#sims blender tutorial
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
hymless · 9 months ago
Text
How to fix Transparency w/ Lashes and Alpha Hair in Blender! Cycles & Eevee!
(This tutorial also helps with adding transparency to Sims 4 Object cc. If needed, I can make a post on that as well.)
This is NOT a Tutorial on how to fix broken/ glitched lashes in the SIMS game!!!
It was brought to my attention that others do not know how to fix this issue in blender, so I've made this post to help out. This tutorial works for BOTH Eevee and Cycles! (This only matters at the end when in the materials tab.)
None of the CC is Mine! Ty to ALL creators!
This is work for all methods of DAE exports.
Tumblr media
This is Erecen. They will be our tutorial model today.
Tumblr media
As you can see, the Alpha CC hair and lashes are not... working like how we saw them in game. So! We will need to fix this up within our Shading Node Wranglers to correct this.
(If you use a GLASS mesh, make sure you are shade wrangling on the GLASS!)
Tumblr media
(This picture is only showing which is the Glass mesh!) Plz ignore this if you are not using Glass mesh export on Ripper.
Lashes/Hair Transparency
First import your sim and wire the texture nodes how you normally would. Stay in Shade Editor/Shading tab.
Tumblr media
You will now want to Add a 'Mix Shader' node. Search for it by typing in "Mix Shader". Select and now drop it between your Principle BSDF node and Material Output node.
After this, you will want to Add a Transparent BSDF. I added mine the same way as the Mix Shader and have place it under my Mix Shader node.
Tumblr media
With this Transparent BSDF node, you'll want to wire it to the TOP Green Circle of your Mix Shader node. (1 in pic below) This will disconnect your current wiring from Principle BSDF. This is fine since you now want to wire the Principle BSDF node to the BOTTOM Green Circle of your Mix Shader node. (2 in pic below)
Tumblr media
Afterwards, you will now need to go to your Base Color node; (Where your sims diffuse lies!) It should be the top left node, unless you have moved it. (3 in pic above) Now take the Alpha dot and drag it all the way to FAC on the same Mix Shader node. From here, we need to go to 'Editor Type'.
Tumblr media
After locating Editor Type, you now want to locate the sphere listed as Material.
Tumblr media
You now want to find the correct SETTINGS tab. Please note how you render your renderings. If you render in EEVEE, take note of the picture above. Same for CYCLES as taking note in the picture above. This is very important since the SETTINGS options switch between these two areas depending on the Engine.
In Eevee, this should be in the first SETTINGS tab in the materials properties tab.
In Cycles, the SETTINGS you will need is located under the tab listed as Viewport Display. From there, a new drop down will be available called Settings. (This is the correct SETTINGS you want)
Either engine will now have a few modes now visible.
Tumblr media
For both Blend Mode and Shadow Mode, change them from Opaque to Alpha Hashed. (It is only required to change Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed for the transparent textures to work. Hashing shadows makes a nice balance of translucency and ambient occlusion.)
And that should be it! Your lashes/Alpha CC hair should be working correctly now!
Tumblr media
I hope this helps! If not, please feel free to msg me of any other further know issues. Thank you to @spookyxdoom for bringing this topic up!
I even had my bf try it out without knowing a single thing about Blender and they figured it out just fine with this tutorial.
I already plan on doing other tutorials on how I fix overlapping textures as shown below.
Tumblr media
34 notes · View notes
salemsimsrender · 2 months ago
Text
Sims 4 Render Lighting Tutorial
Tumblr media
"Environmental Lighting" won my most recent poll, so let's get right into it!
A few notes before we begin:
I render exclusively in cycles!
This tutorial assumes some basic knowledge of blender
Though this tutorial covers the basics, HDRIs can be used in conjunction with any scene/your built scenes
I decided to focus on environmental and other lighting in this tutorial, since they all kind of go hand in hand.
For this tutorial, I'll be using my recent Cupid Sim. Here's a render of her with no additional lighting:
Tumblr media
1. Base lighting
In any full body, single sim render (like lookbooks, for example), I really like to use a glowing base. It grounds the sim a bit and casts some interesting lighting on them.
To do this, I add a circle under their feet by pressing shift+A and selecting circle.
Tumblr media
An empty circle will appear, but we need it to be a solid disk, so go into Edit mode (by pressing tab while the circle is selected) then hitting F on the keyboard to fill it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
After that, you can go into the Materials tab and add in color and glow.
Mine is adjusted like this:
Tumblr media
And gives this rendered result:
Tumblr media
2. HDRIs
HDRIs (High Dynamic Range images) are extremely useful when it comes to environmental lighting, I always use them now to add better/more dynamic lighting to my renders.
HDRIs are 3D/panoramic, which makes them extremely useful.
You can find/download HDRIs online in a few diff places: PolyHaven, AmbientCO, and Blender Market.
There are also several available for FREE using BlenderKit (my preferred method).
So how do you use an HDRI?
We can add HDRIs to our render by navigating to the world tab and changing the color to "environment texture".
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I chose this vaporware HDRI from BlenderKit, & here it is with no adjustments, but it's looking a little rough so let's adjust it.
Tumblr media
By adding vector nodes, we can adjust how the HDRI behaves. Here I mostly use the Z rotation and the background strength:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Here's the same render with the Z-rotation set to 50, 150, 200, & 250.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
You can put in any value for the Z-rotation, this is just an example of how the HDRI turns. This is maybe not the best example of the rotation, but putting her in a forest just didn't feel right lmfaooo, hopefully you can see how the light changes on her depending on the rotation.
You can also adjust the strength of the HDRI. Here's the HDRI (rotated to 150) set at .5 and 1.5 strength:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
For this tutorial, my favorite lighting is the HDRI set to 150, and the strength set to .5, like this (this is a rendered image):
Tumblr media
3. Transparent HDRIs + Point Lights
But I'm not fully happy with the lighting. I don't love how the HDRI is a bit blurry, so I'm going to set it to be transparent.
To do this, go to the Render Tab, scroll down to the Film option, and check Transparent:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
The lighting effect from the HDRI will stay the same, but the background will be transparent.
From here, you can add a background (when I do this, I like adding a plane, & moving/shading it until I'm happy (kinda like this):
Tumblr media Tumblr media
NOTE that you have to put the plane far enough behind your sim so it doesn't affect the HDRI lighting too much.
SECOND NOTE You can use this same method to use HDRIs in conjunction with scenes. They can provide the perfect backdrop!
This is still really dark, so I'm going to add three point lights: -Two on either side of her head/shoulders that will be smaller (in radius) and brighter -One in front of her to add actual light (so details aren't lost)
Tumblr media
Here's how I set up my lights.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
The pink light settings are for the two point lights on the sides The white light setting is for the light in front of her
For a basic render, this is almost good enough for me, but I really like the glowing effect I get in my renders.
To achieve this, we have to go to the compositing tab:
4. Compositing
Full disclosure, my compositing tab is set to glow by default (that's how much I love it), so all of the renders in this tutorial have it turned on.
I use the glare node and set it to fog glow.
Here's my preferred setting:
Tumblr media
I prefer the fog glow effect, but bloom, ghost, streaks and star are also options.
Here's a guide to the glare node!
Tbh, I never use any of the other settings, so I'll leave this tutorial here for today.
Here's the final result (with no additional editing):
Tumblr media
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send an ask, message or join my discord (no minors pls) for help! <3
193 notes · View notes
solstice-sims · 2 years ago
Text
Basic Sims Blender Render Tutorial
Rendering seems like an intimidating process to many, and a lot of Simmers feel like they're in the dark and lost about where to even begin with rendering. And gatekeeping definitely doesn't help anyone!
This no-frills tutorial's not entirely comprehensive and assumes that you know some basics of Blender (how to move around, and switch tabs, and use basic tools). It's also not an absolute, perfect tutorial. My shaders and techniques are not perfect at all, and there are many other creators who have way more advanced rendering skills than me, but these are the steps I take for my current renders and they work for beginners. It's also great because it prevents you having to go back into CAS and redoing the Blend setup each time if you want to keep making renders of the same Sim.
GOOGLE SLIDES TUTORIAL: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qI84QstCfa7E-F6b7qzRPuHW_eou_N4d/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=109770128121660962892&rtpof=true&sd=true
Please let me know if anything's missing or confusing. I won't be able to help with every issue (as Blender brings forth many), but if you have a question about something you see in my tutorial in specific, feel free to shoot me a message! Also, if you are one of the more knowledgeable creators, def let me know if there's anything I can do to improve or something I should add to the tutorial.
Thank you to all my friends over the last two years who helped me learn how to render! And to the Simmers who aren't gatekeepers and find the same joy of sharing with the community as I do. I'm also grateful to Simsonico for their Youtube Tutorial, which I recommend viewing.
If you're hesitant about trying out renders, know that I was too. Renders allow for more creative compositions and item placements. They also create higher quality pictures than in-game. The only downsides are the time it takes to render and set up everything and the fact that pretty much all Blender scenes are atrociously perma-paywalled. This isn't an issue if you want to build your own scenes or greenscreen, though! I recommend trying at least a few times just to see how you feel.
81 notes · View notes
wistfulpoltergeist · 3 months ago
Text
How to apply textures in Blender 4.0 For newbies (´。• ᵕ •。) ♡
So you imported your lovely doll into Blender 4.0, but the textures are messed or missing, here's how to apply base simple textures from the scratch!
I'm using Blender 4.0.2 (Sorry 4.3, but your EEVEE is currently nothing but tears for me) and my lovely Aidan is here to assist me. SO! Seat your bum comfortable and let's begin!
1 - Split your working space by pulling the corner of the screen:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
2 - Then click on Material with your mesh selected.
Tumblr media
3 - Pick Shader Editor on the left part of the screen and hit New in the Material on the right. You'll get something like this:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
4 - On the left choose Add - Texture - Image Texture. We need three of them at very least :D
Tumblr media
5 - First Image texture: Connect Color to the Base Color and Alpha to Alpha. Second Image texture connect to Specular IOR Level. Don't forget to upload your textures! Color - is well... color pics. Specular looks like Black/White pics and Normal is purple!
Tumblr media
6 - Now add Normal Map. And connect it like on the picture below:
Tumblr media
7 - Specular and Normal maps should be NON - COLOR in the Image Texture - Color Space
Tumblr media
8 - Turn on the alpha. In Material - Settings - Blend Mode/Shadow Mode change on Alpha Hashed + You can check Backface Culling. In some cases it's vital :D
Tumblr media
9 - Change the Specular settings in case of weird shining by changing IOR and Roughness parameters.
Tumblr media
10 - You did it! (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ:・゚✧
264 notes · View notes
simplyanjuta · 7 months ago
Text
Transferring animations between rigs (e.g. adult to child)
The steps below describe how to transfer an animation from an adult rig to a child rig but the method should be applicable for any transfer between human rigs.
However, I haven't tested other constellations. Let me know if you have any other tips, suggestions, corrections or run into any issues.
Many thanks to thepancake1 for helping figuring out the details that are not obvious at all 💛
I posted this little guide in Creator Musings for someone wondering about it but sharing it here as well.
Tumblr media
Step 1)
Export the adult sim animation you want to transfer (=your source) to Blender.
Open a blend file with a child rig (=your target).
Append the adult rig with the animation to the child rig in Blender (File > Append > Select the blend file > folder "Object" > select rig and mesh there)
Select the animation from the adult rig for the child rig (select the child rig in the Outliner menu > select the scene tab in the properties panel below > in "S4S AnimationTools" select the adult animation as the "active animation")
This will get the job mostly done, but the animation will be offset and jumping around, as you see below. To correct for that you will need to set up several constraints as described in step 2.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Step 2)
As you see below the height of the ROOT_bind of the adult sim and child sim differ by about a factor of 0,7:
Tumblr media
You can check the exact location in edit mode:
The ROOT_bind of the child rig is located at 0.6920, the ROOT_bind of the adult rig at 1.0112 on the Z axis, which gives a factor of 0.6920/1.0112=0.6843354430379747
Tumblr media
With that information you now need to do the following (see image below for comparison, I also uploaded my blend file with the set up here):
In the Dope Sheet menu, select "Action Editor" and press "New Action" there to make a copy of the selected animation.
In the Dope Sheet Summary uncheck ROOT_bind (thus disabling the animation on the root bind for the child rig). Update/Correction: However, the rotation channels need to stay enabled (this only matters if the ROOT_bind is rotated in an animation). The setting should look like this:
Tumblr media
In the Transform menu type in -0,6920 on the X axis for ROOT_bind (thus resetting its position to 0 in the animation; can't properly explain why X axis is chosen here instead of Y but it has sth to do with how local rotations of a bone are determined according to pancake)
Create a "Copy Location" constraint for ROOT_bind of the child rig targetting it to the ROOT_bind of the adult rig (this is done in the Properties panel > Bone Constraints), set Influence to 0.6843354430379747 (factor calculated above), deselect "Z"
Create a second "Copy Location" constraint for ROOT_bind in the same way but this time deselect "X" and "Y" and instead select "Z" and check "Offset".
Tumblr media
The animation will now play as expected:
Tumblr media
Step 3)
All you need to do now is bake the animation (thus applying all the constraints you set up). Select Pose > Animation > "Bake Action...", then check "Visual Keying" and "Clear Constraints" in the pop up. The animation will now work stand alone and you can delete the adult rig.
Alternatively, if you use Pancakes animation tools, you just need to export the clips, the constraints will be applied automatically.
282 notes · View notes
thecardinalsims · 5 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
It's BIG.
It's BLUE.
It's UPDATED.
Hiya Simblr, it has been a while. I have a big update today- it's one of my oldest guides on MTS, but new and blue! The changelog is in the MTS comments- but the short and sweet is that two years of learning Blender has been squeezed in there for your convenience, complete with graphics and GIF examples.
ModTheSims tutorial Google Docs tutorial Blender Templates
Tumblr media
186 notes · View notes
solitasims4 · 8 months ago
Text
how to create Sims 4 custom poses
Tumblr media
hello all! I’ve just released a new YouTube video on how to create custom Sims 4 poses in the Sims 4 with Blender & Sims4Studio. you can watch the video here if you’re interested.
if you're interested in downloading the Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso" Poses I created in this video, you can download them here.
down below is a list of all the programs needed for this tutorial. thanks for your support always!
Blender 2.70
Sims4Studio
Teleport Any Sim
Pose Player Mod
Sabrina Carpenter Sim (optional)
71 notes · View notes
nsves · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
blender lighting tutorial + tips.
requested by @thecrimsonsimmer + recommended viewing: youtube video one, two, three, and four. this post will be dealing with newer versions of blender (2.8+) and cycles since that's what i'm more familiar with + commonly used for rendering. this is coming from me as an artist with some dabbling in photography and things i've learned in college!
references and setting the mood
are you basing your render on an existing photo? study the light source and what direction it's coming from: that's what's going to tell you your set up for a similar effect. if you're not basing it on an existing piece, a good start is knowing How you want to set your subject (your sim) up - do you want them to be in the spotlight? are they in a specific environment that has neon lights? are you going for moody or something fresh, bright? definitely look up colors and their meaning (color theory, movie screencaps, etc.) to create a stronger image!
Tumblr media
using resources to start the set up
it's always a good thing to mix your tools with different communities, such as the art community! many have lighting tools to figure out how to color their subject, such as this free-to-use head figure that depicts where the lighting source should be placed.
Tumblr media
there's also the photography community and teaching people how to set up their lights for certain setups. video three and four linked in the beginning are from photography viewpoints.
spot? area? point? sun?
let's think of the lighting types as objects - a spot is like a plain lightbulb, area is a reflective sheet, spot is a flashlight, and the sun... well is the sun!
a spot is similar to an area light, but triangular/a cone. think of a helicopter search light, it's focused on a small area with the most light concentration. these can be used for lamps with lampshades, car headlights, or a lighthouse.
an area light is great for lighting up technology. a phone screen, tv screen, tablet, anything that's an LED screen emitting from a surface. the light is not as concentrated as a spot and is meant to cover more flatly (hence the rectangular source)
a point is best used for small pops of colors such as candlelight, lamppost, lightning bug tail, etc. a small source that has nothing covering it.
a sun covers the entire area and can be used as the overall mood setter. it can create filter over the entire render by just shifting the color like you would see in a movie. you'll be given a line with a sun light that gives the direction of where the sun is coming from. basically a spot light just on a much larger scale LOL.
power + coloring
Tumblr media
this screenshot is mostly what you'll only use to start off with. watts is the unit of measurement and the higher you go, the brighter the light will be. examples with a white colored point light 10W-20W: general portrait lighting 30W-50W: bright source, close flashlight for example 60W+: blinding
Tumblr media
coloring is just like the system for in game lights for ts4. shift it to whatever you want it to be (click the white bar, that's the color preview) and mess around with the vibrancy. the darker, more intense color, the less it's going to appear on the sim.
Tumblr media
closeness and intensity
similar to what's shown in the head lighting tool shown earlier, the closer the light is, the more that specific area is lit up. go too close and your sim could be completely washed out. it helps to change the size of the light (change with the radius slider) to better imitate what you're wanting. the larger the radius, the more diffused and softer the light source will be. close + small = very clear of the light source shape, can obviously tell where it is in relation to the subject far away + large = soft lighting, more of a hazy lighting of the color you choose.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
to quickly adjust the light, press "G" and hold down your middle mouse button to adjust which axis you'd like to edit along. green is the x-axis, blue is the y-axis, and red is the z-axis. you can also press "G" and type the letter of the axis you want to use. drag the mouse to change the placement on that specific axis to however you want. if you want to freely edit the placement, just press "G" to move it out of the axis bounds.
world lighting
take this step as setting your canvas color before you start painting. in order for the values to look their best, change the world color to the same hue of the color you are mostly using. for example, this is set in a red-toned environment:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
this is essentially changing the cast shadow onto the sim. the default is gray and will muddy up your undertones if not changed properly. for this instance, if you were to still use the same red point light in a gray world color it'd look like this:
Tumblr media
of course, this will be based on if you have an environment image or not that can affect your lighting overall. this post is based on the fact there is no environment image and what not! if you need a visual demonstration on how to mess with the world lighting, check out this short video.
Tumblr media
i hope that helped anyone beginning to render or wanting to light up your own scenes! i'm no rendering expert, but here's some of the helpful tricks i've learned and collected over the years<3 if you have any other questions feel free to send an ask!
241 notes · View notes
prettysimcheana · 1 year ago
Text
Speed edit #1
Make sure to follow my Pinterest and Instagram for more content
What app did I use?
App | Procreate
What cc did I use ?
Cc | @complex-sims @xxblacksims
Heyy y’all I’ve made this page just for reblogging only but here’s a quick edit I did in December 🥲
71 notes · View notes
alyss-erulisse · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
Morph Madness!
Fixing Exploding Morphs
Marik's Egyptian Choker is currently in production. It is the first accessory I've made that involves assignment to more than one bone and morphs for fat, fit and thin states. So there is a learning curve, and it is during that learning curve that interesting and unexpected things can happen.
As with my other content, I'm making the choker fit sims of all ages and genders--that's 8 different bodies.
Adding fat, fit and thin morphs multiples this number to 27 different bodies.
I'm also making 3 levels of detail for each of these. The number comes to 81 different bodies, 81 different bodies for which I need to tightly fit a cylinder around the neck and avoid clipping.
Tumblr media
That's a lot of work. I can see why most custom content creators stick with one age, gender and detail level. At least, they did in the past. Our tools are getting better day by day, and that may partly be because of creative, ambitious and somewhat obsessive people like me.
There are usually multiple ways to solve the same problem. Some ways are faster than others. This I've learned from working in Blender3D. You can navigate to a button with your mouse or hit the keyboard shortcut. You can use proportional editing to fiddle around with a mesh or you can use a combination of modifiers.
Tumblr media
If I am going to be creating 81 chokers, I don't want to be fiddling around on each one of them for an hour. I need something automated, repeatable and non-destructive so I can make adjustments later without having to start over from the beginning. I need to work smart rather than just work hard.
This is where modifiers and geometry nodes come in. After you develop a stack to work with one body, the same process pretty much works for the others as well. That is how it became easier for me to model each of the 81 chokers from scratch rather than to use proportional editing to fit a copy from one body to the next.
But I was about to confront an explosive problem…
Anyone who has worked with morphs before probably knows where this story is headed. There is a good reason to copy the base mesh and then use proportional editing to refit it to the fat, fit and thin bodies. That reason has to do with vertex index numbers.
Tumblr media
You see, every vertex in your mesh has a number assigned to it so that the computer can keep track of it. Normally, the order of these numbers doesn't really matter much. I had never even thought about them before I loaded my base mesh and morphs into TSRW, touched those sliders to drag between morph states, and watched my mesh disintegrate into a mess of jagged, black fangs.
Tumblr media
A morph is made up of directions for each vertex in a mesh on where to go if the sim is fat or thin or fit. The vertex index number determines which vertex gets which set of directions. If the vertices of your base mesh are numbered differently than the vertices of your morph, the wrong directions are sent to the vertices, and they end up going everywhere but the right places.
It is morph madness!
When a base mesh is copied and then the vertices are just nudged around with proportional editing, the numbering remains the same. When you make each morph from scratch, the numbering varies widely.
How, then, could I get each one of those 81 meshes to be numbered in exactly the same way?
Their structures and UV maps were the same, but their size and proportions varied a lot from body to body. Furthermore, I'd used the Edge Split modifier to sharpen edges, which results in disconnected geometry and double vertices.
Sorting the elements with native functions did not yield uniform results because of the varying proportions.
The Blender Add-On by bartoszstyperek called Copy Verts Ids presented a possible solution, but it was bewildered by the disconnected geometry and gave unpredictable results.
Fix your SHAPE KEYS! - Blender 2.8 tutorial by Danny Mac 3D
I had an idea of how I wanted the vertices to be numbered, ascending along one edge ring at a time, but short of selecting one vertex at a time and sending it to the end of the stack with the native Sort Elements > Selected function, there was no way to do this.
Of course, selecting 27,216 vertices one-at-a-time was even more unacceptable to me than the idea of fiddling with 81 meshes in proportional editing mode.
So… I decided to learn how to script an Add-On for Blender and create the tool I needed myself.
A week and 447 polished lines of code later, I had this satisfying button to press that would fix my problem.
Tumblr media
Here are the index numbers before and after pressing that wonderful button.
Tumblr media
My morphs are not exploding anymore, and I am so happy I didn't give up on this project or give myself carpal tunnel syndrome with hours of fiddling.
Tumblr media
Marik's Egyptian Choker is coming along nicely now. I haven't avoided fiddling entirely, but now it only involves resizing to fix clipping issues during animation.
Unfortunately, I'll have to push the release date to next month, but now, I have developed my first Blender Add-On and maybe, after a bit more testing, it could be as useful to other creators in the community as its been to me.
Looking for more info about morphing problems? See this post.
See more of my work: Check out my archive.
Join me on my journey: Follow me on tumblr.
Support my creative life: Buy me a coffee on KoFi.
85 notes · View notes
salemssimblr · 1 year ago
Note
Hello there! I'm Eden :D I LOVE your renders! I've been rendering for well over a year at this point, however I only stuck to the super basic stuff since it took me a year before that to even know how to do it at all. I've wanted to up my game and get to where you are now. I'm SO SORRY if this question was asked already (I haven't gotten too far in your posts yet), but;
How do you personally edit your renders? I understand you use photoshop, but how do you do it exactly? Your renders have that kind of digital art style, like you drew them yourself. Feel free to be as descriptive or brief as you'd like!
Hi Eden!!! Thank you so much! 🥹😍♥️
I've followed you back and glad we're moots! I'd love to see some of your work!
I'm not sure if I've answered this before but I'm happy to answer it again! Also I haven't advertised it in a while (and I really need to try to get up a new tut, maybe soon), but my alt account is a Render School where I post tutorials, with plans to post editing tutorials in the future!
But honestly as far as my editing, I really don't do much.
Actions are my secret weapon, and I have a few favorites/go-tos I'll link! A few are by simmers and a few are just action sets. I'm in a family of photographers, so I have access to a wealth of resources for my editing.
Sonder set by @intramoon
Cold Water set by @intramoon
Retro Prime photoshop actions
Indie camera photoshop actions
But my "secret weapon," as it were, and the set of actions that I think most helps me accomplish that digital art style is a set of actions that are sadly expensive and hard to find now.
My favorite set is by Totally Rad! and I think in recent years it's been folded in to this Pixel Sugar product on their website. I know that's a steep price point but it's possible you can find it around the corners of the Internet for less, or if you can't, you might be able to find "dupes" of the better ones, which imo are:
Technicolor dream world
Super Fun Happy
Bullet Tooth
Grandma's Tap Shoes
As for my method, I know a lot of simmers paint over their renders, and I've done that a few times but find I'm too impatient tbh. My goal is always to have to do only minor touchups over my renders and some color/vibe adjustments before the finished product. My "raw" files are always exactly what blender spits out for me, unaltered in any way except to resize them for Tumblr.
To get that digital art style, I'd recommend rendering with alpha details if you don't already. If your computer can't handle alpha cc in the game, DM me and I can give you some pointers (sneak peek info for a future tut lmao) on how to accomplish it without bogging down your game.
When I go into photoshop I adjust the brightness and contrast, as I tend to personally prefer high contrast pieces that contain dark subject matter but you can still see the details. Then I'll paint/blur/clone/adjust anything that needs it, then I'll "stack" and adjust a handful of actions before applying edge blur and vignette and any other color adjustments (levels, curves, etc).
That's a very oversimplified rundown of what I do, but really overall my editing process is simple. The bulk of my work happens in blender itself. I find that the more time I take to perfect the lighting and shadows and angles in blender, the less frustrating the editing process and the happier I am with the end result. So, that said, be sure you're spending a lot of time in blender getting the light and shadows to be exactly where you need/want them to be before running it.
I know this is a bit long I'm sorry! If any of it is super confusing or you'd like a more in-depth look at any of it please let me know! I do plan to do editing tutorials for my side blog, but the latter half of this year has kind of run over me like a train, and for now I'm just trying to get by day by day. But I'm happy to help if you have more specific questions!
& thank you again!! ♥️
39 notes · View notes
salemsimsrender · 1 year ago
Text
@gildedgaiety submitted:
more than one sim in blender hi hi! this may be a silly question with a simple answer that i just cant see but i cant for the life of me figure out how to work couple poses in blender, i try adding the pose and it gives them both the same one and i just dont know enough to figure out how to fix it-
It's not a silly question at all and I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to reply to this!
I'll include a link to Part Two of my Basic Render Tutorial that covers posting HERE, but otherwise, let me jump right in to a mini tut:
Here I have my sims in blender, unposed and stacked in a very creepy way lmao:
Tumblr media
I haven't yet set them up for posing, so let's do that now.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
To do this, select the "pose" option in your outliner under ONE of your sims, then in your layout view, hit "i" on your keyboard and select "location and rotation"
Then you'll see that sim's track show up in your nonlinear animation window.
Do the same for your second sim! Then you should have this:
Tumblr media
Now we need to append our poses! Follow the instructions in that basic render tutorial I linked above and export both of the posses.
MAKE SURE YOU EXPORT THE POSES WITH THE PROPER RIGS, I.e. if you're doing a couple pose like I am, make sure you export the female pose on the female rig and the male pose on the male rig.
Like this:
Tumblr media
Once your poses are appended in blender, go to the nonlinear animation tab.
Tumblr media
If I had to guess, the reason you're posing both at the same time is because you have both tracks selected (as in, both of them are highlighted like this at once).
We want to highlight ONLY ONE, I'm going to pose Ariss first.
Tumblr media
So I'll select her track (see how only hers is highlighted?) then Add the pose.
Tumblr media
You can see, very creepily lmfao, that Ariss is the only one posed now!
Tumblr media
Do the same for your other sim, selecting only their track, and voila:
Tumblr media
They're both posed now!
I hope this helps! Please send any more questions my way! & I HAVE A DISCORD NOW!
Feel free to join (I'd love to have you!) with any other render questions and to share your work!
7 notes · View notes
solstice-sims · 11 months ago
Note
Hello goodnight. I would like to know what setting you use to render your photos. They are always so beautiful.
Hello! Thank you so much! ��� My settings are pretty generic. If I like how a downloaded scene's render turns out, I often will copy the settings from it. I usually render between 500-1000 samples, but the recent Emeric ones were actually 150 samples because I was lazy lol. These are my standard render settings (under cut so I don't disturb anyone's scrolling experience lol):
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I do 200% res bc it's sort of like SRWE "hotsampling" where you render it super large and then size it down. It preserves details better.
Tumblr media
*Make sure that you always select compression 0% and 16 for color depth. I'm not sure why so many scenes have 100% compression as a default, but it will literally lower the quality of your pic if you have compression on.
Compositing Nodes:
Tumblr media
Lighting is also really important for getting a decent render. I'm actually not the best with lighting and am still learning. It definitely seems like less is better for it. But I do like to take an area light and put it super close behind the model like this, because it highlights them from behind.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I also have a general rendering tutorial HERE!
Also, I do have to admit, I heavily edit my photos, so they look different than the raw render. But, if you peek below, you can see how that area light really helps add some highlights/rim lighting to the sim before I even edit it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
If you have any other questions, let me know!
16 notes · View notes
wistfulpoltergeist · 3 months ago
Text
How I do my lighting in EEVEE for Blender 4.0 (´。• ᵕ •。) ♡
Are you running your Blender on a toaster? Don't wanna spend much time on rendering in Cycles? Here's some EEVEE tips for you!
Tumblr media
1 - Let's put some HDR lighting on! Go to the Worlds, choose Use Notes and hit that little yellow dot next to the Color.
Tumblr media
2 - Pick 'Environment Textures'
Tumblr media
3 - You'll see everything in purple. But worry not! It's just bc you haven't applied any textures yet! Just go on and hit Open.
Tumblr media
4 - You can find plenty of free, high resolution HDRI textures on Poly Haven. I have almost all of them! Go get some for yourself too and navigate to their location. Pick any you like!
Tumblr media
Well... It doesn't look good yet :D
Tumblr media
5 - Lower the Strength of the light.
Tumblr media
6 - Now. Let's go to the Render Properties and check Ambient Occlusion and Bloom (you can play with it's parameters and see which fits you better). THEN... Go to Shadows and increase the resolution to the max. High Bit Depth and Soft Shadows must be checked too!
Tumblr media
7 - Let's Add our very first light (The Sun)! And go to the Camera Mode.
Tumblr media
8 - In the Sun Shadow settings: Soften the light by increasing the Angle; Lower Bias to the max.
Tumblr media
9 - Change the parameters of Cascade Shadow Map the way it looks better for you.
Tumblr media
10 - Also don't forget to fix the specular appearance of your model ;3
Tumblr media
Now. I don't hate it. But I don't like it much either... So I played and tried several Environment textures for better result.
Tumblr media
11 - Looks way better! Now let's go to the Render Properties once again and remove the background in the Film category (in case you don't want one)
Tumblr media
12 - It's time to add another light source!
Tumblr media
13 - Settings for the new light are quite similar. I made them softer, lowered Bias, changed color, etc.
Tumblr media
14 - Preparing for the shoot. ▓▒░(°◡°)░▒▓
Tumblr media
15 - You did it! (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ:・゚✧
149 notes · View notes
renderessentialss4 · 1 year ago
Text
Adding extra details to your sim!
So any fans of @kikovanitysimmer ‘s renders know that she adds a lot of extra detail to her sim’s skin. Her process has changed since then, but she still hosts her old tutorials on her discord!
We’ve been getting a lot of talk about how hard it can be to follow so I’m providing a text-based step by step tutorial!
Requirements
TheSims4Ripper
Blender 2.9+ (I’ll be using 4.0.0)
Any photo editing software (I’ll be using Ibis Paint) that has these features:
Multiple layers
Adding noise
Changing brightness/contrast and Hue/Saturation/Value
Inverting colours
Sims4studio (optional)
First things first:
You do not need to export a custom skin. Using the _diffuse.png you got from exporting your sim works just fine!
It’s preferable that you export your sim naked. Not a requirement, but makes it a lot easier. Here’s a video tutorial about dressing your sim in blender.
Onto the tutorial!
Displacement Map (Pores and the like)
Import your texture. Here, I’m using Kiegross’s Kiera Skin, edited for personal use.
Tumblr media
2. Change the texture to black and white
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
3. Duplicate the layer
Tumblr media
4. Edit the Brightness and Contrast to your liking
Tumblr media Tumblr media
5. Add noise. Pictured here are my personal settings
Tumblr media Tumblr media
6. Erase parts that realistically would not have a lot of pores, ex. Lips, hands and feet. Kiko suggests putting your eraser hardness or opacity lower as these areas still have texture to them.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
7. Save picture as is! You can delete the noisy layer if you wish, but we will need the original black and white layer for everything else.
Specular and Roughness Map (Shine)
Creating a new layer is highly recommended so you can backtrack
Using the original layer, edit the brightness and contrast. Pictured here are my preferred settings
Tumblr media Tumblr media
2. Take a black brush and colour in areas you don’t want to shine. Realistically, these are the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet and their respective nails. You may also want to take a white brush to the areas you do want to shine, like lips, chest or thighs.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
3. Save as is!
Adding to Blender
First things first: Go into the Shading tab. Link your sim's materials using Ctrl+L to make it easier on yourself!
Tumblr media
Add your new Displacement and Roughness Map to your material
2. Add a Displacement Node
Tumblr media
3. Plug the Displacement Map's colour into the Height. Change the scale to whatever you like (I chose 0.0005)
Tumblr media
4. Add two Color Ramp Nodes to your material
Tumblr media Tumblr media
5. Plug the Spec + Roughness Map's colour into each Color Ramps' Fac
Tumblr media
6. Plug one Color Ramp into the Roughness and another into the Specular/IQR (you may need to roll out the Specular tab to find it)
Tumblr media
7. Drag tabs on the Color Ramp to change the strength of them. For the Roughness Color Ramp, you'll need to swap them around to have the desired effect.
And that's how you get the details! There are other ways to get the details, but for beginner renderers, you can start with this!
27 notes · View notes
zurkdesign · 2 years ago
Text
youtube
How to convert toddler hair to Infant
  I received a request to make a tutorial to teaches to convert of toddler to Infant hair.
This video is subtitled, if necessary you can activate the subtitles, for English or Portuguese
Tell me in the comments if you want me to make more videos like this, because  your opinion is very important to me.
Please if you like click in “Like” and if  you want to be aware of new videos subscribe to my channel.  
Thanks! 🙂
_________________________________________________
Twitter  | Facebook  | YouTube | Instagram  
Support my work on Patreon | Follow me on CurseForge  
___________________________________________________
47 notes · View notes