elvisgrace

[elvisgrace]

5 songs I listen to

I was tagged by the amazing @jellymeduza to share five songs. Thank you! I am about to date the ever-loving fuck out of myself.

Super fucking basic early 2000s emo here. I've evolved as far as I'm going to.

Matt Skiba - Good Fucking Bye

The Lawrence Arms - Nebraska

The Hush Sound - Wine Red

Lucky Boys Confusion - Fred Astaire

Samiam - She Found You

Bonus song: It's a parody/comedy song, so dumb, I love it so fucking much, I am constantly quoting it: Liam Kyle Sullivan - Shoes.

Oh. Oh. Oh.

And by the way bitch?

I'm tagging @lirillith, @simsinlowspace, @vegan-kaktus, @hugelunatic, @queencleopatracapp and anyone who wants to inflict upon grace the masses with their favorite songs.

[elvisgrace]

Hello!!! thank you for all your amazing job<3 i really like your witch defaults! but i really wished you could make an non-default-adult -female version of the "Ursula Robe and Tabitha Pants", if possible, of course! ty !

Hi anon, I would do this for you anyway ofc, but it would just be a matter of when not if, HOWEVER, I already made a non-default a little while back, and you can find it here!

[elvisgrace]

A project that I didn't finish until November 2022, and tucked away for this year's Simblreen, I bring you the All Inclusive Luxury Cruiser.

The motto from this prestigious manufacturer is "When all that matters is eternal luxury." 99% of the time this vessel is used to house the 1%. In fact it's so expensive and luxurious that it is always referred to as a casket: never a coffin.

This is yet another mix and mesh, and the following creators deserve all the accolades and laurels:

Purity Project Eccentric Deco Goddess Foor Lamp

@mathcopesims stunning AHS Glass Coffin

Severinka's Grande Hallway Set

SFS/Mediafire

[elvisgrace]

A project that I didn't finish until November 2022, and tucked away for this year's Simblreen, I bring you the All Inclusive Luxury Cruiser.

The motto from this prestigious manufacturer is "When all that matters is eternal luxury." 99% of the time this vessel is used to house the 1%. In fact it's so expensive and luxurious that it is always referred to as a casket: never a coffin.

This is yet another mix and mesh, and the following creators deserve all the accolades and laurels:

Purity Project Eccentric Deco Goddess Foor Lamp

@mathcopesims stunning AHS Glass Coffin

Severinka's Grande Hallway Set

SFS/Mediafire

[elvisgrace]

Oh fantastic -thank you so so much! I hope you see this anon!

Hi! Can you make anniversary mod when married couple reneval marriage vow and eat wedding cake?

That sounds like a super awesome idea, which unfortunately is far beyond my knowledge and grasp, because I would really really REALLY love to be able to do that for you, but I have my fingers and toes crossed that there is someone out there who knows how to make this happen and can do this for you!

[elvisgrace]

Hi! Can you make anniversary mod when married couple reneval marriage vow and eat wedding cake?

That sounds like a super awesome idea, which unfortunately is far beyond my knowledge and grasp, because I would really really REALLY love to be able to do that for you, but I have my fingers and toes crossed that there is someone out there who knows how to make this happen and can do this for you!

[elvisgrace]

Capitello district 99 (Beta) + hood deco

So much too see, so little time! finishing the city it's been such a long term thing that I decided to upload a beta version already, so all of you can enjoy Capitello with the most important lots

More info + DOWNLOAD links below ⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

There's 2 files:

NC99 Beta

CC & Fixes : check everything in case you have some of these or not, ALSO it includes my customized skyline wich have a customized GUID! If you have any error because of that, remove it

lots included: several apartments, two homes, little business alley, Big Square Plaza, hospital, school and high school, police, large Parks, nightclub, a cinema.

Download in Mediafire/SFS

more on the way but give it a try and have fun!

[elvisgrace]

💛🌼 SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING 🌼💛

[elvisgrace]

Why are we out here acting like Skip Broke didn't fake his own death, get hold of a bootleg Dr. Vu's Automated Cosmetic Surgeon, and has been living as Gordon King ever since?

the only sims 2 theory that i consider objectively false is "brandi killed skip for insurance money". you think skip "just the tip" broke had life insurance? you think the people popping three kids into a two bedroom trailer were planning things? he did Not have inheritance either. he left behind a collection of losing lotto tickets and one pack of hollowed out swisher sweets in grape flavor

[elvisgrace]

As well you should be!

It is done! I’m proud of how these turned out

[elvisgrace]

When can we expect some of your university-related WIPs to be published? :D

Those are definitely coming, I know said a WHILE ago my work thing would be over in May and then like requests as far as the eye can see 🙃 They extended my contract which 🤩 and there's a chance I am going to go full-time regular which 🙏🙏🙏 the only downside being my discretionary time is a little bit more sparse - however, I'm working on a massive set which im very stoked about ANDYOUWILLBETOO but I'm also v bound and determined that I'm going to release this before I release any more requests, because otherwise it will inevitably fall by the wayside.

And anons, if I haven't replied to your request, just check my pinned post, usually I add it there and then answer the ask from my msg box when I release it just to help me keep track of things!

[elvisgrace]

💌This is the Amazing Person Award! Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you’re amazing inside and out! 💌

Oh thank you so much!

[elvisgrace]

💌 This is the Amazing Person Award! Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you’re amazing inside and out! 💌

Oh @mourky you know I think you are just fantastic

[elvisgrace]

🌺💜SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING 💜🌺

[elvisgrace]

Wcif: where can I download Mesa flats as downtown without families?

As a downtown-downtown, or a shopping district subhood?

And if a downtown-downtown, would this be your only downtown for your hood, or would you be adding it to a pre-existing hood that you've already added a downtown to?

[elvisgrace]

Updating... The Tattooer (ver. 3.4)!

Finally! Took me a while, huh. This is the updated version of the Tattooer project. It skips some steps, making the workflow much, much faster! Huge thanks to @applewatersugar for his suggestion on how to bake textures while preserving the transparency. This is kind of a repost of the original Tattooer post, but it actually has some new stuff and a few changes here and there, so please take a look if you want to learn how to use this new version.

This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. The different Blender files will allow you to: -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female) -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!] -New! Bake face textures from TS4 to TS2 (Unisex) [Bonus!] -Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) (Unisex) [Still experimental] Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give. Everything you see in the render above was 100% converted using those Blender files.

Download here! SFS / GD

These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2: -Tattoos. -Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details… -Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body. -Socks, stockings and maybe leggings. -Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins. -Makeup, eyebrows and beards. In the old version this was just a proof of concept, but now I’ve added a new Face file template which gives some pretty decent results! -Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.

Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!

You will need to download Blender, at least version 3.4, but you could always use a newer version. It is only incompatible with versions older than 3.4. -You can download Blender for free here. -You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want. In the first version of these Blender files, there was a necessary step using Photoshop, but that’s no longer needed. However, there’s still a tiny extra step which requires resizing the newly baked texture on some of the high resolution templates, so you might need a 2D editing program like Photoshop. More on that later.

So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a video projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.

This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example (properly credited at the end of the post). Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!

·EXTRACTING TEXTURES IN SIMS 4 STUDIO: First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. It should be pretty straightforward. Just open the packages and export the Diffuse textures. Keep them organized in a folder for easy access.

·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER: PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS: Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it up correctly. If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).

PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE: Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (3) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). You might need to do this second step with the other Blender files, but once you have it done and saved, you won’t need to do this again. Okay, time to get into the good stuff!

·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE: In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily preview your textures here. The icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load the texture into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.

·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE: On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.

·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE: Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).

You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). And that’s it! You’ve successfully converted your baked texture. Congrats!

·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1: Alright! If you’re done with your textures, you can close Blender without saving and call it a day. But let’s say you want to keep baking other swatches. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select “ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load your next swatch.

Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.

In case you’d like a video tutorial on how to use these files, the amazing @platinumaspiration recorded this fantastic video showcasing the process! You can watch it here.

One final note: some of the baking .blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution (or lower if needed). I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that might look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution texture, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them using your 2D editing software of choice. In Photoshop, in the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.

For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender (512 for the face and scalp).

And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I still have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.

Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me here and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!

Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration: -Skin by Sims3Melancholic. -Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds. -Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie. -Tattoos by xtc. -Top by SerenityCC. And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to all the people who somehow contributed to make this project and update possible, either by doing initial testing, finding issues to fix, or teaching me new Blender tricks to make the workflow way faster and easier. So thanks again to @elvisgrace @moyokeansimblr and @applewatersugar on Tumblr! <3

And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this (not so) new toy hehe.

[elvisgrace]

💌 | Forget about sims, lets learn about YOU! Tell us one fact about yourself, and then send this to 5 other Simblrs to do the same 👽

Several years ago, when my bbs were still actually babies, we rented a cabin for a week with my parents, my baby brother, and my sister in the Appalachian mountains.

It's late at night, and I head upstairs to pop my head in to make sure all the pocket-sized ones are still asleep and don't need anything.

1st step - Oh hey, a shadow

2nd step - Kinda weird that on this entire stair case only one riser has a shadow

3rd step - Also too, based on light directionality, that shadow is totally wrong

4th step - Is that a sock stuck there through static cling?

5th step - Is that a face?

6th step - Are those WINGS???

7th step - Is that a motherfucking BAT staring directly at me???

6th step - That is very definitely a motherfucking BAT staring directly at me

5th step - oh god

4th step - oh shit

3rd step - oh fuck

2nd step - oh god oh shit oh fuck

1st step - ohgodohshitohfuckohgodohshitohfuckohgodohshitohfuck

At the bottom of the stairs, I'm trying to regroup and figure out what the hell to do, the most basic, rudimentary, non-standard life skills I knew at this point in my life came from my girl scout years lost in the mists of time, and very most definitely included no knowledge on what to do if confronted by a motherfucking BAT.

Things I vaguely knew about bats*, gleaned by osmosis through pop culture a) bats hate bright light b) they prefer to avoid people c) bats hate loud noises d) bats carry rabies 5) bats are probably definitely nocturnal supernatural creatures from Transylvania

Conclusion: This bat has been hanging out in this brightly lit stairwell, just chilling while the constant bedlam only small children can produce rages around him. This bat is not WELL, he is not RIGHT, he is going to give us all the rabies and grin while doing so.

I'm trying to alert my mom and brother to the situation unfolding without startling the bat and setting it off, so I'm emphatically whispering it at them. My mom has had a couple of glasses of wine at this point though, so she isn't picking up what I'm putting down, and I keep repeating myself to the point I'm whisper screaming at her and and whisper hysterically laughing, because at this point my emotional responses have done what I already should have, which is to say, fucked right off.

I grab her arm in exasperation to lead her to the stairs and point at it and she just. doesn't. see. it. I have to lead her up to the 5th step before she finally sees it at which point she yells "Hey it's a bat!" And I whisper scream "What are you doing? Are you trying to get us rabies-bat-murdered?!?!?"

I go to the kitchen to look up Animal Control, and I hear her and my brother discussing strategies for getting rid of it. I'm trying to tell them to let Animal Control deal with it, but for whatever reason they've decided to stand their ground against the bat (the reason is wine).

Their weapons of choice? A WICKER BREAD BASKET AND A COAT HANGER.

**

So once I've realized how committed they are to this terribly stupid course, I just ask them to wait long enough for me to barricade my kids in their rooms, because unlike their grandmother and uncle***, I am not here for toddlers getting rabies-bat-murdered.

We're locked away, and I hear crashing, thumping, and shouting going on, and after eons later my brother came to tell me they got it. Evidently they managed to get it in the basket and sling it out an open window, at which point they heard a tiny plop from the driveway. However, the next morning the driveway was empty. No doubt that to this day that bat is planning his rabies-bat-murdery revenge.

This is also the trip where the moment I got home, I had to immediately turn around and go back, because my daughter left her special teddy bear there, a 5 hour round trip.

*This is in no way scientific or accurate, and I'm pretty sure I Mandela effected most of it.

**Not the actual items in question, just a reference.

***Their grandmother was probably not there for toddlers getting rabies-bat-murdered. She was there for getting back to her very first ever episode of Criminal Minds. Their poor beleaguered uncle was there for minimizing the absolute fuckery that inevitably ensues when Oma gets an idea.