I imagine like all things, there is a learning curve to this. Just like I taught myself how to use Photoshop by doing as many tutorials as I could, I'll familarize myself with Milkshape and hopefully bust out some decent meshes.

My current hair project is coming along ok. I can only tolerate working on it for about 2 hours and then I need a break as my level of frustration reaches it's peak. So, maybe it will be done in 1 month's time.

Sticking my head in here again, to ask what I am afraid will be a stoopid question.
I've done my mesh, it's showing correctly. I did a recolour, and spent ages doing the *perfect* texture, but when it displays in BodyShop, it's all stretched and enlarged and looks like doodoo.
Would this have something do with the fact I didn't re-map the UV?

Yes, that's likely why - sounds like you probably just pulled down the edges of the hair g and didn't readjust the uv map to match. You can probably leave the bottom row of vertices where they are and then just pull down on each row above it somewhat to even out the mapping on the area of the mesh you modified. Then you'd still be able to use your existing texture without too much changing of it, and, well, textures will just look better in general.

thanks HP. The quick response is much appreciated. It's raining here, and I gots nothin' to do but drink vodka, ignore the kids and re-map vertices...

I'm sorry but I did follow this tutorial (with the ponytail!!!) and I have problems with that. The ponytail didn't show up (in the right way). I didn't mixed up anything .

help pleaseee
 

i made everything in the tutorial, but when i start the body shop, i saw that nothing happened with the hair, it continues the samething as before

Me too.

I have the same problem. But when I do it at an wrong way the maxis mesh and my own mesh are changed. And that isn't what I want.

I got a bit confused during the linking them to adult, yound adult Ect. Do i HAVE to link them?

Only if you want your work to be visible.

You can leave them unlinked if you like... that way, the game looks the same whether your file is in downloads or not.

<* Wes *>

Ok, I did the body meshing tutorials and came up with three worderful clothing meshes. I went to do the pony tail tutorial and followed everything, but when I finished and loaded up BS, nothing happened to the mesh. It was as if everything I did was a waste of time and brain energy. I don't get what happened; and it seemed so easy too! Another thing, was it suppose to show up with the blond hair, or with the custom hairs (under the star thingy)?

Hey I tried to follow this tutorial to make long facial hair as i couldnt find a tutorial on it and i had a problem. i couldnt find the property set. can someone help me out or direct me to an appropriate tutorial. i am a severe noob :P

Under where it says Resource Tree (in the left window) make sure "All Resources" is selected, then look down the list and you should see property set below "Material Definition". You'll click on it once and look over to the right window and you'll find the color files. (It would be something like this "afhairponytailhigh_grey")

i really need some help, i got lost after "Export it as a BodyShop project, then import it back into the game with no changes. Close BodyShop, then go to your Saved Sims folder and copy the new .package file into the work folder." i dont understand how to "Next, create a new mesh .package for the adult version of the mesh, and link it up to the BodyShop .package" i checked the site that was given to explain it but i still dont understand...

I had managed to make a hair mesh few months ago and I have tried again. This time,whenever I open the mesh after making it in Simpe it shows me another Maxis hair instead,I mean,after replacing the resource node and the shape files in the package.
I saved the MESH file in Downloads folder with the new name
I deleted the shape and the cres from the package file
I saved the new package file in the SAVED SIMS folder
but it always wheighs a few KB less than the original one.
I try to link up to the adult female only because the young adult hair is different from the adult hair.

very good tutorial! helped me to create a few hairstyles.
but sometimes the "hair"group seems to be wrong because it doesn't show the skin underneath it. you know what i mean?
looks like this.

but i don't know why this happens because i have created hairstyles that don't have this mistake...
can someone please help me?

Hi
I don't know, if anyone posted this problem yet.
Well, always when I do this steps:

1} Set the Weight of the first assignment to 100%
2} Set the Bone to 7 (head)
3} Click [Commit]
4} Click [Apply To All]
5} Click [Commit All]

my milkshape closes suddenly, when I set the first assignment to 100%...

Thankyou sooooo much for this tutorial! I've finally created my first hair mesh! I'm so happy now =D

Is there anyway to create meshes without the uses of SimPE, and milkshape?

kriskty - Without Milkshape, maybe - there are other methods besides using Unimesh (like the SMD format, and the Meshtool) which might allow you to use another program. But either way it's going to be at least this complicated - hair meshing is not an easy process, nor is it for people who want something quick and simple. It's complicated and can be quite difficult. And there is definitely no way to do this without SimPE.

I'm so confused !
 

Hi everyone ! I'm very sorry if I'm not posting my question on the good thread but I can't find the right one. It seems I'm the only one who got this problem! Here is the thing : I'm a begginner into modding my sims 2 game and I started with basic things like creating careers and recoloring hair and clothes. For this, it's okay. BUT (here comes the ''BUT''!!!) Now I'm wondering how to create meshes to make my own hairstyles. I read many tutorials but everything is about creating clothes (which I was able to do with NeptuneSuzy's tutorial). My question is how can I extract infos (shape, ressource node, geometric data etc) to be able to create my package and go to the next step (which I can handle). The beginning is missing!

So can someone tell me how to do it or which tutorial I should read to proceed cause I've read many and now I'm completely lost! Please help meeee

Kind regards to all simmers!

I only got one question; how do I make my hair at the "back" side appeared? 'Cause I make my first hair mesh and when I was import the mesh into BodyShop, part of the hair is invisible.

Here's a few screenshots that I took below and hope you can help me.

Oh yeah, I unchecked "Draw Backface" at MS3D, and it shows just like in TS2 BodyShop, but how do I make them appear in the game?

I am at the milkshape editing part then bone tool

when i change it to 100 my computer's muse dont move and milkshape suddenly says milkshape is not responding then it quit auto
its in the first place (Not Registered)
now I registered it
but its still the same prob but it works in clothing meshes i even finished 5 of em

HELP! everytime I did the linking and the creating a mesh right, after replacing my bodyshop package in savedsimsfolder the bodyshoppackage that is linked witho no resource node and shape but when I check in bodyshop at the custom hair bin I cant find my mesh Please reply!

Awesome Tutorial
 

Where can i download that ponytail you just made? it looks cool

I keep getting stuck.

I followed this: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...New_Mesh_Basics

Everything seemed to be going fine until the part where I was supposed to link the 3D ID Referencing file. I am trying to change hair that I already colored (should I have not colored it yet maybe?).

I had no problem changing the integrity, I saw the files change to the name I had saved my Mesh files under.

I went into my SavedSims folder and pulled up the file with the 8 digits before the name I had saved my recolor file under.

It opened and I saw 3IDR(7) as well as several other folers (BINX, CLST, etc).

There were 7 different 3D ID Referencing files, 6 of which had Resource Node and Shape when I selected Plug-In view.

I wasnt sure how to tell which one I needed so I tried each one and none of them worked. Each time I got a message that read: "Could Not Use This Package. Either Zero or Multiple CRES or SHPE Resources were found. C\: Users\Owner\Desktop\TutorialHairMeshFile.package" ......so what am I doing wrong???? Was there another updated tutorial that I just can't find?? According to the tutorial something should pop up that I should say OK to, but every time I get that same error message. I am stuck, I cannot move forward! I spent literally this entire day trying to learn how to recolor and Mesh hair...I got the recolor, but the Mesh part is getting me stuck. Help????? I am going to try again but this time using a file I have not already recolored and see if that helps. If you know of another solution, please let me know ASAP, thank you!!

It sounds like there may be an issue with your mesh file. CRES and SHPE resources are part of the mesh package. Open up your mesh package and have a look at what's in there. There should be four files: CRES, SHPE, GMDC, and GMND (I think... don't quote me on that; I just know there's four of them). If there's not four, then SimPE may be balking when you try to link the recolour to the mesh.

Have you tried this one? http://modthesims.info/t/158048
It does refer to this one: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=142305 on how to link up a mesh and texture file.

Making CAS parts such as clothes, accessories and hairs is similar, but accessories and hairs can be more difficult because they have various "rules" that makes them work properly, particularly if you want them for more ages than just one. Excluding bone assignments (which may be harder on clothes), I'd say they in difficulty level as clothes as the easiest, then accessories, and hairs as the hardest. I do suggest that you try out the clothing tutorial first to get a bit familiar with how SimPE works, and then move on to hairs.

If you want to make a mesh from scratch, there are some tutorials on Youtube. I do strongly advice you to keep TS2 hairs low-poly, though. Some creators making those hair tutorials are not shy of making very high-poly hairs, and TS2 doesn't seem to like those much.

Most of the tutorials are step by step, so I don't think you'll find anything that's much better.
Have you had a look around Youtube to see if there are any tutorials you might understand better there?

Sometimes what you need to do is to follow the tutorials step by step. Open up the programs and follow along while working on a file. You probably won't learn by reading the tutorial ten times. You need to actually do it to learn. It's also easier to help you if you can say "I'm stuck on step 6, because I don't know what to click" or some such.

If you know how to do body meshes you're already pretty far along.