This is probably so easy i'm just thinking it has to be harder but here is my very newbie question about skinning:

Once i've modded the .BMP file how do i get it to show up in the Body shop? :?

I have clicked on "Load project" and when i select import i get a plain face ( i'm working on a full face make-up mod). Does each new .bmp need it's own alpha? Am i supposed to be entering something where it says "enter tool tip here"? is it possible that i missed a step when i first started the project?
Any help you wonderful artists out there who do such great work can offer would be greatly Apreciated, TX

Day Lilly

The tooltip is only that bit of text that appears when you move your mouse over the item when browsing the various things you can apply to your Sim. As for alpha channels, you need to make sure that, on the alpha channel, every part of the face paint you've made that you want to show up is white--on the alpha channel only remember... Everything you want to be left blank should be black.

If you made a clown face that covers the entire face, or something like that, you'd probably want everything on the alpha channel to be white except where the eyes show through, which would be black. Everything lies in the same place as it does on your texture.

In case you didn't already know, the alpha channel tells the game and Body Shop which parts of your texture will be visible. White means fully visible, black is invisible and any shade of gray in between is partially visible, depending on the lightness/darkness of the gray. If all you wanted to show up was, say, a star on the cheek, you could make the alpha channel fully black except for a white star in the exact same spot. Then the white star would be fully visible and nothing else would cover your Sim's face except that.

Anyway, if you have exported your textures and you have them and can see them and all, you probably didn't miss a step.

Thanks so much for your reply. I had gleened most of that from what i have read about in the forums, but your clarification and confirmation is appreciated.

My problem lies in getting the darn thing to show up in body shop. I renamed the .bmp so that i wouldn't accidentally lose the original one: could that be the issue? While I was sleeping I also wondered if it was because i have 3 colour .bmp's in the project folder for just one alpha chanel... i'm going to try having just one and one next.

If that doesn't work, any ideas on the _importing_ aspect?

Can you tell this is my first project? I did a little recolouring with transmog. for Sims 1, but not very much and not very well. This system looks a little more "tourist" friendly... but then looks are often deceiving.

Thanks,

Day Lilly


Just incase anyone else is actually reading this: i did manage to change the reaction of body shop.... not sure how but it appeared after i removed the extra texture files to their own project folders and changed the filename back to the original one... this suggests that there must be some relationship between the alpha file name and the texture file name, but now the face is solidly black which to me would sugest that it is not paying any attention to the alpha channel. the files are exported as .bmp.... do they have to be something else to be imported? can i do anything with the Pakage file? when i click on it it simply tells me to double click on the custom content, at which point i tried clicking on the .bmp files, but nothing seemed to change. I figure there must be a tutorial somewhere and if anyone can suggest a place i might go and learn this stuff i would be very thankfull.
[ Edited Tue Nov 02 2004, 07:36PM ]