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Post by galaxygaming32 on Mar 11, 2021 16:45:18 GMT -5
Hi! I've currently been trying to get into making alpha cc (specifically cc hairs) for the sims 4! I really want to know all the basics and things I need for creating alpha cc hair, because I've recently tried making one and there was quite a few issues. I realized I needed a scalp for the hair and I have no idea how to make one (I'll put examples of the type of scalps I'm trying to make below). Like, is there a certain template I need to make a hair scalp/hairline?? If so, is it possible to make one using gimp?! Do I need one of those special drawing tablets for it??! I've searched everywhere on Youtube about it and Google but I can't find any information on how to make one, and what I need to make it. I've heard some people say they make theirs using 3d planes, and unfortunately I don't know how to do that either. I also don't want to use another creators scalp. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Here are some examples of the types of hairs and hairlines/hair scalp/edges I would like to create. Any idea on how they made the scalp for this hair and got the part?!      Can someone please respond😭 |
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Post by mauvemorn on Mar 11, 2021 18:21:03 GMT -5
Hi. Making hair with transparency for games is troublesome in general but especially using Blender. Pretty much all alpha hair creators use other software for this purpose. The problem lies in how Blender renders transparent textures. The hairline can be drawn manually, can be made in Blender from hair particles and baked to texture, or you can use real-life pics. These creators drew theirs. You do not need a tablet to create a hair texture but baby hairs are not something you can generate using filters or draw with a mouse. Here is a templateMaking alpha hair is about as hard as it gets in the context of ts4 cc. You will have a very hard time finding beginner-oriented information on this subject. We have a tutorial for alpha hair on our forum but it does not cover texture creation.
It would be a better idea to start from something less challenging like frankenmeshing
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Post by galaxygaming32 on Mar 11, 2021 19:03:24 GMT -5
Thank you so much!! As far as blender being troublesome for making hair with transparency, do you recommend any other software I can use or an alternative?! Also, how would I make a hairline using real-life pics, if you don't mind me asking?! And also since you mentioned that I can't make baby hairs using a mouse or filter, how would I go about doing it??!
-Sorry if I'm asking to much
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Post by mauvemorn on Mar 12, 2021 4:22:53 GMT -5
People usually use 3ds max ( and we have tutorials on our forum for it) but this is a paid software. There is a software called Milkshape, also free, not really good for modeling, but you can just sort planes there.
Well, Blender has a sorting tool as well, but either I do not know how to use it the right way or it is not very efficient. I think I will look more into it right now because someone has to, so I'll keep you updated.
I do not really know how to use Gimp, so cannot help with that, but you need to find a photo of the hairline you want (try looking through backstage pics at fashion shows because those tend to be very big), delete everything but the hairline ( google something like "how to remove the background in gimp"), and adjust it to the template.
While we're at it, you can use Photopea instead of Gimp, which is a free online software that looks like a photoshop rip-off, so my guess is, tutorials for photoshop will work
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Post by galaxygaming32 on Mar 12, 2021 19:42:42 GMT -5
Ok, thank you so much for taking the time to reply!! I'll definitely be looking forward to your updates on the whole sorting tool in Blender!! I would also like to know how I could draw the hairline manually, if I can't use a mouse. And as far as the template, when it comes to the "FACE" part of the template, how do I know how far up to put the hairline, and also do you know where I out the rest of the scalp, connected to the edges to cover the whole head on the template. I'm a bit confused on where that would be placed.
-Sorry I'm still a beginner
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Post by Cidira on Mar 12, 2021 20:15:50 GMT -5
Most of the time, if someone wants to do drawing on a computer that's beyond what most people can do with a mouse, they use a drawing tablet, like a Wacom.
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Post by mauvemorn on Mar 13, 2021 9:19:40 GMT -5
Yeah, but obv buying a tablet to draw a hairline a few times is not the most reasonable decision. I can think of only two ways out of it: - you can draw a hairline using Pen tool (look up tutorials for photoshop), however, it will be time-consuming because you'd need to draw each hair individually. - you can make one generic hairline once (no baby hair ) and people will just use accessory/skin details hairlines of their choice made by other creators. To know where to put the hairline, assign the template to the 3d model in Blender. Just replace the skin texture in the Texture tab  |
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Post by simmerish20 on Mar 16, 2021 16:37:38 GMT -5
I think most of the hairlines you see there are painted onto the head/face as a form of makeup or texture overlay, so I don't think they'd require an extra mesh or be affected by the alpha problem in TS4. The rest of the hair would, of course.
You can find downloadable hair brushes for Photoshop (or make your own, there's tutorials for how to make them with the brush tools if you look around). Some would require just one click with a mouse and you'd have a decent hair tuft you could edit a bit. Others might require some more editing.
You can make hair brushes that go from narrow to wide to narrow again (taper?) with a tablet pen since you can adjust the pressure. There are probably some ways you can cheat it in the brush settings for a mouse (not quite to the same effect, perhaps) but a tablet has some advantages a mouse doesn't. There's also other things you can do on a tablet that's more difficult and perhaps not possible to do with a mouse.
If you plan to do a lot of digital drawing, a tablet can be very nice to have. I mostly do minor edits and very little drawing, and get by using just a mouse for editing (one that's large and comfy to hold, plus a decent surface for it).
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Post by galaxygaming32 on Mar 17, 2021 16:16:48 GMT -5
Thank you so much! I do have a few questions though. I'm using Photopea(an alternative to Photoshop), since I don't have Photoshop. Are there any downloadable brushes for Photopea, or is that just for Photoshop. Also, say if I wanted to make a hair with a part in the middle or on the side of the sims head, how would I make the hairline or baby hairs I painted match up with the actual mesh of the hair and that part?!
-If you could respond back, that would be greatly appreciated!
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Post by simmerish20 on Mar 18, 2021 14:01:17 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with Photopea, but if there's a brush system like in Photoshop, you can probably make brushes in a similar way. It looks like both Photoshop and Photopea uses .ABR files (saved brush files), so there's a possibility you can use downloaded Photoshop brushes for Photopea, but I give you absolutely no guarantees on that before you've tried. It may not work with all the Photoshop settings, but could work with the basic brush shape and whatever settings are available in Photopea. It doesn't look that different from Photoshop.
An alternative is to use Gimp, but personally I'm not too fond of that program because of the work flow and the file saving. Has its uses, and it is a decent free option to Photoshop, though.
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Post by Catnipsims on Mar 22, 2021 5:49:44 GMT -5
I recommend using the texture paint tool in Blender to draw on the surface of the head.
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Post by galaxygaming32 on Mar 23, 2021 7:35:41 GMT -5
Thank you so much!! I'll definitely give that a try!
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