#s4 render tutorial

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Step 1: After you import your dae, it would be a really good idea to separate your sim’s clothing, accessories and other add-ons from their body to avoid any issues. 

In the UV Editor, selected anything your sim might be wearing then mouse over the 3D View-Port and press “P”. Then click “Separate by selection”.

Do this for both the head and feet as well.

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Step 2: Now we want to join the feet to the body. Before we can do that, we have to rename the UV maps. In the Object Data tab, scroll down until you can find the UV Maps box. In there, it should be two maps. Ignore the first half of the name and look at the 2nd half. 

Find the “map-1″ (should be the one at the bottom of the list) and click the minus buttons next to the box. You’ve removed the uv_1. Blender does not need this map.

Find “map-0″ and rename it to “uv_0″

Repeat this for the sim’s feet.

When you’ve done that, right click the feet then shift click the body and while mousing over the 3D View-Port, hold down shift and press “J” to join the feet and body.

They should both take on the same texture map.

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Step 3: We are now going to remove the seams on the sim. 

Make sure you have the body selected and enter Edit Mode. 

*Follow these instructions in this specific order or else you’ll get splits or something else wonky in your sim’s mesh.

Make sure you have your mouse in the 3D View and press space bar. In the search type in “Tris to Quads”. Press enter or click to apply it.

Next, press space again and search for “Merge by Distance”. It does not matter which one you pick, they both do the same thing. Again, press enter or click to apply.

Finally, bring up the search one more time and type in Subdivide. A small box will pop up in the left-hand corner. If not, click the bar with the modifier name in it and it should pop up. 

In that box, you can change how much you want the sim’s body to be subdivided and the smoothness. I normally keep my "Number of Cuts” at 1 and the “Smoothness” at 1.000. 

*When you increase the smoothness, the sim's body will expand a little bit. You might have to use sculpt mode to fit any clothes back. The smoothness setting is optional use.

I don’t touch any of the other settings but feel free to play around and see what they do. 

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Step 4: We now return to the head which is a slightly different process.

Make sure all of the head is selected and bring up search again.

Do “Tris to Quads” then subdivide again.

Done. 

You can also use “Merge by Distance on the head but if you do, the vertices that make up the mouth will get stuck together and if you plan on using poses that have the sim’s mouth open, it’ll look straight out of a horror movie. It also messes up some custom ears (i.e. elf, alien, etc). 

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