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Post by SnarkyWitch on Apr 19, 2023 17:47:44 GMT -5
I've been recolouring various things in The Sims 4 for years now, with both patterns and solid colours. Furniture, decorative items, clothes and accessories, etc. But one thing I can't figure out is how people manage to recolour tiny items like bowls and mugs without the pattern becoming blurry. I sharpen as much as I can in Photoshop to avoid blurriness but nothing I do seems to matter. I also use high quality images for my patterns.
Every time I recolour a bowl or a cup, the pattern that looks crisp and clean in Photoshop turns into a blurry mess when imported into S4S.
Are there any tips or tricks of the trade to creating patterned recolours of these items without them looking like a horrible pixelated mess?
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Post by simmerish20 on Apr 19, 2023 19:11:02 GMT -5
Do you have any examples? Could be some fixable problems, but it's easier to figure out exactly what it is if you can upload an example item and pictures of how it looks for you ingame (or in S4S, but it doesn't show the final result).
The size of the object ingame, the quality and size of the texture image (too small compared to what the UVmap needs for patterns can cause blurriness), and the UVmap itself (if it doesn't utilize the space properly) can all come into play, along with various settings in the object material, possibly also mipmap levels for DDS files. Ingame settings can also be at fault if it happens to other objects.
"Sharpen" in Photoshop isn't an automatic "make picture sharp, crisp and beautiful" filter. If you overdo it, the lines can get a lot of artefacts.
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Post by SnarkyWitch on Apr 24, 2023 12:28:05 GMT -5
Sorry for the late reply. Last few days have been busy for me but what you said about UV maps gave me a light bulb moment. I unwrapped the UV map of the bowl I was trying to recolour and the patterns I applied to it looked great. I'm still a bit new to working with UV maps which is why I didn't think of unwrapping it right away but that seems to have done the trick! Thank you for your help!  |
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Post by simmerish20 on Apr 24, 2023 15:50:08 GMT -5
When you make a new mesh, you do want to UVmap it (and do so properly, don't just let the program auto-UVmap the whole thing and be happy with the result, because you usually get a lot of weird ones depending on which option you choose. If the map looks like a 1000-piece puzzle, or everything maps upside-down/mirrored/sideways/wherever it wants to go, or there's a tiny blob of UVs in the middle and plenty of room around, something went wrong in the process and that item is going to be a nightmare to recolor).
Blender auto-UVmaps where there are split edges (if there aren't any, it won't UVmap properly). If you want the mesh smooth without edges, you can mark out UV-seams and then UVmap.
Make sure you utilize as much of the UV area as possible, because the more of the space you use, the crisper the textures are going to be (and you can sometimes get away with smaller textures, too).
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Post by SnarkyWitch on May 1, 2023 11:37:55 GMT -5
When you make a new mesh, you do want to UVmap it (and do so properly, don't just let the program auto-UVmap the whole thing and be happy with the result, because you usually get a lot of weird ones depending on which option you choose. If the map looks like a 1000-piece puzzle, or everything maps upside-down/mirrored/sideways/wherever it wants to go, or there's a tiny blob of UVs in the middle and plenty of room around, something went wrong in the process and that item is going to be a nightmare to recolor). Blender auto-UVmaps where there are split edges (if there aren't any, it won't UVmap properly). If you want the mesh smooth without edges, you can mark out UV-seams and then UVmap. Make sure you utilize as much of the UV area as possible, because the more of the space you use, the crisper the textures are going to be (and you can sometimes get away with smaller textures, too). Thanks for the advice! I was actually trying to recolour an EA bowl and every pattern I applied to it came out blurry. When I unwrapped the UV map and applied the pattern again, it looked beautiful. I will remember those tips in the future if I make my own meshes, though. |
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