated

When I open in game, it is all white and can't be recoloured?

I am so confused! :lol:

If I missed a step in there somewhere, someone please enlighten me! :help:


EDIT: I tried to skip the new image and copy the stencil right to the mesh and same results.

[Valencay]

cameranutz2, I have the same issue with GIMP. After going insane for a couple of days trying to follow the steps, I gave up. I am now just merging down layers/anchoring any floating layers so I am down to the one layer only with alpha channel still intact. Saving at that point displays correctly for me in game. Flattening simply just does not work.

[daluved1]

cameranutz2, I have the same issue with GIMP. After going insane for a couple of days trying to follow the steps, I gave up. I am now just merging down layers/anchoring any floating layers so I am down to the one layer only with alpha channel still intact. Saving at that point displays correctly for me in game. Flattening simply just does not work.

I originally wrote to "merge down" layers, but someone went back and re-did all the Gimp instructions. And, with me not being an experienced Gimp user, I assumed it was all correct. =/

I'll rewrite the steps....eventually

[AmberSelfish]

First I want to apologize, i'm so new at this I'm getting on my own nerves...

Paint.NET: Chose the DXT3 (Explicit Alpha) -OR- the DXT5 (Interpolated Alpha) format and tick Generate Mip Maps.

Once I figure out what that means, I've got this...
I've searched and searched but I can't find this or even an option for this...

[daluved1]

When you go to save your stencil as a dds, you should have the option to pick the compression. DXT3 is a low quality compression, so I think it's best to pick DXT5..

Anyways, you might have to go to file -> save as, pick DDS as the save format, give it a name then click okay. The reason I say might is because I'm not on my computer right now so I can't go look and see.

[AmberSelfish]

Alright, I have that done...

I went back to add the stencil

and it is giving me one of the unhandled exception messages

"Could not load file or assembly 'system.core, version=3.5.0.0, culture=neutral, publickey token=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot be specified"

(print screen key not working...)

I hit continue anyway, and it saved it as a package file... worth 0 bytes...

[daluved1]

Ah...do you have Microsoft .NET Framework vs3.5 installed?

[vamprider]

ive downloaded gimp 2.6.6 and when i try to install the dds.exe it says "failed to start because libgimp-2.0-0.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." but reinstalling it isnt fixin the problem. but your instructions seemed clear as far as i got. 0)

[daluved1]

I don't know what to tell you o.O
Have you looked at the Gimp website?

[vamprider]

yea ive redownloaded it several time idk what it is

[daluved1]

Now I vaguely remember dragging the dds plugin to my Gimp plugins folder...in fact, I'm positive that I did that.

Edit- take that .exe and drop it here:
(C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\)

you may or may not have to turn on the view hidden folders option.

[vamprider]

ok that worked i can now see the file when i try to open it but now its sayin it cant find MSVCR71.dll and it wont open

[vamprider]

this is what it had

[AmberSelfish]

Yay, I got it to work! thank you for your patience!

[daluved1]

ok that worked i can now see the file when i try to open it but now its sayin it cant find MSVCR71.dll and it wont open

sounds like a program and/or .NET framework error...

[vamprider]

sounds like a program and or .NET framework error...
so what should i do to fix that re download or what??? sorry for the inconvinence

[daluved1]

I would say to (1) uninstall gimp completely, (2) restart your computer, (3) Check that you have .NET 3.5, (4) Reinstall Gimp, (5) Reinstall the plugin.

[vamprider]

(3) Check that you have .NET 3.5[/QUOTE]
this might sound stupid but whats .NET 3.5?

[daluved1]

-face palm- :)

This works on vista but the concept is the same:
Go to start then right click on my computer and click properties. This should bring up your system specs. Scroll through until you find the line that says Microsoft .NET Framework and read what version you have.

Edit- or you can go to Microsoft's website and go to the download page for Framework. Microsoft runs a system check that'll let you know if you have the latest version.

[vamprider]

lol...here are all my specs cept for my activation code and product id...man for a hick town i know somethin about computers but this stuff is a little more advanced for me but im figurin it out.

[daluved1]

Wow...you have a 64 bit OS? Well, you're going to have a hard time running a lot of things. Anyways back to the issue at hand, I don't see where it shows .NET at all...on my laptop, it shows what version I have. Then again I have Vista x32 bit....if that makes a difference.

Well sweetheart....I'm all out of ideas. =/

[vamprider]

Wow...you have a 64 bit OS? Well, you're going to have a hard time running a lot of things. Anyways back to the issue at hand, I don't see where it shows .NET at all...on my laptop, it shows what version I have. Then again I have Vista x32 bit....if that makes a difference.

Well sweetheart....I'm all out of ideas. =/
yea i duno what most that stuff means but ill try gimp once more if that dont work ill just try the paint option...sounds so much cheaper though lol thanks

[vamprider]

ok i just read on the gimp site when i was ixin to download the dds that it Doesn't work with GIMP x64 Windows. so that was my problem and i have to use the paint thanks loots though 0)

[vamprider]

thanks for the help and while i was on my way to paint i found .NET 3.5 or whatever. downloaded paint and am downloading 3.5 thanks now once i finish downloading im goin to go to sleep i dont wanna eat in the middle of the night...well early morning 0)

[cameranutz2]

Thank You, Valencay, I will try that!

Thank You also daluved for your tutorial, time and patience! You Rock!!!


EDIT: Can't Merge Down so not able to get just one layer! LOL!

I don't think I was meant to do this! :(

[Valencay]

If you can't merge down but have layers, I think that means you have a floating layer. Select the floating layer and then check the little icons below the layer list. One should be "anchor floating layer". Clicking that should merge it down.

My monitor died 2 days ago, so if this is unclear it is because I'm on my Eee and don't have access to the software at the moment. But I hope that helps.

[ibayayjorge]

Please help me... I have made every step of the tutorial and i open de CAS and replace in the stencil pool and add new desing and select stencil 1. Save the desing en Sims3.package. Then a put it on the mods folder and i open my game... Here comes the problem that when i look the desing of the image that a have put on the pants is transparent.

[ibayayjorge]

I have made all the steps of the tutorial ...

[daluved1]

I see a lot of problems.

1. Your alpha channel is wrong, it should be an all white cut-out of your butterfly. And I can't tell if you did or not but you need to delete the existing alpha before you make a new one.

2. You need to hide the base texture before flattening. The end result should be your stencil image floating on an all white background (or pink if you have the alpha channel visible).

[cameranutz2]

If you can't merge down but have layers, I think that means you have a floating layer. Select the floating layer and then check the little icons below the layer list. One should be "anchor floating layer". Clicking that should merge it down.



Finally got it figured out! :bunny:

- Create new Background Layer
- Copy/Paste Mesh into Background, Hide Mesh Layer, Anchor Layer
This Merged it down to the Background layer and it is invisible
- Copy/Paste Mesh into Background layer again, Create New Layer, leave it visible
- Copy/Paste Stencil into Background, Create new layer from Floating, moved layer above Mesh Layer and aligned
- Deleted Mesh layer
- Merged Down Stencil layer into visible Background layer

(Alpha Channels were auto created by Gimp so didnt need to mess with those)

Save File, dds format, DXT5, Generate mipmaps

Created package file, moved to Packages folder...Viola!
Fully recolourable in game! :up:

Now, it may be the long way around, don't know...but, it worked! :lol:

Thank you again Valencay & daluved1.....BIG BEAR HUGS TO BOTH!

[daluved1]

Eeep! I love bear hugs! :)

[beautifulcrazydisaster]

I used the idea that was listed above where you merge the mesh into the background... I followed all those steps and OMG my first working mesh change!!! I am so excited!! Here is a pic of the shirt i did... Nirvana!!

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb271/beautifulcrazyhot/Screenshot-9.jpg

[beautifulcrazydisaster]

Finally got it figured out! :bunny:

- Create new Background Layer
- Copy/Paste Mesh into Background, Hide Mesh Layer, Anchor Layer
This Merged it down to the Background layer and it is invisible
- Copy/Paste Mesh into Background layer again, Create New Layer, leave it visible
- Copy/Paste Stencil into Background, Create new layer from Floating, moved layer above Mesh Layer and aligned
- Deleted Mesh layer
- Merged Down Stencil layer into visible Background layer

(Alpha Channels were auto created by Gimp so didnt need to mess with those)

Save File, dds format, DXT5, Generate mipmaps

Created package file, moved to Packages folder...Viola!
Fully recolourable in game! :up:

Thankyou so much Cameranutz2 !!!

[cameranutz2]

:bunny: Way to go, beautifulcrazydisaster !

Glad the tip helped you out! :) Like the shirt, nice job! :up:

[Joshie196]

Whenever I try to save it it says this :wtf:
what do I do?
PS: how do I color the background of the shirt (yours was purple?)

http://s548.photobucket.com/albums/ii334/iluvannie/?action=view&current=Untitled.jpg

[daluved1]

Joshie196, you might want to go look at the CTU thread.

And, the shirt was purple because I colored it purple in Create-A-Sim ;)

[Joshie196]

thanks :P I'm so clueless

[dannward]

I followed your tutorials, and now have a nicely stenciled cheerleader outfit with the Cal logo. Yay! :)

Three minor things I encoutned while using Gimp to do this:

(1) My source logo already *had* a perfectly formed and aligned alpha layer -- I spent way too long trying to delete and recreate the alpha. Doh! It worked perfectly once I realized my alpha was already good.

(2) When merging visible layers (and eliminating the hidden), Gimp resized the canvas to match the size of the logo layer. (This resulted in the final image being non-square, non-power-of-two, etc.) To resolve this, I used layer->resize to canvas before merging the visible layers.

(3) Flattening the image actually removed my alpha layer, converting my image from RGBA to RGB, with an all-white background, rather than a transparent one. (Which resulted in an all-white cheerleader outfit, as the "logo" covered the whole outfit.) Skipping this step produced a good result, once the layers were merged.

Thanks again for the tutorials!

[angieb]

so using paint.net, how do I get it with an all white background? do i keep the background layer visible instead before I flatten the image? sorry for all the questions.

I used paint net its really easy, just open your alpha that you extracted and want to put the stencil on, open up your stencil and paste on. And don't forget to hide the alpha layer before you flatten the image. That's the only thing I forgot, I got so stressed trying to use PSP 8 as I havn't got photoshop.

This is my result I just can't recolour it because I forgot to hide the alpha layer. Well I think that's what's wrong reading the other threads I'll redo tommorrow.

Hope this helps. :)

Obviously follow the tutorial for creating your stencil etc, and follow as above and you should get the right result. For true beginner's I think Paint Net is a really good idea. :p

Big thanks Devalued for the tutorial. :up:

[silverkymaera]

Thank you SO MUCH for the tutorial. It was really helpful and very easy to follow. My question is do you know how to make it so you can recolor the shirt? I created a shirt with a stencil and it shows up in the game but the shirt itself won't recolor. How do I fix that? Thanks so much for all your help! :bunny:
Edit: So I figured out how to recolor it but I am still doing something wrong. The shirt is gray by default and when I recolor it, it is always dark. So even though the tab shows the color as white, it looks gray. If I select light colors, they mix with a grayish color. Can Anyone help me figure out what I am doing wrong? Thank you! :help:

[fluttereyes]

I've looked through this thread and can't see an answer to this, sorry if I missed something.

I creates some stencils for t-shirts using your tut, thanks it was easy. The porblem I'm having an this might be normal is that when I load up CAS the tshirts don't appear in one line, they all end up like this

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt240/FlutterSims/botchedCAS.jpg

Is this normal or should they just be in one slot, in a straight line?

How do I fix this? What did I do wrong?

I've tried this two ways, doing each stencil in CTU seperately and also by doing them altogether but that overlays them. All the t's work and look fine, recolour and everything, just this mess. I know it has to be wrong as when I get to stencil number six, well I'm sure you can imagine

[jonha]

Is this normal or should they just be in one slot, in a straight line?


If you want them in one line, you have to do them together/in one package.

They shouldn't overlay, if you enable only one stencil for each design.

[fluttereyes]

If you want them in one line, you have to do them together/in one package.

They shouldn't overlay, if you enable only one stencil for each design.

Lol, thanks, I just got it to work, what I was doing wrong was shutting down CTU between each one. I have them in a straight line now.

[Julie J]

I did the tutorial and it shows up in game with stencil but I can't recolour the t-shirt in CAS. It stays grey and can't recolour stencil either.

[daluved1]

Stencils aren't recolorable, and nine-times-out-of-ten you either didn't make an alpha layer or you made it incorrectly. Can you post up a screen shot of your alpha please?

[silverkymaera]

I did the tutorial and it shows up in game with stencil but I can't recolour the t-shirt in CAS. It stays grey and can't recolour stencil either.

I am having the same problem. I did manage it to recolor but it has a gray tint to it. I know you have to apply the alpha layer once you put everything on the background, but it is still gray for me. I am using GIMP and I put a screen shot above.

[daluved1]

The greyish area is the base texture, idk if you've seen one but all bases are greyscale and the game simply colors over the texture. So you have to remember that all colors will have a touch of gray :) Because you're literally adding blue to a grey canvas ;)

[silverkymaera]

The greyish area is the base texture, idk if you've seen one but all bases are greyscale and the game simply colors over the texture. So you have to remember that all colors will have a touch of gray :) Because you're literally adding blue to a grey canvas ;)

Is there any way to fix that? So I can recolor it to a lighter color? Thanks a bunch!

[AnnieBell]

Wow, thanks so much for this, this is an awesome tutorial.

I do have a suggestion for a way of setting up the alpha chanel which I think is easier in Photoshop.
I just select the layer with the stencil/decal/design, and use the magic wand, and if necessary the shift key, to select all transparent areas. Then use select (menu) and inverse to select everything that isn't transparent.
Then change to viewing chanels, create the new (alpha) chanel, and use edit (menu) and fill to fill the selected area with white.
This creates a white shape of the design in exactly the right place.

Also, one other minor sugestion, for those of us who have never used the CTU before, it would be good if in step 1 you said that you need to go to file (menu) new before you start selecting options in the find a mesh tab. It took me several minutes to work out why everything was greyed out and I couldn't select anything.

Thanks again for this awesome tutorial

[FredSmith909]

Great tutorial! I tried a lot of others before finding this one and it showed me what I was missing, so thanks for making it so easy to understand.

[Julie J]

I finally managed to do it - Thanks for this great tutorial :D

[fluttereyes]

Wow, thanks so much for this, this is an awesome tutorial.

I do have a suggestion for a way of setting up the alpha chanel which I think is easier in Photoshop.
I just select the layer with the stencil/decal/design, and use the magic wand, and if necessary the shift key, to select all transparent areas. Then use select (menu) and inverse to select everything that isn't transparent.
Then change to viewing chanels, create the new (alpha) chanel, and use edit (menu) and fill to fill the selected area with white.
This creates a white shape of the design in exactly the right place.

Also, one other minor sugestion, for those of us who have never used the CTU before, it would be good if in step 1 you said that you need to go to file (menu) new before you start selecting options in the find a mesh tab. It took me several minutes to work out why everything was greyed out and I couldn't select anything.

Thanks again for this awesome tutorial

I do similar to you. When I have lightened the stencil to white, I click it with the magic wand, copy, create the alpha and just paste, a couple of clicks does it. It also pastes into the exact spot it was lifted from and you don't have to reposition anything.

I also noticed some people were having probelms with too many channels when trying to save, this is because you have to delete the original alpha after creating the new one and before saving and it doesn't say that in the intructions.

[debra1970p]

Creating Custom Stencils Tutorial (http://www.sims2wiki.info/Sims_3:Creating_Custom_Clothing_Stencils)

If you have any questions or feedback, leave a post here.

Also, editing/improvements are greatly appreciated ;)

Hi, I have a couple of questions about the tutorial because it seems like the tool has been updated some since the tutorial was created. Step 3 says to click Add New Design, but after I click that button, it gives me two choices: "Add New Blank" or "Copy All from Base". Which one do I choose? It's not mentioned in the tutorial.

I take a guess and select "Add New Blank" and then Step 4 says to go to "Other Details" and highlight the base texture. The base texture isn't under the other details tab. I find it under another tab, but after highlighting the base texture, the "find" button's grayed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

[debra1970p]

Hi, I have a couple of questions about the tutorial because it seems like the tool has been updated some since the tutorial was created. Step 3 says to click Add New Design, but after I click that button, it gives me two choices: "Add New Blank" or "Copy All from Base". Which one do I choose? It's not mentioned in the tutorial.

I take a guess and select "Add New Blank" and then Step 4 says to go to "Other Details" and highlight the base texture. The base texture isn't under the other details tab. I find it under another tab, but after highlighting the base texture, the "find" button's grayed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

Okay, so I was able to get past my original issue. I'm on step 5 in the tutorial and I use paint.net. It says to click on the channels tab, but I can't seem to find the channels tab in paint.net. Does anyone know what a paint.net user should do on this step?
thanks.
I checked google and couldn't find any information on channels and paint.net.

[daluved1]

Okay, so I was able to get past my original issue. I'm on step 5 in the tutorial and I use paint.net. It says to click on the channels tab, but I can't seem to find the channels tab in paint.net. Does anyone know what a paint.net user should do on this step?
thanks.
I checked google and couldn't find any information on channels and paint.net.

Paint.NET makes the alpha channel automatically I believe, as long as you leave any unused areas transparent.

[debra1970p]

Paint.NET makes the alpha channel automatically I believe, as long as you leave any unused areas transparent.

Okay, thank you. I also realized that I got confused because I was looking at "step 5" instead of "part 5". I feel dumb now.
Anyway, thanks again.

[jonha]

Step 3 says to click Add New Design, but after I click that button, it gives me two choices: "Add New Blank" or "Copy All from Base". Which one do I choose? It's not mentioned in the tutorial.

Add new Blank adds only one design (it copies the first one from the base CAS part). "Copy All from Base" copies all designs.

Generally "Add New Blank" is probably the best idea. "Copy All from Base" is only useful, if you want for example make only small modifications to all the original designs. For example if you want to convert a v-neck shirt to a round neck shirt, but reuse all the original patterns and colors.

[debra1970p]

You probably forgot to hide the shirt texture layer before flattening the image ;)

I'm new to paint.net, so I was wondering how would I hide the shirt texture layer? Do I just uncheck it in the layers panel?
thanks

[debra1970p]

Add new Blank adds only one design (it copies the first one from the base CAS part). "Copy All from Base" copies all designs.

Generally "Add New Blank" is probably the best idea. "Copy All from Base" is only useful, if you want for example make only small modifications to all the original designs. For example if you want to convert a v-neck shirt to a round neck shirt, but reuse all the original patterns and colors.

thank you

[debra1970p]

I'm new to paint.net, so I was wondering how would I hide the shirt texture layer? Do I just uncheck it in the layers panel?
thanks

Seems like unchecking it does the trick.

[Srikandi]

Debra, no need to double or triple post, or reply to yourself -- you can edit your prior post if you have something you need to add :) See Guideline 11 (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=289713).

[mdossantos047]

You're tutorial helped me soooo much...and I've been making stuff, and it appears in the game. The only thing is that none of the shirts I've made can be recolored.

I know a bunch of people have had this problem, but I haven't really found a solution.

Here is my project screen:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g214/leadfoot04/WuTangProblem.jpg

[sammann89]

I have updated this tutorial for GIMP Users, so if you are a GIMP user and have had problems before it might be worth looking at the tutorial again and seeing if what I have added helps!

[merooo619]

plzzz i want help :cry: in part 4 step 8 when i Turn on all color channels to verify I didn't get the original stencil image back.
and in step 9 which image i should flatten.


and the shortcut : i can't understand it please if any one explain it to me in easy way plzzzz .

[BrokenPiece]

Okay I probabaly have the most stupid question ever, but I really need the answer. :P I did all of the steps and everything was pretty clear until the saving part. I know it's kinda silly but I can't find the Alpha Channels box anywhere, so I can't tick it. Is it supposed to be in the saving screen before the DDS plug-in box should comes up?

I use the newest version of the Gimp. I've been using it for years now so that's why I'm pretty ashamed I have no Idea how to make that box appear on my screen. XD

I made a screenshot of the saving screen. But I do have to warn you, my Gimp is in Dutch. So it probably doesn't make much sense to you anyway. Screenshot: http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd14/chupachups5576/ScreenshotTheGimp.jpg

I really hope you can help me. Thanks for looking at it anyway! :)

[madmosh]

yeah i've been trying to open the DDS file in Adobe PhotoShop CS2 but it doesn't read the file... is there a codec or plug in i need to download so it will read it?

[scrappy]

Hey this thread old now but ya may still check it,.....great tutorial was spot on had no probs at all....jus one thing,
i wanted to put a image onto a zipped hoodie and when i do it, it wont place the image how its ment to it sucks it in at the zip line =s any ideas?
thanks for tha help :)

[mdossantos047]

Hey this thread old now but ya may still check it,.....great tutorial was spot on had no probs at all....jus one thing,
i wanted to put a image onto a zipped hoodie and when i do it, it wont place the image how its ment to it sucks it in at the zip line =s any ideas?
thanks for tha help :)

When editing the Zipped up Hoodie, the zipper is not in the very middle. They are separated into 2 lines beside it. Those lines together form the zipper. So you should just split the picture and place it among those 2 lines.

I'm not sure what the middle part is supposed to be. :wtf:

[LongLiz88]

My image editing program is photoshop, but i it cant open dds files... What should i do???

[daluved1]

At the start of the tutorial there is an introductory part that addresses DDS Plug-Ins for Photoshop and Gimp ;)

[LongLiz88]

At the start of the tutorial there is an introductory part that addresses DDS Plug-Ins for Photoshop and Gimp ;)

You're right thnx :P : D

[weeeze]

hey sorry if i sound like a complete idiot, ive never done this before and, well, im a complete idiot...

errrrm i get to Part lll Step 1 and im completely stuck,
how do i copy and paste my stencil image into the blank canvas?
i dont know where the option is to do this =/ im using paint.net
any help is hugely appreciated! xxx