Hi.
1. Dont watch non-ts4 specific tutorials on shoes making because those generally are not made with the intention of getting them in the game. They will teach you how to make various fine details that would be too high poly to get into ts4. Instead, you can watch a general modelling tutorial to familiarize yourself with available tools;
2. If you plan on sharing your cc with others, dont make them realistic. Maxis match is more popular these days;
3. Shoes are adapted the same way as clothing ( transfer weights and uv_0, vertex paint with 00FF00)
4. Best to make one shoe first, test it in-game, and only then duplicate and mirror.
Here is how to do it correctly5. I would advise you to unwrap the mesh the maxis way. You get less space but avoid any possible issue ( the shadow map of pants casts shadows on the shoes, so if the shoes are not unwrapped in a maxis way, you see the shadow in random places)
The maxis way:
Each shoe is unwrapped where the corresponding leg is. Each leg has different skin texture, so there is no difference between the leg and the foot. When the pants cast a shadow, it projects correctly
a work around that im not sure how to explain:
the strap covers the area where there is a difference between the skin texture, while the foot uvs overlap. Where the pants cast shadow are the uvs of feet and everything that would be hidden by pants. Other parts of the shoes are unwrapped where pants cast no shadows
Basically just do the maxis way, do not create yourself problems to solve
How i would advise to model shoes:
- find a similar maxis shoes;
- reshape them to be closer to what you have in mind;
- using BSurface addon and Subsurface modifier, create your shoes on top of the reshaped ones. At this point, do it as low poly as possible, adding only the necessary loops;
- unwrap them the maxis way. You can transfer uv_0 the same way you do uv_1;
- only after that, apply subsurface modifier;
- transfer all data from the original shoes;
- test in-game how they move and morph. Adjust weights or uv_1 if needed. If the heel morphs, you can vertex paint it with black;
- once happy, duplicate and mirror, check again in-game;
- bake textures, split into meshgroups if needed, make lods
