First tutorial on how to create custom make-up for your Sims.
Level : Intermediate

Introduction

Thisis the first tutorial of “elmazzz Beauty School” and will basically show you how to create your own custom lipstick for your Sims. It is a very basic tutorial but I will show you how to create customlipstick for your Sims. In each tutorial I will share some of mycreating-secrets as well as some of my texture sources. So if you areinterested in creating make-up, these tutorials will be a good way to start,the rest is basically up to you. The biggest secret in creating anything ofgood quality is simply creating as much as you can. The more you create, thebetter you hopefully get at it.

This tutorial includes a step-by-step walkthrough of theactual creating of the lipstick, but also a section where I give you my owncreating secrets and personal tips on how to improve as a creator. You will getsome of my best links to sites where you can find good make-up pictures whichyou can use as textures for your make-up.  I will try to keep this tutorial assimple and short as possible. The reason is because I don’t want to bore youwith tons of instructions and text. I will assume that you have tried usingBody Shop before and that you are somewhat familiar with your graphic program.So here goes…

What you will need

-A graphic program. Any graphic program would actually do, but personally I recommend that you usea somewhat complex program simply because it will have more functions. Thereare a couple of good programs that are suitable for this, personally I prefer AdobePhotoshop CS2, but you can use Jasc Paint Shop Pro or GIMP ifyou’re more familiar with those. In this tutorial I will show you how to use the functions inAdobe Photoshop CS2.

-The Sims 2 Body Shop I assumeyou already got it.

-A picture source picture. You will base most of your creation on this picture, so it’s important that youchoose a good one. I will later on give you a couple of useful links to siteswhere you can find good source pictures for creating make-up.

Step 1. ‘Choosing a good sourcepicture’

 

This is the 1st step in creating a custom lipstick. Usethe picture below to make your lipstick.     

To use this picture, right click on it and choose “copy”,then just paste it into your graphic program.

Step 2. ‘Run your Body Shop’

 

Now I will give you my first creating secret, or tip. Thelightning in Body Shop isn’t the best as you may already know. Not to mentionthat it is hard to see details, even when your Sim model is zoomed. To make iteasier for you whenever creating something in Body Shop, download “BodyshopMechanic” from Dr. Pixel. You can find it here -> http://theblarneystone.org/S2-Programs.htm

I alsorecommend that you download “Wes Howe's Enhanced Bodyshop Lighting”. You can find it here -> http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=220884

When you have gotten these small applications, you areready to run your BodyShop. Do that through “Bodyshop Mechanic”. The program isvery easy to use and does not have many functions. You can adjust it in 2simple steps before entering BodyShop. I’ll show the steps below in thepicture.

Step 3. ‘Export your selectedtextures’

 

Since this tutorial is not for total beginners and sincea picture says more than a thousand words, I have chosen to show the next stepswith just pictures. The pictures and steps are all marked by numbers.

Step 4. ‘Creating the actuallipstick’

Your selected textures are now exported in to yourProjects folder. The folder can be found under: C:\Documents and Settings\”AccountName”\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims2\Projects

Locate your projects folder and open your texture file,your alpha file and your swatch file in Photoshop.

We will now start using the texture picture in thebeginning of the tutorial. So copy and paste it into a new layer in yourBodyShop texture image.

If you haven’t used these tools before, it might take awhile to figure out which tools are best suited to get the best effects.  HereI have to say that the only way for you to learn, is to play around with thetools, A LOT!

When you are done, or simply want to see how the lipslook, follow the instructions from the picture below to see your results inbodyshop. You might have to refresh the image several times before you get aresult you are satisfied with.

But the more you create, the less time it will take foryou to figure out what looks good and what doesn’t.  Another tip is that youpress F3 to zoom your bodyshop preview model. Then simply press, hold and dragthe right mouse button. This way it will be easier to see the details of yourcreations w/o having to enter the game.

Step 5. ‘Changing your alphapicture’

When you are finished with your alpha picture, replace itthe same way you replaced your colored texture picture. After saving it and refreshing your bodyshoppreview you are basically done. If there are no more changes you want to makethat is. The final step is to create a custom swatch image. You save that thesame way.  And then you’re finally finished and can import it into your game!

Final Result!

As you can see from the pictures above, the result variesfrom creating mode and normal bodyshop mode. Make sure to test your make-up ingame, because the difference is even larger there! If you think the result isOK, you can start making recolor’s, and perhaps even decide to share them withothers by uploading them to TSR.

Resources

There are tons of resources out there, but I decided toshare some of my favorite links to sites where you can find really good make-uppictures. A good picture is 50% of the final result since you will use it as abase. In each tutorial you will get one link where you can find lots of goodmakeup pictures. 

This tutorials special link tip is: Glamurno  -  http://www.glamurno.com/glamour_photo_glamur_foto/page/1/

At this first site you can find tons of beautiful makeuppictures as well as beautiful glamour pictures!  Enjoy!