Those swatches were were one of the main reasons I never made CC for TS2/TS4--even looking for retextures for TS2 CC drove me crazy, back before TS3 came out with CASt, a complete GODSEND.
The main thing you'd have to pay attention to is how TS3's textures differ from TS4's, and how overlays, multipliers, and RGBY masks work, to make CC recolorable.
https://murfeelee.tumblr.com/post/1...-is-your-friend
As with anything, there's always a learning curve, sure, and people are motivated to take the plunge for various reasons. And they come in with varying degrees of experience/familiarity with other 3d/2d software. I'm a converter, so I don't make many meshes from scratch at all; but I never heard anyone really use Milkshape for making meshes--all I ever hear is people using Blender and/or Marvelous Designer, and then using Milkshape as a last step, for exporting meshes using TSRW's .wso file format. As a converter, I can relatively quickly bebop around from Milkshape to TSRW in a fraction of the time. Sims4Studio is my go-to for 4t3 converting, and I really like it, but for TS3 TSRW is as good as it gets, I'm afraid.
(Unless you make CAS CC, in which case you can use .geom files in a variety of other tools without TSRW--I usually make my hairs using Daboobs, and there's also CTU, etc.)
Another thing's that in TS4 people tend to go CRAZY with the poly counts, cuz Blender and S4S can handle tens and hundreds of thousands of polys.
That's both a blessing and a curse. Milkshape and TSRW are capped at around 30-40k. Milkshape WILL crash, morphs WILL explode. But it keeps TS3 more or less optimized, cuz you can't (and
shouldn't) go hog wild on the polys--Blender has the Decimate modifier for a reason, but people don't seem to use it?
But yeah, IMO, making CC's hard, but not
that hard, not once you get the hang of it!
But what do I know, LOL. I should be the last one to talk, cuz I'm in a state of perpetual noobdom, and a lot of my CC is kinda crappy--mostly cuz I just don't have the patience for making CC or fiddling around too deep into any particular programs--I'm more of a
get in and get the eff out type of gal--if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Personally, I loathe and despise creating CC. It's an aggravating hog of time & energy, cuz I just want to PLAY the game, dangit, but I because I'm a fantasy/occult simmer there's never much CC out there unless I make it my effing self.
But is it
WORTH it?
ABSOLUTELY! I primarily make CC for MYSELF, and upload it if I think it's ok enough to not be a total bust, even if the quality is
*cough* subpar. It's not about numbers or popularity--I'm a
niche simmer, so my random AF fanciful CC never gets the amount of attention the thousandth pair of skinny jeans or retextured crop top gets. But I often feel bad knowing that I'm sitting on CC when there might be someone out there who actually want the crap I made--"one man's trash," and all. Which is why I've never understood when people upload CC/sims/lots/etc and then have all these counterproductive anal retentive TOUs and policies--like...are you SHARING this with us or what?
(And don't even get me
started on the CANCER that is paywalled CC....
)
CC is the lifeblood of The Sims, and there's always SOMEONE out there who'll want more stuff. It's about providing CC just in case someone out there in the ethernet might one day find themselves looking for, even if it's years from now and they're digging through my oldest uploads and DLing stuff no one else even seemed interested in. That's what makes the whole hellish process worth it, for me.