Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Rexy's Guide To Editing (Have an Edit that You're Really Proud of? Post Here!!)
Simmersaurus_Rex
Posts: 3,021 New Member
Welcome to Rexy's Guide To Editing, a comprehensive tool for learning new skills and tricks for creating beautiful sim art!
This guide includes several tutorials that help you learn everything from the basics of editing to more advanced techniques. Hints and tips for editing and modeling competitions in general are also included. Rexy's Guide has become a community showcase over the course of its existence, so please feel more than welcome to browse and show off your own edited pictures!!!
Much love to you, I hope you enjoy exploring my guide!!!
Hints & Tips 1-4..................................................Page 1Hints & Tips 5-10..................................................Page 8Hints & Tips 11-15..................................................Page 22Making A Successful Modeling Competition.................Page 228
- Denotes Photoshop Tutorial. You can get details and purchase Photoshop CS5 here!
- Denotes Gimp Tutorial. GIMP is a free editing program. Download here!Cutting Out Sims..................................................Page 2Shadows and Angles..................................................Page 15Pose Combining...............................................Page 85Super Easy Green Removal From Hair..................................Page 206Adding Non-TS3 Objects..................................................To Come!Realism..................................................To Come!
(Results Post/Comments)
CONGRATULATIONS to two very talented editors placing first, ixSydney and generalflame!
ixSydney's entry displayed one of the principles of great editing: attention to detail. She made sure to add in subtle elements that really took her picture to the next level. generalflame is a newcomer to the Sims 3 Modeling Community, but certainly not to editing! Her gorgeous photo showed expertise in the areas of clothes drawing, hair drawing, and lighting.
Recognition also goes out to our editors placing second and third, and those receiving honorable mentions:
Non-hair Editing:
2nd Place - ladybug65
3rd Place - Mystical_night
Honorable Mention - deepdown
Honorable Mention - CUTEPEACH
Hair Editing
2nd Place - ilovesims56
3rd Place - GlamBunny8189
Honorable Mention - StrawberryCayke
Honorable Mention - penskii
Honorable Mention - Simanims
Honorable Mention - TheMeeepMoop
Wanna see your own edit featured here? Head on over to 'Shop Me Stunning and try your hand at editing a screenshot!! Take part in a competition like no other... (Click the banner)
0
Comments
Alright simmies, here are my first 4 tips! I hope they help some of you, please give your feedback!
-This, right here, is my biggest thing. When you’re making a modeling photo, remember that that’s exactly what it is: a photo. I don’t like to use glowy lines around my sims, or text, or anything that makes it look like it wasn’t a snapshot.
-Also, when you think realism, think shadows! Think angles! They make a world of difference when it comes to editing, because they make everything fit together as one. When you add a sim or object onto your background, you need to make sure that the angle at which you’re looking at them from (I’m talking height-wise here) is the same as the angle the background was taken from. After you’ve made sure the angles are correct, you can go in and add shadows behind to really blend them into the rest of the scene. Make sure all your shadows are facing the same way! Pick a light source.
-Don’t be afraid to try something new every time you’re making a picture. Push your comfort zone. If you stick to the skills you already know, improving is going to be really slow progress.
-Making things look good is going to take time, there’s no getting around that. Even when you think you’re completely done with a picture, go back, zoom in, and look at every area close up. It helps immensely to do so, I find little mistakes that way in almost all of my pictures.
-Detail is what really makes pictures come to life. Think about what sort of objects might fit in well with your background (think clutter-type stuff). It’ll be totally worth it and can take a picture from plain to extraordinary.
Bookmarked
PS: I love your work! You're like a master
You are just TOO pro
I want photoshop so much now.
Anyway to get it cheaper?
I'd love to know some tricks about shadows and pose combining it's something I'm currently trying to teach myself
I'm so glad you're making this. My editing skills are :thumbdown:
Thank you so much!
@SilverDragon: Thank you so much for all the compliments!! My username just kind of came to me one day long before TS3 came out, when I was trying to think of the perfect name. I was super proud of myself when I finally did. I was like "I am super kinda clever-ish!!"
@chocchikcookie: I'm pretty sure if you Google "Download Photoshop", there are places you can get Photoshop 7 for free. Granted, it's not a very new version, but it's still a wonderful program.
@PistolKitten: That would be awesome! That's the one thing that's kinda lame about this, I can't help everyone because of the GIMP users. But that's also why I'm posting hints and tips and not just tutorials, because the tips are universal and anyone can learn from them. :-)
@vanilija: Thank you so much!! I really really hope this guide can give you some really great pointers.
*Bookmarked*
Steam: JKAmaryllis
*bookmarks*
*bookmarks*
I love you, you know that? XD
Right back at you, Jake.
Aww, thank you TS.
:!: Quick version :!:: For those who don’t want all the in-depth details, just the basics. Or for those who are ADD.
1. Take a screenshot of your sim in a lit room with solid bright green walls and floors by using the “Prnt Scrn” key on the keyboard.
2. Paste image into Photoshop/another editing program. Crop image and then select just the background color via “Select>Color range”. Delete background color.
3. Fix any mistakes (especially around the hair area) and place on background. Viola!!!
:idea: Regular version :idea:
(Pictures correspond to the step directly above.)
1. You’re going to need an empty room, so either make one at your sim’s house (if there’s room) or put them on a new lot where there will be space. You don’t need one as big as mine, I just like the extra room.
2. Paint the walls and floors a solid, uncommon color,one that doesn’t show up on your sim. This is very important. I usually use really bright colors, like bright green or bright blue.
3. Add lighting to one spot. This will be the “posing area”. What I find works best is to put 3 overhead lights in a triangle one square from the wall (preferably the Lucid light) and then two table lamps on the floor on either side (preferably the Sawed-off lightcaster). I find this to give the brightest, most even lighting.
4. Use moveobjects on to move your sim into this spot.
5. Get your sim into the pose you want!! You can get some really unique poses if you buy the Simlife Goggles and use moveobjects on to take it off your sim.
6. Use the tab key in live mode to adjust the camera so you’re looking at your sim just how you want, and then hit the “Prnt Scrn” button on your computer. This takes an exact screenshot of whatever’s on your monitor at that moment.
7. Go into Photoshop and click “New”. Since the image you just captured is now on your clipboard, the dimensions for the new file should equal that of your screenshot. If not, just type in the dimensions at which you play your game (1024x768, etc.).
8. Paste the image onto the new canvas. Most likely, it’ll be quite dark. I’m not sure why it does that, but it’s an easy fix. You just go up to “Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast”. Turn the brightness up until the picture looks right (I usually take it all the way up).
9. Crop the image around your sim.
10. Take the eyedropper and click the background to get the background color.
11. Go up to “Select>Color range” and make sure it’s set to “Sampled colors”. The preview box should show the background in all white, and your sim completely black. If not, just slide the fuzziness bar up until it does. I usually keep it cranked all the way to 200, to ensure that all the background color is selected.
12. After you’ve done that, you should have a selection line running right around your sim. Simply hit the “delete” key on your keyboard, and your sim will be nicely cut out!
13. The only issue you may have at this point is hair, especially if you’re using a very feathery hair. Some of the background color will remain in strands, and will have to be taken care of. As you can see, Rexy has some patches of green still left in her strands.
14. You’re in luck if your sim has very light or very dark hair, however. You can simply take the Dodge tool (for light hair) or the Burn tool (for dark hair) and go over the hair tips to make the colored bits match the rest of the hair. Medium colored hair is a bit trickier. You may have to go in with the eraser and get rid of what you can, and then use the smudge tool (set to a small brush size and a fairly high strength) to get the strands back to looking like hair. See how much better Rexy’s hair looks?
15. Find a background to add your sim to, and drag them over to it. Resize as needed.
16. Viola! A cleanly cut sim with no rough edges or problem areas. This tutorial may be long text-wise, but it’s actually a really quick and easy way to cut out your sims. Hope you enjoyed!
I have two things to say:
1. You make beautiful sims
2. You're changing the way I edit for the awesomer!!