This tutorial shows the basics of meshing and shows how to create an afro-centric hair.

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And a little bit of everything else.

Introduction

This tutorial shows you out tocreate a basic afro-centric mesh for The Sims 2 and goes over some of thebasics of meshing in case you’re a beginner or a little out of practice when itcomes to meshing. I’ll also go over matching textures to the correct names andquickly cover the creation of the afro-centric texture and alpha.

The picture on the left is of my Afro-bun mesh. It is afairly simple mesh itself yet it appears to have several curly hairs coming outof it giving it the appearance that’s typical of afro-centric hair. Surely itwould take ages to mesh every single hair all the while driving you mad andblowing up your computer at the same time!

Luckily we don’t have to mesh every single hair. I’mgoing to show you a simple way to create this look without having to mess aboutfor ages trying to make lots of little individual hairs and driving yourself toinsanity in the process (this is if you’re not already insane like me☺!

What you will need

Patience is preferable but all you really need is SimPE, Milkshape and the Sims 2 plugins, the Unimesh bone tool (follow the instructions on how to install) and a high-end photo editing progamlike Adobe or Paintshop Pro. GIMP would doalthough my weapon of choice is Adobe CS. You really need The Sims 2 as wellbut I don’t need to tell you that☺!

Step 1.

Make a project folder. I keep mine in “My Documents”.Within it, make a new folder for your mesh. I’m going to call mine “ExampleAfro”. Creative huh?

 

Step 2.

Herecomes the boring bit(one of them)! Open Bodyshop. If you’re like me, you’ll beable to go save the world and have a cup of tea before Bodyshop is actuallyopen due to having a few GB of downloads and custom content. If not then Iguess it isn’t as boring. Go to the “Create Custom Content” option, “Genetics”and then the hair section. For this tutorial, we will use the children’s afrohair for boys(pictured) and also the long hair for boys(picture under theafro). You’ll learn why this is later on in the tutorial. It saves a lot ofmessing about in SimPE.

Step 3.

Export the afro naming it something like “AfroTexture”.Don’t import it. Go back and export the long hair. Name it something like“AfroTest”. Import it back in without altering it.

Step 4.

Now for the next boring bit! Close Bodyshop and openSimPE. Go to “File” then “Open” and go to

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Sims3D

Note: C is the regular drive that the gameis installed on but some people install it on another drive or partition.Change this accordingly.

In there you’ll see some files(asyou do). We’re interested in the ones beginning in “Sims”. Open Sims03. In theleft-hand resource tree you’ll see a name map. Click on it and then again inthe resource list to the right of the resource tree. Make sure you’re in pluginview. If you are you should see a long list in the bottom centre panel. Thefile we want begins with “cmhairclosecrop”. Go for the one that does not have“lod15” in the name. To the right of the list, there should be a “properties”section with group and instance numbers. Copy the instance number and paste itinto the Instance Filter in the “Filter Resources” area on the right. Here’s animage of it so you know what you’re looking for.

Click the highlighted “set” button underneath theinstance filter(the one I have insterted the number into) and then go back tothe resource tree and click “geometric data container”. The one file we’relooking for should appear here. If it doesn’t, make sure you pressed the “set”button. Assuming it is there, right click on it and go to “Export” and save itto your project folder.

Step 5.

Well if you’re a first time mesher, I bet that sucked abit! You get used to it though and eventually you’ll be able to do it in yoursleep so it isn’t so bad. If you still think it was terrible, you’re going tohate this next part! You’ll need to do this again for Sims04, Sims05 andSims06. Just remember to look for “cmhairclosecrop” and go for the one without“lod15” in the name!

Step 6.

Okay that was fun…..not! I know, it was probably one ofthe most boring things you’ve ever done but it gets a little bit better now!You’re ready to mesh!

Open Milkshape and go to File/Import/Sims2 UnimeshImporter V(whatever version you have) then go to your project folder you madein Step one and import the one file that shows up. This is your geometric datacontainer, all you need to know is that you can alter the mesh in this filethough so don’t get worried by the big, overly technical names that the filestend to have.

Note:When you import it you should see fourdifferent views of it. A front, a side a top and a 3D view. To move scroll ineach window just click anywhere with your middle mouse key(or ctrl left click)and move about. To zoom, just scroll in. To zoom faster, just shift click andscroll.

Have a play about with the mesh if you want. Experimentwith all the different controls in the model window. Pull vertices and facesand experiment with the different shapes and commands. You might discover somethings that will help you with future meshes,

Step 7.

By now you should be bored ofmessing about with Milkshape and ready to complete our mesh. This bit is fairlyeasy. Next to the Model tab, you’ll see the Groups tab. Just in case you needit, here’s a picture of what you should see. Highlight the group(we only haveone just now) and then click “select” in the lower panel. Then go to edit inthe menu bar and scroll down to “Duplicate Selection” or if you’ve been doingthis for a while and want to save time, click “Ctrl d” on the keyboard. Youwill now have a new group named “Duplicate01”.

 

 

 

Step 8.

Go to the actual Sims project folder(not the one youcreated) and then to your “AfroTest” project or whatever you named the longhair we exported earlier. Check the way the files are named. For example, onealpha is called “cmhair_Casual1~hair_alpha5~stdMatBaseTextureName_alpha.bmp”.I have highlighted the “hair_alpha5 section because it shows us how we have to nameour new sections. A quick check on all the alphas shows that we have a“hair_alpha3”, a “hair_alpha5” and a “hair”. Our original group is called“hair” so we can create a “hair_alpha3” and a “hair_alpha5”

Note: I used this mesh because I knew it hadthe three groups needed for the tutorial. If you need more groups then use amesh that you know contains more or find a tutorial on adding extra groupsusing SimPE.

Rename our new group “hair_alpha5” by filling in the boxand clicking “rename”(told you it would get easier!).

 

 

Step 9.

Now we need to edit thecomments. Click on our first group then click the “Comment” button. Whileyou’re in there, you’ll notice that “NumSkinWgts” has a two after it. Changethis to a 3 and then copy the whole section. Then go into hair_alpha5’scomments and paste them in changing model name to “hair_alpha5, and the opacitynumber to 5.

Note: Always keep the opacity correspondingto the number in the name of the group to avoid funny transparency issues.

It should look like the image on the right, minus thetearing ☺!

Note: When you were playing about with thecontrols, you may have wondered how you could add new objects into your meshes.If you for example, create a sphere then it appears in it’s own separate group,ready for you to rename and re-comment for your mesh. Simple really!

 

Step 10.

I bet at this rate you’rewondering if you’ll ever get to mesh at all! Well this is the bit where weactually mesh! What we’re doing is very simple and probably requires less brainpower than we used playing about with all the model tools. Hide “hair” thenselect “hair_alpha5” so that it all appears red in the three 2D view windows.Go to the model tab, click select and make sure “Ignore Model Backfaces” isturned off and the vertex button is down as shown in the image to the right.This allows you to select vertices that are parallel to each other at the sametime and makes this bit a lot easier for us.

Deselectall of the vertices on the line around the hairline, ears and nape of themodel(on the side view) by pressing shift on your keyboard and right clickingon them. You should end up with something that looks like this.

Everything should be red apart from a line of whitevertices around the area that joins to the face and neck. Just to double check,zoom in on the front view. It should be a complete ring of white like thesecond image with no white vertices inside or outside the ring. If there is,make sure to reselect them by pressing shift on the keyboard and left clickingthem.

 

Step 11.

Next we will extrude the selected points by a smallamount. Click on “Scale” in the model tab and make sure X, Y and Z areselected. Set them all to 1.1.

Note: Setting them to 2 would double thesize and three would triple it and so on. 0.9 would make it 90% of the originalsize and 0.5 would half it. If you want, play about with the scales if youwant, changing each one to lengthen or squash the mesh in different ways butmake sure you return to the original size and know how to get back to it.

1.1 is a little to big so undo that action and set it to1.05. You’ll notice that this is still pretty big. We’re looking for a subtlechange as the hair is short so we only want a small amount of fuzz. It wouldlook unrealistic if it was too big anyway. Let’s set it to 1.03.

Go to the groups tab and unhide the “hair” group. You’llnotice that the selected group is in a slightly different position to it andthe unselected vertices remained in the same place. This way the fuzz isn’tjust floating in mid hair(okay that was terrible) but is still attached.

Step 12.

Now we’re going to make a copy of hair_alpha5. deselecteverything(just in case) and select hair_alpha5 again in the groups menu.Double check it’s all red. Now duplicate it like we did before. Rename it“hair_alpha3”(without the “” of course) and then edit the comments accordingly.Deselect everything then select the new group. Go to “Face” in the task bar andthen “Reverse Vertex Order”. This makes it face the opposite way to hair_alpha5and prevents bits from not showing up.

Step 13.

Almost done meshing now! Select all the groups then go to“Vertex” on the task bar and scroll down to “The Sims 2 Unimesh Bone ToolV(whatever)”. Click on this and a new window will open. Set weight to 100% andBone Index to 7(head) if it’s not there already then click “Commit” then “Applyto All” then “Commit All”.

Deselect everything thenselect the vertices at the nape of the neck, as shown in the tear away part onthe second image(make sure all groups are set to visible. They should be but justin case). Go to the Bone Tool again and set the weight to 50% on the head andin the line below set it to 50% and bone index 6(the neck). This prevents theever annoying neck gap that you may well know already from downloads in yourgame or personal experience. It makes meshes look a lot more natural without abig hole in the back of the head. You don’t see many people with one of thoseand sims should be the same.

 

 

Step 14.

Your meshing here is done! Go to File then export usingthe Sims2 Unimesh Exporter and overwrite the original file and prepare for moreSimpe boredom.

Step 15.

Go to SimPE and create a newfile. Right-click in the Resource List and select “Add”. Add all four filesfrom your own project folder. Go to the task bar and select Tools then ObjectTools. Select “Fix Integrity”. A new window should pop up. In the “ModelName”box write your name in short form, the mesh title and the year. I’d usually sayto put under-slashes between the lines but it doesn’t let you do that anymore.Click “update” then “ok”.

 

 

 

 

Step 16.

Now to make sure that neckjoint is attached. Click on the GMDC in the resource list and in the pluginwindow you should see something similar to the picture on the right. If not,select the “cGeometryDataContainer” tab. Export the separate models one by one,making sure that the one you want to export is the one selected. Name themaccordingly. For example, “hair_alpha3” becomes “hair3”. As long as it’srecognisable.  Make sure you’re exporting in SMD format. This is very important.

When this is done, click the “groups” tab. Select eachone in the group section and delete them.

Once you’ve done this, go back to the previous tab andimport them all back in, making sure not to double them.

When you import them, a window will appear. Set the boneweight to “3 bones” and then hit “continue”.

Once you’re done, click commit then go to save.

Save your mesh as “MESH_whateveryouputinmodelname”. Minewould be MESH_HFOAfroBoy07.package once the file is created.

Congratulations, you’ve made a mesh!

 

Step 17.

Don’t get too ahead ! The mesh doesn’t work yet! Look inyour Resource List again. Right click on the CRES type file in there and exportit into your project file as “modres”. Do the same with the SHPE file only callit “shape”. Go to File and open the long hair that you imported back into thegame all that time ago in Bodyshop. It should be in the Saved Sims folder (C:\MyDocuments\EA Games\The Sims 2\SavedSims, replace “C” with the drive you use ifneeded) and have a name along the lines of 10dJD5_AfroTest.package. Don’t quotethat bunch of letters and numbers though, it’s just an example. Best way tofind it is to arrange files by date modified and then find the most recent one.

Once it’s opened, right click in the resource box andselect “add” and import the “modres” and “modshape” files you created earlier.Then select “3D ID Referencing File” in the Resource Tree and select the filewith an instance of “0x00000002”. In the Plugin View below, there should be alist. Select “Resource Node” and delete it. Do the same with “Shape”. Click the“Package Button”. A new window should come up. Scroll down towards the bottomand you could see “Resource Node” and “Shape” listed. These are our modifiedversions that match the new mesh. Select them and drag and drop them into thelist we’ve just deleted the others from. Move them up to the top using the “upbutton”, making sure “Resource Node” is on top with “Shape” just below it.Click “Commit” then save the file. Click “AllRes” in the Tree again and deletethe modshape and modres files.

 

Step 18.

Now it’s time to test our meshout for the first time! Open Bodyshop again(I promise this is the last time!Well…..unless you’ve done something wrong) and start a new project. Go to Boy’shair and our mesh should be first the custom hair list. It will look *very*strange. This is simply because it is still using the texture and alpha of thelong hair we attached it to. This can be changed quite easily. Start a newproject using our warped looking hair(I’ll call mine “HFOAfroBrown”) then go tothe project textures folder and find your project.

Remember you saved the textures of the afro as well? Goand get them and paste them over the alphas and textures of the children’shair(starts with “cm). You can stick with these textures and just make a newalpha for the fuzzy part or make new textures for both. I’m going to use one ofmy own textures.

 

 

For the textures of the fuzzyarea, make them a little lighter and stronger than the base but keep them thesame. This makes them stand out and gives it a

sun-bleached look.

This makes the hair look a bit more natural. Feel free toexperiment with different ideas and differences between the two.

For the alpha of the new fuzzy layer of “hair_alpha3 and“hair_alpha5”, start off with a black layer, create a new layer and go over itlightly with the brush of your choice in white. Once you’ve done this, sharpenthe white layer and merge the two then copy them into the alpha of the fuzzylayers. There are plenty of free Adobe brushes to choose from that can createhair textures so have a look online and see what you can find.

Import your new files and then it’s back to SimPE forsome quick file adjustments.

 

Step 19.

Your file is pretty much ready and useable but you wantto go that little bit extra right? If not then you’re done, just skip to step,if not then keep reading.

Open up your new, textured file in SimPE. You know how tofind it now. Go to “property sets” in the resource tree and delete all thefiles that you don’t need. In this case it would be everything apart from theone that starts with “cuhairrockerblack”.

Note: P=toddler C=Child T=Teen A=Adult,elder and young adult. The grey one is elder and the last one is young adult.

M=male F=Female U=Unisex

Once you’ve done this, click on the one remaining fileand have a look in the plugin view. There should be a list of words withnumbers after them. Select the one that says “hairtone”. This hair is brown sowe need to set it to turn up in the brown bin. To the right, there’s a sectionto change the numbers. For brown, change it to 00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.

Note: For Black change the 2 to 1, blonde to3, red to 4 and grey to 5.

Commit the file and we’re done. Let’s go into the gameand see what our mesh looks like. We need a finished product photo!

Final product

Overall the hair looks prettynatural. It has the right amount of fuzz for short hair and the texture hasmore depth than it would have had otherwise. Okay it’s not that much differentfrom the original shape-wise but it’s just an example. There are loads ofoptions when it comes to afro-centric hair. I’ve provided two other hairstylesdone in the same way. The fuzz layer was enlarged further on the other examplesso it’s more visible.

Even if you don’t want to make any more afro-centrichair, hopefully you can put the other things we’ve learned to good use! So farwe’ve covered basic meshing, some SimPE, a little bit of Photoshop and how toclean your files and put them in the correct colourbins. I hope you find thisuseful and look forward to seeing some of the results!