Showing posts with label minicarttsr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label minicarttsr. Show all posts

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Bunny Pyjamas for Girls

My new Bunny Pyjamas for girls for The Sims 4 are now available for download here on my blog.

Although I have already made bunny pyjamas for TS4, these are a different style and when I saw the originals on the internet, I decided to try and recreate them for the game.

First of all I created the bunny using the pen tool in Photoshop and then ran the shapes through my felt and embroidery action scripts.  I then created some bunny shapes in various colours and hand tiled a pattern with them.

This is the end result:





As usual, I have also created a video so that you can see what these pyjamas look like in CAS:






If you would like these pyjamas in your game, you can download them via the link below:


DOWNLOAD HERE!


I hope you like these pj's just as much as I enjoyed making them!


~ Minicart (Jules)

Friday 3 October 2014

Fox Pyjamas for Girls

My new fox pyjamas for girls are now available for download over at The Sims Resource.

I found the originals somewhere on the internet and decided to recreate them for TS4.

First of all I created the fox image with shapes and the pen tool, adding a little pattern on the tail and on his front:





Then I used the foxes head, resized it and hand tiled a pattern from it:





This is the end result:





I have also created a video so that you can see what the item looks like in CAS:





You can download them from The Sims Resource via the link below:

DOWNLOAD HERE!

I hope you like these pyjamas just as much as I enjoyed creating them!


~ Minicart (Jules)

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Paisley Bird PJ's for Girls

Last week I found a lovely set of pyjamas for girls on the net and decided to recreate them for TS4. So yesterday I fired up Photoshop and got to work.

First of all I created the bird using the pen tool and my trusty felt and embroidery Photoshop action scripts adding a few flower shapes:





Then I went ahead and created some paisley bird style images for the pattern:





I then hand tiled these into a 256 pixel square file and defined the pattern into Photoshop:





After putting everything together, my pyjamas look like this:





And if you would like to see these PJ's in CAS, I have created a video for you:





These particular pyjamas have been uploaded to Mediafire and as Mediafire are selling upgrades at half price at the moment, I decided to go ahead and pay so that you don't get all the nasty ads. Click below to download the files:

DOWNLOAD HERE!



I hope you like these pyjamas just as much as I enjoyed creating them! And don't forget to either follow my blog and/or subscribe to me on YouTube to get notified of more free stuff outside of TSR – don't miss out!

~ Minicart (Jules)

Tuesday 30 September 2014

Satisfying My Craving...

What I am very disappointed about with The Sims 4 is the fact that there are no toddlers in the game.

One of the many differences between the original The Sims and The Sims 2 was that our Sims would grow from babies to toddlers to children then teens and adults through to elders and die of old age, as this picture shows:





This was something that we didn't have in the original The Sims and was I think, the main selling point for the second generation of The Sims franchise.

This feature of the game continued on in The Sims 3 with the addition of the young adult life stage added into the base game, whereas with The Sims 2, we gained this particular life stage with the first Expansion Pack, University.

From what I have read on the internet however, the fact that toddlers were not added to The Sims 4 have left some Simmers happy of the situation as they didn't like the toddler life stage and others, like myself, unhappy because of the deletion of something that we have been so used to over the last ten years.

Having toddlers in the game means two things for me - playing with families and custom content. As I like to play families and create toddler clothes, the deletion of the toddler life stage was a double whammy.

Of course, the non addition (or should I say, the deletion) of toddlers in TS4 not only creates a void in the lifespans but also the loss of interactions such as teaching to walk, talk and potty train. In addition, we have less custom content in the way of toddler clothing, toys, cribs and baby changing stations to name just a few.

It would be nice to think that EA/Maxis will put back what they have taken from us in a future Stuff or Expansion Pack or even a free patch together with the option to age up the toddlers after a few hours or a couple of days, for those who do not wish to have them in their game.

Meanwhile, my craving for creating custom clothing for toddlers has taken it's hold and so I spent some time over the weekend making Polar Bear themed pyjamas for toddler boys for The Sims 3.

I also decided to make a video to 'showcase' the outfit and so that you can see what it looks like in CAS:






And here is the image:





These toddler pyjamas are available for download over at The Sims Resource if you are still playing The Sims 3 and would like them for your game. Click on the link below to be taken to the download page:


I hope you like these pyjamas for toddler boys and I really do appreciate any feedback, good or bad!

Take care and have a great day!

~ Minicart (Jules)


Friday 26 September 2014

Unleashing Ones Creativity

My Bird and Bunting pyjamas for girls are now available for download over at The Sims Resource.

Creating custom content for The Sims 4 takes me back to TS2 days as the way of creating is basically the same.  It's just a pity that EA/Maxis hasn't released a 'Body Shop' and wallpaper and floor tool, like they did before.  Of course, in a way, that doesn't really matter as there are fantastic modders and programmers out there who make tools available for us so that we can continue to release our creativity making custom content for fellow Simmers.

At the moment I am using Color Magic and S4PE together with Photoshop and have made a few items, all of which can be downloaded at TSR.  However, once the TSR Workshop for The Sims 4 is released then I will be using that.  I don't know how different it will be compared to Color Magic and S4PE but it may mean that I will have to endure another learning experience.  But that's okay because I enjoy learning stuff...

Back to my Bird and Bunting pyjamas - I created the bird for the top in photoshop with shapes and the pen tool and ran each shape/colour through my felt style action script to create this:







I then created some buntings with different patterns:





I used this to hand-tile a pattern and then defined that in Photoshop and used the pattern for the bottoms:






Here is an image of the end result:



 
I had a lot of fun creating these pyjamas, as I do with all the things I make.

Since creating for TS4, I decided to make a small video for each item to show what the content looks like in CAS.  This is something else that I really enjoy doing and these videos seem to be quite popular.

So, here is the video I made to 'showcase' my Bird and Bunting pyjamas:




You can download my Bird and Bunting Pyjamas for girls over at TSR via the link below:

DOWNLOAD HERE!

I hope you like them and I really do appreciate any feedback, good or bad.

Take care guys and have a great day!

~ Minicart (Jules)

Tuesday 31 December 2013

The Barrington-Smythe Legacy

I'm so loving this game The Sims 2; in fact I'm enjoying it more than TS3 at the moment.

Anyway, to continue with my Let's Play The Sims 2 series, here is the next instalment of The Barrington-Smythe Legacy:



Hope you enjoy watching just as much as I enjoyed playing!  And I'm still making pyjamas......

Cheers and a Happy New Year!

~Minicart

Monday 30 December 2013

Let's Play The Sims 2!

Well, I finally got a couple of Let's Play's uploaded to You Tube, the latest being The Barrington-Smythe Legacy Part 11, played with The Sims 2.

I have been quite ill over the Christmas holiday with a nasty infection so couldn't do much.  However, I'm feeling a lot better now.

So, here is the latest in The Barrington-Smythe Legacy:





Feel free to comment, like, favourite, subscribe or whatever!  Meanwhile, I must get on and make some more pyjamas.....

Cheers!

~Minicart

Friday 13 December 2013

The Sims 3 Roaring Heights Review

Ever since I played The Sims 2, I have been wanting to create videos.  I had no idea what to do, where to start or what equipment I needed.

I would watch other people's videos, together with tutorials but never really found the time or the confidence to give it a go myself, until now.

Last week I decided to purchase screen recording software and a cheap microphone and just give it a shot to see what I could come up with.  I started a Let's Play over at YouTube created with The Sims 2 entitled The Barrington-Smythe Legacy and I'm really enjoying myself.  I didn't realise however, the amount of work needed to put into a Let's Play.  I just thought I would only need to play the game for 15 or 20 minutes and upload it - boy, was I wrong!

My screen recording software, although recognising my microphone, mutes it and so I have to play the game first and then record the audio afterwards.  This means editing the movie then playing it back to record the audio, popping the audio into the movie, all the while trying to make everything fit by cutting and editing.  Then it's a case of saving the movie (rendering) which can take up to 30 minutes, watching it again to make sure everything is okay on the final file and then uploading to YouTube, which takes another couple of hours.

Even though it takes a while to do, I'm having so much fun doing it and today I recorded my very first review for a new world from The Sims 3 Store which was released yesterday, Roaring Heights.

Although the picture is a little 'choppy' and 'laggy' at times, I am still a beginner and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  They say practice makes perfect so as time goes on, I can only hope that I'll get better!

One thing that certainly helped me with the 'panning' in-game was Chrillsims3 video tutorial on how to use the camera within The Sims 3 game.

Here is Chrills video:



And here is my first review:



All I can say is that if I can do it, anyone can!

I hope you like it and I would appreciate any constructive criticism/advice that you want to give to me!

Cheers!

~Minicart

Friday 21 June 2013

Game Update for TS3 Island Paradise

I decided to take a break from creating and have a play with what we were given with the new game update.  If I remember correctly, we were told in the recent live broadcast that with this update we could build out to sea.  So anyway, I'm not a builder but I wanted to see what I could do in Barnacle Bay.  I chose Barnacle Bay for the simple reason that Simmers in North America will get this town free if they pre-order Island Paradise, so I thought that would be a good place to test this out.


Building Into the Sea

First of all, please excuse the quality of some of these images as they came out quite dark and I had to lighten them up in Photoshop.  Tip: Click on the images to make them bigger!

Here's an image of one of the beaches at Barnacle Bay that I decided to build on:




As you can see from this image, you can place a lot that goes from the beach and out to sea:




Here are the images once I had placed the foundation:





As I am not a builder (yep, I know I said it before but I really must stress that fact), I used some of the blueprints just to show what a house looks like on the lot:





I wanted to pop a swimming pool and a hot tub on the 'deck' foundation but it wouldn't let me....


Swimming Pool Blueprints


Whilst in the blueprint section of build mode, I noticed that under the miscellaneous tab, there are 24 blueprints for swimming pools that I don't remember seeing before:




I think that these are really cool features that we've been given with the update as this will allow you to start building your Sim's dream home in readiness for the release of Island Paradise.


Moving to a New Town


Just after I had updated my game, I had to enter it to take some photo's of my teen Sim in her new Cow pyjamas for TSR.  Once the lot had loaded, I had a pop-up which gave me the option of moving my family to a new town.  I didn't want to do this as this was just my 'model' family for clothing so whilst in Barnacle Bay, I decided to choose a random home to see if I got the same message.  Well, I didn't, probably because I hadn't played her before so I decided to look at the options on her phone.

As you can see from the image below, under the 'Real Estate and Travel Services' you get the option to 'Purchase an Additional Home':




So I clicked on that which gave me this:




As you can see from the above image, you can actually move to a new town from your phone but this requires a 20,000 Simoleon deposit which is refunded to you once you get there.  So I gave my Sim 50,000 and upon clicking the New Town option, I was presented with this screen:




From here, you can choose which town you would like your Sim to move to.

At this point I was wondering if your Sim would be able to keep in touch with friends and family 'back home', just like we can when travelling to Uni or on a World Adventure but, alas no:




As the next screen suggests, it's a good idea to save your game just in case you want to go back to where you left off if you don't want to carry on playing with your Sim in a new town:




I didn't find anything else, however this is a great update in readiness for Island Paradise, especially if you love to build stuff, either for yourself or to share within the community.

I hope the above was helpful if you haven't had a chance to look yourself or are still awaiting the update.

Cheers!

~Minicart

Tuesday 18 June 2013

News for The Sims 4

I just finished watching the Live Broadcast over on YouTube.  Island Paradise looks absolutely amaaaazzzzing and I cannot wait until it's released here in the UK on Friday 28th June (yep, we have to wait a little longer than our cousins across the pond).

As there will be quite a few posts and videos about the upcoming EP, I wanted to get straight into talking about the news we had for The Sims 4.




Today we met Albert Truong (above left), concept artist for TS4 who is really wacky and crazy and I love him.  Up until now, we have only seen the 'eyes' image together with the TS4 text:



Albert was extremely excited to show us his concept art for a Sims 4 character of which he was very proud:





Now, you do have to remember that this is 'concept' art which, according to the Wikipedia, is "a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood...."  However, this art looks to me very much like the character portrayed in the supposed leaked Sims 4 video of Build #22H a few months ago which most believe is fake.  Let's take another look:





And here are the images together for comparison:




We're not going to hear any more news for The Sims 4 until July 9th at the next live broadcast.  The big good news is that at Gamescom on August 20th, the Sims team will be revealing an official trailer and more stuff.  Really excited for that one!

Let me know what you guys think; does the image from the supposed leaked trailer look like the concept art to you?

Cheers and Happy Simmin'!

~Minicart

Saturday 15 June 2013

Lack of Blogging and The Sims 4

There's been a serious lack of blogging on this site and I really must learn to do better.  I couldn't believe that it's been 8 months since I made a post.....

Alot has happened over the past few months within the Sims community with the announcement of the upcoming Island Paradise EP and also the Time Travel EP to be released later this year.  The biggest announcement is of course, The Sims 4, due to be released some time in 2014.

There was much speculation of this new Sims game mostly due to the fact that the domain TheSims4.com was purchased by EA some time ago and supposed concept images being posted on the website of an ex EA employee.

The announcement of The Sims 4 may have come too soon for some as I'm sure there are those who have lost interest in The Sims 3 and will be patiently awaiting the release of The Sims 4 before purchasing any other The Sims games.  However, if you are a die-hard Sims fan like myself, you will be wanting anything and everything that EA release regarding The Sims franchise.

I'm a little sad that we never got a Vacation EP for The Sims 3.  Although Island Paradise looks a little vacationy (vacationy?), it isn't a sub-hood like World Adventures or the vacation EP's we had for 1 and 2. I personally would have liked to have been able to take my Sims on a vaction to Island Paradise from Sunset Valley, much like we can go from the neighbourhood to one of the World Adventure worlds or to University.

Since the announcement of The Sims 4, I reinstalled The Sims 2 and started playing again (hence the lack of posts :-)).  I must admit that I feel the gameplay of The Sims 2 is so much better than 3.  Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of things in The Sims 3 that I love, such as the fishing skill, cooking and gardening and all the related books that go with it.  Learning all those recipes and what you need  to catch certain fish is great gameplay in my opinion and should be taken across to The Sims 4.  However, there are many more things that were in The Sims 2 that I missed in 3 such as open restaurants, babies with limbs, slower eating, dating and outing scenario's, creating a group on your phone to invite out (as opposed to being automatically grouped up in The Sims 3 which I really dislike), and many other things such as the Wobbly Wabbit Head Charisma bunny for toddlers. 





The open world and graphics of The Sims 3 is a lot better than what we had in 2; loading screens were a bit of a bind.  However, since re-installing the game on a faster computer than I had before, the loading screens only take a few seconds.  It is much better though to be able to just leave your house and go to the park in an open world, without having to watch a boring loading screen.

Here is a list of all the things I miss from The Sims 2 together with stuff from 3 that I would love to see in 4, plus a couple of ideas, (which I originally posted over on the official site):


  • Wobbly Wabbit Head Charisma bunny for toddlers;
  • DIY channel on TV for handiness skill;
  • Babies and cars like in TS2;
  • Cleaning skill back;
  • Fears and memory system back;
  • Comfort and environment needs back;
  • Group system/scenario back - fed up of my sims being grouped up or put in a date when I don't want them to;
  • Date system/scenario back;
  • Pottery wheel/sewing machine for creativity;
  • LOVE the science stuff in TS3 UL;
  • Keep the gardening/cooking/fishing like we have in TS3 - put greenhouses in the base game;
  • Bring back gardeners;
  • Bring back the tools that we were given at around level 4 of each career in TS2 - i.e. cleaning gun for Law Enforcement, Indoor Golf for Business, Running Track thing for Military, Operation Dummy for Medical, Podium for Political, Chocolate maker for Culinary, Cow Plant for Science, etc;
  • Bring back gold/platinum aspiration levels so that as in TS2 certain items can be 'purchased' with lifetime points such as the baby milk and the money maker machine.  These could only be used when the sim was 'gold' or higher.  Once a lifetime wish is accomplished then the sim should be platinum and stay platinum as in TS2;
  • Open restaurants;
  • Slower eating/chatting at the table etc as in TS2;
  • A weight thingy like we had in TS2 - if a sim eats too much they put on weight and have to exercise, again like we had in TS2;
  • Need to purchase food from the store or have it delivered as opposed to it magically appearing in the fridge;
  • Need to purchase clothing instead of having everything available in CAS;


Bernards Botanical Dining from The Sims 2:



 

In addition, I loved the music from The Sims 1 and 2 and I remember that we had The Sims 1 music in 2 on the stereo entitled 'Shopping'.  I also love the idea of having famous people singing their hits in Simlish as we have in The Sims 3.  I'm assuming that with the Sims 4 we will get new music but I would love to see the music from all the other games incorporated into 4.

I'm sure there are a lot of other things that Simmers remember and would like to see in The Sims 4 and also have their own new ideas for the game.

On the other side of the spectrum, I have noticed there are a few people who state that they will continue with The Sims 3 as they 'don't want to start a new game all over again' and stating that 'this is just a money-making racket for EA to re-do all the old expansion packs'.  I have to disagree with this and James from The Sim Supply explained why brilliantly in a video he posted on YouTube:







I, for one, am really looking forward to The Sims 4. Getting more information and seeing some screenshots (and a trailer) is something I and many others are really excited for.  Remember guys, Tuesday June 18th is coming up for apparently more information on The Sims 4 so I'm really looking forward to that.

Well, that's about it for now; will try and keep up to date with posts in future (I think I may have said that before)......

Cheers and Happy Simmin'!

~ Minicart

Monday 22 October 2012

The Grim Reaper and the 'Neat' Trait

My Sim decided to have a party to further his charisma skills.  Regardless of the fact that he turned in early and had a guest croak through lack of food, the party turned out 'epic', possibly due to his 'legendary host' reward.

I watched the Grim Reaper as he 'took' this unlucky and stupid Sim (I say stupid because there was a buffet table full of food so his demise was totally unnecessary), and then the Reaper done something that I've not seen before.  He picked up 'yesterdays' newspaper and placed it in the trash.  He then decided to make the bed:


And proceeded to clean out the toilet:


However, the toilet blocked and he then disappeared.  Typical!

My conclusion to this is that the Grim Reaper probably has the neat trait.   Either that, or he just has a sense of humour.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been back since so my Sim hasn't had a chance to chat with him to find out.

Has this ever happened to you?  Please comment below if you have a similar story!

Cheers!

~Minicart :-)

Saturday 13 October 2012

Autumn Sweaters for Girls

My Autumn Sweater for Girls was published yesterday over at The Sims Resource:


Again, I had great fun creating these, placing a wool effect on the multiplier first.  I then designed the images in Photoshop and placed a carpet effect overlay on them to make them look softer.  I created the ribbons for the balloons with the action script that I purchased from Atomic Cupcake:


I then placed the images on the clothing as an overlay which of course means that these images are non-recolourable.

If you would like this item in your game, you may download from the link below:

Download Autumn Sweater for Girls!

Cheers!

~Minicart :-)

Wednesday 10 October 2012

The Sims 3 University??

I just finished watching the replay of The Sims 3 Seasons - Maxis Live Chat over on Origin as I unfortunately missed the live chat yesterday.

Just like a lot of other people, my first taste of The Sims was playing Sim City.  I remember playing this with my son on his Sega Mega Drive, I believe.  We had great fun building the city and watching the disasters as they struck.  When Maxis announced the new Sim City, I was very interested in how this would look, seeing as that computer graphics have come a long way since the original.  What did worry me was the feature of playing with others within the game.  I prefer to play alone, especially with my Sims.  However, when I heard on this chat that you have a choice of playing either with others or alone, seeing the gameplay and graphics, I'm now hooked, to say the least!

The Sims 3 Seasons looks fantastic in Moonlight Falls and now our Sims get to Woo-Hoo in leaf piles.....

Curtis done an awesome job asking questions on our behalf and I'm really looking forward to seeing his next video telling us about his trip.

Ryan Vaughan announced the new Sims magazine which unfortunately is only available on iPod and Android tablets so if you, like me, don't have these, you won't be able to get the magazine.  I for one would love to see a 'real' magazine that you can purchase off the shelf in stores.  I would certainly subscribe to that!

If you've seen this chat, you will have noticed that three 'guru's came on towards the end dressed in 70's, 80's and 90's clothes, giving the game away about the next stuff pack which is, yep, 70's, 80's and 90's clothing.  This is great news for us creators because it looks like there may be a few new meshes in there somewhere. There will also be lots of new hairstyles and clothing too.

After the announcement of the stuff pack by Sarah, Ryan recapped on the chat and then something weird happened.  Two people came on stage, one dressed in a cap and gown and the other dressed as some type of animal.  Ryan then told Lucy that maybe those guys belong back in University......

WHAT!!! UNIVERSITY!!!!!

I thought, OMG!!  Is this a hint of the next EP????

So I popped over to The Sims 3 website and found this:

The Sims 3 University

Okay, okay, it's just a 404 page but the page IS there.

I hope so - I just LOVED Uni for The Sims 2!!

Let me know what you guys think - just place your comments in the section below!

Cheers!

~Minicart :-)

Create a Seamless Tile Pattern in Photoshop

To create a pattern for The Sims 3, we were given CAP (Create A Pattern) which contained images that we could use.  Here is a great example of patterns made with CAP from All About Style:


However, you can only make so many patterns with the same images and although you can import images into CAP, I found that it didn't really give a good result.  I soon realised that TSR Workshop's pattern feature for me was the best way to make patterns for the game.

Creating patterns for The Sims 3 means that the user can change the colour of them in game to suit their own needs and also apply them to not just clothing but also furniture, wallpaper and curtains etc.

On many of my toddlers and childrens clothing items for The Sims 3, especially the sleepwear, I like to create a pattern with the image I create in Photoshop.  The way I do it is unconventional and does not contain the channels needed to change the colours or apply the pattern to other items and therefore they are non-recolourable.  However, as I use my pattern as an overlay, I don't need to create them the 'right' way.

For example, my Rainbow Sleepwear for Toddler Girls had a little rainbow on two of the variations with a rainbow pattern on one half of one variation and a rainbow pattern on the whole of another variation:

This creates an item of clothing which is more unique as the pattern is not seen as a pattern in game as such and therefore cannot be used for other items.

Whether you create a 'proper' pattern which has channels to enable the user to change the colour and use it on whatever item they wish, or whether you create a pattern as I do, for an overlay on an item of clothing, you will need to seamless tile by hand in Photoshop, or whatever paint program you are using.

If you've never done this before, it may seem a little daunting but it is very easy to do and much easier than creating a seamless tile with 'channels'.  To create a pattern with 'channels' you need to keep the colours seperate and usually you only get to have 3 or 4 channels or colours.  By creating a seamless tiled pattern with an image for use as an overlay, you can have as many colours as you want as no channels are involved.

First of all, I use a template which was basically a screenshot from CAP:

The pink square in the middle is where I design my pattern (256 x 256 pixels) - any image that overlaps the pink square will need to be cut.  I use my rulers along the top, bottom and sides to define the area.  The white area is basically my working space.

Once you have the image that you want to pattern, place this on your template and then duplicate the layer so you don't mess up the original.  For the purpose of this post, I will be using the rainbow image I created in Photoshop for the toddler sleepwear:

Take this duplicated image and place this somewhere on the pink square:

Then duplicate the original image again and use this somewhere else on your pattern:

As you can see, I turn the image so as to make it a little more interesting.

Now comes the more involved bit :-)

Duplicate the original image again and place this on the pink square but overlap it into the white area:

Using your rectangular marquee tool, cut off the excess (this is where the rulers come in handy):

Then paste the part of the image you have cut and line this up back together again:

Using your arrow cursor on the keyboard, bring that part of the image down so that it rests on the bottom of the pink square:

I tend to group these two pieces together so that I know that image has been cut.

Keep doing this by duplicating the original image and overlapping it onto the white area, (top, bottom and sides) cutting and matching up.  You will then end up with something like this:

Once you have your design, hide the original image and the background and go to image > trim. You will be left with a square of 256 x 256 pixels.  You can then go to edit > define pattern and you will have your pattern in Photoshop that you can use.  Test out the pattern by creating a large square about 3000 x 3000 pixels and create a new layer with your pattern.  Your pattern should seamlessly tile.  If it doesn't, you will have to go back to your original file and tweak.

Once your pattern tiles seamlessly and you are happy with the result, you can go ahead and make your overlay file.  I use my multiplier and/or mask file as a guide.

If you have any questions or comments, please use the comment section below and if you liked this post, please consider hitting the 'like' button below and/or click the 'tweet' button!

Cheers!

~Minicart :-)

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Penguin Pyjamas for Boys

When I made my Penguin Sleepwear for toddlers, it was suggested over on Facebook by Sara that I create some bigger ones for the kiddies.  So I got to work and created Penguin Pyjamas for boys:

 

This item comes in two parts so you can mix and match if you want to and of course you can recolour them in CAS.  Obviously the penguin itself and penguin pattern cannot be recoloured as these are overlays.

If you would like these pyjamas in your game, you can download them today over at The Sims Resource.

Cheers!

~Minicart :-)

Saturday 6 October 2012

Creating for The Sims 3

I have been asked by a few people how I create my clothing for The Sims 3 and I always point them in the direction of Ekinege's fantastic tutorial over at The Sims Resource.  Although I used other tutorials when I first started and which got me on the road to custom creation, as soon as Ekinege's tutorial was released, I learned a little more about what each file does.  Her tutorial is a more in depth one but still easy to follow.

If you ever created anything for The Sims 2, you will soon realise that creating for The Sims 3 is very different.  For example, custom creation for The Sims 2 meant that the design as well as the colours and textures were placed directly on one file and any variations would have to be created as a seperate item.  Now that we have CAS (Create a Sim), the file needs to be greyscale or colourless with seperate colour 'channels' to enable the user to change the colour and/or texture of the item themselves in game.  All of this may sound a little daunting but it is in fact quite simple.

Multiplier File

The 'multiplier' file is where you place your design.  For example, add a belt to a dress and for more involved creating, change the neckline, change the sleeves from long to short or vice versa as in the images below:



The 'alpha' layer in the channel of your multiplier determines where your design goes.  The white part shows your design where the black part blocks it out.  For example, I created this two piece swimsuit from the swimsuit for girls:



The original multiplier looks like this, with the alpha layer being completely white to show the one piece swimsuit:



Here are my changes to create a two piece swimsuit:



The 'white' part determines how much of your design shows through, so if it's black, it doesn't show through at all.  Had I made the white part of the swimsuit grey, the swimsuit would have been see-through which is something you can implement on adult clothing such as this top from Juttaponath:


The see through part on the top has been made with that part of the alpha layer being grey.

Mask File

The 'mask' file determines where the colour channels go on your creation.  Usually there are three channels or colours however, you can just use one or two.  Red is the first colour, yellow is second and purple third but please be aware that these are not the actual colours your item will be; these colours are used to basically tell CAS which of your chosen colours go where on the item.  So for example, if you have a blue t-shirt with a green neckline and white sleeves, you would create the mask with red for the t-shirt, yellow for the neckline and purple on the sleeves. 

Once in CAS, the item will show three colours on the specific parts you have chosen, enabling the user to change these colours and/or textures to their liking.  You can even create a pattern on the mask.  Here is an example of a mask file which again is taken from my Strawberry Swim for Girls:


Normal File

The 'normal' file is basically the bump map.  I remember using the bump map in The Sims 2 to make the pattern and texture stand out more as in the image below:


To achieve this effect, I placed a copy of the design on top of the bump map which is something that you cannot do with Sims 3 creating. 

For Sims 3 custom content, this 'normal' map does the same job by making things 'stand out' and basically highlighting details such as making a belt buckle look as though it is raised.

Clothing Specular File

The 'clothing specular' file is great for highlighting parts of your creation that you want to remain shiny, such as the belt in Ekinege's tutorial here:


Otherwise this file is basically very dark or even black.  If the file is too light, your whole creation will be very shiny.

Overlay File

The 'overlay' file is great for adding little extra's to your design, such as buttons or even an image or non-recolourable pattern.  I tend to use this file on all of my creations and I prefer to use this for placing an image on the item instead of using the 'logo' file as I find that I get a better result with the 'overlay' file.

Any images that you place on the overlay file cannot be recoloured in game by the user which means that you can make your design more unique.  If you are going to create three variations of your item however, you will need to have three different overlay files - one for each variation.

Here is an example of an overlay file together with the alpha that I created for one variation of my Smart and Casual Outfit:


I would recommend that you use TSR Workshop for creating custom content as it is extremely easy to use and also download and follow Ekinege's tutorial to get a great result.

You will of course need a paint program such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro however, if you don't already have a paint program, there are some free ones on the web such as Gimp which you can use for creating custom content for The Sims 3.

Here are the links to the free downloads for you:

Ekinege's Tutorial

TSR Workshop

Gimp Paint Program

If you have ever wanted to have a go at creating custom content for The Sims 3, I hope the above will help you understand the process more and get you started on the road to becoming a Sims 3 custom content artist.

If you have any questions, please comment in the section below or if this post has helped you, feel free to 'tweet' it or click the 'like' button! :-)

Cheers!

~Minicart:-)