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Theorist
Original Poster
#1 Old 17th Feb 2018 at 2:18 PM Last edited by tangie0906 : 17th Feb 2018 at 3:43 PM.
Default Questions from a newbie creator
I just learned how to recolor TS3 paintings. Yes, I am a very slow starter. But considering I'm clueless about this tech stuff I am amazed at my achievement! :p

In the process of doing recolors I have come up with some questions about it.

1. Why are some images clearer than others? And does the clarity affect file size? And how do I modify a painting mesh so that it's clearer?

2. Why are some meshes shiny and have a glare on them depending on room's light sources? Is this supposed to look like a poster under glass? How do I get rid of it?

3. Can anyone link me to a tutorial on how to modify painting meshes? I'm not sure if I'm up for tackling meshing but it's frustrating not finding just the right size shaped painting mesh with just the right frame. All I can find is how to mesh other objects and it sure would be helpful to find one that just focuses on paintings.

4. What do all the files that are contained in a painting do? I delete the old image files but sometimes there are a lot of image files that I just leave because I'm not sure what they are for (they look like layout patterns or sometimes they are just blank).

5. Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum but for the life of me I couldn't figure out where I should post these kind of questions.

ETA: Thought of another question: what determines how closely paintings can be placed next to each other? Also, I have a painting that cannot be placed one above the other. The painting can move up and down the wall but I'm not able to place another underneath it.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
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Instructor
#2 Old 17th Feb 2018 at 7:08 PM Last edited by Butterbot : 17th Feb 2018 at 7:42 PM. Reason: Completeness
1. This has multiple potential causes. Image being too small or of the wrong aspect ratio, poor UV mapping of the mesh, wrong MaskWidth/MaskHeight on the model are some possibilities.

As a rule, the larger image, the larger the file size.

2, 4: https://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:0x00B2D882

Also, most "blank" images aren't actually blank, but have an alpha channel. Unchecking the "Alpha" box in S3PE's preview pane will show the image without the alpha channel applied.

3. Editing painting meshes is just like editing any other object mesh, so most of the content of any object meshing tutorial still apply. (If you figure out how to make a ham sandwich, then you also know pretty much how to make a cheese sandwich.) Mainly, one needs to know how to get the TS3 asset into a 3D program, how to use the 3D program, and how to get the asset out of the 3D program and back into the game. The exact steps depend on your choice of tools.

Quote: Originally posted by tangie0906
I have a painting that cannot be placed one above the other. The painting can move up and down the wall but I'm not able to place another underneath it.


That's probably due to the object's bounding box. There's usually one in the VPXY resource, and another one in the model resources. I'm not sure which one governs placement in-game (perhaps both). Bounding boxes can be visualized in TSRW. Editing can be done both in S3PE and TSRW.

Hope this helps.

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Theorist
Original Poster
#3 Old 17th Feb 2018 at 8:48 PM
Oooohh, that link is helpful, thanks!

Maybe one of these days I'll try to focus on a meshing tutorial. It's just that it would be so much easier if it was about something I was actually interested in! I have no desire to make a table. Heh.

Not that I'm complaining, I know that people are spending free time to make these instructions for others and I'm grateful. Just amazed that there is so little out there about wall art creation since it seems to be a good beginning for those who want to expand into other things later.

Thanks, Butterbot! Really appreciate you taking the time to try to answer my questions.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Theorist
Original Poster
#4 Old 18th Feb 2018 at 1:28 AM
Oh my word! I think I fixed it! Or at least made it much, much better.

I opened the original mesh in TSRW (which is what I've been using to make paintings), clicked on the mesh tab, and started clicking around. I discovered that if I clicked on the Default Material line below where it says Group 0, then click on the little dots on the right of the where it says material, a pop up box comes up. Inside the pop-up window there is a line that says Specular. If you click on that, a little downward arrow appears and if you click on that you can click on the color wheel numbers and change the color to something darker. Then I did the same as above under where it says Group 1. I think Group 1 is where the real change took place but I'd have to experiment some more to make sure.

After I made these changes I imported my new images again. Below on the left is the new painting I made after modifying the mesh. On the right is the shiny-as-all-get-out original. So I am happy!



Another thing that I had done differently is that I had also downloaded Paint.net and imported DDS images. I'd been using Gimp and since I had trouble with DDS images in Gimp, I was just importing PNG images. It worked. I've made lots of paintings using PNG images with Gimp and TSRW. But just to experiment I modified the mesh in TSRW again as described above, then imported my images in the PNG format with GIMP so I could compare with the new DDS images in Paint.net. The one on the left is the altered mesh with DDS images. The one in the center is the altered mesh with PNG images (and of course the one on the right is the original).



I can't tell any difference between the two paintings, and there are things about using PNG images that are a bit easier when making paintings. Does anyone know if there are any reasons why this is a really bad idea?

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
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