Best way to recolor over pattern? (and showing off recolors!)

simfeetunder

Let's say I want to apply a new pattern over one of the maxi dresses, I mean, I could completely color over it but that'd murder the shading/highlights of it.
I've been using photoshop (of once sort or another) for 18 years but this is past me right now. haha

simfeetunder

Anyone?

Quelsimmy

@simfeetunder Put the new color/pattern as a different layer. Then play around with opacity & layer settings. The shading should come through. It might be good to desaturate the template first though, since the color will show through otherwise.
There's also a guide here: https://www.platinumsimmers.com/articles/simple-retexturing-for-the-sims-4/

EDIT: as for already existing patterns, you can try to slowly use clone tool to remove the patterned pieces

Srikandi715

I've been stymied by this too. I think the only solution is to completely remove the existing pattern, and then paint back any folds, seams etc. you want. The bump map is still there, and of course any detail present in the actual model... I found that when I de-textured the maxidress, for instance, and made it all black, for instance, it still had an acceptable amount of detail (to me at least ) The folds at the waist and bust were in the bumpmap.

simfeetunder

Thanks for responding @Quelsimmy and @Srikandi715 the maxi dress is exactly what I was struggling with! I've tried a variety of things (different settings and opacities and layers and...) with no luck so far. I had one done but when I mouseover it in the CAS it crashes so I can't even test it. Oops

Srikandi715

simfeetunder wrote: »

Thanks for responding @Quelsimmy and @Srikandi715 the maxi dress is exactly what I was struggling with! I've tried a variety of things (different settings and opacities and layers and...) with no luck so far. I had one done but when I mouseover it in the CAS it crashes so I can't even test it. Oops

Try this: in the current version of Color Magic, make sure to remove the bitmap swatch, and then re-add it. Then make a new custom swatch (32x32 px, saved as DXT1) and replace the IMG resource in S4PE. According to @Granthes that should prevent the crash.

He's still not sure of the CAUSE of the crash, but it's something he's working on

Edit: Disregard the above. Turns out the crash issue can be cured by renaming your recolor, i.e. changing the index of the CASP. Instructions for this fix are here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/771325/color-magic-bugfix#latest

simfeetunder

Srikandi715 wrote: »

simfeetunder wrote: »

Thanks for responding @Quelsimmy and @Srikandi715 the maxi dress is exactly what I was struggling with! I've tried a variety of things (different settings and opacities and layers and...) with no luck so far. I had one done but when I mouseover it in the CAS it crashes so I can't even test it. Oops

Try a different type of swatch than what you used? This is a sporadic bug in the current version of Color Magic. Being worked on but it's definitely related to the swatch, not the item.

I'm not making a swatch for it, I just tried using a different color of the dress as the base and it still crashed.
When I tried making custom swatches for a couple of my shirts it also crashed the game but this is using the default ones. I was thinking it might have been because it's a multi-color swatch but if it worked for you that wouldn't make sense.
Thanks for responding again.

Quelsimmy

@simfeetunder somehow multi-colored swatches always make the demo crash for me, so I think for now we're stuck with one color or custom ones (I've read the explanation for those a few times yet I still can't visualize how to do that haha)

Then again, I once made a single color swatch dress but it crashed anyway c;
Seems like it's just a chance game

simfeetunder

Someone posted a recolor of the maxi dress and Srikandi says she made one as well, I tried a few more things/times with it and still had no luck. I guess I'll try to wait patiently. haha
Also, @Quelsimmy, I saw your dress on tumblr and just reblogged it

Claireh82

I used this info from eHow to get rid of most of the pattern, then adjusted the settings a bit further and used the clone tool, it seemed to work ok for me and I managed to keep some of the shading:

1. Select "Filter," then "Noise," and click "Median." Make the Radius setting about 1 or 2. (I needed it a bit higher than this but play around)

2. Select "Filter," then "Sharpen" and click "Unsharp Mask." Start out by making the Amount about 75 percent, the Radius 2 and the Threshold 3. Use the preview to adjust these settings to your particular image, until the image is clear of the patterns.

Penelope

simfeetunder wrote: »

Someone posted a recolor of the maxi dress and Srikandi says she made one as well, I tried a few more things/times with it and still had no luck. I guess I'll try to wait patiently. haha

If that was the Starry Night gown by Sydney Grey, then that was me. I've made two other custom things (top and skirt) since yesterday, but I'm having the same issue ... I'm having a problem doing the shading. My textures are pretty much obliterating any shading detail from the layer underneath. I'm using GIMP, though, and that might be part of the issue. When I try to do an overlay in GIMP, it totally covers all the fine detail of the layer underneath it, unless I make the overlay VERY light. But then I don't get nice, dark colors.

I'll upload my top and skirt later on today (or maybe tomorrow, if I get busy) in this thread on Sim 4 Stuff n Things: http://sims4.the-prof.net/?topic=recolor-successes-and-failures. They're covered in multicolored sequins. LOL. Kind of interesting-looking.

Quelsimmy

@Srikandi715 I tried the swatch removing & replacing but the demo still crashes for me, sadly enough.

simfeetunder

I can't even test the dress since it crashes every time I mouseover the swatch...
@Penelope, how are you doing it? I was trying gimp originally (I couldn't get used to it, had to download and trick my computer into running the free adobe cs2 photoshop instead) but that was before it changed to color magic/the newest incarnation. When I was using gimp I couldn't get it to open the swatch files, got an error each time.
hrm

Quelsimmy

@simfeetunder did you try making the dress a default replacement? I can get custom swatches to work then, along with solid swatches

lovcat

Not sure if this helps at all but I define the texture as a pattern in photoshop in grey scale then do a layer with the hue modifier as an overlay. I made a bunch of different mermaid leggings using this technique and they don't look half bad.

I do always flatten or merge the layers before I save the DDS too. It's a hit or a miss most of the time, at least with t-shirts , but leggings and skirts work really well.

Penelope

simfeetunder wrote: »

I can't even test the dress since it crashes every time I mouseover the swatch...
@Penelope, how are you doing it? I was trying gimp originally (I couldn't get used to it, had to download and trick my computer into running the free adobe cs2 photoshop instead) but that was before it changed to color magic/the newest incarnation. When I was using gimp I couldn't get it to open the swatch files, got an error each time.
hrm

Hiya. I'm not sure what you mean by "opening the swatch files." (I'm still learning, too.) From what I understand, the swatches are those tiny little squares of color below each item of clothing. Sorry, but I'm not really sure what you're asking.

I've managed to make three non-default items of clothing so far using Color Magic, but I've been having error after error trying to do non-default shorts using the same methods. I think I've failed attempting shorts five times so far. Sigh. I've been getting random errors when I try to do the shorts, and it's been a different issue each time. Still figuring it out.

I had success doing the floor-length maxi dress, the wrap top and the knee-length pencil skirt, so I know those three textures are do-able.

simfeetunder

Ok, I can delete/add a swatch and then replace the _IMG file in s4pe but it isn't helping. I'm going to try it on a different item and see if I can get custom swatch to work on anything.
So with or without a custom swatch I can't get a custom maxi dress to work in CAS.

(@Srikandi715, somehow I hadn't seen your response about this until today, so this reply was mostly to you)

Penelope

Hiya Simfeetunder. I just tried to create another non-default maxi dress, and failed miserably, even though I was able to do it successfully yesterday. I don't know what's wrong. I have seen other people reporting on other forums that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. I seemed to make the file OK, but then when I put it in the game, it didn't even show up. AAAARRGGHHH!

So, I'm kind of stumped, too. I've tried to make a bathrobe and several different kinds of shorts, and I can't get those to work.

simfeetunder

@Penelope, did you already switch to the newer version of color magic?

simfeetunder

Srikandi715 wrote: »

...
Try this: in the current version of Color Magic, make sure to remove the bitmap swatch, and then re-add it. Then make a new custom swatch (32x32 px, saved as DXT1) and replace the IMG resource in S4PE. According to @Granthes that should prevent the crash...

I did it! Since customs are working again and your directions for custom swatch I managed to just get a San Diego Chargers shirt done for my game. sweeet.







And I put it up for download on my tumblr blog

simfeetunder

I did a couple items that had patterns on them (maxi dress and cropped pajamas) and they turned out ok. I spent a lot of time on the pajamas though, covering up the flowers and making sure to keep shadows and highlights and stuff.

I’m having one issue with the dresses which I need to work on, if I put them both in game at the same time they both show up as the wide stripe version instead of one of each.

Anyhow, here those are:

kiwisims4

I find using a white shirt as a texture base and copying it to the image you want will help with shadows etc