Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Banned
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 9:20 PM
Default Cutting pieces off of a mesh and filling in the gaps
I have something I'd like to mesh, but I REALLY doubt I could pull it off. So I just want to modify an existing mesh.

It's a mesh with a "collar". A folded over one, yknow? I want to cut off that folded over part. But to do that would leave a big gap.

How do you fill that gap? Is there an easy way? Or do I have to move each and every little piece to a position where it simply appears to not be there?

Using milkshape, btw.
Advertisement
Alchemist
#2 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 9:41 PM
Could you post a picture of the collar?
Banned
Original Poster
#3 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 10:02 PM
Now that I look closer at it it inst 3D in the way I was thinking. It looks like it's just a bump, and I could flatten/reshape it a bit and change the texture a little.





My intention is to make the collar area just flat with a hole for the neck. It's the jumpsuit mesh, I wanna make zip-up pajamas out of it :p

I'd even add footy parts to it, but I wouldnt know where to start with that and right now I'm just trying to do beginner stuff. So I wanna just get rid of that folded collar.
Alchemist
#4 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 10:13 PM
If the collar is mapped to its own area on the map you can just open it in the TCE, select the collar part of the map, go back to the main view and move it over to delete it.

Then you would have just a little clean up work at the edge where the collar used to be instead of a gap I think. It's hard to know just looking at a 2D picture but that's how it seems it might be.
Banned
Original Poster
#5 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 11:07 PM
you can just open it in the TCE, select the collar part of the map, go back to the main view and move it over to delete it.

...I can do what with the who now? ;-;
Alchemist
#6 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 11:27 PM Last edited by orangemittens : 20th Feb 2010 at 11:46 PM.
Lol.

The TCE = Texture Coordinator Editor. You said you're using Milkshape right?

Look at the map in the TCE and if the collar is mapped onto its own area of the map you can select it in the TCE then go back to the 4 panel view and choose Model Tab/Move. Then move the collar part away from the rest of the mesh and just delete it. Wala...it will be gone.

Then all you have is some minor fixing at the edge where you took it from.

But that's all dependant on whether the collar is on its own separate part of the map...with EA things like this frequently are but it may not be.

Pictures using the Sims 2 bowl of fruit. Say you want to just remove the pineapple from this mesh:



Looking at it in the 4 panel view that looks like a lot of pixel hunting:



You just apply the texture to it and then open the TCE.



Then select the pineapple on the map:



Go back to the 4 panel view and in the Model tab choose move. Slide the pineapple far enough away from the bowl so that you can select it and delete it:



The same method will work for the collar as long as it has its own space on the map.
Banned
Original Poster
#7 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 12:07 AM
Hmmm, nothing shows up for that.

I think I should probably just use Blender, I used that a while before and it was a LOT easier to select parts, since you could swap between wireframe and shaded and etc and turn all directions and stuff.

But Blender requires some stupid Python or something that I had tons of trouble installing before. ;-;
Alchemist
#8 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 12:09 AM
When you say nothing shows up for that what do you mean? If nothing is showing up in the TCE then you probably didn't apply the texture to the mesh before looking at the map.

You have to go to the Materials tab and import the mesh's texture, select the mesh, and assign the texture to the mesh.

In MS you can change your view from wireframe to shaded also.
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#9 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 1:34 AM
Claeric: in order to remove parts from a mesh, just select the faces and delete them. Best use the "Face" select option for that, otherwise I wouldn't know how to make sure you don't grab the wrong vertex. To add faces, theoretically grab exactly three vertices and hit "F" .. in practice I find this extremely fiddly though since the views in MS are not very flexible. If all you want is just quickly close a hole it should work though.

(Re. the phyton thing, maybe ask in the blender group? I don't remember having to do anything special, but then I'm not on Windows. You probably know that blender has a rather steep learning curve, so I would think for this sort of small edit you're better off using Milkshape .. once you've come to terms with it though, it's a lot more efficient than that.)

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Alchemist
#10 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 1:47 AM
PB, I would very much appreciate it if you could show me how to take that Bowl of Fruit mesh there and remove the pineapple from it using only select faces. When I try it this happens:



And what's left behind after I delete is the bottom of the pineapple with pixels still all intertwined with the pixels of the other parts of the mesh:





It would be most helpful to learn this although I have to say the method I use takes about 5 seconds.

Here is the obj:

http://jaue.com/om/junkblowloffruit_tslocator_gmdc.rar

I certainly hope you'll share your method.
Banned
Original Poster
#11 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 1:51 AM


Adding faces is a bitch. So far lower right is all I managed so far. :< It keeps yelling at me to only pick 3.
Alchemist
#12 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 1:55 AM
Claeric, I still think you needn't be deleting part of the neck just to get rid of the collar one would think. Could you post a picture of the map this collared item has?
Banned
Original Poster
#13 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 2:02 AM
All I selected was the collar. The collar was completely off the rest of the body on the texture map thingy.



The collar was one big chunk down in the lower right, where that square is.

The neck is the two pieces at the very top.
Alchemist
#14 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 2:03 AM
Could you post the original collared item that you're importing into MS along with its texture? Now you have me curious about this thing.

To see it in MS do you just import it like you would an object?
Banned
Original Poster
#15 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 2:09 AM
You want me to post the mesh and texture?

the A texture is what I used for the first spot, S for the second. Probably not the right textures, but it worked.

And yeah, just import it. Then when you add the materials and go to the texture thingy, the collar has its own little area in the corner.
Attached files:
File Type: zip  Sleep.zip (779.7 KB, 6 downloads) - View custom content
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#16 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 2:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by orangemittens
PB, I would very much appreciate it if you could show me how to take that Bowl of Fruit mesh there and remove the pineapple from it using only select faces. When I try it this happens:

Maybe it would be easier to do that in shaded view, not wireframe? That way it's a little more obvious what one is actually selecting.

Quote: Originally posted by Claeric
It keeps yelling at me to only pick 3.

Yeah that's what I meant by "is fiddly" .. I don't know if you can select edges or loops or something in Milkshape. I'm not a Milkshape expert though, I just quickly looked at the buttons (I only use it for really small edits, since I have to go through it anyway) – maybe check the Help thing to see whether it has any options for that?

I think you're on the right track though, with the collar.

Also, just in general: when you're doing body meshes, better post in the CAS Parts forum – I know next to nothing about body stuff, but there's morphs and weights and things coming into play that don't exist for objects, so you may be better off among CAS people with that.

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Me? Sarcastic? Never.
staff: administrator
#17 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 3:08 AM
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 3:58 AM Last edited by Saikatsu : 21st Feb 2010 at 4:10 AM.
Getting python installed is extremely easy. The only issues I've ever had was with newer versions of blender requiring newer versions of python. :>

I'm still running an older version of both, so I'm not sure what version of python you'd need to install, but there's an extremely simple way to find out, although this is for Windows. No idea if it goes the same on Linux/MacOS. Get yourself a copy of blender, run it, then look at the first line in the command prompt window that comes up: "Compiled with Python version (version number)." Exit blender, head over to http://www.python.org/ and grab the installer for whatever version you saw in the command prompt.

EDIT: In regards to MS3D's selection capabilities: they suck compared to blender. A lot. Like you have NO IDEA. Just one of the reasons that the lack of a working set of plugins for blender makes me quite sad.
Banned
Original Poster
#19 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 4:13 AM
There's no working plugins for blender? That sucks.

I have used blender so I do know how much better the selection options are As of right now I have made very little progress on building new faces. It's ridiculous that you can rotate a model in 3D, but if you do, you cant select anything on it.
Banned
Original Poster
#20 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 4:38 AM
Milkshape is a freaking horrible program. This is hell. In half an hour I've added like 4 faces.
Alchemist
#21 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 5:01 AM
Thanks for posting mesh and texture. Once I got it into MS I can see the problem. EA has done this on objects too...put something you don't want over just empty space that then needs to be filled in. No matter which way you use to remove the collar on this thing there is going to be that ridiculous hole. EA is painful at times.

I'm not sure how far along it is but there is this:

http://nene.modthesims.info/showthr...25#startcomment

Maybe it's at least along enough to get the mesh into blender for alteration and then out to MS for reimportation to the game?

PB, I tried your faces method with shading instead of wireframe but the bottom of the pineapple persists on being inside the bowl with all the other pieces of fruit anyway:



So that didn't work. I really think the easiest way of removing something that's mapped onto a separate part of the map is to just select it in the TCE, move it, and then delete it. If you use your Face method you're going to end up having to remove remaining pixels one by one which would take quite a bit of time (and probably trial and error). But if you have some other pointer on something I'm missing here I'd be glad to know it
Pettifogging Legalist!
retired moderator
#22 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 5:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Claeric
There's no working plugins for blender? That sucks.

Um, but for CAS stuff there *is* a blender plugin, I thought? And has been for a while? "GEOM" somethingorother, right here in this forum. I basically don't know anything about it except that I've always been jealous at CAS-stuff-creators that they had a plugin and for objects there was none (it's now in the works though: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=389058). I think I've also seen body meshes made with blender, so the plugin must be doing something.

Also, there's always the option to import stuff to Milkshape, export to something blender can read (like .obj, I don't know what the equivalent would be for body meshes), and do everything else there. It's a bit of a long way but it certainly beats having to deal with Milkshape when one already knows how to use blender.

I wasn't aware you already know blender .. when that's the case, by all means, use it. You're never going to be happy with Milkshape.


(Saikatsu, just to clarify: Claeric *is* on Windows (at least I assume so, since Milkshape is Windows-only) – I'm the one who isn't =). Installing blender under OS X is a one-click operation.)

Stuff for TS2 · TS3 · TS4 | Please do not PM me with technical questions – we have Create forums for that.

In the kingdom of the blind, do as the Romans do.
Lab Assistant
#23 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 7:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by plasticbox
Um, but for CAS stuff there *is* a blender plugin, I thought? And has been for a while? "GEOM" somethingorother, right here in this forum. I basically don't know anything about it except that I've always been jealous at CAS-stuff-creators that they had a plugin and for objects there was none (it's now in the works though: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=389058). I think I've also seen body meshes made with blender, so the plugin must be doing something.

Also, there's always the option to import stuff to Milkshape, export to something blender can read (like .obj, I don't know what the equivalent would be for body meshes), and do everything else there. It's a bit of a long way but it certainly beats having to deal with Milkshape when one already knows how to use blender.

I wasn't aware you already know blender .. when that's the case, by all means, use it. You're never going to be happy with Milkshape.


(Saikatsu, just to clarify: Claeric *is* on Windows (at least I assume so, since Milkshape is Windows-only) – I'm the one who isn't =). Installing blender under OS X is a one-click operation.)

Good point on the Windows thing. XD

Blender does have a GEOM plugin, but... it's rather flimsy, no longer being updated (as far as I know), and I've found it incredibly frustrating to actually use due to how limited it is. It's unusable for anything I do. I can't preview textures on the mesh (it automatically gets covered in some vertex coloring that I can never remove and have no idea why it's there), and my attempts to use it so I could do face morphs in blender failed due to something getting jumbled on the way back to the GEOM format.

Sadly, I completely lack the ability to do anything about it. Python is a mystery to me, all my minor scripting attempts (nothing more than extremely small tweaks to existing scripts) with it have failed. I'm not too much of a coder beyond JavaScript and PHP. :\
Banned
Original Poster
#24 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 8:02 AM
I think I give up.

Scaling stuff? Sure. Making a dress longer? Alright. De-boobifying the maid dress so my guys can wear it? Alright. Making the maid dress bow bigger because it is cuter that way? Sure.

...But removing and replacing faces? No, sorry. this is just too much effort. ._.
Banned
Original Poster
#25 Old 21st Feb 2010 at 8:40 AM Last edited by Claeric : 21st Feb 2010 at 8:52 AM.
Alright, I got meshing down well enough. I made the maid bow bigger. It looks adorable.

BUT.

-How do I add this to an existing package?
OR
-How do I make it a default replacement?
AND
-Do I have to edit all the LOD files? What are they? (I assume no, since I could show you right now an underwear mesh with only ONE lod in the package, but the underwear has like 50 LODs, one for special, fit, thin, and fat, for each LOD)
Page 1 of 2
Back to top