SanMoo's Hair Mesh Tutorial

[Sanmoo]

This tutorial is outdated, the latest tutorial using Unimesh is found here (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=158048)




THIS IS AN ADVANCED TUTORIAL

It assumes you know how to do all the steps involved in making a new sims body mesh and editing it.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE UNIMESH TUTORIAL AND LEARN BASICS (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=142305)


(even once you've done the Unimesh tutorial, you'll need to learn about bone assignments, but it will get you started.)

This tutorial primiarly covers the DIFFERENCES between editing a body mesh and editing hair meshes.

It is outdated, because the old Wes plugins have been replaced - the new Unimesh plugin is here (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=122399) . There is also a MANUAL for Unimesh, and the Unimesh thread discusses some of the details regarding the bone assignment changes necessary for hair meshes created with it. Unimesh is new and it takes a long time to write thorough tutorials, so this tutorial will remain up until a new one is completed.

-------



Everyone's Been asking how we make ours work so we decided that it to hard to explain so we wrote it down as we made one Hope this helps everyone willing to learn it Oh we're really new at this forum stuff we don't know how to use all the feature yet like link providing but it won't take us long I hope
If you like edit this post and provide the links please this will help everyone out
Sanmoo

SanMoo's Hair Mesh Tutorial Wednesday, July 06, 2005

What You Need
1. SimPe Version 0.38 ( We had problems with later versions )
2. A Copy Of WDSBriAnna's Mesh Tutorial
3. Milkshape 1.74 ( Newer or earlier)
4. Wes H's 2.16 plugin

Now To The Steps

Step One
Follow Tutorial
Follow BriAnna's Tutorial until You get to step number 18. Replacing the words for clothing with hair.

Step 2.
Open Package
Open your package file you made in Bodyshop ( Which would be the file you extracted )
located in your saved sims folder. Cut and Paste your downloads folder somewhere
else on your computer for easier bodyshop opening.( Just Remember where you put it )

Step 3.
Finding The Order
Click Down To Property Set , Plug-in view and view each individual file until you find the name of the hair
With starts with af,mf,tf,tm,cf,cm,cu, pf,pm or pu ( it depends on which one you want to play with)
and remember with order they are in.

Step 4.
Replacing Nodes
Click on the dotted lines you will see all the files over on your right
Left click and press add
Click your modified resource and shape node and add them to the list.
Then go to 3d ID Referencing File.
On the list to the side click the files
of the ones you found in step 3.
Click on the file for your hair their will be three ( two if you don't have University) files you have to fix a Adult,Young Adult and a Elder
If your creating a teen,child or toddler Hair Their will be 1 File you have to fix.( For Each Age)
Click The Package button right next to the File Properties.
Scroll down the list till you find the Resource Node.
Drag the file to the list of files.
Do the same for the Shape Node
Delete the very first Resource and Shape Node at the top of the list.
Drag the Resource node from the bottom of the list to the very top. Then click commit
Then drag the Shape Node right under the Resource Node and click commit
Go back to the dotted lines scroll down to the list on the right and delete the Resource and Shape Node
you added.
Click File and Save

Step 5.
The Mesh
Open up your mesh file that you saved (Should be In Your Saved Sims Folder)
Click on the Geometric Data Container
Then click on the file to your right (Copy the filename )
Go up to the Geometric Data Container on the right side
Left click and extract it and paste the filename you copied over the name of the file
save it into your documents.
Open up your mesh in milkshape using Wes_H's 2.16 plugin
edit your mesh anyway you want to.
add it to the joints
Click the neck and pull down the vertices its better to view the model from the back view
So you can move the neck piece straight down ( If you move the neck in it looks weird)
Don't move it down to much just a tad.
When adding more layers to hairs don't forget
to rename the duplicated layer just rename it the same as the file you duplicated.
export your file file using Wes_H's plugin and save it as another name.
This is just incase you mess up and need the file back.

Step 6.
Replacing File
Open up SimPe then your mesh file whatever you named it
Click Geometric Data Container Select the filename highlight and copy the name.
Go back to the Geometric Data Container file and replace it
with the file you made in Milkshape.
After you replace it Highlight filename and paste the name you copied.
click commit now save your file.

Step 7.
Open Up BodyShop
And Check Your File
If correct your new hair mesh will show up correctly
Then close bodyshop and check it in you game
to see if the animation are to your liking if not
close the game and go back to milkshape and reassign
different joints. Follow steps 5 through 7 until you like it.

Step 8.
Your Done
That's how we do it.

[petallotus]

Thanks Sanmoo. I appreciate all your help. I love your meshes by the way.

[Sanmoo]

thank you now go become great ok We know you can

[cardenrow]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I've been looking everywhere for one! I really appreciate it :)

[Gnostic Dreamer]

You might want to move this into the tutorial section... ;)

[Revoye]

Here's some very helpful links for hair meshing.

http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43092 (BriAnna’s tutorial)
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=278680 (Big Bad Shar hair meshing tutorial)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=68472 (Dr Pixel's Hair animation help)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=74817 (Pinhead's Transparent edges help)


Where to find tools

http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ (Milkshape)
http://sims.ambertation.de/ (SimPE)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43503 (Wes_h's Plugin/[gmdc importer])

This is how I learned :D

(This should belong in the tutorials forum)

[kitanazworld]

holy cow how informative! Thank you SOO much you guys!! :anime:

[FlYiNgDuTcHmAnSuPeRgReAt]

I am sorry for this hard work to place this tutorial (It's a quite long story, I guess), But can you place some pics? I am not so good at English so can you? If not, well, then it doesn't matter anymore for me ! :D

[FlYiNgDuTcHmAnSuPeRgReAt]

thanks for the tutorial I forgot to say sorry!

dumb me!

[kool4ya91]

steps 5-6 confused me...

[M3832]

It simply isn't working for me... I can not understand why. I thought I followed the tutorial perfectly, but my model changes wont show up and it can be because of almost anything. I've tried in so many ways now, I'm about to give up. But thanks for writing the tutorial anyways :)

[sim_babe12]

:kami: :D hi

[melanise]

i give up on meshing its just so hard i mean every one makes these tutorials but they just aint detailed enough they are not very understandable most things in the tutorials i have been to dont explain things as good as it's mean to be concidering it's a tutorial... i wonder if any one could film it being done that would really help because this tutorials are twisted

[Sedna98]

emmm i am still trying to understand lol XD, i made a spiky hair mesh from the short hair gel mesh black for adult, male but i just don't get how to put it back in :(,

can u help me? ^^

[callum91]

i have had a problem too
at 1st, my mesh replaces the original, now it doesnt, but my mesh just isnt showing up! (the origial 1 is)
i have meshed many sucessful clothes&objects that work, so i dunno why this dont work

[NicMcD]

i'm wondering when someone is going to answer the questions about this tutorial. why post a tutorial if you're not going to tutor people. And if this comes of rude, sorry, but i'm really frustrated with the lack of help here....grrr lol see

[MJ_King]

Am I the only one who is confused about following brianna's tutorial until step 18? 'Cause I don't know what to choose, cause the files have totally different names, and there are a lot of stuff that wasn't there in brianna's tutorial, especially since the tutorial was about a special gown. I don't get how to work the hair in the exact same way as the gown 'til step 18.. can someone help me?

[bradfordkf]

ive used wdsbriannas tut to make clothes before and have even changed parts such as using wes plugins for milkshape rather than exporting as an obj file and importing with the meshtool and all that. worked well every time. but now im trying to do hair meshes and my milkshape trial has run out. everything ive read (snazza, sanmoo, shar, etc) all say to use wess plugins and milkshape so i cant do that. i tried it using the export to obj and import using the meshtool method and it doesnt seem to work for hair. how can i make hair meshes without using milkshape? PLEASE! thank you.

[coffeehedake]

I ended up paying the $25 for Milkshape... but I use it for more than Sims2 modding, so it was definately worth it.

My advice... buy yourself a key for Milkshape3D.


On the editing front... I'm having all kinds of problems with these tutorials... Not necessarily this one, or WDSBrianna's either... but with the combination of the two.

I've restarted several times, and followed the tutorials verbose every time. My mesh ends up in body shop, but only on the Elder version of the sim... the adult, and young adult, (which all use the same resources for the am_hairmessy_black resource which I based my mod from) do not have the new mesh added to the hair I have modified. So far I haven't been able to get an answer, heck, I haven't even gotten a response on the thread (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=86898) I'm posting on from anyone yet. I'd love to figure this out, and possibly re-write these tutorials. Having a tutorial point to another tutorial written by someone else for modifying some other aspect of TS2 is kind of a hassle. I have 3 tabs open in FireFox just to run through this tutorial, because 3 different people have written tutorials on the subject and 2 point back to WDSBrianna's clothing tutorial with "follow step X-YZ" in their own. It's just time consuming, and not all that helpful... :shrug:

It'd be nice if one of the pro modders could take a look into this for us. I know I'd definately appreciate it greatly...

- Coffee

[annaa]

Thank you for the tutorial, but where is the "namemap" in Simpe?

[AnimalYeah101]

annaa, this tutorial was made a while ago with the old SimPe, so we don't have it on the new one. I wish someone would make it with the new one!
And coffeehedake, well said! I couldn't agree with u more; someone should look into them and help us!

[coffeehedake]

For the NameMap, load up SimPE with 'Classic GUI' mode on (it has a seperate shortcut on your start menu for classic GUI).

It will display all the data organized in the way it used to be before the XP style change was made to SimPE's GUI.

Hope this helps a bit.

- Coffee

[bradfordkf]

thanks. the idea though is that i cannot afford to buy milkshape right now and all i need it for is to do hair meshes so paying for it wouldnt be practical anyway. i could do body, clothes and object meshes with other programs. im sure there is a way to do it using the .obj or.smd format, its just a matter of specifics. btw, all the tuts out now are still 100% compatible with the new simpe, just the gui is a bit more difficult to navigate and the newest version also has the classic gui so its not really an issue anyway.

[Inge Jones]

How do I find Brianna's tutorial? I did a search for "tutorial" in the WDS search box but it didn't find anything

[Cazkiwi]

Tsk tsk... seems most unlike you not to read threads Inge! The link is already in Revoye's post, need to scroll up a bit :D teehee

But.... like other things from a while ago... it's a bit out of date now.. and isn't really compatible with the latest Simpe version... :)

[mysticweirdo]

Hmm... I'd really like to begin meshing, but people are saying this tutorial is out of date. I've downloaded the newest versions of SimPE and Milkshape #D, as well as Wes' plugins. Would I be allright following this tutorial or will I just get hopelessly confused? Is there a more up-to-date hair meshing tutorial if so that anyone knows of?

Thanks

mysticweirdo

[someONE.org]

"Step 5.
The Mesh
Open up your mesh file that you saved (Should be In Your Saved Sims Folder)
Click on the Geometric Data Container
Then click on the file to your right (Copy the filename )"

What file? =S

[KiaraRawks]

I'm editing hair that came with NL (vamp hair) and I am completely stuck on
Click on the file for your hair their will be three ( two if you don't have University) files you have to fix a Adult,Young Adult and a Elder
If your creating a teen,child or toddler Hair Their will be 1 File you have to fix.( For Each Age)
Click The Package button right next to the File Properties.

[fireflykat51]

Ok a bit out of date or not this is the most comprehensivepost I have found, ever. hank you for the links you made my day!

[Rayne00000]

Great tutorials. I wouldn't have been able to make my content without them. :beer:

Anyway, I made my hair and it turned out great but I am stuck on where I am suppose to modify the afhair and ef hair. (I don't have University yet).

I went ahead and modified the af hair only to see if it would work and it does but in the view hair by age section of Bodyshop the modified hair shows on my elder Sim and not my adult Sim. In the game and in bodyshop preview it shows on my adult Sim? This is all good and fine since this is what I wanted to begin with but for sharing the file I am not sure how to fix it .
I stuck it on Exchange to download it quickly and see if anything changed and it still shows on my adult sim but even in the preview on Exchange it shows the elder Sim with the new hair.

I'd like to modify both files correctly but I havn't figured it out yet so if any more info on how to do this I would really appreciate it.

I move the nodes to the correct file but at that point I don't know when I am suppose to change the eldersim file.

Thanks a bunch!

[Lunar Eclipse]

I've found a very irritating problem with transparency and was wondering if anyone knows how to fix it.

Before editing the mesh in milkshape the transparent parts looks fine.

But once I finish with my edit and reopen bodyshop (and this happens in-game as well) the edge of the transparent parts of the mesh become rough and cause opaque areas of the mesh to become fully transparent. There is nothing wrong with the alpha textures either.

I'll post a picture example of what I mean.

http://www.zelas.net/kujaku/SimPage/other/reg.JPG
This is before editing!

http://www.zelas.net/kujaku/SimPage/other/messed.JPG
This is after. See the strange transparent rough edge? It shows up in grey on the left of the picture but it actually transparent. This rough edge appears around any parts of the hair mesh that use the alpha channels and I do not know what causes it. It ruins things a lot however, and doesn't happen until the mesh has been edited in milkshape.

I've tried turning auto smooth off to see if it made a difference, but it did not. I've been messing with this for hours and I've made no progress.

Someone please help me out!

Nevermind EDIT:
Being the geniASS that I am, I fixed the problem. Milkshape convieniently forgets the opacity settings found in the parts tag of the GMDC. I just had to reinput that and commit. Voila! So yes, NV. <3

[lizzybeth1]

Here's some very helpful links for hair meshing.

http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43092 (BriAnna’s tutorial)
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=278680 (Big Bad Shar hair meshing tutorial)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=68472 (Dr Pixel's Hair animation help)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=74817 (Pinhead's Transparent edges help)


Where to find tools

http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ (Milkshape)
http://sims.ambertation.de/ (SimPE)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43503 (Wes_h's Plugin/[gmdc importer])

This is how I learned :D

(This should belong in the tutorials forum)


I've had a go at the big bad shar hair tutorial and had more success with any of the others, except when i have to import via THE SIMS 2 GMDC in milkshape. I do not have the sims 2 option, yet i thought i had all the plugins and i think i've got wes h's latest plug in, so i'm confused??

Thanks
LIZ

[beinghope]

Hello, I want to learn thanks to your tutorials, but the link for SimPE doesn't work... Anyone has got another link or something where I can get the software? Thank a bunch :)

[Gnostic Dreamer]

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133134+

THis is a link to all versions of SimPE...hope this helps someone.

[Jessy500]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! Ive always wanted to do this and now I can.

[moonbrite-sim]

omg i cant wait till i get started making big hair!!!!
thank a lot :)

[kippy]

hola soy de chile ^^!!!

[shockhorror]

Thank you so much for the tutorial, it's great!

I'm stuck at step 5 "Open up your mesh in milkshape using Wes_H's 2.16 plugin"

I downloaded this plugin (2 files I think) awhile ago and put them into c:/program files/milkshape. Is this right? Can anyone give me the link to this plugin so I can be sure I have the right thing. I did search for it but couldn't find anything.

Also once I have the correct plugin how do I use it, how do I open my mesh using it?

[mgariask]

hello: I have a problem when creating hairs, when I see with body shoop it
with all the moved vertices, like in ends.I follow with all them step. that it can be?Excuse my ingles but single I speak Castilian

[Penguink]

I have a question about this part of the step:

Step 5.
The Mesh
Open up your mesh file that you saved (Should be In Your Saved Sims Folder)
Click on the Geometric Data Container
Then click on the file to your right (Copy the filename )
Go up to the Geometric Data Container on the right side
Left click and extract it and paste the filename you copied over the name of the file
save it into your documents.


I don't understand where the "file to the right" is/what it might look like, like someONE.org was saying. Can somebody help me on this if they happen to see this post? D:

[Kyrandia]

Hey all,

First, I'd like to thank SamMoo for the tutorial :D.

I'm trying to make a new hair style and I've got a problem, seems that the ilumination of . The hair is divided in 2 meshes, a ponytail and a fringe. The ponytail is fine, but the fringe has some ilumination artifacts that have nothing to do with the textures. I changed the textures to a flat color so its more obvious.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8693/mts2hairtestproblem3jy.jpg

Does anyone knows what is the problem?

[ae_dude69]

i dont understand step 4, could someone explain it better 2 me please? Or if u could give some pics for it that would help too.

thanks

[Lunke]

Hi Guys, well I've just managed to figure things out myself, just!

Here's what step 5 means for those who asked

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v309/Lunke/GMDCImport.jpg

[WesHowe]

If you decide to use the new UniMesh plugins for MilkShape, instead of the older 2.16 plugins, with your hair meshing, there are some extra steps that need to be done to avoid problems with animation interactions.
I have described the solutions in the following post: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=992310#post992310
The UniMesh plugin set is more pwerful, and now exposes bone assignments made to animation points that are post-processed somehow by Maxis.

The "BodyChop" and "2.16" plugin versions will remain posted on their threads, but I am no longer going to provide any further support or development work on them.

<* Wes *>

[josebritofino1991]

I am outraged!! :mad:
SanMoo, you made the tutorial, right? But I am guessing it's not exactley the best one around here, is it? There are lots of grammatical and spelling errors and I am SO mad because lots of people post their problems and doubts here and you don't even give them the, let's call it: privilege of seeing a post by you answering their questions or at least saying you don't know how to!! Personnaly I can't get past step 4. The part where it says "On the list to the side click the files of the ones you found in step 3" is, at least in my point of view, just NOT understandable. English is not my mother-language, so it's really hard not to read words correctley spelled and placed within the sentence. I would really like to see a post by you in which you apologize for not replying, answer our questions and, for crying out loud, correct the errors!! If many of us spent our precious time reading your tutorial, you WILL spend yours reading and answering our questions! I am aware of the fact that this post is a bit rude, but I just got off the handle!!

[MusicSimsFreak]

I GIVE UP! I can't mesh! *sobs*

[ajitdweller]

hi. Im up to step 5 and I don't have a geometric data bin. I'm pretty sure i've followed the tute exactly. anyone know how to find it?

[11foxy_roxy11]

what folder do i open to make the hair change colors and shape. (i am using paint on the computer)

[tiggerypum]

Sorry, I missed some posts in this thread, so here goes:

Everyone, take a look at the faq/infocenter area for information that both helps with troubleshooting and helps explain things more in depth. Also note that no one here, including tutorial writers are paid staff - we're doing what we can to help people learn, including writing new tutorials and info, but it takes time, just as answering questions does.

josebritofino1991 English is not SanMoo's primary language. Many people who are helpful here do not speak English as their first language. So be more aware when you start bashing. Secondly, there is another hair tutorial in this section, and to be honest, editing hair is complex, there are many parts. If you don't know how to edit body meshes, start there to learn the basics, this is not a beginner's project.

MusicSimsFreak Start with a beginner's tutorial in body meshing. This is an advanced tutorial that assumes a base knowledge. Even so, many of us have had meshes that did not turn out right when we first tried! Sometimes we still have problems with them, even with experience.

ajitdweller If you are missing a geometric data container (gdmc) then you missed something in the steps of brianna's tutorial. There's the part where you locate the *4* mesh parts, from the 4 sim files. Then you have to bring them all into a new file, that is your mesh file you'll edit. If you'd not actually done brianna's tutorial start to finish, try that one first.

foxy_roxy Do not spam us with smilies or with messages that aren't about the topic of this tutorial. (I deleted them). You can't do this tutorial with 'paint' alone. If you want to start customizing clothing, I suggest you go to the bodyshop-skinning area here: http://www.modthesims2.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20... and learn how to use GIMP (it's a free graphics editor) and you can learn some basics of recoloring, which you can then also do with hair.

[dragonarts]

I did it! I went back and forth between this tutorial, BriAnna's, and Shar's, and Lunke's picture helped too, and it worked! I'm so happy about it! Here's a picture, so you can see.

Maybe this isn't the easiest tutorial in the world to follow (though I've seen worse) but if you just stick with it, and keep reading all the threads, it can be done. So, thanks, Sanmoo, and thanks Tiggerypum, and thanks everyone!

[Millennia]

Sorry ,where can i find Wes H's 2.16 plugin?

[tiggerypum]

You can't anymore, he just removed it. New hair tutorials are being written. Sorry.
Go take a look at the Unimesh Plugin thread.

[nadascreations]

If everyone is having problems with this tuturial, use shar's. I used hers and it worked.

[tiggerypum]

Shar's tutorial isn't that much different than this one, and it uses *the same* old plugin which is *no longer available*.
Frankly the results with Unimesh are superior, although there are a few extra steps people need to take to get the results.

Between either of these two brief tutorials - the updated body mesh tutorials (that teach how to extract mesh parts and build a new mesh) and the information (several different topics) in the Faq/Infocenter (which includes a screenshot of how to find the right bits in the hair recolor file), people can still learn how to edit hair. Unfortunately we do not yet have a nice neat hand-holding tutorial for hair.

But you do have, at this point with the infocenter - MORE information at your disposal about hair files than SanMoo or DJ Mur or myself had when we edited our first hair files, and we managed somehow to get them working.

[obsessisim]

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I've been following the tutorials and learning my programs and just working really hard over the last week on my first hair mesh and the same problem keeps showing up. The alterations are there, nothing fancy just a basic longer hair on the long and simple do, but the middle of her face is missing as though she were wearing an invisible lone ranger mask. I've gone over it for several hours a day on my own now for a week and I finally had to come ask for some help. I really appreciate the tutorials, that's how I've been learning, along with trial and error. Any thoughts on where I've gone wrong? thanks.

[HystericalParoxysm]

obsessisim, I'll bet your result looks a lot like the last pic here, the straight blonde hair?: http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=131417

That's generally due to vertices in your mesh still being assigned to the animation bones: try assigning all of your vertices to "head" using the Unimesh plugin and then use the auto-fix for underweight vertices (just in case - I always do it before exporting). Export your edited mesh and see if that fixes your weird transparency issues.

In order to get the mesh actually looking right in the game, you'll probably have to go back and assign the vertices at the back of the neck with some weight to the "neck" bone. Exactly how they're assigned depends on the age, gender, and the mesh, but generally something like 50% neck-50% head (in that order) is a good place to start. You can take a look at the original mesh you cloned from to get an idea of what the settings might be - sometimes the row of vertices above the back of the neck will have settings like 85% head-15% neck or something, too, which you may or may not need to replicate, but starting with everything assigned 100% to head should tell you whether it's your assignments causing your transparency problems.

[obsessisim]

HystericalParoxysm: Just wanted to thank you. I followed your advice, I also went into the unimesh bone weight tool and followed Wes' advice leaving weight 100% and bone index head 7. I also left all the vertices selected when I save and exported but I have no idea if that was relevant. Anyway, I went back into bodyshop and there was my mesh, no holes. I just stared at it and said "oh". What a thrill. Anyway thanks ever so much, everyone have a great weekend, I'm off to mesh my little brains out. :beer: :D