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Editing & Modeling Tutorials ~

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  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2018
    Tutorial 9: Saving and Exporting (Gimp)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    Exporting in Gimp can be a bit confusing since Gimp has “Save As” as a way to save in Gimp’s file format, not as a way to save in PNG, JPG, or anything else.
    To save your image with all of its layers and edits so you can go back and edit them later, go to “File” and then hit “Save” (if you just opened the image) or “Save As”. Doing this is recommended for all of your edits, because if you can’t go back and make changes or continue where you left off the day before, your hard work can be ruined! Saving it in PNG or JPG and then opening it again gives you a single image with no layers, meaning you can’t edit them later, so it is important you save as XCF before exporting your image as a PNG.

    GimpExportTut.png~original


    But to save your image into PNG, or any other format, you need to go to “Export As…” and then at the very top where the name is, type in the format you need. For example, this screenshot says .jpg at the very end of the name. We obviously don’t want jpg, but we do want PNG! First what we want to do is find the short code to export our file as. Hit the drop down menu at the bottom, and scroll to the bottom for the PNG code. Use this method for any other format you need. As you can see, the code we want is PNG, so we type at the very top, behind the name of the file, “.png”. Then you hit “Export” and you’re good to go!

    GimpExportTut2.png~original
    gimpexporttut3.png~original
    gimpexporttut4.png~original


    Another way to change the file format is to hit “Select File _Type (By Extension)” and then scroll down until you find your file format that you want. Click it, then hit export!

    gimpexporttut5.png~original
    gimpexporttut6.png~original
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2018
    Tutorial 9: Saving and Exporting (Photoshop)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    Saving and exporting in PS is relatively easy. There are several ways to do this though.

    psexporttut2.png~original


    First, you want to save all of your edits in PSD format. This PSD format allows you to go back and make changes to your layers and edit your image further. Saving it in PNG or JPG and then opening it again gives you a single image with no layers, meaning you can’t edit them later, so it is important you save as a PSD before saving your image again as a PNG.
    When saving make sure “Layers” is checked so you don’t lose your layers.

    psexporttut1.png~original


    Once you are ready to change your edit into a PNG, you have several ways of doing this. You can hit “Save As” and scroll down to “PNG”, select it and hit save. Or you can “Quick Export as PNG” from the export section. If you want more control over exporting it, you can hit “Export As” and then select your options to other formats, change the size, etc. If you want to make it more compatible with the web (for different screens and such) you would hit “Save For Web” and then change the settings there. There’s really no need to do this, as far as I can tell, but it also allows you to save as a gif so it has a few uses.

    PSexporttut0.png~original
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited January 2019
    Tutorial 12: Cutting with Simple Selections (Gimp)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    Before you do this method, please double check your sims clothing, hair, etc., and their CAS (or in game) background and make sure they do not match. If you are using white clothes on a white CAS/in game background, etc., it will be very hard to cut out the sim! Also make sure your CAS/in game background isn’t a pattern. It must be a solid color or else it will be hard to cut out your sim as well. If you don’t use a solid color, you may have to do it either multiple times or the colorful background has a color related to your sims outfit and will delete part of that outfit.
    Also, please make sure your “feather edges” are unticked on your selection tools.

    gimpcutting1.png~original


    If you haven’t read my previous tutorials, please read them before this one. You can find a list of them here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/13751003/#Comment_13751003

    Warning: This method can remove loose hairs (when you hit "grow"), and there is no full way to avoid this, unless you spend time tracing her hair with a selection/path tool (and even then some might be removed because it's just not possible to select every detail). Most of the time the hair looks perfectly fine with these cut edges, so don't freak out, study the image to see the damage, then move on if there aren't immediate errors.

    Alternative: Don't use "Grow" and instead use the "Fixing Green Edges" tutorial after you cut out the sim.


    Begin by opening your picture that you would like to edit. Once it is loaded, go up to your “Layer” tab (or right click on your image and go to layer), scroll down to “Transparency” and select “Add Alpha Channel”.

    gimpcutting1.1.png~original


    *Optional but suggested* Then, make sure your foreground or background color is black and hit the “Add new layer” button. When the screen pops up, select foreground or background (the one that is black) and hit “Ok”, and then a new layer shows up. Click on the layer in your Layer Box, and then drag it below your sim’s layer. This new layer, once we cut out your sim, will allow us to see errors so we can correct them. Make sure to click back to your sims layer!

    gimptcutting1.1.png~original
    gimpcutting1.2.png~original


    Once you’ve done that you need to choose which tool you are using. You can use the Fuzzy Select Tool or the Select by Color Tool. Both select by color, but the “Select by Color” tool will be easier to use and is the suggested one.
    Once you’ve chosen your tool bring your mouse over to your picture and select the background. Do not select your sim or anything else. Doing so will select everything but your background, and there really is no need to click on your sim when the background is what you want removed.

    Once you’ve selected the background, these lines will appear on your sim. However, sometimes over selection can occur, which means more than just the background was selected. This usually happens because you used a background that matches something on the sim. This is why I said not to use related colors, however, this can sometimes happen with the smallest things, like black eyelashes when using a black background. There are several ways to fix this. The first one is to adjust your threshold. This is normally on a low setting, but if you turned it up one day to remove more of the background (like from the hair), then it will overselect on other backgrounds. Moving the threshold up will make the selections stronger, but this sometimes causes overselection. Moving it down will lower the selection but can lead to less selection and leave behind the background. Knowing how to use threshold also allows you to remove extra green. To remove the over selection undo your last action and then drag your threshold down a bit (so from 40 to 25 maybe) and then try clicking again. If you are having problems still after several tries, you will need to use the other option.

    gimpcuttingoverselection.png~original
    gimpcuttingthreshold.png~original


    The second option is probably the quickest of the two. Choose to use either the Rectangle Select Tool, the Ellipse Select Tool, or the Free Select Tool. I prefer the Free Select tool because then I don’t have to worry about removing odd rectangle shapes around her selection, and it’s easier to just draw a shape around the affected areas. Grab your choice tool, then choose the “Subtract from Current Selection” mode at the bottom. This mode can also be used on your Fuzzy and Select color, however, when you use it on the selected areas it removes the related color from the background as well, which gives you more work to do. That’s why we use the other select tools.

    gimpcutting1.5.png~original


    Begin selecting the areas affected (or drawing if using the Free tool). Once you are done, you can now safely remove your sim from their background! (Don’t stop reading here though, continue down)

    gimpcutting1.6.png~original


    Before you delete your background though, here’s the trick to removing those pesky lines! Go up to your “Select” tab (or right click again) and hit “Grow”. When the box appears, make sure it is on 1 px (pixels), then hit “Ok”.

    gimpcutting1.3.png~original


    Hit delete at the top of your keyboard to get rid of the background. Or you can grab your eraser, change it to the hard brush, and then erase the background (fuzzy leaves behind bits of the background since the edges are low opacity).
    *If you look closely, the program likes to give tips and tricks. I used an arrow to point where they put them. Pay attention to those!

    gimpcutting1.4.png~original


    Once the background is deleted you need to unselect your sim, otherwise it won’t let you do anything outside the selection. Go up to “Select” again (or right click) and hit “Select None”. Now you’re done cutting out your sim and can place them on a background. However, before you do that you need to make sure there aren’t any errors. Look at your sim with the black background on and check for these:
    Green, etc., in the hair, transparent clothes, etc.
    Jagged lines (a common occurrence with Sims 4)
    Part of the clothing, hair or sim is missing

    gimpcutting1.7.png~original


    If you have some of those, it’s time to remove them! Please continue on to the next guide for corrections. If you are the last one though, it means you weren’t paying attention and allowed over selection to occur. Please undo your progress (Ctrl + Z or the Undo tab, the yellow arrow next to your layers. Cmd + Z if you are Mac) and go back to find the over selected area.

    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited January 2019
    Tutorial 12: Cutting with Simple Selections (Photoshop)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    Before you do this method, please double check your sims clothing, hair, etc., and their CAS (or in game) background and make sure they do not match. If you are using white clothes on a white CAS/in game background, etc., it will be very hard to cut out the sim! Also make sure your CAS/in game background isn’t a pattern. It must be a solid color or else it will be hard to cut out your sim as well. If you don’t use a solid color, you may have to do it either multiple times or the colorful background has a color related to your sims outfit and will delete part of that outfit.
    Also, please make sure your “feather” numbers are at zero on your selection tools.

    If you haven’t read my previous tutorials, please read them before this one. You can find a list of them here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/13751003/#Comment_13751003

    Warning: This method can remove loose hairs (when you hit "Expand"), and there is no full way to avoid this, unless you spend time tracing her hair with a selection/path tool (and even then some might be removed because it's just not possible to select every detail). Most of the time the hair looks perfectly fine with these cut edges, so don't freak out, study the image to see the damage, then move on if there aren't immediate errors.

    Alternative: Don't use "Expand" and instead use the "Fixing Green Edges" tutorial after you cut out the sim.


    Begin by opening your picture that you would like to edit. Once it is open, unlock the layer by double clicking the layer in your layer box or clicking the lock symbol. We need the layer to be free to be able to delete.

    pscutting1.0.png~original


    *Optional but suggested* Then, make sure your foreground color is black and hit the “Create new layer” button. Make sure you are on the new layer, then take your fill bucket and click on the layer in the image section to color it. Click on the layer in your Layer Box, and then drag it below your sim’s layer. This new layer, once we cut out your sim, will allow us to see errors so we can correct them. Make sure to click back to your sims layer!

    pscutting1.1.png~original
    pscutting1.2.png~original


    Once you’ve done that you need to choose which tool you are using. You can use the Magic Wand Tool or the Color Range select option. Both select by color. We’ll be covering Magic Wand first.
    Once you’ve chosen the Magic Wand tool untick the “Continguous” option at the top (to select everything rather than clicking multiple times), then bring your mouse over to your picture and select the background. Do not select your sim or anything else. Doing so will select everything but your background, and there really is no need to click on your sim when the background is what you want removed.

    Once you’ve selected the background, these lines will appear on your sim. However, sometimes over selection can occur, which means more than just the background was selected. This usually happens because you used a background that matches something on the sim. This is why I said not to use related colors, however, this can sometimes happen with the smallest things, like black eyelashes when using a black background. There are several ways to fix this. The first one is to adjust your tolerance. This is normally on a low setting, but if you turned it up one day to remove more of the background (like from the hair), then it will over select on other backgrounds. Moving the tolerance up will make the selections stronger, but this sometimes causes over selection. Moving it down will lower the selection but can lead to less selection and leave behind the background. Knowing how to use tolerance also allows you to remove extra green. To remove the over selection undo your last action and then drag your tolerance down a bit (so from 40 to 25 maybe) and then try clicking again. If you are having problems still after several tries, you will need to use the other option.

    pscuttingtolerance.png~original
    pscuttingoverselection.png~original


    The second option is probably the quickest of the two. Choose to use either the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee Tool, Quick Selection Tool, or the Lasso Tool. I prefer the Lasso tool because then I don’t have to worry about removing odd rectangle shapes around her selection, and it’s easier to just draw a shape around the affected areas. Grab your choice tool, then choose the “Subtract from Selection” mode at the top.

    pscutting1.3.png~original


    Begin selecting the areas affected (or drawing if using the Free tool). Once you are done, you can now safely remove your sim from their background! (Don’t stop reading here though, continue down)

    pscutting1.4.png~original


    Hit delete at the top of your keyboard to get rid of the background. Or you can grab your eraser, change it to the hard brush, and then erase the background (fuzzy leaves behind bits of the background since the edges are low opacity).

    PS is much better at removing those lines than Gimp, but they can still occur on your sim and it’s something we don’t want. If they do occur undo that attempt and go back to your selection. Go up to your “Select” tab, down to “Modify” and then hit “Expand” or “Contract” (I suggest expand). When the box appears, make sure it is on 1 pixel(s), then hit “Ok”.

    pscutting1.6.png~original


    The second method is the Color Range Select tool. Go up to “Select”, then move down to “Color Range”. A little box will appear. First, make sure your settings look like this, minus the “Fuzziness” setting. Having it on Grayscale allows you to see if anything is over selected (it will turn white/gray) and avoid having to remove it by hand. After checking your settings move your mouse over to the background and click on it (never the sim or clothes for cutting). Your model and her stuff should now be all black, or it will have some stuff selected. To get rid of the selected stuff, move your “Fuzziness” setting down. Once the whites/grays on her go away (make sure to look closely), you can hit “Ok”. Now that you are out of it, your model should revert back to normal. Hit delete, then check if you have any leftover lines. If you do, undo the delete, then follow the method I taught above.

    pscutting1.5.png~original


    Once the background is deleted you need to unselect your sim, otherwise it won’t let you do anything outside the selection. Go up to “Select” again and hit “Deselect”, or hit “Ctrl + D” to remove the selection (Cmd + D if Mac). Now you’re done cutting out your sim and can place them on a background. However, before you do that you need to make sure there aren’t any errors. Look at your sim with the black background on and check for these:
    Green, etc., in the hair, transparent clothes, etc.
    Jagged lines (a common occurrence with Sims 4)
    Part of the clothing, hair or sim is missing

    gimpcutting1.7.png~original


    If you have some of those, it’s time to remove them! Please continue on to the next guide for corrections. If you are the last one though, it means you weren’t paying attention and allowed over selection to occur. Please undo your progress (Ctrl + Z or the History tab. Cmd + Z if you are Mac) and go back to find the over selected area.
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2018
    Tutorial 12: Cutting with Layer Modes (Gimp)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    (Some stuff is pasted from previous guide)
    Before you do this method, please double check your sims clothing, hair, etc., and their background and make sure they do not match. If you are using white clothes on a white background, etc., it will be very hard to cut out the sim! Also make sure your background isn’t a pattern. It must be a solid color or else it will be hard to cut out your sim as well. If you don’t use a solid color, you may have to do it either multiple times or the colorful background has a color related to your sims outfit and will delete part of that outfit.
    Also, please make sure your “feather edges” are unticked on your selection tools.

    gimpcutting1.png~original

    For this method, you must have a white or extremely light background.
    This method (extremely rarely) causes some backgrounds to come out strange. It's not really a big deal though, so don't worry about it.
    This method also stops you from moving your sims around, as you just erased part of the background! Moving them reveals the hole, so decide where you want the model to be before erasing.


    This method is based on this guide here. However, I have changed it to be a bit more efficient for us.

    Begin by opening your picture and background that you would like to edit. To get the background on the same workspace as your model, open the background with the “Open as Layers” option under “File”. Once they are loaded go up to your “Layer” tab (or right click on your image and go to layer), scroll down to “Transparency” and select “Add Alpha Channel”. Make sure to do this for both of them. Move your sim under the background and make sure your sims layer is selected. Turn the background off by clicking the eye. We’re going to do the same thing we did in the first tutorial. So select your background with either the Fuzzy or Select Color Tool, fix any over selection you need to, grow the selection, and then either delete the background or ignore it. Ignoring it doesn’t work if the background is smaller in width or height, so if you ignore it make sure to crop the edges first. Do not remove the selection! If you do, Alt + Left click on the very tiny image of your model to reselect, or undo the action.

    Once you’ve done that you need to turn your background layer back on, then go to that layer if you aren’t already. You should now see your models selection on the background as well. Go to layer mode at the very top and select “Multiply”.

    gimpcutting2.1.png~original


    You can now see your models face, but she still has bits of the background on her. Now you should erase the background on top of your models face (not delete). I would suggest using the soft fuzzy brush and not to erase the loose strands as the hair will still have white in it. Letting the background sit on the edges allows the hair to blend in better. If the brush erases the background outside the selection, you need to invert it by going to the “Select” tab, then hit “Invert”.

    gimpcutting2.2.png~original
    gimpcutting2.0.png~original


    Once you are done, remove the selection and check your handy work. You’re done!
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited September 2018
    Tutorial 12: Cutting with Layer Modes (Photoshop)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    (Some stuff is pasted from previous guide)
    Before you do this method, please double check your sims clothing, hair, etc., and their CAS (or in game) background and make sure they do not match. If you are using white clothes on a white CAS/in game background, etc., it will be very hard to cut out the sim! Also make sure your CAS/in game background isn’t a pattern. It must be a solid color or else it will be hard to cut out your sim as well. If you don’t use a solid color, you may have to do it either multiple times or the colorful background has a color related to your sims outfit and will delete part of that outfit.
    Also, please make sure your “feather” numbers are at zero on your selection tools.

    For this method, you must have a white or extremely light background.
    This method sometimes (but not often) causes the background to come out strange, though you can turn it back to normal after you are done (but it may cause issues).
    This method also stops you from moving your sims around, as you just erased part of the background! Moving them reveals the hole, so decide where you want the model to be before erasing.
    In general, I don’t suggest this method since a lot of problems can arise from it.


    This method is based on this guide here. However, I have changed it to be a bit more efficient for us.

    Begin by opening your picture and background that you would like to edit. To do this go to “File > Scripts > Load files into stack” and this will load them both. Move your sim under the background and make sure your sims layer is selected. Turn the background off by clicking the eye. We’re going to do the same thing we did in the first tutorial. So select your background with either the Color Range or Magic Wand Tool, fix any over selection you need to, expand the selection, and then either delete the background or ignore it. Ignoring it doesn’t work if the background is smaller in width or height, so if you ignore it make sure to crop the edges first. Do not remove the selection! If you do, Ctrl + Left click on the very tiny image of your model to reselect, or undo the action (Cmd + Left Click if Mac).

    PScutting2.0.png~original


    Once you’ve done that you need to turn your background layer back on, then go to that layer if you aren’t already. You should now see your models selection on the background as well. Go to layer mode at the very top of the box and select “Multiply”.

    pscutting2.1.png~original


    You can now see your models face, but she still has bits of the background on her. Now you should erase the background on top of your models face (not delete). I would suggest using the soft fuzzy brush and not to erase the loose strands as the hair will still have white in it. Letting the background sit on the edges allows the hair to blend in better. If the brush erases the background outside the selection, you need to invert it by going to the “Select” tab, then hit “Inverse”.

    pscutting2.2.png~original


    Once you are done, remove the selection and check your handy work. You’re done!
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited July 2018
    Tutorial 14: Fixing Rough/Jagged Edges (Both)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    After cutting out your sim, you may notice some horrible jagged edges. They could be subtle, or they could be large, but either way we don’t want them!

    Depending on how severe the damage is to the sim, you may have to do several methods. The first method I like to use is smudging. It works wonders on small edges. Sometimes if the edges get to a more medium size, I may have to smudge and erase. If the edges are large, you will most likely be using liquify or combining smudging, erasing, and drawing. Or just smudging/drawing. Hopefully you never have to encounter large edges.

    Gimpedges0.png~original


    To show what I mean though, here’s a picture with small edges. To fix it I will make sure I am on my sim layer, take my smudge brush, set the opacity (Gimp)/ Strength (PS) to about 5 or below, make the brush small, zoom in as close as I can get, and then gently smudge the edges. Zooming in, lowering the opacity, and using a small brush control the damage that the smudge brush can do. As I said in the tips, if you use everything at full size and strength, your work becomes a horribly smudged mess and you want to avoid doing that. While the edges come away having a faint glow and look slightly blurry, this is a much better alternative to the jagged lines we see. Also, when you place the sim on a background the faint glow will blend into the background and will no longer be a problem. Sharp edges don’t blend, so this why we correct them this way. You could also use liquify to fix the edges, which we cover later on.

    gimpedges1.png~original


    If the glow bothers you, or you feel that it doesn’t blend into the background, you can remove them or try drawing or erasing your edges instead. You can also take your sharpen tool, set the opacity/strength down low and then go over the edges to remove some of the glow. What I do is gently go around the sim with my eraser after smudging the edges, and you can reselect your sim, inverse it, then erase the edges too. This removes some of the glow and blur. Or as I said you can erase the edges before blurring, but both can be a bit difficult since some people have shakey hands with the mouse, like me.
    If neither of those suit you, you can try drawing to replace the edges. What I do is make a new layer, place it under my sims layer, color pick the edge of the dress, go to my new layer, then slowly trace the outline with my hard brush. In this example you can see how bad I was at drawing the edges, but you can already tell that it looks slightly better than how it did before. A little picking at the end with your eraser brush, and you should be good to go!

    gimpedges2.png~original
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited July 2018
    Tutorial 13: Fixing Green/White Edges (Both)
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    This guide can be used for both Gimp and Photoshop. This guide is based on this wonderful one here, and the reason why I rewrote it is because her Gimp has too many steps from what I saw and I simplified it.
    So far, using it on a white background doesn’t work (from what I have seen, I could be wrong). Please be aware that it may not work on other backgrounds!
    Also, sometimes it won't work properly with certain hair colors, as in it will be too light, or too dark, etc. and will be noticeable. We cover other options next week.


    Now that you have your sim cut out, you’ve probably noticed by now that you still have green in your hair. The easiest way to get rid of this is actually quite simple, and it can be used for clothes and skin too!

    removinggreen0.png~original


    First, make a new layer and make sure it is on top of your sim. The next part is to make sure you don’t paint over anything else and only on your sim, so let’s select our sim.
    PS: Ctrl + Left click tiny image on layer. Alternative: Right click on the new layer and select “Create Clipping Mask”. This will attach the layer to the sim below.
    Gimp: Alt + Left Click tiny image on layer.

    removinggreen1.2new.png~original


    Then, grab your color picker tool and find the most common color in your sims hair. I like to search for a color that is a mix between the light and dark parts of the hair.

    Now that you have your color, make sure you are on the new layer, then grab your brush tool and start drawing over where the green is.

    removinggreen1.png~original


    Once you’ve done that, go to your mode option for the layer and select either “hue” or “color”. Sometimes one will work better than the other depending on what hair color you are using, so flip back and forth between the two to determine which is best.

    removinggreen2.png~original


    *Tip: If neither mode works and the paint still stands out, it probably means you chose the wrong color. Start over but choose another color that is more common in the hair.
    *Tip: If it still continues to happen, you are probably painting too much. Zoom in and make the brush smaller so you paint less on the hair.
    Mine needed hue rather than color. All done! (Don’t forget to deselect your sim!)

    removinggreen3.png~original
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited July 2018
    Tutorial 11: Improving Quality and Larger Images
    Level: Beginner
    If you are still having trouble with something in this tutorial, or need more help, please post here or contact me.
    Click here for more tutorials

    I decided to give a mini-tutorial for those not understanding how to put together large images. As we covered in the tips:
    To get large images of your sim in game, go into tab mode, then start from the top of your model and take a picture. Hit Ctrl + 5-9 (whichever number) and this will save your spot, so if you mess up and need to go back to that spot, press the number you saved at. Press Q to move down. Continue to do this until you get to the area you stopped at with the first picture (probably slightly above it just in case). Take a picture of that area, save it, then continue to move down. Do this until your model is captured in 2 or more shots for the image you need! Bring all of them into your editing program, move them on top of each other in the right order, and then do your best to combine them. Turn down opacity of the layer you need to erase bits off of, erase what you need, turn the opacity back up (check for errors), merge (or don’t if you know what you’re doing) and then smudge/blur any harsh connections/lines that still exist. Do this for however many images.

    That doesn’t really show or explain how it is done, so here is a quick mini guide.

    Open all of your images in a single image. I explained how to for both Gimp and PS already, but for Gimp use “Open as Layers” and then ctrl + left click however many images you need. For PS, go to “File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack” and Ctrl + left click the images you need. As you can see, my pictures are all layed out and visible in my image.

    puttingtogether1.png~original


    I labeled the layers to their image counterparts, so you can see how this is set up. My legs are actually my first layer, not my body! Just because you took the images in pieces doesn’t mean you have to put them back in a sensible order, only in an order that works and overlaps well.

    When I first begin working, I start with the head and begin working my way down. Often your bottom pieces become more and more angled as you go down, so sometimes it is hard to combine them because they look odd or don’t match up. This is why it’s important to take multiple pictures, that way everything can at least be mixmatched, like Frankenstein. I restarted with these group of images to show you my process. Also, you won’t always use every single picture, and some will need erasing.
    I have decided to start with these two. I am now going to focus on realigning them.

    puttingtogether2.png~original


    See how it looks almost perfect? But there’s a glitch in that area and no amount of realigning will help. I then decide to hide that one and drag out the other one

    puttingtogether3.png~original
    puttingtogether4.png~original


    A perfect fit! While there’s just a teensy tiny glitch, it’s barely noticeable.

    puttingtogether5.png~original


    I continue rearranging and trying out different combinations to get what I want, but eventually I ran into a situation where I had to erase. Drag down your opacity on the layer that needs to be erased so you can see through it, then begin erasing slowly so you can avoid mistakes.

    Puttingtogether6.png~original
    puttingtogether7.png~original


    As you can see, erasing was very helpful! We now have a complete arm, but no glitches! The rearranging, erasing, and moving will continue for a bit until you get everything right. However, the simpler the image you took, meaning less pictures to combine, the easier it is. It’s just that sometimes we need a picture of everything if we want the image to come out good.
    The final result as you can see, and even if you did really well with everything else you can still get errors like this. You then need to keep working or find a way to fix it.

    Tips:
    • Use the perspective/transform tools to angle the images. This can sometimes solve the issues with different angled images (which is unavoidable).
    • Don't forget to smudge the lines that can appear where you connect them (after merging your images). Though they are tiny, they are still noticeable.

    takingpictures8.png~original
    Post edited by MizoreYukii on
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    Alright, that's it for now! I still have quite a few to give you, so please don't start editing yet. Feel free to track down your items though and get started where you can!
    As you can see, this is probably our heaviest week out of them all. Knowing how to cut out your images and then fix them is a very important part of editing.

    Remember, if you have questions, comments, or found a mistake, please say them!
  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @MizoreYukii I don't know. It's so weird. She hasn't been on since July 3rd and didn't say anything about not being able to finish things. I hope she's ok.
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
  • MinstrelMinstrel Posts: 126 Member
    @LeslieM25 Thank you! I'll let you know if I need anything recoloured, and I'm pretty sure I could teach myself if I could find the time. Right now I'm sturggling to find a chance to teach myself new things,

    @MizoreYukii I'll bear that in mind. The tattoo was an addition, so in future I'll make sure I'm adding accesories because they fit the theme, and no because I like them personaly. Oooh, tutorials, I'll get reading!
  • EliavahEliavah Posts: 2,270 Member
    Just finished reading these tutorials, awesomee job Mizzie! Hopefully this helps some of you guys out, also I don't know if you touched on it, I might've missed, but liquify helps with jagged edges too :3 I just erase a little and liquify a section back and forth (but carefully or you might make it smaller)
    @Leslie ; Haha that is true, awesome you were already thinking of it (:
    @Minstrel ; Personally I *love* tattoos, but I think what Mizzie meant its the fact that you added it for the assignment. For me, I submit my model with the tattoos and always have them with each assignment. But she didn't deduct points I think. I believe she also mentioned earlier in the comp you can use different models? So I think changing tattoos would be fine, but in most comps you should stick with one model, and she should have the same amount of tattoos she had when you submitted :3 Sometimes it may look like I add on tattoos to my model, but I have a lot of hidden tattoos (like belly, feet) that you might not see at first, so yeah.
    Also a tip ! Sharpen the tattoos (not too much! just enough) It helps the tattoos look nicer! :3
  • MinstrelMinstrel Posts: 126 Member
    @Eliavah I love tattoos as well! Not just on sims, I think well-done tattoos look stunning in real life as well. The problem is I wanted Circe to have a very fresh look when I submitted her, so I didn't want to give her a load of tattoos that I would regret it future assignments. I think I'll leave the tattoos for now, but at least I know she can pull them off :wink:
  • AmazingamphyAmazingamphy Posts: 1,733 Member
    Not surprised about my scores, I tried to do a shadow, but after 30 minutes of confusion, I made a mistake and had to start over, and I wasn't in a very good mood after that, so I left it as is. :s
    HmypxT0.png
    Gone from this place and never coming back. P5 is good
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    Hmmmmmm....I expected this to be more active when I came back. :O Guess everyone is busy.....Might take a break with tutorials then, because I'm absolutely beat, and if no one is going to read them anytime soon I would prefer to just sleep and do corrections. xD

    All that's left for me to do is the background section, objects, manipulation, blending, and the last cut out method. And of course fix the lighting issue. It sounds like very little, but please remember that the first 3 have multiple sections......:sweat_smile:


    @Minstrel Adding tattoos in the middle of the comp as a permanent thing count as changing your models appearance, which isn't allowed in competitions. That's why I said it would instead be considered adding it as an accessory/makeup for the assignment, and if it's not relevant you would be docked points. :O

    @Eliavah I didn't cover liquify because that's for Week 3. Also, we only have about 3 people who use PS, with the majority being Gimp, and Gimp Liquify is quite different from PS liquify. There's also the settings and tools compared to Smudge and it's strength. I don't cover certain things for a reason xD I'll make sure to mention it though as an option. :3

    @Amazingamphy I wasn't focused on shadows, so I find it strange everyone is attempting them this week. :sweat_smile:
  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    @LeslieM25 Yeah, I love using your poses :) After I found out that you make poses I rarely get any poses from anybody else xD I love yours so much <3

    @Eliavah Thanks! :3 And I agree with you, I'm not much of a fan of the stereotypes with the large and small dogs. Honestly, I believed in that stereotype for a while, but one day I went to a friend's house and she has German Shepard and a Chihuahua and I was insanely scared of the German Shepard and really liked the Chihuahua, but it didn't even take 10 minutes for me to change my mind xD

    @MizoreYukii Loving the tutorials! :D They're awesome! Good job <3 Btw what did you search up to find the examples of what you used for the masquerade assignment? I have zero ideas for the assignment. I kind of did, but no way could I execute it D:
    dmlX3n8.jpg


  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    edited August 2015
    @PeaceSign101 Thank you! I'm here to help, so if you want to try and execute the idea but not sure how, tell me and I'll see what I can think of. As for the assignment pictures, I just typed in "masquerade". For the fantasy ones though I typed in "masquerade fantasy". I really didn't do anything special. :sweat_smile: You can also try "mask" but you should use more keywords, like "female mask fantasy" or something, otherwise you get a ton of masks but very few photos with people in them.
  • ayedenayeden Posts: 73 Member
    @MizoreYukii I read through the cutting out sims and while some of the steps are similar to a couple of tutorials I tried, yours looks easier.
    My daughter started school today so I haven't had a chance to do much else other then brainstorm ideas. Hopefully it won't take long to get into the new routine and I will be able to work while she is in school.
  • MizoreYukiiMizoreYukii Posts: 6,566 Member
    @ayeden I'm so tired, I just tried tagging myself. Lol!
    I've read a ton of Gimp cutting tutorials, but only 1 PS cutting tutorial. I'm not surprised mine sound similar though, but these are the basic steps to cutting out anything. xD Phlearn is the one who showed me how to use the "Continguous" method, so I now use it whenever I use the Magic Wand. I would have gone over the other methods, like making your own path, or using the magic eraser, but they leave green behind and they are more work than people should be doing, so I covered only these methods instead. I have one more tutorial to give you guys for cutting out sims, but I haven't had the chance to take the pictures yet. Then we have a mini example/tutorial on using the Quick selection method when I go over objects (not very useful for sims).
    I hope so too!
  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @PeaceSign101 Aww thanks. I'm glad you like them! :smiley:
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
  • PeaceSign101PeaceSign101 Posts: 1,413 Member
    @MizoreYukii Okay, thanks :) And my idea was originally having the inside of castle tower and one half of it looks evil like a layer, and the other one was supposed to a little like a fantasy I suppose. Like Good vs. Evil. Then an evil Sim is in the good side of the castle tower and the good Sim is in the evil part of the tower. The reasoning for this is because when I searched up masquerade I saw the definition and it said "Pretending to be someone that you are not." Thought that would be kind of cool ;) But like I said no way could I pull it off. I'm too much of a beginner :/
    dmlX3n8.jpg


  • BobSkellingtonBobSkellington Posts: 9,206 Member
    Hmmmmmm....I expected this to be more active when I came back. :O Guess everyone is busy.....Might take a break with tutorials then, because I'm absolutely beat, and if no one is going to read them anytime soon I would prefer to just sleep and do corrections. xD

    All that's left for me to do is the background section, objects, manipulation, blending, and the last cut out method. And of course fix the lighting issue. It sounds like very little, but please remember that the first 3 have multiple sections......:sweat_smile:


    @Minstrel Adding tattoos in the middle of the comp as a permanent thing count as changing your models appearance, which isn't allowed in competitions. That's why I said it would instead be considered adding it as an accessory/makeup for the assignment, and if it's not relevant you would be docked points. :O

    @Eliavah I didn't cover liquify because that's for Week 3. Also, we only have about 3 people who use PS, with the majority being Gimp, and Gimp Liquify is quite different from PS liquify. There's also the settings and tools compared to Smudge and it's strength. I don't cover certain things for a reason xD I'll make sure to mention it though as an option. :3

    @Amazingamphy I wasn't focused on shadows, so I find it strange everyone is attempting them this week. :sweat_smile:

    I read them, absolutely love them all! Can't wait to try some of them out :P

    And, If I still struggle, I can always message you <3

    I'm about to go like every tut post, you deserve at least that much! <3
    Beauty obtains attention, but personality is what captures the heart. ♥
    sox3c8.jpg
  • BobSkellingtonBobSkellington Posts: 9,206 Member
    Alright, so I have about half the tutorials done. I still need to fiddle with something and then go over searching and manipulating, but I should hopefully be done soon. It's so much easier when I don't have to write double the tutorials. xD Lol

    Edit: Ohhh just remembered I had a few others to do. LOL
    I hope you guys like these tutorials! These are painfuuul.

    I don't even like editing, I can't possibly imagine having to do tutorials. xD

    Editing is fun though! Frustrating at times.....but fun once you get to know the tricks. :3

    Did you see my Urusla from the Little Mermaid?

    Nope? I'm sure it's like, perf in every way <3 You should show me! Show me yours, and I'll show you mine xD p;

    :D
    Beauty obtains attention, but personality is what captures the heart. ♥
    sox3c8.jpg
  • LeslieM25LeslieM25 Posts: 2,766 Member
    @MizoreYukii Okay, thanks :) And my idea was originally having the inside of castle tower and one half of it looks evil like a layer, and the other one was supposed to a little like a fantasy I suppose. Like Good vs. Evil. Then an evil Sim is in the good side of the castle tower and the good Sim is in the evil part of the tower. The reasoning for this is because when I searched up masquerade I saw the definition and it said "Pretending to be someone that you are not." Thought that would be kind of cool ;) But like I said no way could I pull it off. I'm too much of a beginner :/
    You can do it! Just try! I like your idea. I'm not as knowledgable as Mizzie or Eli but I can help if you need it. :)
    Come check out my poses and more on my Simblr!
    http://lesliem25.tumblr.com/
    GqsONVc.gif
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