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 Tutorial - Meche Colomar's Exciting Guide to Meshing |
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New to Meshing? New to Accessories or Clothing? Bi-curious? Welcome to Meche Colomar's (That's a Grim Fandango Reference) Exciting Guide to Exciting Accessory and Body Meshing: A Guide For Adults and the Old at Heart (so don't rat me out to Jack Thompson) (not to be reproduced anywhere ever) Index: Chapter 1: So you want to mesh like Meche? Part B: What you need. Section C: Let us familiarize ourselves. The Tutorial Proper: Accessory and Body Meshes Etc: Other Crap for people who paid attention. Chapter 1: So you want to mesh like Meche? All the kids are doing it. Now you can too! Have you followed all the other guides and you need one from someone who never learned to tie their shoe laces? Here we go in this conversational and slightly patronizing step-by-step tutorial. Part B: What you need.
Open all these programs at least once and just look through them so it's not an incredible shock when you?re following my steps. And relax. If you doubt something don't save it or save a copy of it before you change it. This goes for everything, EVERYTHING. I am not liable for any mistakes.  This is how I set up my desktop. The map of GTA:SA's weapon locations is optional, you must, MUST have a background of Fido. Otherwise, you get the idea. I'm not just pretending like this stuff is necessary. Use it, love it. Section C: Let us familiarize ourselves. In plain language what you're going to be doing is simple. This is not the tutorial yet, just an overview so you won't freak out. You're going to create a file in bodyshop and open it in Simpe to see what it is based on. You'll find four files in the Sims 2 game files and save them in a new folder. These files are your new package. The goal is having the bodyshop file refer to this new package file instead of the game files by more or less changing the address within the file. Address like street address, it's that easy. If you don't do this then your new alterations will show up over the game's and all of your glasses will look like dildos or whatever you've made. That isn't permanent, you'll need to fix the file or delete it to return to the defaults. And before you ask, none of what you make should replace the defaults. The new package file you've made that is all in order will contain a mesh. You'll export that to a working folder and then import it into Milkshape. You'll make you're changes and export it back to the folder under a different name. Replace the mesh file in Simpe and then load in bodyshop to see how it looks. Adjustments will be made. Then fuck with the skin and recolor as need be. I will mention how to edit such things as reflectivity as well, but more or less this is how the shit will go down. There is a lot of overlap in creating these two pieces so I'm going to put them together. The Tutorial Proper: Accessory and Body Meshes or Creating Satan's Other Tit 1. Before you open Bodyshop I suggest you move the contents of your Downloads folder (located in the Sims directory) into a new folder on the desktop. This will speed things up a bit, remember put this back in before you play the game or none of your stuff will show up. Don't worry, you can load the neighborhood and Create A Sim without these files. You'll only need what you're creating (when you're done put your new files in with your old ones and put 'em all back before you play the lots or you'll lose the placed custom stuff). 2. Open Bodyshop. Click 'Create Parts' then 'Start New Project.' If you're making clothes, go to 'Create Clothing' if you're making an accessory go to 'Create Makeup, Facial Hair, and Glasses.' Browse here, hopefully you have an idea of what you want. If you don't then pick something you think would be fun to work with. Note for Accessory Meshers: I like to use the glasses that start three from the end of the line. They're sunglasses that come in blue, green, orange, and plain. They have the advantage of having three parts; the rim, frame, and lens. If you're making something simple like a cane you can use the rimless glasses since you will waste time with the rest of it. If you're making something like my ball gag you'll want these three pieces since recoloring and organizing is easier. Note for Body Meshers: Start off with a full body mesh to start. Later go tops for tops and bottoms for bottoms and body for body. Right now you'll want to stay simple. 3. Click 'Export Selected Textures' and then name your file. Be a little descriptive. Export this right back into the game and give it a tool tip relating to what it is and what version. In the game you'll need this to tell the different versions apart or tell what you need to delete when you have versions you don't like. Close Bodyshop. Close it. Now. Good.     4. Open Simpe. You're going to have a nice blank area, go to File->Open or the little folder at the top left of the tool bar. For XP click the 'Desktop' icon at the left of the window or just go to the Desktop however you want. You made your shortcuts like I asked, right? Go to Saved Sims and open your file. It'll have the name you typed in as well as some random numbers and letters in front of it. Open it. 5. You have three windows with information in them now, the top left is the directory of groups. The top right is the files contained in those groups and the bottom is the plugin view of the contents of those files. Click 'Property Set (GZPS) (1)' for body meshes and click 'Mesh Overlay XML (XMOL)' for accessory meshes. Click on one of the files contained in there and then look at the plugin view. The longest line there will say something like 'afaccessorysunglassesevenmorehip_frameblack_lens dark.' The first two letters indicate it's an adult female. 'am' is adult male. 'tf' is teen female. The next part refers to what the mesh is for, Accessory, body, top, and bottom are the ones you'll be working with. Click that line and highlight to the bottom right where this text appears. Hit Control+C to copy this, put it in your text file unless you can remember it. After awhile you'll probably skip this entire step since you'll know the file names.  6. Hit the little blank document by the folder on the toolbar to go to File->New. Save NOTHING. You don?t need to edit this file yet and then again you might never. Hit Open again, Desktop, and hit Sims 3D. If you?re doing something from University or Nightlife you'll either need to make more shortcuts or just go up to the main directory and hit the folder for either expansion pack and go through the '\TSData\Res\3D.' If you're confused I suggest you start with a main Sims 2 file that came with the original game.   7. Wow, look at all that stuff. Sims and Objects. Open Sims06. No, don't open anything else. And I'm saying it now so you won't blame me. SAVE NOTHING TO THIS DIRECTORY. SAVE NOTHING TO THESE FILES EVER. Just click Sims06 and you're going to see only a few groups, one of them with a lot of files listed beside it. Mine says 'Resource Node (CRES) (1534).' Click it and give it a second to load in the files window at the top right. Yes, there really are that many files in the game, this is where the file name you saved comes into play. Hit 'Type' at the top of that window and they'll go into alphabetical order. Now scroll down and find the file. It might be truncated to 'afaccessorysunglassesevenmorehip' in the case of accessories. There might be two files, click the one that doesn't have 'LOD15' in it. Right click and hit 'Extract' Go to your desktop and create a new folder there and name it. Save this file in that folder without changing the name or anything.  8. Rinse and repeat for Sims05, Sims04, and Sims03. No mixing and matching here either, just repeat until you have the four files. If you mess this up you can delete that folder, make a new one, and start over. Relax, after the first few times you'll be doing this with your eyes closed. And then after a few dozen times you won't pay attention and fuck it up. 9. Click the new button again up by Open. Nice clean and blank and fresh. Right click in the top right window and you'll have a few options like 'Add' and 'Create Resource' and some probably grayed out. Hit Add and open your folder and add those four files into this window. One of each. Nice and tidy like. 10. Hit save, go to the Desktop and then your Downloads shortcut. Save your package here under the same name you used for your Bodyshop file but add 'mesh' at the end. Now this is the part I got hung up on when I first started, so take it easy. Click 'Fix Integrity' on your Simpe toolbar. A window will come up, if the University thing is checked then uncheck it. I don't care what expansions you have or whatever, just uncheck it. After you do this everyone can use your files even without the expansion, so just listen. At the top box it'll say by default 'simpe' replace this with your name and the name of the file all smashed together like 'wrenshardcock.' Click update. YOU MUST DO THIS OR YOUR NEW MESH WILL APPEAR OVER THE DEFAULTS AND PEOPLE WILL GET PISSED. This changes the numbers and letters you see at the end of the line in the files window. It will have once said something like '0xFFE1E09D' but now it'll say '0xFFE128C4.' This is the address that your Saved Sims file will use to find the mesh it needs to appear in bodyshop and the game. Fix Integrity will change the address on this file so that it will be unique and new.  Note: In this screen shot that after I hit update the text I typed appears at the beginning of the file names. This is what happens when you've done this correctly. The text is up to you, though. 11. Hit save. You can do this more than once but you'll have to repeat these later steps to make sure the new files are connected. I call this 'linking files.' Now right click on the Resource Node and hit 'extract' save this back to your folder on the desktop--I usually just name it '1.' Do this for the Shape Node as well, name it '2.'  Note: Clearly I'm demonstrating with an old file but you get the idea. 12. Open another Simpe. You can use the same window but since you're going back to this package just open another one. Open your Saved Sims file normally or just see if it shows up in the 'Recent Files' under File. This is the part where you'll really need to concentrate if you're doing an accessory mesh. There'll be a bunch of files in the top right window, as well there should be. Right click and add 1 and 2. They'll show up with all the other files. You aren't done yet so concentrate. In the top left pane click on '3D ID Referencing File (3DIR)' and the contents will show in the top right pane.  Note: This shows what I'm talking about, this is an accessory mesh or otherwise there'd only be one file. To the bottom left is what I'm talking about when replacing Resource and Shape nodes. The Package pane is open to the right over where the button is going to be to open it. This picture's package pane doesn't show the Resource and Shape node lines because I never added them since I already linked these files and I don't want to have to think or whatever. Body Meshers: There will be one file here, click on it and look in the bottom plug-in pane. There'll be list of text to the left side and buttons little windows to the right. In the list of text check and see how many Resource Nodes and Shape nodes there are. There will probably be one set. Click 'Package.' Remember 1 and 2? They'll show up as Resource Node and Shape Node near the bottom of the list. Drag them to the text list to the left and they'll appear at the bottom. Delete the lines at the top of the list and then use the 'up' and 'down' buttons to move your files where they were. They must be in the same order to work properly. Accessory Meshers: There will be around 17 files here. Click on them one at a time. There are three main types, two of which you can ignore. Some will be blank. Some will be short and not include anything about 'Resource Nodes' in them. The last kind is what you'll need, it's a bit longer and will probably have two sets of Resource and Shape nodes in them. Click 'Package' and drag and drop the Resource Node and Shape node you added, they'll be the only ones in the list. You will have to do this for every file of this type in the list. For more advanced usage you will need to link these files individually to meshes for men and the like. Refer to Mod the Sims 2 forums for more on this, I hate to leave it at that but it is explained much better by modders who like to make a ton of meshes and probably got dressed this morning (I don't and didn't). General Note: God willing you will notice that the number at the end of your new line and the ones at the end of the lines that were already there are different. If they are, you're doing great. If they aren't, you'll need to repeat the Fix Integrity step because you didn't do it right. If you update it properly the name you enter will appear at the beginning of the files in your new mesh package. 13. You just linked the files, congratulations, most people never make it this far. Delete the Resource and Shape nodes that you added in the main file list. Save this. Close it. 14. Go back to your new mesh package that you made. There will be a file named 'Geometric Data Container' in the top right pane. Click on it and right click and go to Extract. Save this in a new folder within the folder you created on the Desktop. This is the best way I've found to organize things, so follow along. I usually save it as '1.' Do not save over this file so that later you have a chance to start over without linking the files again. Minimize Simpe and open Milkshape. This is the fun part. 15. Go to File -> Import. There's a huge list here, go to the bottom and click down until you see 'The Sims 2 Body Chop Importer' and 'The Sims 2 GMDC Importer.' For bodies you will need to do the Body Chop. For accessories you can get away with GMDC. If you import with one and export with another everything might go fine but you'll probably lose the fat state for bodies. But stick to one. If there's an error when you export from Body Chop you can try the other one but again, no fat state.  16. If it loaded you'll see a lot of blue lines and not much else (Refer a to Editing a Mesh for how to deal with this and get a better view). Congratulations, this is your mesh. Every time you save it in Milkshape save it as a different number, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in order so you can go back to your last major change and not have to start over. Every time you export do the same thing. Sometimes I wind up with 50 files in a row and this is vital if you make a mistake. You might think everything is reversible because these are computers and they're logical, but there are many mysterious forces at work in these files that you can't see. 17. After you finish with the mesh in Milkshape (the next section) you will export it the same way you just imported it except you will use the 'export' menu just below the import menu. Go back to your Simpe mesh file and right click your GMDC file, the Geometric Data Container, and replace it with your new file. Save it and open Bodyshop to check it out. I suggest you go to 'create a new whatever' and find it there in the beginning. You?ll want to perfect the mesh before you skin it and I'll discuss that later. Before you start working on your skin move your linked Saved Sims file to the Downloads folder or you'll somehow overwrite shit and it's all horrible. If you view this in 'Load a Saved Project' you won't be able to view the changed mesh unless you moved the Saved Sims file. Sometimes this also fucks shit up and you have to relink files, so just move the file to start with, you can do recolors off of it that will be linked and all is well. If this doesn?t look right check out my trouble shooting section. You're done. Editing a Mesh or CHECK OUT HOW BIG I MADE HER TITS You can work with the mesh like this, I did it for quite awhile, and when you're positioning stuff for accessories you might want to be able to see these lines. They're the range of motion, more or less, for your Sim. If you click the last tab in the section to the right you'll see all the joints. If you select them and you're zoomed in on the right area you'll be able to see the range for the thumb, spine, calf, or whatever highlight as red instead of blue. Otherwise go to Preferences and click the second tab, change the Joint Size to '0.010000' and the lines will go away. You can still see blue round things that indicate joints as well, you can remove this by unchecking 'Show Skeleton' on the last tab. Personally I usually wind up using this stuff at some point, so remember where it is and don't be afraid to go back to defaults. DO NOT MOVE ANYTHING WITH ONE OF THE JOINT LINES SELECTED. You can move them and then who knows what'll happen, nothing good I expect. Note 1: The first tab contains the tools you will need to edit the mesh, Click 'select' and click 'vertex' if it isn?t already selected. You will need to experiment with this to see what you need for your mesh. The 'ignore backfaces' can be use selectively to ignore the back of the mesh so you only select, say, the tits. I suggest you start out with smaller changes, be subtle, there are plenty of crunchy meshes with huge tits. I like to start just by selecting the part I'm interested in, clicking 'select' again to deselect the tool and then right click in each pane and choose 'frame selection' so you get a lot of views. Watch them all. Right click in the 3d view and turn off the wire overlay so you can see pinches and tucks. Turn it back on to select just the right vertex to make a pointy nipple. You should get the idea. Beyond this part and for more complex meshes look into the Milkshape tutorials. The mesh will only turn out as good as you are at editing it. Don't make huge changes or you'll get clipping issues (meaning the mesh will appear in the game and cut through furniture and other Sims). Note 2: Groups (second tab). You want to add something to your mesh? Say something long and hard. Now is the time to get to know your Groups tab. This tab and its contents must appear the same, so you can add stuff and regroup it into one of those groups and rename it. They must also remain in the same order. Lastly, hit the comment button before you ever start and copy down the comments (this is for body meshing) and put them in your notepad file. You will have to put these back, they will be erased when you regroup. Skip the third tab, you won't be using it at all. Note 3: Assignments. Remember that last tab filled with every single part of a Sim's body that makes it move correctly? If you add anything to the mesh you have to make sure it's assigned to the correct part of the body. Don't shit yourself yet. Open another Milkshape and open that first file I told you never to overwrite. Click a joint (the last tab) and click 'select assigned' and it'll show you the finger, shoulder, whatever. Frame the selection that you need and reproduce this as closely as possible on your new additions. You will have to do this or they won't show up. And yes, for larger pieces it will be like dying and being reborn as an accountant. You will need to explore this and check it out to get the hang of it depending on what you're doing. Accessory meshers will need this to assign their piece to the part of the body they want it to appear on. 'r_hand' for the right hand, etc. In this case you will also have to move the piece to that part of the body or it will float in relation to that part of the body. This might require more tweaking than the mesh itself just to move it to just the right place that it appears in the hand or around the neck. The movements are counter-intuitive so I suggest you make small changes and export, load it to your mesh package, save, open bodyshop or the game and see how things are going. The best advice I have is to run through the list and make sure everything looks like it's assigned. Then hit 'SelUnassigned' and make sure there isn't even one red dot on the whole body. Work from one end to the other so that if you over select for one piece you can just pick up the slack in the next one. Or you can hit 'Clear' which will clear the assignment and find the right joint for it. Note 4: Alignment. So you opened your file and you now realize that whatever you added in or altered isn't quite right and you can glimpse sunlight through the cracks? Select two vertices that are close together AND ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE MESH. This is a good time to get to know your 'Ignore Backfaces' checkbox under the Select menu. Snap those bad boys together with Control+N. Yes, you have to do it with every pair. This will require a lot of eye-balling and checking and rechecking. If you already assigned everything like you were supposed to then you'll still be good to go. This about when you?ll realize you need to choose two pieces that fit together closely. Meche's Tips and Tricks or Strap-ons for Beginners Remember the Sims03 file? Be it in Nightlife, University, or the Original it contains all the body and accessory meshes. Objects 03 contains all of the object meshes. This is a goldmine, you don't want to have to make a lot of this stuff from scratch. No. It's not cheating so don't give me that shit. So break down your mesh into the simplest shapes and then look for those. Want to splice two bodies together because you're a masochist? Open one normally in the mesh package and extract the other file to the Desktop and open it in Milkshape. Export it as a Wavefront Object and open a new file and import it. This will strip all the bones and stuff, which must be done. Save this in Milkshape in case of a crash. Work with it, change it, whatever, but rename it in the groups tab. Export it as a Sims GDMC file to avoid some of the crashes that come with Wavefront objects opening. Import that into the mesh file from the package and assign every single vertex. In the last tab you can try 'selunassigned' to see if you missed anything. Regroup this and replace the comments and you've just added a new piece. You will need to go somewhere else for the more fine points of texturing these new pieces. Ask people before you use any parts of their new meshes or they will kill you. Give credit where credit is due. The most uncool thing you could possibly do is use Simpe or Bodyshop to pretend like you created something. They will know, it is not impossible to check. Reflectivity in Body Meshes You will need to start out with a mesh that already contains reflectivity. This will probably involve getting unlocked files: [http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=1594] That's the Super Villain from the game, you can also use the Super Chef and the Super Hero for adults. If you have Nightlife there is a reflective element to the male Vampire's outfit. For teen girls you will use the modern outfit (couture) that appears in the game as having reflective leggings, arm bands, and a bow. Right now this is the easiest and fastest way to do it. Add the parts you want to be reflective to the reflective group and everything else to the other ones. When you edit skins you will edit the alpha, and textures for the reflective to show up on the reflective and regular to show up on the matte areas. Remember, either you will need to import a reflective group to a normal mesh and then regroup and then reassign parts of your mesh to it or you can add to the super villain/hero/chef and do it that way. If you've edited your mesh at all successfully you'll get the hang of it and the results are fantastic. Bump maps will not show up on the reflective parts so choose carefully. All of these assets should be used together to make the best possible result, so take your time and do something incredible and new and email me about it. DON'T FORGET TO REPLACE THE COMMENTS AND ASSIGN EVERY SINGLE VERTEX PROPERLY. Remember to select none, then each group in turn while selecting none in between, then hit 'Weld Together' under the 'Edit' menu or just hit Control+W. If you select them all together and weld bad things will happen. Bad things that might make you cry and your Sim will whisper 'Kill me... KILL Me... KILL ME.' Make sure you save between these steps when you're first starting out. Also, part of the tutorial might not work here. When you try to find the files to make the mesh package the original Saved Sims file you have might not tell you the right name. No worries, you can browse Sims03 until you find the right thing (usually it'll have the most obvious name). This only seems to apply to reflectivity. To be honest, it looks like they use the same method I do to make new meshes. So when it tells you that you need the couture teen files for an adult male, you'll know better. Reflectivity in Accessory Meshes Your files will actually start out reflective on their own, to a degree. This is a blessing since it works well for most objects with no editing at all. For editing you will need to go to the group of material definitions (mat def) in your Saved Sims file. There will be sections for each part of the glasses (lens, frame, rim or whatever depending on which set of glasses you picked). In the plugin view there'll be lines with three sets of numbers. SAVE YOUR FILE NOW TO THE DESKTOP BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THIS. Depending on the accessory they might have lines with .53,.53,.53. Adjust up or down (in every single instance of the lens, frame, or rim you are editing), save, and view the results in Bodyshop. Yes. This is the only way to do it. There are short guides on Mod the Sims 2 so I'm not going to repeat it. This isn't for beginners so make sure you have the hang of regular meshing first. Then read that stuff, make more meshes, read more, and then email me if you have a problem. I highly suggest you find an accessory with the qualities you want and open its files and study them closely--that's how I learned. When you have mastered this you will be able to make the lens opaque and matte or clear or with a metal glint and edit the other parts accordingly. Check out my meshes under 'mechec' on modthesims2.com to get ideas. If you have metal areas, assign them to one group, etc, etc. I usually try to assign the textured aspect of my new mesh to the frame, and so on. You might think you want an incredibly complicated mesh but very little of the detail will show up in gameplay. Remember to keep your poly count (Tools->Show Model Statistics) low. Don't go over 3000, it would be best to even stick around 2000 or 1000. This will lock up people's games and piss them off if you get it really high. Check the poly count over and over again after you add and alter anything major so it won't be a surprise. Troubleshooting Q: My mesh has parts that drag off into oblivion and crunch up but the rest of the mesh looks fine! A: You have incorrectly assigned a vertex. Go back through and make sure everything is assigned and grouped properly. Q: Both legs are distorted but the Sim sadly stands on these legs oblivious to their hedious deformity! A: You probably were viewing the back of the Sim in Milkshape and didn't notice when you assigned that you were actually assigning to the wrong half of the body. It happens to the best of us after a couple of hours of staring at dots and lines. Just check all the panes to make sure they're facing the same way as the other file you're basing your assumptions on and assign again. Q: My mesh doesn't show up! A: You didn't group properly or you lost your assignments. Make sure the groups are in place, in order, and comments are in place. Q: But it shows up in Simpe's plugin! I can see it! You're lying! A: I had this problem and I had to ask for help. Everything must be assigned to a group, the groups must be in their original order. Everything must be assigned to the correct joint. Q: I exported to an object and imported back and clearly you're lying! A: Exporting to an object and importing back erases the joints, this can be to your advantage for adding sections and parts but you need to reassign anything that's been exported to an object and brought back in (think of it as cleaning, you'll want to do this with all additions). Don't bother trying to keep the assignments for extra pieces, you'll just import more bones and fuck stuff up. Assigning an entire body does take a long time with your two Milkshape windows open, I would suggest you find ways around doing it instead of keeping it as an option. I have done it before and it's not fun. Q: My default files show up with my mesh modifications! A: Fix Integrity and remember to save, relink the files and try again. Q: I used AutoSmooth and now my mesh doesn?t show up even though it's all nice and slick! A: AutoSmooth erases all the assignments and puts the poly count through the roof. Use it only for small VERY SMALL accessories and keep track of the count. You will have to do the Wavefront Object export-import into the original file thing to keep the joints so that you can even reassign. Yes, it sucks, so don't use it. Q: I didn't follow your instructions and saved over files in Sims 3D! A: Don't even bother telling me this. Just don't do it. Q: There are holes! Holes where there shouldn't be puckered puckered holes! A: You either deleted a vertex (which erases the faces attached to it) or you didn't reweld. This isn't the end of the world it seems to be. If it is a real hole you will need to find a mesh that will fill the hole, erase everything else in this sample mesh, export to an object, hide everything in the destination file, assign the parts before you add them in, then regroup it with the right group, replace the names and comments and order, then do the welding thing over again. Questions? Comments? Before you email me try it again two or three times. Make sure you aren't missing a step. Look at other tutorials to see if they explain it in a way that is better for you. Relax, this is supposed to be fun. Don't email me files, I won't open them. If you have pictures of a problem, which would help, put them on a site somewhere and give me a link to the picture itself. Do you have helpful additions to my piece? Comments on improvements? Questions that I could add to help others? Additional screenshots? My email address is mechecolomar -at- gmail.com and I'm not liable for any damage.
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