Post by MisterS on Feb 2, 2015 19:31:14 GMT -5
My Wife wrote this for me because I was having trouble explaining it, so was she. Its a lot easier than it looks.
So you've just edited your mesh and your all excited to see your mesh edit. You load up the game and see this.
The cause of this is the shadow file. When you make an adjustment to a mesh it does not alter the original shadow image. You must manually do this yourself. The following is a tutorial showing you how to edit your shadow image.
First step is to open the package of your edited skirt mesh. In this example my package is called shadowskirt. In studio click on the warehouse tab.
In the warehouse tab you will see a list on the left. We will be clicking on RLE2.
Now you may have a few RLE2 click on each untill you see something similar to the image below
Next we want to click the export button below the preview image.
When you click the export button it will prompt you to save the file. Be sure to save it where you can find it. For this tutorial I'm going to call mine shadow.
Now before we jump into editing it. We also need to export our edited texture. Go back to the studio tab and export your texture, saving it somewhere you can find it easily. For this tutorial I'm going to call mine texture.
Next step is to open the texture and shadow file in your photo editing program.
The simplest way to fix your shadow issues would be to simply erase the bottom line of the shadow. But if you wish to keep some more detail in your skirt mesh edit you can use the following method.
If you wanted to edit the shadow the easy way rememebr not only do you have to erase the bottom line in the layers part of photoshop,but you also have to click over to the channels tab and erase it off the alpha channel too.
Below is a picture of the layers and channels tab.
Now we will proceed and show you how to keep the shadow detail on your mesh edit.
The first thing we will do is go to both the texture and shadow files channels tab. We will then click on the alpha channel.
We want to copy the texture alpha into a new document. We then also want to copy and paste the shadows alpha on top of the texture alpha that we just pasted into a new document. So your's should now look like this.
The first thing we will do is use the magic wand tool and select the black area of the top layer and hit delete on our keyboard.
You should now see this.
If you hide layer 2 (the shadow alpha) you will see where the skirt finishes. Where on the shadow alpha we can clearly see that it is too long for our new skirt. We simply need to move the bottom of the shadow alpha up.
The way I do that is by using the magic wand tool again.
This time we select the white. But we only want to select the bottom part of the alpha shadow. If you have selected the correct bit, you should see this.
With the correct part of the shadow alpha selected you can simply go to Edit,free transform. When you are in that mode you will be able to move the section of shadow up to where it should be.
I moved it up so it just touches the edge of the texture skirt alpha.
Once you are happy with were it is placed hide the skirt texture alpha. We then need to make the backgroung layer black. Once you do that you need to flatten your image.
This is what you should have.
Now we need to copy the flattened image into the original shadow alpha. You will want to select all and then select copy. Click back onto the shadow file. Click the channels tab and click on the alpha channel. Make sure you have clicked onto the alpha channel and then paste.
This is what my shadow alpha now looks like.
Now we need to adjust the texture side of the shadow.
The easiest way to do this is to copy our edited shadow alpha. You should still be able to paste it from when we pasted it into our alpha channel. If not just select all and copy it again.
Click the layers tab so you see this.
(If all you see is the alpha view make sure you click on the rgb layer in the channels tab. Then click on layers.)
Now we can go ahead and paste the shadow alpha onto our shadow texture. We want to use the magic wand tool again and select the black. Once the black is selected hit delete on your keyboard. You should now have this.
It's a bit hard to see what is going on. I suggest we bucket fill the alpha with some colour. If you hide the background layer so you can see the alpha bits,we can easily bucket fill them. I went with a black. I also lowered there opacity so I could see what was going on.
We want to hide the alpha layer for a second. Then using the rectanglar marquee tool we are going select the bottom bit of the shadow texture. This is what it should look like roughly.
Then we can copy and paste. Once you copy and paste, turn the alpha layer back on. Now making sure you are on the shadow texture layer that we just copyied and pasted we are going to bring it up to match the alpha layer postion. I just moved mine righ up to the top of the bottom box of the alpha layer. This is what it looks like.
You can now hide the alpha layer. We can also flatten our shadow image. Once it is flattened we need to save it as a .dds. I save mine as shadowedit.dds so I have the original just in case.
Below are the settings I use.
Once you have saved go back into studio and click on the warehouse tab. Click back onto the RLE2 file making sure it's the shadow.
Click import.
Import your edited shadow file. Once you do that click save and save you package.
We can now go test in game. Put your edited .package in your mods folder and launch the game.
In my case and probably yours I got in game and saw this.
And I said WHAT? But don't worry. Most of the time it's an issue with the normal map (DST) or the RLES. Upon editing those I was able to get the result I wanted.
The RLES can be replace by a blank RLES that is here www.sims4studio.com/thread/403/minitut-remove-unwanted-shine-items
The normal map (DST) can be edited using the same method as the shadow. Or you can also just solid grey fill them in. Just remember you have to do the alpha channel too.
(bump tut coming soon)
So you've just edited your mesh and your all excited to see your mesh edit. You load up the game and see this.
The cause of this is the shadow file. When you make an adjustment to a mesh it does not alter the original shadow image. You must manually do this yourself. The following is a tutorial showing you how to edit your shadow image.
First step is to open the package of your edited skirt mesh. In this example my package is called shadowskirt. In studio click on the warehouse tab.
In the warehouse tab you will see a list on the left. We will be clicking on RLE2.
Now you may have a few RLE2 click on each untill you see something similar to the image below
Next we want to click the export button below the preview image.
When you click the export button it will prompt you to save the file. Be sure to save it where you can find it. For this tutorial I'm going to call mine shadow.
Now before we jump into editing it. We also need to export our edited texture. Go back to the studio tab and export your texture, saving it somewhere you can find it easily. For this tutorial I'm going to call mine texture.
Next step is to open the texture and shadow file in your photo editing program.
The simplest way to fix your shadow issues would be to simply erase the bottom line of the shadow. But if you wish to keep some more detail in your skirt mesh edit you can use the following method.
If you wanted to edit the shadow the easy way rememebr not only do you have to erase the bottom line in the layers part of photoshop,but you also have to click over to the channels tab and erase it off the alpha channel too.
Below is a picture of the layers and channels tab.
Now we will proceed and show you how to keep the shadow detail on your mesh edit.
The first thing we will do is go to both the texture and shadow files channels tab. We will then click on the alpha channel.
We want to copy the texture alpha into a new document. We then also want to copy and paste the shadows alpha on top of the texture alpha that we just pasted into a new document. So your's should now look like this.
The first thing we will do is use the magic wand tool and select the black area of the top layer and hit delete on our keyboard.
You should now see this.
If you hide layer 2 (the shadow alpha) you will see where the skirt finishes. Where on the shadow alpha we can clearly see that it is too long for our new skirt. We simply need to move the bottom of the shadow alpha up.
The way I do that is by using the magic wand tool again.
This time we select the white. But we only want to select the bottom part of the alpha shadow. If you have selected the correct bit, you should see this.
With the correct part of the shadow alpha selected you can simply go to Edit,free transform. When you are in that mode you will be able to move the section of shadow up to where it should be.
I moved it up so it just touches the edge of the texture skirt alpha.
Once you are happy with were it is placed hide the skirt texture alpha. We then need to make the backgroung layer black. Once you do that you need to flatten your image.
This is what you should have.
Now we need to copy the flattened image into the original shadow alpha. You will want to select all and then select copy. Click back onto the shadow file. Click the channels tab and click on the alpha channel. Make sure you have clicked onto the alpha channel and then paste.
This is what my shadow alpha now looks like.
Now we need to adjust the texture side of the shadow.
The easiest way to do this is to copy our edited shadow alpha. You should still be able to paste it from when we pasted it into our alpha channel. If not just select all and copy it again.
Click the layers tab so you see this.
(If all you see is the alpha view make sure you click on the rgb layer in the channels tab. Then click on layers.)
Now we can go ahead and paste the shadow alpha onto our shadow texture. We want to use the magic wand tool again and select the black. Once the black is selected hit delete on your keyboard. You should now have this.
It's a bit hard to see what is going on. I suggest we bucket fill the alpha with some colour. If you hide the background layer so you can see the alpha bits,we can easily bucket fill them. I went with a black. I also lowered there opacity so I could see what was going on.
We want to hide the alpha layer for a second. Then using the rectanglar marquee tool we are going select the bottom bit of the shadow texture. This is what it should look like roughly.
Then we can copy and paste. Once you copy and paste, turn the alpha layer back on. Now making sure you are on the shadow texture layer that we just copyied and pasted we are going to bring it up to match the alpha layer postion. I just moved mine righ up to the top of the bottom box of the alpha layer. This is what it looks like.
You can now hide the alpha layer. We can also flatten our shadow image. Once it is flattened we need to save it as a .dds. I save mine as shadowedit.dds so I have the original just in case.
Below are the settings I use.
Once you have saved go back into studio and click on the warehouse tab. Click back onto the RLE2 file making sure it's the shadow.
Click import.
Import your edited shadow file. Once you do that click save and save you package.
We can now go test in game. Put your edited .package in your mods folder and launch the game.
In my case and probably yours I got in game and saw this.
And I said WHAT? But don't worry. Most of the time it's an issue with the normal map (DST) or the RLES. Upon editing those I was able to get the result I wanted.
The RLES can be replace by a blank RLES that is here www.sims4studio.com/thread/403/minitut-remove-unwanted-shine-items
The normal map (DST) can be edited using the same method as the shadow. Or you can also just solid grey fill them in. Just remember you have to do the alpha channel too.
(bump tut coming soon)