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missy harries
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#1 Old 6th Feb 2010 at 11:59 PM Last edited by missy harries : 21st Aug 2011 at 1:31 PM.
TUTORIAL: All About Skins – Adding skintones plus sliders and replacing default sliders
This guide is aimed at beginners so if your pretty nifty with skintones and file types you may not find this much use (though you never know.....), it will teach you how to add sliders, add skintones and if you feel like how to replace the default sliders. It also takes a look at the different file types used in skintones and as a bonus (for 100% beginners) it'll give you advice on how to edit the slider colours image in an graphics program.

What will I need?
- The Skininator by CmarNYC found here
(Lets give a huge thanks to them for making it possible )

You can get all of the original textures you need from CmarNYC in the Skininator download thread.


Have fun!
Attached files:
File Type: rar  All About Skins.rar (364.1 KB, 6530 downloads) - View custom content
Description: Tutorial
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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27 users say thanks for this. (Who?)
missy harries
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#2 Old 7th Feb 2010 at 12:01 AM Last edited by missy harries : 28th Mar 2010 at 5:08 PM.
FAQ

Why is my skintone black in game? You didn't save properly. Go back, make sure you've merged your layers, saved as DXT5/DXT3 and checked load mipmaps then reload and save, I guarantee I'll be showing fine when you go back in game.

I can't Make Package with skininator? Then I'll be because your using V2, for some reson it doesn't like having just the Tone Ramps loaded so go and get the first skininator and it'll work fine.
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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missy harries
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#3 Old 7th Feb 2010 at 12:01 AM
Updates

06/02/10 - Tutorial added
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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AllaraPheonix
Test Subject
#4 Old 19th Feb 2010 at 2:16 AM
In the tutorial you say "You should use an existing ramp as a base so open one up in your imaging program of choice" Where do I find the exisiting ramps to open??? Not a clue!!!
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#5 Old 19th Feb 2010 at 2:33 PM
Until Missy adds the files, tone ramps are available along with the other skin files in the Skininator download linked in the first post.
AllaraPheonix
Test Subject
#6 Old 19th Feb 2010 at 4:27 PM
Thankyou
LadyFrontbum
Has a vampire viking fetish
retired moderator
#7 Old 19th Feb 2010 at 5:03 PM
Thanks for this Missy! And thanks CmarNYC and Rez too.

What have I done wrong if my little preview dot is coming up black every time?
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#8 Old 19th Feb 2010 at 6:08 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BasTyra
Thanks for this Missy! And thanks CmarNYC and Rez too.

What have I done wrong if my little preview dot is coming up black every time?


Interesting you should say that. If you have black text in your 'thumbnail' png, the preview dot is picking up its color from a black spot in that image. How it decides where in the image to get its color, I don't know at this point - it seems almost random. Once it has a particular color for each tone ramp, it seems to stay with that color.
LadyFrontbum
Has a vampire viking fetish
retired moderator
#9 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 3:55 AM
Oh I was wondering if it could be the black text. I might try it with a different coloured text when I get a chance and see what happens. Thanks CmarNYC

I wish there was a way to make those dots bigger or something, so we can actually see what we are choosing without having to click through every single nondefault skin we've installed. It'd be awesome if skins had it's own window similar to all the other cas options with big thumbs.
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#10 Old 20th Feb 2010 at 8:41 PM
Yeah, I've tried to enlarge the dot and tried to figure out if there's any way to get the tooltip in CAS to show the package name or something, but no luck.
Fallenindarkness
Test Subject
#11 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 12:47 AM
Hey can anybody make a tutorial for me about mixing n matching face and body skintones? I put them all in the skins folder in my program files/EA/Sims 3 but when im in CAS, it only shows the body and the face is completely black. Plus, I can only select one skintone which comes with a slider so how do you select two? How do you mix faces or even have the face go with the body?
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#12 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 9:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Fallenindarkness
Hey can anybody make a tutorial for me about mixing n matching face and body skintones? I put them all in the skins folder in my program files/EA/Sims 3 but when im in CAS, it only shows the body and the face is completely black. Plus, I can only select one skintone which comes with a slider so how do you select two? How do you mix faces or even have the face go with the body?


I don't know why you'd be getting black faces - that should only happen if the game can't find the face skin files.

There's no way in the game to match a face from one skin with a body from another. They go together. But I'm currently working on a program to do exactly that outside the game - to let people make new skin packages for their own use from existing ones, choosing exactly which faces and bodies they want to go together. (Skinmix & Match or S&M. )
missy harries
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#13 Old 13th Mar 2010 at 1:39 PM
Well I'm finally back! Sorry guy's, didn't mean to be off for so long but unfortunately in life s#*t happens. There's definatly a lot to update with hopfully by end of next week though I have to get back into the swing of things.....

CmarNYC, thank you so much for keeping an eye on for me. You really are a sweetheart and deserve a massive >hug<, thanks babe.
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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missy harries
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Original Poster
#14 Old 27th Mar 2010 at 10:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by sleepalldaypartyallnight
I'm trying to make a new tone ramp with Skinninator following the instructions in the tutorial, but I'm doing something wrong and I'm not sure what. I've made a new ramp saved it in dds and png format, and it's 64x64 pixels. I then open Skinninator, type in a new name and browse to the dds and png files, but the make package button is still greyed out. I want the tone to just use whatever defaults are installed, and the tutorial says I should just leave the boxes blank for the tone to use defaults. What am I missing?


Your using V2 of skininator then. For some reason you have to load in at least one file into one of the other feilds before it'll let you Make Package.
Download the first version of skininator and it'll work fine. :p
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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jmtmom
Forum Resident
#15 Old 28th Mar 2010 at 5:22 PM
I had the same problem, no way to just do different tone ramps. So I plugged in the default scalp texture for one age group and used V2. That was my solution.
missy harries
Forum Resident
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#16 Old 28th Mar 2010 at 5:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by jmtmom
I had the same problem, no way to just do different tone ramps. So I plugged in the default scalp texture for one age group and used V2. That was my solution.


The problem with that is if someone else has a diffrent default then it may be noticable on bald sims but it is true that most creators leave the scalp alone anyway.

I use V1 for the ramps and V2 I find is better for the textures
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
Terms & conditions do not apply
CmarNYC
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
#17 Old 29th Mar 2010 at 10:25 PM
Quote: Originally posted by sleepalldaypartyallnight
I'm trying to make a new tone ramp with Skinninator following the instructions in the tutorial, but I'm doing something wrong and I'm not sure what. I've made a new ramp saved it in dds and png format, and it's 64x64 pixels. I then open Skinninator, type in a new name and browse to the dds and png files, but the make package button is still greyed out. I want the tone to just use whatever defaults are installed, and the tutorial says I should just leave the boxes blank for the tone to use defaults. What am I missing?


The reason for this is the logic in Skininator for enabling the 'Make Package' button was messed up - sorry, guys! Fixed in V2.1.
Kraahlix
Test Subject
#18 Old 22nd May 2010 at 9:50 PM
"When you save it as a DDS make sure you save as either DTX3 or DTX5
with Load Mipmaps checked."

How do i do that? I'm using Photoshop CS4, and i dont know how to do it :/
missy harries
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#19 Old 3rd Jun 2010 at 11:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Kraahlix
"When you save it as a DDS make sure you save as either DTX3 or DTX5
with Load Mipmaps checked."

How do i do that? I'm using Photoshop CS4, and i dont know how to do it :/


I'm not familiar with CS4 but have you got the DDS plugin for it? If so when you hit save and the dialouge box pops up there should be a drop down box to allow you to save in diffrent formats ie - png, jpeg, dds. Select dds and you should then get the dialouge box to load mipmaps and change dds type.
Hope that helps.
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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TwinkleTruly
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 21st Aug 2011 at 1:06 PM
Um ... you can't open the first file ... wellI I can't access ... don't know if that goes for others :/
missy harries
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#21 Old 21st Aug 2011 at 1:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by LongLiveHarryPotter7
Um ... you can't open the first file ... wellI I can't access ... don't know if that goes for others :/


Sorry, rez's UI mod is now out of date and not needed anymore, all you need is Skininator. I'll update.
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
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mashella
Test Subject
#22 Old 25th Jan 2012 at 12:19 PM
I would like you put more sample pictures in your tutorial and more details, such as directions of the files you are talking about. I am a real begginer and I cannot understand your tutorial and it's not easy to follow. Perhaps, I want to ask one question(maybe I am not in the right thread...)... I have changed an adult female face in Photoshop and saved it as .DDS. How do I put it in the game as a new non-default skin?
Could you pease explain step by step?
Thank you for you attention.
Onaakakit
Test Subject
#23 Old 31st Aug 2012 at 3:55 AM
I downloaded everything and have figured out much of this. The only thing i can't get to work is a DDS file texture for the overlay. I took a wolf fur picture off of bing images, placed in gimp, saved it as a DDS file, placed that file in all the overlay slots. I then saved it as a package and placed it in game. It worked as far as going in game, however the DDS texture did not show up. I am obviously doing something wrong, but am not sure how to fix it. I really want to make anthrosims again. Ideas?
Onaakakit
Test Subject
#24 Old 13th Sep 2012 at 6:25 AM
Back!

I figured out the skininator! Woot for that. However I do not understand the .tone file options. I made a skintone, saved it in both dds format and png, but could not save it as a .tone file. How do i do this?
missy harries
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#25 Old 13th Sep 2012 at 11:52 AM
You don't need to worry about the tone. file, just use skininator and make package, it'll all be made for you there. Are you still having trouble with the overlay? Sorry for late reply but I didn't realise there were posts!
Disclaimer: These are the personally, personal opinions of me, myself and I. Yours may vary.
Terms & conditions do not apply
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