#normalmap action tutorial

Hi there :) thanks, I always try to be as helpful as possible. Since this is a public answer, I have created it as a read-along-tutorial so it will be helpful to as many people as possible and I pointed out every step of the way. Feel free to skip parts that you know how to do. The length of this post is due to me trying to be very thorough with explanations :)In your case, the problem could be a missing normalmap. The normalmap is the texture that gives your mesh a more in-depth three-dimensional appearance in that it tells the game to “fake” shadows and highlights on the mesh to add more details to it, so that buttons that are drawn on your multiplier look like they’re raised etc.Maybe you set the normalmap as empty/deleted it in TSR workshop (I’m assuming you’re using TSR, as most creators do nowadays)? To check this, open your TSR workshop project, go to the mesh tab, highlight the materials tab, then  hit the … button and check your normalmap texture. If there is a black image visible, you probably deleted it/made it empty. A proper normalmap should look grey (and have shadows and highlights) in all four channels. By instinct, you’d think to get a neutral normalmap, you’d just have to delete the old one or use the button “make empty” that TSRW so nicely provides. For textures like overlays or stencils, this method works just fine, but not with a normalmap. :(If you do not want a custom normalmap, you need to have a texture filled completely with 50% grey (RGB value 128,128,128). The alpha channel has to be filled with that same grey too!  That texture can be as small as 4x4 pixels (dds textures always need to be a multiple of four, and since this neutral normalmap texture only contains one color, it is okay to make it very small). Only this will ensure a neutral map. Simply deleting it will, unfortunately, result in that insane shine. Instead of a neutral one however, I’d always recommend turning your new multiplier into a new normalmap, since this brings out the details of your new texture. As a beginner, many are overwhelmed by the normalmap. It is not enough to use the normalmap plugin on your multiplier: after using the plugin, the channels need to be copied over into other channels properly to fit the sims 3 standard normalmaps (the contents of the red channel needs to be copied into the alpha channel, the green one needs to be copied into the red and blue channels). This can be very confusing in the beginning! I got frustrated by the repetitive task of normalmap channel copying, so I decided to make my own action for photoshop to automate the whole process of normalmap-making for the sims 3.If you are using a Photoshop version of CS6 or earlier, you can use my normalmap action too! It automates the whole process of normalmap creation for you :) you only have to save the texture afterwards.It is very simple to use: First, you need to have the nvidia texture tools installed if you haven’t already.Then, open your your multiplier texture in Photoshop. Open the normalmap plugin (Filters ->Nvidia->normalmap plugin (or something similar)) one time to adjust one setting: Check the “invert Y” box and hit okay. It will produce a normalmap, but you can just undo the step to get back to your original multiplier. This was just a one time run to adjust the settings. To use my normalmap action, now do the following: Double-click the normalmap.atn file. This should automatically install the normalmap action for you. if you can’t see the actions window in Photoshop, enable it in the menu under Windows-> Actions.Open your finished multiplier, make sure there are no multiple layers/the image is flattened and does have an alpha channel. Make sure the rgb channels are slected, NOT the alpha channel. Then start the action by selecting the normalmap action and hitting the play button in the actions window. The first thing it will do is bring up the levels window to adjust the contrast of the texture to bring out the details a bit more (if you’re not sure how to adjust this, leave the predefined values. The more you drag the little outer arrows of the upper settings inward, the more contrasting your image will be and details will pop out more). The rest of the action will start the normalmap plugin and copy the channels for you. The only thing left for you to do afterwards is to save it as a DXT5 DDS file :) Now replace the empty/old normalmap with your new one. In TSR Workshop the mesh tab, click on materials and hit the …- Button that pops up. In the materials editor that opens, look for “normal map” and open this texture. Now click the “Import” button and load your new normalmap. Don’t forget to save after this step, as TSR workshop likes to crash when importing textures.Don’t forget to also take care of the medium and low LOD textures. After you’ve imported your new normalmap texture, click on the dropdown menu on the High Level of Detail in the mesh tab and choose the medium LOD. Then click on the normal map image in the material editor that pops up and hit “browse” and select your already imported normalmap from there. This ensures you do not import a texture more than once, but it will link to the texture for this LOD. (Also remember this browse function for other textures once they are imported into your project.) Done!If you don’t think that the normalmap is your problem, check your specular to make sure it’s not super bright. Clothing speculars should not have an alpha channel (always save them as DXT 1 without alpha). A bright white alpha channel on a wrongly saved specular might also cause intense shine! For the sake of completeness, I’d like to mention that if the shine is only present in CAS, there is a good chance that two UVmap pieces are overlapping. This gives weird shine in CAS, but ingame, the creation will look normal (though I don’t think you have that issue, as you say the shine is also visible in-game). If you need further assistance and/or want me to have a look at your project, just message me using the new messaging system, that’s the easiest way :) Good luck :)