#i just hope the textures start working idk whats up with them not exporting

[fishsticxz-art]

little 3d guys and props for my friend's twitch channel :]

[parisakamali]

hey! could you tell me how you made the third panel in this edit of yours? thanks!!

hi! i will try to not make this more complicated than needed because it's super simple. i hope this will be useful and let me know if things don't make sense!! 💛

ok so everything i did was in photoshop, but i think it can be done in photopea too? i'm not sure tho... anyway, some of the small things i did:

i used the oil effect for the main picture, but soft since i don't really like the default options it give. here are my options for this particular edit:

then, i blurred everything around the person. i don't have the exact setting anymore, but this is pretty much freestyle if you wanna do it. play around with what works for you. just take the blur tool and go around the subject in order to make it stand out more.

i added some psds and some textures, this again is your choice. for the texture below i erased it on her face idk why, i just felt like it lmao

the text part is just me going around playing with the pen tool. i did the lines and created small circles with the ellipse tool (filled the circles with the same colour as the lines), put them at the end of the line.

i put all the lines in the same folder, and with the folder selected, i created a layer mask in order to be able to delete what i didn't need. make sure you have the mask part (the white rectangle) of the layer selected before you start erasing. take the eraser tool and play with that, see what works for you.

if you want to bring something you already erased back, (still with the mask selected) get the brush tool, and go over what you need back.

now onto the fun part!!! the thing i suppose you're most interested in 👀

the first thing i did was create a video timeline. here's how to do that: go to Window -> Timeline -> Create Video Timeline

if instead of this, you get Create Frame Animation, just click on the arrow next to it, and you should have the other option.

the flashing overlay i used is part of this pack. the cool thing about this pack is that all the overlays are already in psd format so you don't have to convert them, it's much easier. (let me know if you want to know how to use a gif that is not already in psd format.)

you basically just open the overlay you want (in my case, the one labeled "flashing") and drag it into your edit.

the files are pretty big, but the way they look also depends on how big your canvas already is. for this edit, my picture was 600 x 750.

make sure the file is positioned wherever you want it. for me, it just made it as big as the picture itself, but play around, see what works.

it's possible your overlay will be shorter than everything else in your timeline, and look like this:

all you have to do to fix this is drag this part at the top in order for it to be at the end of you gif texture (where the blue line is, in this case):

ialso, make sure every element of your edit is within those two parts, otherwise things will disappear while the gif moves.

now. with the gif layer selected, create a layer mask. you could straight up erase the layer itself, but i think a layer mask is much more useful given that mistakes happen, and this way it's easier to fix them.

just like with the pen tool lines from before, you select the mask, take the eraser tool and delete wherever you want. i erased the silhouette, cause i wanted the flash to seem like it comes from behind her. this is how my mask looks at the end:

now all you have left is the saving. here's the thing you need to remember: you have a bunch of elements in your panel and tumblr unfortunately has a 5 mb gif limit. so i would suggest you don't make your canvas too big. so if you don't want to end up having to delete and mess with everything in your edit (like me with this one), keep your canvas decent sized. i think 600 x 750 is a good size, especially for 6 panels.

you have to save this type of panel like you would save a gif. so go to: File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy). depending on your computer, this might take a while or be very fast lol...

in the bottom left corner of the window that will appear, you can see you gif size:

if it's bigger than 5mb, what i usually do is delete some of the useless colours from the right side of the window. don't delete too many cause it will look ugly afterwards, just the shades you don't really need.

these are my settings, but tbh i have no idea what i'm doing, this are just some i saw work for some gifmakers.

save it and upload it to tumblr! <3

i sometimes open the gif back in photoshop to sharpen everything or delete frames if the file is too big, but that's not necessary. (let me know if you want to know how to sharpen it, even though i'm not an expert, is just what kinda works for me)

[partenopae]

Thanks for answering my earlier ask, I just started 3d modeling and learning about game dev this semester have any tips or advice for a beginner learning Maya?

sure!! i’m by no means an expert and and my maya process is uhh Chaotic to say the least lol but here’s some things that might be useful? sorry if that’s stuff you already know!

set up your own shelves! the poly modeling shelf is fine and a good starting point if you’re not sure what tools are out there but having all the tools you actually use often in one place is gonna speed up your workflow bc there’s just. way too many menus lol

also for setting up your workspace you’re probably gonna start with modeling standard and iirc that comes with the attribute editor and the modeling toolkit? editors that i think are really useful are the channel box/layer editor and the outliner

speaking of the outliner, NAME YOUR COMPONENTS AND MATERIALS!!! it’s essential when you’re working with other people who will look at your models and also just good practise and will help you when you have a lot of stuff in your scene, groups are really useful too

you can hide stuff by pressing h

if you press b while in select mode you’ll activate soft select which is really useful if you’re trying to get some more organic shapes

curves can be a bit hard to manipulate but if you’re trying to get forms like uhh idk cables or branches extruding along them will be your best friend

if you press control while using the multicut tool you can easily add edge loops! or u can just use the edge loop tool

you can check for ngons and stuff like nonmanifold geometry with the cleanup tool but just tell it to select matching polygons and then fix them manually because maya WILL absolutely destroy your topology

you can manually harden/soften edges under mesh display which is good to know because maya will just do whatever it wants sometimes, also pressing 3 will smoothen your entire mesh

might just be me and depends on what you’re making but generally i prefer smoothed cubes over actual spheres bc of the way the topology flows

you can get some quick shapes with booleans but unless you’re willing to do a Lot of cleanup i personally just wouldn’t use them lol

if you’re going for a simple look and absolutely hate UVing like me you can go a long way with vertex colour and get some nice results, you just have to keep your topology in mind if you want sharp forms

i don’t have many tips for UVing bc i hate it but make sure your shells are roughly the same size, like obviously some will need to be bigger if you need more details on the texture but it’s gonna be pretty noticeable if the quality in your texture changes drastically

try to place the seams where it’s least noticeable

also if parts are symmetrical you should stack the shells to save space

you can snap to points, the grid, curves and a few others but those are the ones i mainly use

when you export your model make sure it’s on 0/0/0 and that you freeze transform and delete history!

that’s some stuff i could think off the top of my head, i hope that’s somewhat useful?? flippednormals on youtube has some really great tutorials if you’re looking for some better advice jsdhfs

[qvoixcc]

How to Franken-mesh clothings: top to top

not... exactly a complete tutorial since I didn’t do the shadow, spec & normal map but eh. I’m only sharing what I know. the rest i don’t know. would appreciate it tho it y’all won’t be rude about it and teach me ;u; i mean, I am still learning after all; I’m just sharing what I know, at least to help you guys get started a lil bit (ALSO, idk my blender terms as well llol)

written instructions for this tutorial STEP 1: getting two ea meshes that you want to combine together & the diffuse map

open up your s4s> select create 3D mesh> name your package file (you can delete it later, you won’t need it anymore)> select the tops you want> export the diffuse map along with the mesh from the meshes tab (export LOD 0) STEP 2: blender shortcuts

A key: select/deselect all G+Z: moving objects vertically G+X: moving objects horizontally G+Y: moving objects back and forth CTRL+ALT+Q: quad view S: scaling/sizing objects S+Z: scaling the object vertically S+X: scaling the object horizontally (you can press x twice for another type, just try messing around and see which fits your liking) Mouse>scroll wheel: to rotate the whole thing and view around blender L: to select a whole chunk of the mesh part (just make sure your mouse is pointing at that part of the mesh you want it to be selected) Right click: to select the dots Shift+right click: to selected multiple.. parts of the mesh (or dot) W>merge Ctrl+J: joining two meshes together

Step 3: mesh checking and removing unwanted parts/appending the second mesh top note: please remember the geometry of the mesh before doing any of this, it is very important as it needs to be the same number as the top you’re going to use to import to in s4s. (crude, am i making sense??)

okay, you can toggle on and off the little eye on the right panel to see which mesh belongs to which section of the top, once you’ve located the ones you don’t need, remove them by right-clicking and select delete. now, go into edit mode from the middle-bottom section of the screen. move your cursor over to the unwanted part of the mesh and press L to select all and X to delete the vertices. you can also toggle on and off the visible view of the mesh on the bottom which eventually you’ll see me doing.  once you’re happy with your result, append the second mesh top by going to file> append> locate the second file mesh> go into object folder and append s4_studio_mesh_xxxx (all of it) you will need to do another checking of the second mesh. I’m gonna assume you guys use the same mesh as I did, so once done, you’ll have something that looks like what’s shown on the video. Join those two meshes together by first selecting one mesh then press shift and click on the second mesh on the right panel and click CTRL+J. joined? ok but now you see this teeny tiny gap around the shoulder area. Go back into edit mode and use your mouse to scroll in real close, right click to select the edge of two sides of the gap (careful not to select the other dots) and then press W> select merge> then... center. (i usually pick center but I’ve seen other creators go for either first or last or something) done? yay! (the remove doubles & clean up option is optional i guess but I always do it cos i’m weird) now save as> give it a name and now, time for the texture part.

Step 4: joining two diffuse maps together in Photoshop (probably not the right way either lol but it works for me) open up your first diffuse map on photoshop, then drag your second one on top. I used magic wand to select the second one then paste it on another layer and remove... uhm, do i have to explain this part?? like.. ugh, i don’t really know what to say. :((( but yeah, basically you just create layers and remove the unwanted parts like the long sleeve and the holes etc etc then merging them together. I then make the image as white as possible and create another layer for coloring. (please note all this is done in png format, you’ll need to save as later as a dds file for the diffuse map) once you’re happy with your results, time for step 5! Step 5: importing your franken-mesh and diffuse map okay, now open up your sims 4 studio> select create 3D mesh> look for the top that had the same geometry as I said earlier on on step 3. give it a name> import the diffuse dds, remove the rest (cos idk how the others work) and go into meshes tab> import ALL LODS which means all 0,1,2,3. and you should be done. hopefully.

if any problems, please let me know and I’ll try to help. or that you see me doing something dumb and wrong, let me know too. sharing is learning right? together? or something? blablabla??? ty for taking your time to read my dumb tutorial but yeah, hope it helps and that you guys learn something, even a teeny tiny bit is cool. and that’s it. happy simming!

there will be a follow up video of how to mesh a top and outfit together later on.