#I learned and downloaded gimp for this

[personal-blog-yes-you-can]

Realizing some similarities between my recent hyper fixations character-wise.. First post on this account. If your curious it'll consist of it'll be this, art(my own), and reblogs of memes or anything I find a molecule of relatability in

[bunnymajo]

So I got a new laptop a few months back and my old laptop, which is still running just fine but it’s still running on Windows 8 and Microsoft officially said this week “hey we’re not updating this anymore, get a new OS you cheapskate”

So I’ve been starting the long process of moving everything over to make sure everything’s the same come to find out this new laptop has way less GB storage than my old one. Like. Almost by half. Just moving my music files over took up a HUGE chunk. (currently old laptop still has 96GB of storage left, new laptop has 89GB...and I haven’t even moved the video files yet.)

So I’m trying to think of the best way to make this work. I have a storage usb thing that has a terabyte of storage. So I guess I’ll use that for every kind of media storage and my laptop will just be an expensive art machine and internet browser

[id-element0]

Oni28's Blueberry Cheesecake for TS3

I've been sitting on this for days because, well, 'real life'... Anyways, it's done. You can check this and this post for further info and more pictures.

The cake can be purchased from the catalogue and a single slice can be bought from a food register. But I haven't check the Rabbit Hole Grocery Store. It also comes with a recipe book and a custom buff which are documented in the posts linked above. Two versions: A BGC one with a recipe requiring eggs, fruits (if there's no blueberry) and cheese. And a Baker's Basket version with a recipe requiring creme cheese, sugar and fruits (if there's no blueberry) which is shown in the screenshot above.

The cooking process in this post is for BGC version. Baker's Basket version has a slightly different process. During testing, upon eating the cake Gigi was so delighted she wanted to learn the recipe which amused me quite a bit so I included the screenshot of it.

Both versions require Custom Cake Connector and CCloader. Baker's Basket version additionally requires, well, Baker's Basket. You ONLY need ONE version since they're exactly the same except ingredients and cooking process which will conflict if you have both.

Technical details for the nerds: I changed the UVMap of the cake to make room for the serving tray. The berries and their sauce beds are decimated to acceptable levels. Polys are 734 for the cake and 138 for the slice. One thing to note, Baker's Basket already have a recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake. Still, the meshes and the textures are really different. Also, this one's recipe book costs §150 and requires level 5 of cooking skill. So you can easily sort them out. Have fun. And let me know if things are not right.

- Credits -

@oni28 for the mesh and textures

@martassimsbookcc for conversion to TS3

@echoweaver for the Custom Cake Connector

douglasveiga for CCLoader

@icemunmun-spicy-scalpel for Baker's Basket

@sarasccblog for that ask :)

Made with: s3oc, s3pe, Blender, GIMP

@pis3update @kpccfinds @xto3conversionsfinds

- DOWNLOAD - The Base Game Compatible version

:: MEDIAFIRE | SFS ::

- DOWNLOAD - The Baker's Basket version

:: MEDIAFIRE | SFS ::

[moyokeansimblr]

Yep, the Afterglow system got me after all. So have a dump! This stemmed from me not wanting to redo the portraits my Strangetown simmies have on their character page and for whatever reason my brain thought retexturing 28 (41‼️) hairs was the less lazy option 😅 All hairs come in the 4 Afterglow naturals, gray linked to black. I used seabens' gimp curves because I didn't have the energy to re-learn photoshop but comparing these to other Afterglow hairs I'm 99% sure the colors are all right.

Downloads (not in the same order that the gifs are in though, sorry) and details below the cut ⬇️⬇️

🌺 3t2 FliggsFluff - converted by bunhead. All ages, 4k poly. Uses wavy texture.

🌺Anto Ainhoa - converted by entropy. All ages, 8.5k poly. Original texture but afterglow colors.

🌺 Anto Latch - converted by eir. Child-elder, 33k poly.

🌺 Ginko G90 - converted by evannamari. Both genders, all ages, 20k poly. Uses both straight and wavy texture.

🌺 Gramsims JB - converted by martini. All ages, 14k poly.

🌺 LeahLillith Abigail - converted by lola-curious and mesh edited by pmg. All ages, 12k poly. Comes in a solid version and a version with streaks in the front. The streak colors are digi's samael, io's bastet, digi's berith, pooklet's volatile, and the afterglow blonde.

🌺 LeahLillith Bling - converted by redsimmer. Includes both V1 and V2. All ages, V1 is 15.5k poly and V2 is 14k poly.

🌺 LeahLillith Farrah - converted by ericc. Child-elder, 20k poly. Comes in a solid version and a version with streaks in the front. The streak colors are digi's samael, io's bastet, digi's berith, pooklet's volatile, and the afterglow blonde.

🌺 LeahLillith Layla - converted by amidala. All ages, 17k poly.

🌺 Newsea BadKid - converted by trapping. Both genders, all ages, 8k poly.

🌺 Newsea BadKid Shaved - converted by rented space. Both genders, all ages, 7k poly.

🌺 Newsea Gaze - converted by victoriasims. All ages, 10k poly.

🌺 Newsea J189+J172 - converted by digi. Both genders, all ages, 10k poly.

🌺 Newsea Pixie - mesh edit by emilia, male version by trapping. All ages, 11k poly.

🌺 Nightcrawler Aurora - converted by entropy and mesh edited by platasp. Child-elder, 7k poly. This is just the male version, female version was already done by time-p1ays here.

🌺 Nightcrawler Belle - converted by grecada and mesh edited by roxanna-moxie. Child-elder, 14k poly.

🌺 Nightcrawler Silver - converted by martini. All ages, 15k poly.

🌺 SClub WM46Lisa - converted by evannamari. Both genders, all ages, 20k poly.

🌺 Stealthic Hysteria - converted by rented space. Both genders, all ages, 8k poly.

🌺 Wings ES0715 - converted by juliej. Includes the flipped version. Child-elder, both versions 15k poly.

🌺 Wings OE0202 - converted by silverleaves. All ages, 14.5k poly.

🌺 Wings OS1113 - converted by silverleaves. All ages, 12k poly. Uses wavy texture.

🌺 Wings TO0729 - converted by time-p1ays. Child-elder, 22k poly. Uses wavy texture.

🌺 Wings TO0903 - converted by evannamari, includes a version of lola-curious' alpha edit. All ages, 22k poly. Uses wavy texture.

🌺 Wings TO1028 - converted by lilroisin. All ages, 22.5k poly.

🌺 Wings TO1223 - converted by lola-curious. Only includes male because I didn't realize there was a female mesh too whoops. All ages, 11k poly. Uses wavy texture.

🌺Wings TZ0607 - converted by evannamari. Child-elder, 17k poly.

🌺 Wings TZ0710 - converted by deedee. Includes the flipped version. Child-elder, both versions 13k poly.

🌺 Pick n choose download from simfileshare, or bulk download all the hairs on patreon (free) 🌺

Please let me know if there's any issues or I've forgotten anything 🙏 It's been a while since I've done anything cc and this is a lot of hairs.

@the-afterglow-archive

[simstationdance]

HAPPY BIRTHIVERSARY part 2 - Crop Tops & Punk Skirts

FUN FACT: The Sims 2 (2004) was released 3 days before the date upon which I was released from my mother's womb, therefore making me younger than The Sims 2 by 3 days as of September 14th 2024, but objectively older by 6 years as of September 17th 2024. As of this post, it is now my birthday. I can feel the hands of time slowly pulling me into the earth. Let's celebrate!

Today's Very Special Birthiversary post includes a set of stylish, vaguely Scene-inspired clothes for ladies: 24 recolors of the Urban Primitive skirt, separated from the Maxis outfit by Skell, and 5 Goth themed patterned recolors and 5 bright solid recolors of the 4t2 Bow Crop Top by MDPthatsme, with black tank top undershirts attached using textures by DeeDee. The clothes are for AF and TF, with Standalone and Repositoried options for TF, and they come with all morphs.

All meshes are included and special characters that would make the game load slower (specifically hyphens) have been removed from the filenames. Since the skirt is from the ever popular Maxis Match Repository Project, you probably have the mesh for the skirt lying around in your Downloads somewhere, so make sure you don't have duplicates.

For the skirts, there are two versions with tights - one of which is a mashup of fishnets by Io (colored red and black) and the Maxis black and white stockings, and the other is the Maxis shorts+fishnets texture because I liked it - and one version with bare legs, which can be used with @themeasureofasim's stockings accessory boxes. (actually only a handful work, see under the cut)

The crop tops and the skirts are 'meant' to be paired together but, being separates, you can mix and match with any other top or bottom you want.

CROP TOPS SWATCH | PUNK SKIRTS SWATCH

See under the cut for more (not very important) information.

DOWNLOAD (sfs)

Mesh credits: @mdpthatsme, Yuichen, @deedee-sims, Skell Texture and alpha credits: DeeDee, Ghanima Atreides, Creesims, Io, and Maxis Pattern credits: andrea_lauren, nerd-and-vine, ophelia_payne (@ Spoonflower), Blue Moth Fabrics, and VictoriaBat.

I have done my best to credit everyone who's resources I used. If I have misattributed or missed anybody, or if I have broken a rule in someone's TOU somewhere, please let me know.

Secondly, this is my first time 'retexturing' clothing instead of just recoloring it, as well as the first time I've done anything clothes-related in a very long time, so please be gentle to me with your criticisms and let me know if anything needs fixing <3

I wanted to recreate this outfit using only textures, because I know nothing about meshing and Milkshape scares me. As you can probably tell, I got a little carried away from the original goal.

I mashed a bunch of patterns, textures, and colors together on top of the crop top and skirt in an effort to learn 'advanced' recoloring of clothes in GIMP, as the most I've ever done before was just recoloring using pre-made PSDs. it was a bit of a disorganized disaster and there was quite a bit of blood, sweat, and tears. But the end results look... mostly nice, I think.

The arm warmers and fishnet gloves shown in the preview are a pair of accessories created by katsurinssims that I used to try to 'complete' the look, and are not included in this download.

Edit: im very sorry, I only tested a handful of the accessory stockings on the bare legs skirts, because I was very tired and there are A Lot of them, and assumed they would all work. But after a bit more testing, some of them have small gaps or poke through the boots, and the ones that are supposed to go over the crotch area end up looking like over the knee socks. Other than that, most of the knee high socks and tights work, but only on AF. I don't consider this a huge problem though, because a good amount of the tights work and the ones with gaps are barely noticeable.

There's a shoe swap that makes all of the boxes work with these skirts and I'll make another versIon of them with that mesh later.

[saturngalore]

my first 6ish months as a cc creator 💗🫶🏾

a little thank you note below!! pls read if you can 🙇🏾‍♀️

i honestly still cannot believe that i make hairs for this silly little game because i thought it would be so impossible for me to do so (as i said in my mariela post) and here i am 9+ hairs later (and even more in the works). it makes me so excited and proud to see my progress in the different hairs i make as it has gotten easier to navigate blender and gimp now. even tho i have learned so much and feel more confident in my cc making skills, there’s still so much i need and want to learn as there’s so many more black hairstyles i wanna make that are still outta my current skill set. hopefully, i can eventually make at least 40-50% of the hairs i have saved on my pinterest board. i also wanna make cc that is specifically for fat sims (maybe poses, body presets, skin details???) so here’s to so many more months of saturngalore cc! 🥂

i want to thank everyone that downloaded and used my cc in their games, edits, and/or lookbooks! i still cannot believe it whenever someone tags me or i see my hair in a cc haul youtube video (like wtf??!). im so happy to know that so many people like my cc and i hope that y’all will like my new hairs for 2024! last but not least, i also want to thank everyone who took the time out their day/week to load up their games, make such amazing edits and sims highlighting my hairs, and gave me such valuable feedback all to test my hairs!! it really makes me tear up from all the support and love that i have received so far and i will be forever grateful for all of you!! 🫶🏾

@invisiblequeen @riverofjazzsims @minaevesmoths @francescalater @kimorasimz @meoanii @browntrait @mmonetsims @eatasslikegrass @elomelos @koibish @simfuldelights @mokah @mangosimoothie @zohrou (they deactivated i think 😔) i hope this is everyone but im sorry if it’s not 🙏🏾

[olomaya]

Religion for Sims (v.1.0)

Update 18 Dec: Check out the list of fixes and updates here.

This is a collection of script and object mods that creates religions for Sims through the use of custom skills. There are two religions that Sims can practice: Peteran and Omiscan. Sims can pray/worship, make offerings, attend religious services and teach other Sims of their religion. The two religions are different and have different practices that you have to learn and can share. Peteran Sims can become priests which is a rabbithole career with active interactions where they can give live sermons, convert other Sims, ask for church donations and absolve Sims of their "sins".

This mod requires Battery's Script Utility, NRaaS Career (for the custom career), and CCLoader and the University EP for the custom herb to work.

Please read through all the documentation, there's a lot of information about the features and gameplay.

Download:

Necessary: olomaya_religion_Peteran.package, olomaya_religion_Omiscan.package, olomaya_banisteria_herb.package

Optional (but def recommended to get all the mod features): olomaya_PeteranReligion_Career.package, olomaya_PeteranBook.package, ATS3_object_sims4to3_jungle_amazoniteskull_Omiscan.package, ATS3_object_sims4to3_jungle_ancienttalkingstatue_Omiscan.package, Mspoodle_TSM_PeteranPrayerWood_Peteran.package, Mspoodle_TSM_PeteranPulpit_Peteran.package

Banisteria smoking can be found here

The objects are courtesy of the very talented @mspoodle1 and ATS Sandy. You can basically just copy and paste the script into whatever objects you want to customize the aesthetics of the religions to your liking.

Thanks to: @misspats3 for all her testing, her work in putting together the extremely thorough documentation, and for pushing me to finally release this. I think this mod has been done for a year but I'm lazy. @zoeoe-sims for all her help with getting the custom skill to work with a custom career. SonjaA, @omedapixel, Alunn and others (again, this was so long ago I'm sure there's people I'm forgetting. forgive me!) for their testing and feedback. MsPoodle and Sandy for their generosity in letting me share new/alternate scripted versions of their work and for making cool stuff that makes me go "ooh, what if that were functional?"

Custom moodlets made with FlatIcons and GIMP and loaded using Battery's Script Template.

The mod has been tested with several players and I played with it for months but I'm sure me just saying that will produce a bug I've never come across so let me know if you find it!

Enjoy!

[nesurii]

i didn't have a tutorial yet... so i made one lol. its longer than i wanted it to be, but i wanted to make sure it's easy to follow for people who've never made cc or have no experience with photo editing software, and fully explain my process. it's by no means hard at all though lol, i guarantee you making skin details is the easiest thing aside from recolors and if you want to learn this is a good place to start :-)

for people who are more experienced than that, and want to know specific things-- i've sectioned everything so it should be easy to skim through until you find what you need!

requirements.

this tutorial will only require sims 4 studio (free) and photoshop (not free) or gimp (free). i pirated photoshop 2022 myself. any version will do but i think 2022 just has nice new features for making content! if you don't want to buy or pirate, gimp is a similar alternative.

1.1 how to find skins to use as a base.

in case you don't have (a) skin(s) in mind to use for your skinblend, my tip is to download as much random ones as you can find. this way you have a lot to choose from and it's easier to get an idea of what you want.

go-to creators for maxis match skins: heihu, madmono, pyxiidis, faaeish, miikocc, emmibouquet and stretchskeleton.

creators for maxis mix/alpha skins: sims3melancholic, obscurus, ddarkstonee and pralinesims.

creators for maxis mix/alpha skins that only allow editing for private use: northernsiberiawinds, remussirrion and thisisthem.

go into cas and try them all out. if you like a part of a skin, write down which skin it is and what part(s) you want to use of it from which swatch if it has multiple.

for example, i almost always use one or two skins for just the nose shape, one for the eyebags, one to three for the lips and one for the basic shading of the face. don't be afraid to use the opposite style skins of what you're going for, you can always add or erase details.

1.2 exporting the skins.

now we're gonna export the skins with sims 4 studio. click on "my projects" (1) and navigate to whereever you have the skins you want to use, and select one and click "open" (2).

the colored little boxes in the top right are the swatches. click whichever swatch you wanted to use something from (1), then click the "export" button (2). you'll get a window to save the exported skin now.

tip: i highly recommend making an organized folder for your skinblend, to have all your files together and easy to find. if you haven't made it already you can easily do so within this window. i put mine in a folder called "resources" in a folder named "unnamed skin" for example.

name the exported skin file (3) and make sure the "save as type" is set to .png (4).

after saving the file, you can just click "cancel" on the bottom right to go back to sims4studio's starting screen. if you have multiple skins you want to use, repeat the above process for all the other skins to export them too.

2.1 opening the exported files in photoshop/gimp.

open your program of choice and click on "file" from the top bar (1) and then "open..." and navigate to the skin files. you can left click and hold down your CTRL key to select multiple at once to open.

we have to layer them all in one file, but before we do that we have to check if they're all the same size.

note: some skindetails might be 2048x4096, others may be 1024x2048. unless you want your skin to be compatible with the HQ mod, you should just opt for 1024x2048, as without the mod both resolutions look identical. the bigger one will just make your fize unnecessarily large.

click "image" at the top bar (2), then "image size". it'll say the size at dimensions. if it's at the size you want it to be at, just exit the window. if you need to edit it, select "pixels" from the dropdown menu (3), and put in 1024 for width and 2048 for height OR 2048 for width and 4096 for height. if you're sizing up select "bicubic smoother (enlargement)" under resample (5).

repeat this for every skin you opened.

2.2 layering the skins together.

copy and paste all the skins individually onto one by selecting them with CTRL + A and CTRL + C on your keyboard, and pasting them into one of the other opened skins with CTRL + SHIFT + V. you can then close all the other tabs.

the file now has multiple layers. you can rename them by double clicking the layer name. this makes it easier to keep track of whats what. you can reorder them as well by dragging them with your mouse. put the skin you want to use as base (for the general facial shading, highlighting) at the bottom.

tip: i recommend making all white and all black background layers to see the skins better. you can do so by pressing D, then CTRL + SHIFT + N. for the white layer then press CTRL + BACKSPACE and for the black layer repeat the first two steps and then press ALT + BACKSPACE. now there should be two new layers in black and white. drag them to the bottom of the list. i prefer using white so i put black last.

2.3 changing the opacity in parts of the base skin layer.

to make ea's preset details (cheek/nose bridge sharpness, dimples) come through your skinblend, you need to change the opacity of the base skin sometimes. alpha skins tend to be fully opaque but maxis match skins are usually already transparant enough.

hide all the layers aside from this base layer by clicking the eye icon next to the layer names. you can see the transparancy with the visibility of the grey-white blocks or if you find it easier you can also unhide the black background to see it instead.

to change the opacity, you can either edit the entire layer's opacity (1) or use the eraser tool (E key) to add transparancy at specific parts.

if you have photoshop 2022, turn on vertical symmetry (+). if you don't have it, you can choose to edit only one side of the skin and mirror it later or do both sides and embrace some asymmetry.

i selected the eraser (2) and set the brush size to about 200px and 0% hardness. the opacity of the brush i set to about 10% (3). i used the eraser on the lower cheeks, the nose bridge and tip and the bottom of the chin. i also erase the upper eyelid 100%, cause i prefer to have eyelid freedom :p. it then looks like the above! this will very subtly let through details, if you want more you should make it more transparant.

2.4 optionally: editing out freckles, pores and/or eyelashes.

your base may have pores, freckles or moles you want to get rid of. to smoothen everything at once, click "filter" at the top bar (1), "noise" and then "reduce noise". i only edit the strength and sharpen details setting (2), this setting erased the pores and most of the freckles for me while keeping the details looking sharp, but you likely have to adjust it a little cause it depends on how large/fine the details are.

the remaining freckles, pores and eyelashes i remove by using the smudge tool, with 0% brush hardness and at 25% strength. (3) brush size depends on the size of the details. i just go over it in circular motions until the freckle or whatever it is has been blended away without pixelation.

for this part i'm going to only show how i do the nose as an example, however it works the same for editing in eyebags, lips, jaw lines or whatever you want to add in too.

unhide the layer of the skin you want to use a part of, and hide the base layer. if you are going to use multiple parts of that skin (for example, you want both the nose and the lips of that skin), duplicate the layer by right clicking the layer name and choosing "duplicate layer...". then hide the duplicated layer. it's easier to edit one part at a time.

use the selection tool (M) to select the part. press CTRL + SHIFT + I and then DELETE. press CTRL + D to unselect. should look something like the above.

use the eraser tool (E) at a moderately small size like 30px~ with about 30% hardness and 100% opacity to erase around "hard lines", like the nostrils in this case and the bottom of the nose. the nose bridge has "soft lines", so if you were to use a hard brush for that, the shading of the nose bridge would look far too harsh and unblended. for the soft lines, set the eraser tool at a bigger size like 100px~ with 0% hardness and a lowered opacity between 15-45%. erase soft lines "gradually", so the shadows blend in with the layers underneath it. should look something like the picture above.

always look at the newly added part with both a black and white background to see if there's anything you need to erase more. then look if it blends in properly with the layers underneath. if it's too dark or light, you can click on "image" on the top bar, then "adjustments" and "brightness/contrast", and lower or raise the brightness until it blends in better.

i'm using two separate skins to make the nose, so i've repeated the process above for the second nose skin, then used the method of step 2.3 to erase certain parts and make other parts more transparant / blended in. as you can see above, it's now the perfect offspring between the two noses i used.

note: for a maxis match nose, you'll want to avoid a completely opaque nose, mainly at the nose bridge it should be more transparant. i always make sure the lips and eyebags are fully opaque though, unless you're going for a vanilla type of skin it doesn't look good transparant.

at this point, i like to save the file with the white background layer on and see what it looks like in sims 4 studio. this gives you a better idea of what it looks like on sims and what you may want to change or add. press CTRL + SHIFT + S and name your file, and set the file type to .png.

open any skin or skin detail cc file just like in step 1.2, and instead of exporting anything, click "import". now navigate to the file you just saved, and open it. the sim model now displays what your skin looks like. should look something like the above! you can click cancel after you've looked enough, so you don't have to worry about ruining the original cc file.

maybe you're happy with the skins current state... but in case you want to add or change some things, here's a step by step how i do it.

5.1 drawing shadows & highlights.

as you probably have noticed, everything needs to be done in greyscale, so select black (for shadows) or white (for highlights) in the top right colored box. make a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + N). select the brush tool (B) and set the brush at about 0px with 100% opacity. draw the shape of the shadow or highlight where you want it. make sure to make a new layer for every shadow and highlight!

now you can either use the smudge tool to blend it out, but i prefer using "filter" from the top bar, "blur" > "gaussian blur". i just play around with the radius until it's blended out but still has some shape to it. it depends on how small or wide and blended you want it to be.

then i use the eraser to shape the shadow/highlight further. for example, i want the shadow in this case more blended out towards the eye, but harder towards the forehead and nose, so i use the eraser on that side. lastly i change the layer opacity to make the shadow/highlight less dark/light. my preference lays with subtle details, but of course you can make it as contrasted as you like!

5.2 drawing small details.

to draw your own details, use the brush in 1-3px brush size, 100% opacity in black. i can't help you here cause it's just drawing where you want and then blending it out with the smudging or blurring tool where needed, and using the eraser at lower opacity to blend it in.

to give you some ideas, i usually draw some details on the nose like sharper nostrils or a nose wall, some texture on the lips and the eyebags. i like using reference pictures of real peoples skins to see where and how to draw things. before and after pictured above! (i'm so proud of these eyebags yall T-T)

5.3 adding other creators cc skin details.

if you don't like drawing things yourself or know just the right cc skin detail your skin needs, you can also use other creators' skin details on yours.

maxis match + mix details: pyxidis about face, miikocc face kits, okruee face details, sammi-xox face details, lamingtonsims face details.

maxis mix + alpha details: detail overlays by obscurus-sims, ddarkstonee & sims3melancholic

like in step 1.2, just open the file in s4s and export whatever swatches you want to use. remember to make sure the resolution of the file is the same as your skin's before copy and pasting it on your skinblend! and remember you can lower the opacity layer for these too.

5.4 mirroring your skin.

if your skin isn't mirrored/symmetrical yet, save your file as a .psd and then right click the layers, click "merge visible", press CTRL + ALT + C, and set the canvas width to half what it is now (either 1024 or 512). (1) click the arrow in the left middle if you want to mirror the left side, or the arrow on the right middle for the right side. (2) press "ok".

press CTRL + A, then CTRL + X, then CTRL + SHIFT + V. delete the layer beneath the active one (it's empty). then press CTRL + ALT + C again, and put the canvas width back to the original (2048 or 1024). select the same arrow you selected before, and click "ok".

press CTRL + A again, then CTRL + C. now click "image" from the top bar, "image rotation" and then "flip canvas horizontal". now press CTRL + SHIFT + V .... and voila, your skin should now be mirrored.

note: ik there's a ridiculous amount of steps for such a simple thing so i feel like there's probably a much faster way to do this, but i hate following tutorials and guides (the irony) so this is just the way i taught myself lmao

5.5 last test & optional last touches.

at this point, i'm done with the skin. i erase everything aside from the face if the skin still has a full body texture cause i prefer face-only skinoverlays. i always save as .psd and .png, .psd is to edit it later on if need be. once again import your skin into s4s like in step 4, and see if you're happy with the skin. if not, just keep editing whatever you need!

i also like to add alternate versions of the skin lastly here. some examples: a soft nose or hard nose bridge (justice for flat soft noses, simblr loves to erase them lol), different eyebags, lighter or darker lip option, version with eyelid overlay or without.

6.1 creating the package file.

to make the package file for your skinblend, open s4s and select "create cas standalone" and then click "cas". (2) now select "skin detail forehead" from part type (3), click the most left forehead wrinkle and click "next" (4). name the skin file whatever you want, you can always change it later!

click "import" and open your skin file. and voila! you're pretty much done!

6.2 editing the age, gender & occult flags and category.

right now your skinblend is only available for young adult to elder sims, and not for aliens and werewolves, so you probably want to change this. go to "categories" (1) and check the boxes you want under "age & gender flags" and "occult" (2). you don't need to change any of the other things.

if you wish to change the skin detail slot it's in, you can change it at "outfit type". most people use either forehead or mouth crease, but you can use any of the ones that start with 'skindetail'.

6.3 adding swatch colors, thumbnails or additional swatches.

if you want, you can add multiple swatches (1). you can also edit the color of the swatches (2) and upload a custom thumbail with 104x148px resolution (3), make sure to upload for both male and female frames.

6.4 editing the sorting layer.

it's not the end of the world if you don't do this, but you may run into some skin details or freckles/moles that won't display on top of your skinblend if you don't edit it :).

click on the "warehouse" tab (1), select the first "cas part" (2). scroll down on the right to find "sort layer" (3) and put in 2100. you're gonna want to change this for each cas part individually.

now just save your file... and try it out in game!

if you need any help or have any questions please comment below <3 feel free to tag me in the end result if you want too.

(my end result)

[crmsndragonwngss]

Do you have any tips or guides on how to make gifs?

I do! Firstly, this guide here is probably the best guide I've seen for gif making. It's concise and easy to follow, and it's what I used to learn myself. They have a lot of resources as far as programs go, but I'll list what I use below. As always, never download and install anything from unknown sources without doing your own due diligence. Run everything through your antivirus and/or virustotal before installing always always always!

This is kinda long, so imma put it under the cut lol. Also note that I use windows (Win10), so things may not work the same way for mac or linux

Before you can actually make the gifs, you need a way to download high quality videos! I like jdownloader 2 because I find the interface to be user friendly, it gives you the option to download multiple elements (like srt files), and it works with more websites than lots of other video downloaders (and their user support is leagues better as well). My second choice is yt-dlp, which isn't necessarily more complex but might look a little more intimidating. Both are great programs, but a quick note about jd2: DO NOT download it from anywhere else but the link above. The developers package adware in all their installers EXCEPT for that one (I hate it too, and I think it's fundamentally unethical, but at least they're up front about it and they have an adware free version). Both methods automatically download the highest quality video available in your source link, so you don't have to worry about fiddling with that.

Now on to extracting frames! My method of choice is ffmpeg. It looks more intimidating than it is, and it's honestly the best way to extract frames imo. Like yt-dlp, it uses your computer's command console, which means you'll need the relevant command lines to run it. This tutorial is great to get you started, and it includes a command line for if you only want to extract frames from a specific part of your video. If you want to extract every frame from the entire video, you can either input the start and end times of the video into that command line, or you can use this version (I use both depending on what I'm doing):

ffmpeg -i "file path" "out-%05d.png"

Always make sure you're working with png files. To make quality gifs you have to start with quality images, and png files, unlike jpg, are lightweight and lossless, meaning you won't end up with compression artifacts and fuzziness

To get the file path for your video, select the file, then in the upper left hand corner of your window select home > copy path. It will copy the path in quotes, so replace the entire section "file path" with the path you just copied. Then copy and paste the entire line into your command console. The tutorial above says this as well, but be sure to create a folder for your frames, go into that folder and click the file path bar at the top of the window, then type "cmd" to open the console. This will ensure your files are dumped in that folder

So now you need a way to actually MAKE the gif. This is... a little more tricky. You can use gimp, I think, though it's certainly not my program of choice. You could buy PS but like... ew. OR you could do what I did and arr it. I use a portable version of CS6 that I downloaded literally a decade ago, and unfortunately the website I got it from isn't up anymore. I did a quick search and found this on reddit, but again, do your due diligence before downloading and installing anything!

Now I'll talk a little bit about my actual process. The actual process of making frames into layers into a gif I got from that first tutorial I linked. I took that process and made an action on PS so that I never have to do it manually again because I'm lazy and my memory is dogshit and I didn't want to have to consult a guide every time I wanted to do something lol. Everything else I learned through experimenting and my own experience as a photographer, so I encourage you to play around with everything to see what you like and what works for you

For coloring, I fiddle with levels, brightness/contrast, and color balance adjustment layers until I'm happy with how it looks. You can use curves instead of levels if you want finer control (or if you want to produce effects like matte), but levels works just as well and has a histogram right there in the panel, which makes it easier to adjust the exposure based on the image's actual data

For sharpening, I have a couple of custom actions I use. Here's what they look like:

The first one (bound to the F2 key) gives a smoother appearance, and I like to use it for kpop gifs where the subjects are already airbrushed and smooth without much texture, or wide shots where detail isn't super important

The second one (bound to the F3 key) is the one I use when I want to preserve texture in the image. Closeups of people where you can see their skin texture, or busy images with lots of detail benefit most from this one

The basic gist of it is, the "sharpen" filter does exactly what it says on the tin and it's usually all the sharpening an image needs, and the "surface blur" filter erases or dampens artifacting created by the sharpening filter. Sometimes I'll run the action twice, or use them both in combination to get the effect I want. Here's what the difference looks like in practice, featuring two very cute dudes:

F2 sharpening action

F3 sharpening action

You'll notice in the first two gifs, there's not much in the way of texture to preserve. Yoongi's skin is smooth and airbrushed, and the scenery is all metal and concrete shot with a wide aperture, which makes the background nice and blurry and smooth. In the second set, Jesse has facial hair and stubbly texture on his throat that I wanted to preserve, so I used the action with the lighter surface blur

My advice on all of this though, again, is to play around with it and see what you like! And if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I'm by no means an expert, but I'll do what I can to help!

edit: oh, a quick note about speed! The tutorial I linked above mentions changing the delay to 0.05, and that's great for full speed gifs! But if you want them slow like my gifs above, I set the delay to 0.08. Sometimes I'll slow them down even more by setting the delay to 0.09 or 0.1, but any higher and you start to lose some of that smoothness

[newblette0-o]

Uqpdate: I spent hours yesterday trying make my first mesh and then blendr just shut off and I lost my 3d Vault-tec symbol.

Update [background info]: I have horrible ADHD and these kinds of failures often make me just not try again for years. Buuuut, I'm medicated and in my 30s, so I'm going to beat my damn brain and keep trying when I get time again.

I also have started pulling textures from fallout directly, spent untold hours fighting gimp, and just generally over taught myself this holiday weekend. But I want to keep learning anyways because this has been so rewarding for me. (Just seeing my efforts turn into actual objects is really really cool)

I currently have a few things ready to put up for download. I'm being a bit shy about them, but I'll stop 😅

On a side note: I really wish I knew people in my life who I could bounce ideas off, learn with/from, or even chat with about this stuff. It's such a niche thing and Tumblr is strange to me still. It's so lonely and also not...

Anywho thanks for looking ❤️ I'll be back later today with some billboards and maybe my weird landscape posters I made too.

[themasterpostblog]

Pencil/2D Animation Resources Masterpost

5/10/24:

Hello, I broke into my old account so I could make a little masterpost of resources I come across for learning pencil/2D animation. (Free or affordable classes, places to get tools, videos to give insider insight, etc.) I may not be able to get everything included, so if you think of something, you can reach out and suggest things to add! I will be updating this over time, with notes on when it was last recently updated. And maybe I'll end up giving the old blog a refresh too. I likely won't be making new masterposts outside of this one any time soon, nor updating any old ones. It's been SEVERAL years, and the internet is a different place. I would assume most of the old links are out of date by now, unfortunately. I hope that this list is helpful to you as well, and if I'm incorrect in anything I list, I'm learning too! So please be patient with me and feel free to reach out with a correction. It's not finished yet, but Tumblr deletes my posts before I finish them, so I'm starting with posting the skeleton and slowly updating this)

Find a Community to Learn From!

(recommended groups to lurk/join/make connections and ask questions)

What Tools Do I Need?

PDF Guide to Animation Desks, as written by David Nethry

(next line)

Where Do I Get Tools?

(Places where you can buy art supplies, software, etc)

Cartoon Supplies

(Online seller who carries Ingram Bond paper, lightboxes, storyboard pads, blank cels, etc. See also: Lightfoot LTD, which is identical in every way to Cartoon Supplies and for the life of me I'm not sure the difference, though both are equally recommended along side each other.)

Jet Pens

(Ah... I love window-shopping this site. If you love stationary like I do, you'll be on this site for hours adding things to your cart... and inevitably removing them because it's not feasible to spend hundreds on pens and sticky-note pads.)

Dickblick

(I've found they have good prices on name brands, but I haven't purchased from them yet. Often, I'm too overwhelmed by all the choices.)

Improve Your Art/Learn the Basics!

(anatomy classes, starter tools, etc)

Aaron Blaise (Co-Director of Brother Bear)'s Online Classes

He runs very good deals on the classes occasional, but you can also do a year's access to all classes and keep what you download, which is very useful! They're short, quick lessons, and tend to veer into more "helpful tips" than teaching, from what I've personally noticed, but it's well worth the price if you get them at a good deal!

Inside Look at the Industry -- aka: the Special Features:

(behind the scenes stuff, etc)

Books are more useful than you might think!

(Richard Williams Animator's Survival Toolkit, etc) (check out gently used copies of these books on Thriftbooks for a good deal!)

Nifty Free Resources

(Things like height charts, references, color wheels, blog posts, videos, etc)

What Artists Can Learn From Aladdin's Incredible Color by J. Holt [VIDEO]

(spacing for formatting)

The Art of Color Theory: Guide for Animators, Designers, and Artists (Animator Artist Life)

(space for formatting)

Free software!

GIMP

(A classic, GIMP is an old friend of mine. The first software I downloaded for art, I used to use it almost entirely to create animated GIFs for the Warrior Cat forums. Ah, how time has passed. Nowadays I can't even remember how to animate a GIF on there, but such is life. I still use it to this day for digital art, even having Corel Painter. Before GIMP, I animated the old fashioned way -- MS paint and Windows Movie Maker. With determination, I scripted and animated a handful of Warrior Cat characters frame by frame. Each frame of Hollyleaf or whoever it was blinking was the likely source of death for our old computer, may she rest in peace.)

Storyboarder

(Storyboarder is a free software with which you can use to create professional and clean storyboards. It also provides printable storyboard templates so you can do you work traditionally and re-upload it easily into the software! It also works with Wacom tablets. Check it out! It's actually super cool.)

Pencil 2D

(A free, open source software. Simplistic design, switch between raster and vector, and best of all, again, it's free. I haven't used this one much yet, but I've seen it positively talked about by many! I'll update with more research when I have the chance.)

Krita

(I haven't used this one yet, so I can't speak on it either! But it's going on the list so I can come back and research it later. My poor laptop is not going to handle this many downloads lol.)

OpenToonz

(I also haven't tried this, but see above, haha.)

Blender - Grease Pencil

(Blender is well known for 3D animation, but they added a 2D feature called Grease Pencil as well.)

WriterDuet

(Free for up to 3 projects, very simple, but upgrades to a $10 a month plan, which is... eh, I'll keep my Scrivener for now. I used to write scripts in Microsoft Word or the Notepad on PC back in the day, I don't think I personally need the fancy features.)

Trelby

(A free screenwriting software, very basic and simple, good for beginners.)

Keep an eye out for

(Humblebundle occasionally does software deals -- a good art bundle at a discount can give you an easy start!)

[chere-indolente]

Hi!! How did you learn to make maxis match clothes? I would like to start doing it uwu

Hi ! So to be fair I don't remember exactly how I went about starting making CC at the very beginning except from reading tutorials and downloading Sims4Studio but here are the steps I more or less followed in my CC making journey.

First off I was already quite used to some picture editing softwares (namely Gimp and Photoshop) which definitely helped so I would recommend familiarising yourself with one of these.

Then comes the gateway drug to CC creation that are ✨recolors✨. For those you just need S4S and a picture editing software of your choice. Recolors can be quite simple : maybe you just want to change an item's color or add patterns to it. But with a little more editing/drawing skills you can also remove/add some details to the diffuse texture.

Here is a link to a short tutorial for a simple recolor using gimp by @smubuh

To keep the maxis match aesthetic the easiest way to go is to be a 🙌scavenger🙌 : you want to add buttons / belts / lace / embroidery / whatever to your texture ? Steal it from an other Sims 4 item ! Just look at your CAS and BB in game as a catalogue of all the details and textures you could frankenstein onto your project.

Maybe you'll be content with making recolors forever but if like me you start wanting to make something with a shape that doesn't already exist in game or in the CC world out there, you will have to deal with mesh. (the mesh is the 3D shape of the item as opposed to the 2D texture that is applied onto it) Meshing has a steeper learning curve than recoloring for sure so arm yourself with as much calm and patience as you can muster. First you'll need to download Blender, I recommend downloading the same Blender version as the one used in the tutorial you choose to follow because if you're anything like me you'll get lost otherwise. Also use a mouse, the scroll wheel makes moving around in blender so much easier than using a laptop touch pad like I did at the start 🤡.

And now that you have blender and a mouse time to mess around with meshes and for that like everyone I started (and honestly I mostly still stick to it nowadays) by frankenmeshing. Sticking to the frankenstein/scavenger theme from earlier, this is quite similar to what I described with scavenging textures, except this time we're combining meshes aka shapes : see a collar you like on that blouse, a sleeve you like on that dress ? Bam put them together !

For example here is a handydandy frankenmesh tutorial by @deetron-sims

Outside of frankenmeshing other ways to tranform meshes are to inflate and stretch parts of it (want a bigger skirt ? a shorter jacket ? the O key is your friend). And if you want to go beyond what I have you can also learn how to create meshes from scratch.

That being said dealing with meshes is full of surprises (mostly bad ones unfortunately), since you may have to deal with distorted weights, UV1 and whatever else, so it involved a lot of trouble shooting and trial & error. Being part of the S4S forum or the Creator Musing discord can be very helpful when you're at a loss (but always google and search for yourself before going around asking people).

Finally it's important to keep in mind that it takes time to learn how to make CC so don't be too hard on yourself and take breaks when it gets too frustrating. Personally it took me many months to graduate from recolors to frankesmeshing, I had to give up and try again many times before I finally got what I wanted.

Here are some more tutorials and resources :

@myshunosun made this great post about Maxis matched CC : Tips: components of creating Maxis Match objects for The Sims 4

@powluna has great video tutorials for beginners, especially this well rounded one that goes in details throught all of CAS CC creation (from the use of S4S all the way to blender) with neat little chapters so you can watch only the parts that you're focusing on at a time

S4S forum in addition to the S4S software itself this forum provides plenty of tutorials and a CC creator community

The Creator Musing discord is also full of links to various tutorials and resources (and once again a community of peers)

Specifically for Blender :

@ravasheencc's Resources Archive, I remember especially her Blender Basics Video being quite helpful when I was starting out

@surely-sims's Edutainment Lives which you can find on her twitch, mainly focused on Build&Buy CC

PS : I didn't mention the normal/bump map and the specular map because they are very much optional. I honestly didn't use these until a few months ago and even now I don't bother with them most times

[zytes]

Hello, have you talker about your art process anywhere? I am very interested in how you got into glitch art/photomanipulation/however you’d call this, and i want to learn more. Do you have programs you use, plugins, do you use any physical media or scanography/scanner manipulation? I really want to hear about anything you wanna talk about regarding the creation process for your art. Thank you for sharing your work.

Yes! Unfortunately, I tried answering this question in a ton of detail but tumblr didn’t save it as a draft automatically - which was a frustrating experience to say the least - so this is my second attempt at answering this ask — you’ve asked a lot of really valuable questions here, I’ll do my best to be concise in my answers!

When I first began playing around with editing software, I was 16 and simply wanted to make memes and silly edits. This was around 2015-2016, whenever vaporwave was a fresh concept and Resonance was trending on Vine — which is a sentence that makes me feel fucking ancient. I was really entranced by vaporwave, which had this off-white nostalgia for post-consumerist 80s and 90s cultural trends. I later became interested in how many of those cultural trends persisted and evolved into Y2K culture and beyond.

these are some of the images I was working on during that period of time, which were loosely inspired by indie horror and jazz cups and soundcloud rap. I was so proud of learning how to make my own scanlines using GIMP :)

Late 2016 I began my freshman year at a hoighty-toighty art school that I was too poor to attend, and quickly entered a mental health downward spiral — but I learned many valuable things, most of that info was painfully basic; my education prior to that was not anything special. I would not consider myself someone with exceptional aptitude for art — I just have a chronic compulsion to break things.

So, where to begin? My recommendation to anyone who’s newly interested in this style of artwork and editing:

Glitchet is a repository of info regarding many different styles and methods of distortion - from sonification to slipscans, there’s a ton of good info to comb through. Most of the techniques and tools covered are free to use, but there is some paid stuff out there too - but if you know your way around, virtually everything is free. More on that shortly :)

As for my process, programs, plugins, etc - there is a lot, and I don’t think I can cover everything. Primarily: Photoshop, After Effects, GIMP, ArtStudio Pro for iOS, Procreate, DestroyPix, and a number of other pieces of software that perform smaller, specific functions - such as BigJpg for AI-upscaling. I also employ analogue/physical distortion techniques like circuit-bending, slipscan, and more. These require additional hardware and knowledge; such as access to a copier/scanner, old CRT screens, and the ability to solder + work with low voltage electronics without accidentally shorting them out. Best part is that you can ✨layer✨ anything and everything, collage style — which is my favorite aspect, very playful and exploratory.

Now, if you’re like me and can’t afford fuck-all, but wholeheartedly believe that money should not be a limiting factor for creativity, I recommend installing the Adobe Creative Suite from downloadpirate(dot)com - which is also where I’ve gotten many of my plugins, although I do also pay for the plugins that I come to really appreciate, as they’re typically done by independent developers who could actually use the scratch. Same risks as any pirate cove: intrusive ads, popups, and redirect chains - use Ublock Origin to kill these annoyances. I recommend performing a scan with Malwarebytes after using any sketchy-looking-download site, but I was raised to be a bit paranoid so that’s purely preferential.

As for plugins:

Filenames in this image may correspond with the developer of the plugin — you can just search the filename + ‘after effects plugin’ and you’ll almost certainly find your way.

Most commonly, I use Pixelsorter, Pixdither, Displacer Pro, Pixel Stretch, and Hacksaw — although some of the plugs that I use aren’t listed above, like Datamosher, which is a script-based solution that helps remove i-frames from a clip in After Effects, all without having to use VLC and any handwritten scripts (the ol’ fashioned way).

These are all from the last year or so, to show the relative growth I’ve experienced since my time spent as a creature of 16 years. Naturally, I’m also like, more of a person now - so the art is partly better because I’ve simply suffered more :p

When I started, I didn’t know any of the jargon or how to describe a specific effect I was trying to achieve - so I taught myself how to do stuff by googling around, and if I couldn’t find an answer (which was 90% of the time) I’d just try to figure shit out. Which rarely ever resulted in outright success, but was always a significant learning experience. That’s why I’m so quick to drop the link to Glitchet! Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what I’d be doing now if I had known there was an online library for info on how to produce different types of distortions - definitely would’ve spent less time trial-and-erroring my way through aesthetics.

In conclusion: there’s so much to try and you should try absolutely everything that interests you. It’s free if you’re cool enough to steal it; though some things (like hardware) are gonna cost. You don’t need talent or an exceptional education, though both of those things would certainly help — and you’ll never run out of things to learn because there are infinite ways to break shit. More so than anything else, you need a willingness to explore, experiment, and fail often. You’ll fail miserably at times, so a proclivity for humiliation is also a big plus. Eventually your failures will start looking like successes; but you’ll have forgotten the difference by then and will be free to make whatever the fuck you want :)

I’m glad that you enjoy the work! tumblr has always been the best place for me to share my lil jpegs and actually find a real sense of connection with others who are similarly jazzed. My life completely bottomed-out a few years ago and I was in a really bad place whenever I logged into my blog for the first time in half-a-decade and started posting again. My personal growth from then to now has been a strange and incredible experience, and I’m so glad that I had the art and the funny little gays on this website to help me through the toughest points and teach me valuable things about myself; so if I can give back a little knowledge, I’ll gladly take that opportunity! I hope these findings serve you as well as they’ve served me.

[clonehub]

What do you use to write your scripts? I’ve been using dramaqueen, it can be annoying sometimes but I like the free version’s features

ive been using google docs 😭😭😭 i just center align all the dialogue and write in courier new KJASHDFLKJAHSFD

though the first episode/pilot has been transferred to a new program i just downloaded called STARC. Here's a side-by-side comparison

Docs:

STARC

STARC is the actual formatting. I tried googling what to format a screenplay's dialogue to in terms of margins for GD, and I got like three different answers lmao. If you copy paste, STARC will fix it all up automatically. It also has this:

A break down! I love breakdowns. Since this is the pilot and I'm an amateur, I have no idea if this action/dialogue ratio is "good" or not (though I understand that it all depends on style and goals and whatnot)

I got starc because I looked at a list of free screenplay programs. it's actually quite small -- it's not like illustration programs that are either always free (GIMP, Krita) or on sale (CSP) and all around decent quality. Screenplay programs cost money and they loooove to lock down features. STARC is the updated, active version of a previous software that I'm forgetting the name of. I'm still learning how this works, though. Right now just my pilot is in there.

[johziii]

heyy jo!! first off let me just say, i LOVE your whole theme it’s so prettyyy!!!

your yt channel legacy is too cute!!

and your cc is sooo beautiful, whether it’s sims, lots, b&b cc, or cas cc!!!

i recently saw the patterns you uploaded and i have been wanting to make patterns for myself and upload some for others but, i don’t know where to start!! lolz

do you have any tips or tricks? thank youu!! 🤍

hellooo~ thank you so much for the kind words, you're so sweet 🥰

theres a few different ways to make patterns, but the easiest way is to download the sims 3 create a pattern tool (its free and installs like sims 3) that allows you to make patterns with the stickers it has or import your own stickers/images that you make on another program like photoshop or gimp, set the category to find them in, and export them into sims3packs. you can watch this video by gruesim if you wanna learn how to use it, it's really easy to use :)

then this video also by gruesim shows you how to turn them into packages as a way to reduce some lag and avoid sims3packs in general

i don't really make recolourable patterns bc i think its a lot of work lol but the first video i linked shows how to make one! i hope this helps, if you have any other questions i can probably help you out :)

[manchesterau]

Hello! I love your gifs but I need to know how you make them so HD, what editing apps do you use? Thank you!

hello! im glad you like my gifs 🫶🏾🫶🏾😭

ok so i do use photoshop to make them which depending on if you have a mac or a windows pc you should be able to find a free version somewhere (search free ph*toshop download into tumblr and have a look around!! be carful tho!!!!!) you dont need photoshop but tbh i dont know what other software there is (i think gimp is free but i dont know how to make gifs on there)

this is the video that i used when i frst started learning how to make gifs: here

and as for making them hd i sharpen my own gifs buttttt to make it easier there are blogs that specialize in resources for photoshop here and here which you can type in sharpen to search and then pick which one you like best! same for coloring!!!! they also have tutorials on those blogs as well! resource blogs are great for anything you need basically!

happy gif making <3333