THE BASIC TEXTURING
THE BODY:
The first thing I will do is open up all of my reference photos in my Graphics Program, so they are easy to get to when I need them. The second thing is, I will need to open up the Life Guard .bmp since I will be using that as a base for my body texture.
The .bmp, and every .bmp for SimShow is in the textures folder of Sim Show. Sim Show is a bit different from the game, in that Sims need to be broken down a bit so they can be viewed. For more info on breaking down sim files and how to put them in Sim Show, go here.
I have chosen my main referrence photo, and I am ready to begin. The first thing I will do is convert the Life Guard into 16 Million colors, since it is in 256 and any shade of red I try to color on here will just be brown. The process will be different on every Graphics Program, but for Corel (my program) it's in the "Image" drop-down menu, then the "convert to" side menu, and "RGB color". Look for RGB color, 24 bit, or 16 Million colors. Anything along those lines should be right. If it's not, there's always the "undo" option in the edit menu!
It's converted now to RGB color, and ready to edit. Now comes the fun. I'm sure you notice that there is a strange quality to the .bmp. It looks all stretched out, but that is so it's easier to map it onto the 3D mesh when they design it. Consequently, things don't always come out right when you draw them on there. For example, numbers and letters on the front of a Sim will show up backwards in a preview, unless you draw them backwards to begin with. The back of the Sim is fine, though, no quirks there. Drawing necklaces and vests just plain sucks without a template. But I have a template with this bikini for the most part, so I am all ready to go.
And go I shall. The first thing I will do, is rename it and save it, so I don't ruin my original. I wil select "Save as" and then change the Life Guard part to Shi.
Then I will draw my referrence lines and check them out in Sim Show. This is so I can see that all my lines will match up properly and equally and where I want them to, before I go to the hard work of drawing something out only to find out that it doesn't sit right on the body.
Once that's done, I'll convert it back to 256 (look for palleted and adaptive converting, or 8 bit in your graphics menus) and check it in Sim Show. The back of the neck is a bit messed up, aand theblack bottoms need to be moved up a bit, but that can be easily fixed. The rest is good, lined up where I need it.
I get rid of the bathing suit lines where the skin should be showing
and draw out the suit. The best way to get the actual skin colors being
used is to use the eyedropper tool.
Just touch and click on the color you want and the brush will be loaded.
Every once in awhile, I convert back to 256 and check my work to see what
lines may need thinned, moved, etc. . And I'm a big fan of the zoom option,
since working on a big area is alot easier than trying to make accurate
lines in a little one.
You can see the progress here in these screenshots.
I use "masks" a lot so I can paint freely with out going through the lines, to keep a neat edge. Masks are the tools that frame an area with a line of "running ants" and make it so you can only work within the border of the mask.
THE HEAD:
The head is the same process of converting an coloring. The main thing you need to watch out for, though, is that you use the bmp designated for that head. What I mean by that, is select a head model in simshow. Now go through the textures and try them on the head. Not all fit. Some look pretty screwed up.
Here are the thumbnails of the head in progress:
And then finally, it's all put together. Getting close to the comic, huh?
There are more details about how I do shading and stuff in the Hints and Tips section of the main texture tutorial, so you can read up on it, if you like.
Noramlly, I would be finished here, but as I am making a custom head for her, I'm not. There are some red ribbons in her hair in one of the pictures, so I want to put them in mine, too. So in the next step when I make the head, I will have accessories for her hair, like a bun with ribbons, but I will keep the texture for them in this bmp. so I don't have to make another one for it. Confused? Don't worry, I will explain it all in the head meshing section.
Suffice to say, here's the finished head .bmp, with the red ribbon texture added.
I put it at the bottom, because the head mesh only uses a part of the .bmp. You can see that in the thumnail below. Where the mesh lines go across the picture is where the texture is mapped to the head. The mapper is also known as a UV Mapper. The red square in my head .bmp is in the clear.
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