#picture tutorial

summer binder picture tutorial

this is the third binder ive made for myself recently and the first one i’m writing up. it’s designed to do a few things: 1) allow me to put it on by myself without dislocating my shoulders 2) allow me to breathe well enough to partake in normal activity 3) be cool enough to wear throughout a muggy 90-100F summer 4) not constrict my ribs in a way that aggravates my lack of connective tissue and causes intense pain.

this has become necessary even though i had top surgery many years ago, because when i had it i was extremely skinny and since then i’ve increased in size by about 50%. this has been really fucking good for my health in every single way* except that when my chest is squishy or moves at all it’s So Goddamn Triggering for me. but also since ive had top surgery ive developed and/or been made away of a plethora of chronic conditions that make every single commercially available binding option medically impossible. unbound, my chest is pretty much what you’d expect for a chubby cis guy but venturing out into the world in just a tshirt no longer works for me

*anyone who badmouths weight gain or fat bodies in the notes WILL be blocked

under the cut are a bunch of process pictures and explanations of what they all mean:

How to make Kishibe Rohan's Headband Picture Guide

Materials:

Two sheets of Felt or Craft Foam

Printed pattern 

Scissors 

Tape

Craft Knife (optional, you can cut it up with scissors it’s just harder)

Sewing needle and string

Free new crochet pattern from me! 😍💖✌

Cross Wrap Crochet Stitch:

First step is having the right type of photo. You’re going to need a picture of your sim with a solid background. This will make adding a shadow very easy. You can get the backdrop from here. I’ve chosen this photo and edited how I like it. 

Also I’ll be using Photoshop to edit this, I’m sure these steps could be used with other picture editors but I’m not sure. Next you’re going to duplicate the photo by pressing Ctrl-J or right clicking the layer of the photo. 

Now click on the duplicate layer and go to the magic wand to select the background. After have selecting it, go ahead and delete it. Your layer should now look like this:

Now create a new layer and place in between copy and original photo. While on the new layer click on the layer we just edited with crtl-left click (Make sure to have deselected the photo by right clicking it!) The outline of your sim should now be selected. 

Now having the outline of your sim selected you will click on the circle at the bottom and select solid color (Make sure you’re still on that new layer we created) 

Next it will ask you to choose the color you want for it. Go ahead a make it black. 

Now stretch out your shadow in the direction you want your light source to come from. I decide to drag it to the right.

 Now your going to need to blur the shadow to make it look more realistic or else it just looks fake. I like to Gaussian blur at 8.0 but you do it higher or lower whatever you feel looks the best. 

We’re almost done but now you need to change the opacity (this also helps make it look more real.) You’re gonna want to put it around 35%-45% but like I said before put it at whatever you feel looks best. 

Next you’re going to merge all your layers together so they become one. As the final step you’re going to add your light source. Go to the filter menu and select Render then Lighting Effects. Honestly from this point on it’s your choice on what kind light source you want to pick but I usually choose soft omni and mess around with the settings

And finally you’re done! You’re picture should come out looking something like this: 

I hope this tutorial helps anyone. I’m not very good at explaining things but since the original simmer I learned this from took down their tutorial and it was requested I tried my best too! I have one more tutorial request coming out sometime tomorrow or this week. 

The other day I was trying to figure out what to do with the ends of my loaf of bread. I don’t really like eating them, but I didn’t want to waste them either. With a little creativity, I came up with a quick and easy french toast recipe (it’s kind of a cross between bread pudding and french toast).

Step 1: Rip your two ends into little pieces and put them into a microwave safe dish.

Step 2: Crack an egg and put a splash of cream or milk into the dish.

Step 3: Add some cinnamon sugar to bring the extra french toast flavor.

Step 4: Mix it all together gently, making sure the bread pieces are evenly coated.

Step 5: Microwave for 1 minute.

The finished product should look something like this:

Step 6: Top with desired flavors-I opted for butter and maple syrup.

As promised, (sorry for being so late) here is a picture tutorial on how to make collections in CC Magic (CCM) for @simsarahsarah​ and @echoweaver​ - and anyone else who may find it useful :)

Making collections with CCM is useful for keeping your CC installed with CCM organized in game, and also a good way of compiling items in bulk instead of adding items one by one.

At the end I'll also add a couple of ways you could manipulate the in-game collections with CCM too (warning: this post is very picture and text heavy :)

I assume people who follow this tutorial are already using CC Magic :)

Note: My CCM layout may look a bit out of sorts as I have LOADS of sets and collections for testing purposes lol

How to make a new collection in CC Magic

In CCM, go to the Collections tab, and click 'Add' to make a new collection.

The new collection will appear at the bottom. Give it a name and icon. (I gave it 'CCMTEST' with a thumbs up icon lol)

If you look in the collections folder (Documents>Electronic Arts>Sims3>Collections>User) and sort by last modified (arrow pointing down), you'll see the collection you just made at the top. You could give it a name if you want, but I found that sometimes when you make changes to it in CCM or Buy Mode, it saves itself as a new file with the hex number name again. And you have the named copy there too lol. I don't bother editing any files in this folder for this reason, I do all my edits in CCM or Buy Mode.

(Edit: Nope, I was wrong, the file doesn’t duplicate itself, it just updates itself with the hex number and a new modified date, which means if you do give it a name in the folder it won’t stay that way.)

Under the Sets tab, choose which set you want in that new collection.

I've installed some of Sandy's items (@aroundthesims​) from her Souvenir set to CCM - 18 items :)

I made a set called 'CCMTEST' to match the collection, and moved the Souvenir items in it.

To add the set to the CCM collection, click 'Collection' above the set window and scroll till you find the 'CCMTEST' collection. Click it.

Now rebuild CCM. If you make a new set or move any items around to organize your sets, always click 'Rebuild' to set the changes. 'Play' also does the same when you're ready to launch the game. 

It should show the number of the items in the collection (18). Sometimes it will still show 0 but the items will show up in the game regardless.

To know for sure if they show up, launch the game. Press 'Play' in CCM to set changes and check your new collection. In Buy mode, you should see the new collection at the top, or near it...

Notes:

If you make a new set, remember to enable it in the Configurations tab for the items to show.

If you want to make more than one collection, do them all at once so you won't have to keep restarting CCM after each one.

CCM is an old program, so it has its little quirks. Sometimes you have to restart it anytime you make changes/ additions to its collections if you want the game to see them. Same for any changes/additions made to the in-game collections in Buy Mode, you have to restart CCM to pick them up.

If you delete a collection from CCM and restart it, it will come back! The only way to make sure its gone is to delete if from the Documents/EA folder or in the game. It is better to delete it from Buy Mode as you can see which one you want by name and thumbnail.

Extra tips:

You can add more than one set to a CCM collection, but its messy. Choose one set, scroll to the collection, but don't rebuild. Keep doing this to all the sets you want in that collection (choose, scroll, choose, scroll etc) until you're done,THEN rebuild. I actually find this way annoying lol. If you make any changes to any of those sets, you have to repeat the same process every time, so its probably best to combine all the CC you want in one set for the collection.

The best way to add multiple sets to one collection is to make/use a collection IN game lol. Of course, this seems to defeat the purpose of making collections in CCM, but both ways have their advantages. No matter how you make the collection file, CCM can read them all from the folder and you can add/remove your CC to/from them, especially when the game isn't running. 

The big advantage of adding CCM sets to in-game collections is that they remain in that collection even if you move or even delete that set from CCM - as long as the CC is not deleted from the hard drive completely, they'll remain where you put them. That means the items can be added to more than one collection in bulk. (e.g I could make a collection in-game called 'ATS Postcard shop,' then in CCM, move the items from the 'CCMTEST' set to 'ATS Postcard shop' collection, rebuild, start game to check they appear. Then, back in CCM, I can either move the items in 'CCMTEST' set to another set or leave them where they are but add them to another CCM collection or in-game collection, rebuild, start game to check. The items are still in 'ATS Postcard shop' but also in the other collection I moved them to :)

If you have bulk tems in the Legacy folder that you want in a collection, install them in CCM, add them to an in-game collection, then move them back to the legacy folder. Don't worry, they won't be installed twice.

We already know that CC items can be added to more than one collection in Buy Mode. That's good for adding single items if you have the patience, but for multiple items, CCM is easier and quicker.

So, using CCM to add or use collections can be very effective if you remember these points :

CC added to CCM collections can only be added to one collection at a time until you open the game and add them to other collections in Buy Mode one by one. That includes other CCM collections too because CC added to any collections in Buy Mode do not reappear and/or appear twice in CCM.

CC added to in-game collections can be added to more than one in-game collection in bulk (after subsequent rebuilds and restarts of CCM). Although an annoying quirk of CCM, the advantages outweigh said annoyance :)  

Both ways of making collections are very useful, especially if you test a lot of CC like me or you're a keen builder or decorator - the CCM collections are a quick and convenient way to combine all the CC you want from a particular creator or style. The in-game collections are always there and won't change until you delete them from the hard drive. The fact that you can access them via CCM is a bonus. 

I hope this tutorial is useful and clear to understand (I do go on a bit!  lol) 

Please feel free to ask any questions! :)

Sources:

ATS Souvenir Shop <3

Extra Collection Icons - download these from MTS, install as usual package files. As they're not the base game default icons, the thumbnail may not show up in the collection list in CCM.

Collection Tweaker - If you fancy being creative and have time, you can make your own collection file icons with the Collection Tweaker. I used it for about a day, then lost patience lol. I made the text ones. They look nice but I can’t be bothered to make any more as I had to open Photoshop lol Note: If you try to change an icon of a collection made in CCM, the Tweaker will throw up an error. I don’t know why this happens. You can change its icon in the game.