#sims cc tutorial

I had a rough time--and much Trial and Error--trying to figure it out so that I don't just have to "Make Blank" for all my CC. This guide gave some helpful pointers (https://sims4studio.com/thread/861/normal-maps-bump-editing-creating), but it left out a bunch of key info. So... here we go!

Side note-- What exactly IS a Normal Map? I don't 100% know. But it's purpose is to create a sort-of 3D effect on your 2D texture. It can help make your recolor look less "drawn on" to the mesh. I don't notice a difference in Sims 4 Studio, but there is a difference when you're in the actual game. When it comes to textures without a Normal Map, I think the grandpa from Derry Girls said it best: "It's just not as nice..."

You will need:

- Your completed Diffuse texture (your recolored .dds file)

- Sims 4 Studio aka S4S

- GIMP (free image editing software)

1.) I'm going to use my current WIP Kim Possible Cheerleader uniform as an example. Open up your .package in S4S. You can skip this step if you still have your Diffuse file laying around, but just to be thorough: Select your Diffuse and Export it.

2.) Open your Diffuse file in GIMP (or another Photoshop-type program, but I like GIMP and that's what I'm showing in this tutorial). When the options come up, make sure you de-select "Load Mipmaps". You don't want to load the mipmaps. You'll know you did this right because you'll only have 1 layer, as opposed to like 40.

Note here: if your clothes have a printed design or stripes or something on them, you want to get rid of them. They shouldn't be on the final Normal Map.

We need to make sure that your .dds has Transparency (an alpha channel). Mine already does, as you can see by that grey checker-pattern in the blank spaces. If yours doesn't OR you aren't sure, make sure you add one. In the Layers panel, click "New Layer". Keep the sizes the same, and select "Transparency". Move this layer to the bottom, then select your first layer and "Merge Down".

2.) We also need to add a "White" layer or else the Normal Map will be all kinds of messed-up. This is the same process as adding an alpha channel, btw. Right-click in the Layers panel, and add a New Layer. Instead of Transparency, we need to select White.

The White layer always gets put to the top for me, so we need to move it lower in the Layer panel.

The White layer will now appear below your Diffuse texture.

3.) I forgot to screenshot this, but we now need to de-saturate your Diffuse layer to make it black-and-white. Making sure that your Diffuse layer is selected in the Layers panel, click Colors>Desaturate... from the options bar at the top. Alternatively, press Alt+C, then Alt+D. I like to choose either "Lightness" or "Average", depending on how much of a contrast my Diffuse has/needs. Pick whichever you think looks better, then hit OK.

A.) If your Diffuse has white parts, skip to 3B! Do NOT follow this part or your Normal Map will be messed up! If yours doesn't have any white, then:

Select your Diffuse layer and "Merge Down" to combine it with the White Layer. Your Diffuse should be black-and-white, unlike mine. Oops! You now should have only 1 image.

From the top bar, we're now going to select Filters > Map > Normalmap... The below should show up:

Make the settings match that image. You should only have to change the Filter to Sobel 3x3, then go ahead and click Ok.

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B.) If you *DID* have white parts, we're going to do things a little differently. Make sure your Diffuse layer is selected, then select Filters > Map > Normalmap... (Alt+R should open the Filters, but I don't know the shortcut for Normalmap.)

Note that I forgot to desaturate when taking my screenshots. YOUR image should be black-and-white.

Make the settings match the follow image. You should only have to change the Filter to Sobel 3x3, then go ahead and click Ok.

Now, select your White Layer from the Layers panel. Repeat the steps to apply Filter > Map > Normalmap to your White Layer.

In the Layers panel, right-click your Diffuse layer and Merge Down. Your two layers are now combined into one.

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4.) Your image should now look something like this:

Mine looks a bit different because I forgot to desaturate, which will have repercussions later. But all blue besides the outline is good.

Continued in Part 2:

Step 1. Open up Sims4Studio and choose Create CAS standalone. Yours may look different if you are on PC (I use MAC).

Step 2. Choose a piece of clothing you would like to work with. I am choosing this skirt because I like the mesh and it’s white so it can be recolored easier. If the clothing is not white, try this photoshop tutorial to make it white.

Step 3. I named this TeresaSkirt inside a folder I created called Teresa and clicked save.

Step 4. Once the display opens, click on diffuse and choose export.

Step 5. I saved this as TeresaBase and clicked save. This is what will open in photoshop.

Step 6. Once I open this in photoshop, I am going to duplicate the layer so I can make the skirt high waisted.

Step 7. On the duplicated layer I am going to select the top half of the skirt with the rectangle selection tool.

Step 8. Next I am going to take the move tool and move this selection up.

Step 9. Before I go any further, I am going to save this photoshop file, do this often while making your file to make sure you don’t lose any progress. I saved it as TeresaBase.psd.

Step 10. Now let’s save it so we can see how it looks in sims4studio. Normally I would save as a .dds file but I will save as a .png just to see how it looks. I always save as test.png, I use this same file to test throughout my cc making.

Step 11. Go back to S4Studio and click on Diffuse and then import. Choose the test.png file. This looks like the height I want. If it wasn’t I could go back and adjust as needed.

Step 12. Back in photoshop I would like to clean up the line between the bottom and top layer. So I click on the erase tool and choose a brush at the size 91px with a hardness of 0. I click on the top layer and erase just at the bottom of the layer so now they look blended together.

Step 13. Next I will go to Layer>>Merge Layers to merge both layers into one.

Step 14. Now to clean up some of the repeated shadows. Since I duplicated the skirt to make it higher, some of the shadows can look weird since they are exactly the same. So I am going to take the Clone Tool, with a brush size of 37 px and a hardness of 0. I also set the Opacity to 85%.

Basically the clone tool will duplicate anything you choose. On a Mac I hold down Option (ALT) and a little Target comes up. I click on the area I want to clone. That is now my source, I now click anywhere, not holding any buttons and I will start to paint over other areas. You may have to play with this tool a little bit to get the hang of it.

Step 15. You can see above the before and after. In the second screenshot the shadows are more varied.

Step 16. Next I am going to create a layer mask to cutout some of the skirt by clicking the “Add Layer Mask” icon.

Step 17. Then take the Polygon Lasso tool to select an area to cutout. I am cutting out part of the hip.

Step 18. Next take the Paint Bucket Tool and make sure the MASK is selected in the layers window. Anything black will be removed and anything white will remain, so I will fill in the selection with black. (Tip: If the mask is selected it will only let you use black or white) Now that selection is gone.

Step 19. Now we need to make sure we still have the selection so that we can duplicate for the other hip. Hold Command and click on the little mask thumbnail. This will select the mask. (It might still be selected from before)

Step 20. Now make a new layer by clicking the new layer icon from the bottom of the layers window. Choose any color and fill in the selection on this new layer using the paint bucket.

Step 21. Then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. This will flip the shape we just made.

Step 22. Now I am going to duplicate the layer by right clicking the layer and choosing duplicate. I need to because half of the hip is on the far left and the other is on the far right. Now I am going to move each shape to where I want the skirt to be cutout using the Move Tool.

Step 23. I save really quick as test.png again to make sure the shapes met up where I wanted to, looks good! If I needed to adjust I could.

Step 24. This next part a little tricky. I want to add these new shapes to my mask. So first merge the two shape layers into one by clicking merge down on the top shape. Then I will select the shapes by holding Command and clicking the top layer thumbnail in the layers window. The shapes should be selected. I clicked on the little eyeball so I couldn’t see the pink anymore, just the selection. Then I will click on the MASK and fill in the selections I made just with black to cutout the skirt. Delete the top layer with the shapes.

Step 25. Now let’s add some darker edges to those cutouts. Command+click on the MASK thumbnail to select the mask. Then create a new layer, and go to Select>>Inverse. Fill in the selections with any color. I just chose grey.

Step 26. Set the fill to 0%, this will hide the layer but we are going to add a stroke. Go to “fx” at the bottom of the layers window and choose stroke.

Step 27. I chose a stroke of 1px, position is outside and I chose a medium grey. This will just create a little darker edge on those cutouts.

Step 28. Now I am going to add some stripes across the cutouts. Go back to the skirt layer and grab a long thin selection with the Rectangle Selection Tool.

Step 29. Copy and paste this selection onto a new layer and drag it to the bottom, under the skirt layer. Then I am going to go to Edit>>Transform>>Warp. I just chose Arch from the presets on the top bar. I set the bend to 12% so it wasn’t just straight across. 

Step 30. I duplicated this layer 3 more times to make more stripes. I moved each one to where I thought it looked best using the move tool. I then held down SHIFT and selected all of the stripe layers and right clicked and chose Merge layers to merge all of the stripes together.

Step 31. I don’t want these to just be solid gray so I added a smaller inner glow. Double click the layer or click “fx” and choose Inner Glow. I set the Blend mode to Multiply, Opacity is at 12%, Choke is 15% and size is 3px. Adjust these until it looks good!

I then duplicated this layer twice (one for the left and one for the right) and added them to the other cutout sections as well. I had to save as test.png a couple of times to check and make sure the stripes lined up. I then went to layer>>merge visible.

Step 32. Once everything was merged, I deleted and sections I didn’t really need. Save this as teresabase.psd for recoloring later.

Step 33. To create a shadow we are going to add a white background by making a new layer, filling it with white and then moving it to the bottom.

Step 34. Now click on the skirt layer and click on “fx” and then choose color overlay. Change the color to white (#ffffff) so the whole skirt is white. Then also choose outer glow. I set the glow to Blend mode: normal, Opacity: 24%, Noise: 0%, the color is #333333, Spread: 5%, Size 4px. Click OK.

Step 35. Save this as a shadow.dds file, I downloaded a MAC .dds plugin from here. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK MIPMAP.

Step 36. Save all of your recolors as .dds files as well (make sure mipmap is checked)

Go back into S4Studio

-- I saved a white.dds file so I imported that into diffuse (this will be my white swatch)  -- I uploaded my shadow.dds into Shadow. -- For specular, I just click on make blank. -- For normal use this .dds file to import into normal. -- Leave the Emission alone

Also if you want to import a thumbnail you can use this template: THUMBNAIL TEMPLATE.  Make sure the thumbnail is on the first swatch.

You obviously might not have a screenshot yet for the thumbnail, but you can always go back into S4studio and add it later once you have tested the cc.

Step 37. Before you save, go into categories and uncheck Allow for Random.

Once you add all of your swatches you can save and test in game!