Start to Finish Object Tutorial for Absolute Beginners - IV

I'm really glad to hear the tutorial was helpful for you

The item in this tutorial is a very straightforward item but the steps you used to create it are the same that you would use to make something more complex. There are additional features Blender has that make creating more complicated things easier and I plan to detail some of the more useful features in the future. In terms of creating the mesh, just the Blender part, there are also loads of excellent tutorials written by people in the Blender community that show how to make just about anything. I learned everything I know about Blender from online tutorials and manuals.

The steps that are specific to Sims 4 vary from one kind of thing to the next. The biggest difference lies between CAS items and objects. If you're interested in CAS items I've written a start to finish accessory tutorial that can get you started with that. Even among objects there are differences in how EA made the item and these differences make creating something like a lamp different than creating a table or kitchen décor item. The difference is more in terms of additional steps for some things rather than being different basic steps though. This tutorial covers the basic steps that you can use to start creating anything. Some things may need additional steps. If you start a project and run into questions you're welcome to ask them in the Creator Help section if there isn't a tutorial specific to what you need to know.

Hi uvi, I will do my best to get another tutorial on object creation out.

Making the frame thicker like that shouldn't cause any trouble with the shadow. If you post it I can take a look at it.

Hi VonNdaSun, I looked at the painting and I can't see anything you did that should cause this odd shadow that you're getting. I think the problem might be related to a similar but opposite problem two other people reported with their painting where they had a shifting bright light showing on the image for no apparent reason. I'm convinced this is a bug and it's under investigation.

For some reason exporting the mesh and then reimporting it as-is seems to fix that problem. I tried the same thing with yours, the shadow went away, and the painting looks fine to me now. I think if you export the high LOD and then immediately reimport it you will get the same good result that I just got. Obviously, this workaround is not desirable and at some point Studio will be updated to fix this problem. Other than that the only other thing I can see is that the specular might look better if you used a blank (solid black on an alpha).  This is not what is causing the shadow but it will cause unwanted shininess in areas of your painting.

I am having problems at step 130 and I have no idea what I've done wrong. Here's the error message:

NEVERMIND!!  I fixed it!  I read back on the board some and found the problem and it imports perfectly now.

I am trying to make a stand alone rug and I get stuck at step 130 and here is the error message:

System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> S4Studio.Blender.BlenderException: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
File "<string>", line 12, in <module>
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\buybuild\blender.py", line 246, in save_lod
save_mesh(blender_mesh, new_mesh)
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\buybuild\blender.py", line 150, in save_mesh
sim_mesh_data = collect_mesh_data(blender_mesh)
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\blender\__init__.py", line 173, in collect_mesh_data
mesh_data.calc_tangents()
RuntimeError: Error: Tangent space computation needs an UVMap, "(null)" not found, aborting


at S4Studio.Blender.BlenderUtilities.RunBlender(String script, String blend, Boolean background, Boolean check_version) in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio.Blender\BlenderUtilities.cs:line 238
at S4Studio.Blender.BlenderUtilities.ImportMlod(String fileName, String mlod, String rig) in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio.Blender\BlenderUtilities.cs:line 448
at S4Studio.ViewModels.ObjectLodItem.<>c__DisplayClass13.<ImportMesh>b__10() in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio\ViewModels\Objects\ObjectLodItem.cs:line 403
at S4Studio.LoadingScreen.<>c__DisplayClass2.<Show>b__0() in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio\UI\LoadingScreen.xaml.cs:line 39
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at S4Studio.LoadingScreen.<>c__DisplayClass2.<Show>b__1() in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio\UI\LoadingScreen.xaml.cs:line 48
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
at MS.Internal.Threading.ExceptionFilterHelper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate method, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)
---> (Inner Exception #0) S4Studio.Blender.BlenderException: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
File "<string>", line 12, in <module>
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\buybuild\blender.py", line 246, in save_lod
save_mesh(blender_mesh, new_mesh)
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\buybuild\blender.py", line 150, in save_mesh
sim_mesh_data = collect_mesh_data(blender_mesh)
File "C:\Users\Marsha\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.70\scripts\addons\s4studio\blender\__init__.py", line 173, in collect_mesh_data
mesh_data.calc_tangents()
RuntimeError: Error: Tangent space computation needs an UVMap, "(null)" not found, aborting


at S4Studio.Blender.BlenderUtilities.RunBlender(String script, String blend, Boolean background, Boolean check_version) in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio.Blender\BlenderUtilities.cs:line 238
at S4Studio.Blender.BlenderUtilities.ImportMlod(String fileName, String mlod, String rig) in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio.Blender\BlenderUtilities.cs:line 448
at S4Studio.ViewModels.ObjectLodItem.<>c__DisplayClass13.<ImportMesh>b__10() in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio\ViewModels\Objects\ObjectLodItem.cs:line 403
at S4Studio.LoadingScreen.<>c__DisplayClass2.<Show>b__0() in c:\Workspace\Sims4Studio\TheS4Studio\S4Studio\UI\LoadingScreen.xaml.cs:line 39
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()<---