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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th May 2006 at 4:11 AM Last edited by tiggerypum : 6th Aug 2007 at 2:43 AM. Reason: title change :)
Default Clothing Tutorials - using Paint.NET
Paint.NET is free editing software. It's the software I use to skin, so I decided to lend my help. Today I will teach you the basics of recoloring with the program.

To use this tutorial properly you must have Paint.NET v2.62 or higher. To get it click here.

Start by opening Body Shop. Select " Start new project."


Select the item of clothing you want to recolor. I am recoloring this one.

Once you choose which one, click the "Export Selected Textures" button.

Next choose a name for your project. It's recommended that you choose a name that you can remember easily, so you can find it later on.

When you are done naming it click the Check mark to export the texture.

When it's done exporting, this screen will come up. The red box indicates where the new file is located.

When you are done looking at it, click the "X".

The next step is to open the texture up in Paint.NET. Locate the folder that was indicated in the last step, and open up the texture.
Now we can start recoloring!

This part is simple: Go to LAYERS>ADJUSTMENTS>HUE/SATURATION.


Move the sliders around till you get the color that you want your clothing to be. I chose pink for the dress because I like Pink

When you get it just the way you want it click OK and save. Now go back to Body Shop and review your changes. This is what mine turned out like:


If you are satisfied with the way it tuned out you can import it now. I'm not satisfied with it though, because I don't like that blue scarf. So now I am going to give you a quick overview of Selective recoloring.

There are four selection tools in Paint.NET: Rectangle, Ellipse, Lasso, and Magic Wand. Use any of these to select an area that you want to selectively recolor. Use the CTRL button to select more than one area, like the screenshot below:

The dotted lines, of course, indicate the selected area.

Once you have the area selected that you want to recolor. Follow the same steps as above (layers>adjustments>hue/suturation) until you get the color you want:


And This is my finished project:


When you have it the way you want it just import it into the game.

I hope I offered enough help today, go out and start creating! I will mention again though, that I strongly recommend, if you are new to Paint. NET, to review the help topics (HELP>HELP TOPICS). It offers a full overview of what the tools are in Paint.NET and what they do. And if you need any help please let me know.

**Scroll down to message 7 for a tutorial on patterns!

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
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Test Subject
#2 Old 13th May 2006 at 11:23 AM
I have a question i used this help guid to make a shirt and in body shop it looks good but in the game is a fuzzy mess? i not sure what happened? do you think you could help me? i added two pic a before and after i hope you can help!
Screenshots
Feeder of Cheesecake to Llamas
retired moderator
#3 Old 13th May 2006 at 1:41 PM
This is what you need to do: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...9603#post799603

"Living well is the best revenge. . ." George Bernard Shaw
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 30th May 2006 at 8:55 PM
Default Question for Faylen.
I have been following your tutorials on clothing recolours and they are great, thanks.
However, as I can not afford photopaint I have been using paint.net and all was fine until I reached tutorial 3, textures. I can not see anyway to transform on paint.net. So I am stuck.
Any ideas?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 30th May 2006 at 11:27 PM
Which part are you stuck on? I can help you. I will make a texture tutorial soon, but for now is there anything specific you need help on?

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 31st May 2006 at 4:43 PM
Hi there,
Thanks for your quick response. I can not seem to find a way to change scale as per 3rd tutorial of Faylen's, well really everything after that step. I was so pleased with myself when I got through steps 1 & 2 and managed to do some Maxis recolours as this is the first time I have attempted anything like this.
I made some recolours of the maxis track suits as i thought that there really was not enough choice.
Also how do you then go about uploading your recolours?
Much thanks Mandy
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 3rd Jun 2006 at 6:08 AM Last edited by judithanndl : 18th Jun 2006 at 8:17 PM. Reason: finished the tutorial, now includes buttons
Default Modding: Patterns
Sorry for not responding sooner! So, basically Paint.NET does not have any fancy pattern fill capabilities so you will have to copy paste a lot to fill the area you want. I am going to go ahead and turn this into a tutorial following Faylen's tutorial, converted to Paint.NET. I am also going to use the same pj set and note the dimensions for fill; here we go.

First I'm selecting the same PJ set as in Faylen's Tutorial. Once you find it export it and open it up:


Now select the area you want to fill with your pattern:

(Note the red box in the bottom corner, this is the selection indicator. It tells you how much area you have selected, this is very important for my methods, crazy as they might be Anyway for this particular outfit the selection is 1024x387 and this is the area we will fill)

Once you have the dimensions, open a new paint.net. Then select File>New and fill in the size in the boxes. Now go out and find your pattern! There are many sites out there, keep in mind though that images that tile well work much better. Now copy/paste your image to the new paint.net.
And keep pasting them until you fill the area. (Note that if your image is still selected you can use the arrows keys to adjust by pixel which gives better results.)


When your pattern fills the whole screen on your new image hit edit>select all then edit>copy and go back to the outfit. And Edit>Paste in to new layer.

Now to get the contours of the body to show through we need to adjust opacity. Over in your layers box double-click on the layer with the pattern, it will bring up a dialog box where at the bottom you can adjust opacity. I set mine to 137,

with this result:

Now to color the buttons grab the ellipse select tool. While on the pattern layer find where the buttons are (you should be able to see them if you set the opacity properly) and, while holding down the shift button, draw from one corner of your button to the other. (We use the shift button because it will lock up the selection tool so it draws a perfect circle) Now, to select the rest of the buttons hold down shift and ctrl at the same time, this will keep the first button selected while selecting the second and third etc. Like this:

Now while the buttons are selected, hit the delete button or go to edit>cut to delete the pattern fill inside them.

Now with your eye dropper tool find a color you like in the pattern to fill your buttons with. Use the paint bucket to fill your buttons with the color. This is what I came up with:


Now we can make this pattern a little brighter! When we adjusted the opacity earlier, it made the pattern dull. Using the Hue/Satuation tool (Layers>adjustments>Hue/Saturation...) we can make the pattern brighter while still keeping the opacity. Play around with the sliders until you get something you like, this is my result:

Now select the bottoms (the pants).

Then, using the eyedropper tool, select a color from your pattern that will work nicely for the bottoms. With your bottoms still selected use the paint bucket to fill the selected area with your color.

When you think everything is the way you want it, save your project in .PDN format (Paint.NET format). Then Flatten your image and save it as a .BMP (Bitmap), and you can now view it in Body Shop and if you like the way it looks you can export it into your game.

Again please remember to always save an unflattened version of your project so if when you get it into your game and there is something you might want to change, you will be able to do so easily.

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 5th Jun 2006 at 4:27 AM
Wow, I never knew it was so easy to get the contours thanks you really helped clear up som stuff for me thank you!
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 6th Jun 2006 at 10:13 AM
Thanks, I will give it a try & post back here on the outcome.
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 9th Jun 2006 at 7:16 PM
A GREAT BIG THANK YOU!!!
Excellent work, thanks to you I managed my first texture recolour.
Admin of Randomness
retired moderator
#11 Old 9th Jun 2006 at 10:18 PM Last edited by tiggerypum : 18th Jun 2006 at 10:29 PM.
Judithann,

You have done a spectacular job with these tutorials. Thank you!

Folks, remember that there is a 'thanks' button at end end of the first tutorial in this thread. Scroll back up and give it a push!

It's a small action, but usually means a lot to the person who worked on the tutorial.
Lab Assistant
#12 Old 10th Jun 2006 at 2:58 PM
Can I be really cheeky and ask if you have also done a paintnet tutorial that will cover Faylens 4th tutorial?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#13 Old 10th Jun 2006 at 11:00 PM
No, I haven't. As of yet, I haven't really played with that stuff. I'll have to do that sometime, and if I come up with anything good I'll post it.

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
Test Subject
#14 Old 10th Jun 2006 at 11:09 PM
Thank YOU
Thank you sooooooooo much Judith!! I am really sllllloooooooooow when it comes to this stuff. My husband complains that i keep downloading from everyone else's site why don't i make it myself. Well all the tutorials i could find were using Photoshop. I only have the Paint program that comes with the computer. After reading your tutorial where i can actually follow it using a FREE program. I was floored. And to make matters if better i did my first recolour in less then 5 mins. Thank YOU!!!

Muwah!!

Gentlestorm2004
Test Subject
#15 Old 15th Jun 2006 at 8:58 AM
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 23rd Jun 2006 at 3:40 PM
Hi there, Judithann,
Hope that you can help me but I have followed your tutorials explicitly along with Faylen's and uploaded some Maxis tracksuit recolours which were rejected for the reason" Texturing not up to standard" I have uploaded them to TSR and they were accepted there. Any ideas what I have done wrong? I have spent hours on these what with trying to get a picture accepted.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#17 Old 23rd Jun 2006 at 4:44 PM
Without some pictures of what you are talking about there aren't many pointers I can give you. You could always send me a copy of what you are talking about, like a the .bmp version you were working on. Then again, I'm certainly no expert on texturing, you could always ask faylen's advice too. If you want though I'll take a look. One thing that comes to mind is weather the texturing on the item is blurry or pixelated, that could be it. I hope I can help.

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
Instructor
#18 Old 11th Jul 2006 at 12:21 PM
Thankyou so much! All the tutorials are going on about Photoshop and I can't afford it! Thankyou so much! :D
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 14th Jul 2006 at 4:17 PM
Thanks! I have Paint.NET and you tutorial was great!
Test Subject
#20 Old 11th Aug 2006 at 9:27 PM
how can i get paint.NET please help thanks
Test Subject
#21 Old 11th Aug 2006 at 9:31 PM
i have sorry my bad!
Test Subject
#22 Old 4th Sep 2006 at 6:13 PM
Thanks soo much its really helpful!
Test Subject
#23 Old 5th Sep 2006 at 8:34 PM
I'm not using paint.net but something similar and whenever I do it it turns out funny. Sometimes it doesn't change and once what I tried to recolor blue came out as rainboe stripes. (I didn't want a rainbow wedding gown)

~The Sims 2-Game of Control Freaks around the globe~
Test Subject
Original Poster
#24 Old 5th Sep 2006 at 9:27 PM
I wonder if you are using MS Paint because that program has several different ways to save a bitmap. There is only one option that is good with skinning. You need to save it as a 24-bit bitmap. Hopefully it's that simple. Let me know.

If you like my stuff, please hit the Thanks button.
Admin of Randomness
retired moderator
#25 Old 5th Sep 2006 at 9:51 PM
And if you are using MS Paint, you really need to go find paint.net or gimp from the web, because you simply cannot do much with MS Paint, and you'll not find tutorials for it here.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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