Bad Luck Brian's Painting Customizing *NEW TUT*

[Arabelle Denson]

WARNING: If you believe in Santa Claus, are offended by smart-alec comments and/or do not appreciate casuality in tutorials, don't read this.



So I've noticed that there seems to be a limited selection of paintings for our homes. If you're in the habit of building extravagant mansions like myself, you'll understand where I'm coming from. Bare walls are a big no-no. I've also noticed a dramatic lack of tutorials available for creating paintings. At least, for Gimp users. Sadly, we are not all blessed with Photoshop.

After buggering around on the most 'successful' tutorial I could find, and coming away remarkably unsuccessful, I threw caution to the wind and played with TSRW until I figured it out. Now I'm a happy camper, and here to share my click-by-click manual for fellow Gimp users. Hopefully there will be no major malfunctions. We're leaving nothing to chance here.

• The Sims Resource Workshop
  
• GIMP
  
• Internet/Google
  
• The Sims 3
  
• GIMP .dds file reader plugin (http://registry.gimp.org/node/70)
  

STEP 1

Open up The Sims Resource Workshop (TSRW) and click Create New Project >.

STEP 2

Double click on Objects.

STEP 3

Click on the + Decor.

STEP 4

Double click on Paintings and Posters. It might take forever to load. Don't worry, it's normal. Or at least, my laptop wants me to think it is.

STEP 5

Pick a painting. I'm a Sims cavewoman and only have Late Night, Pets, and Supernatural installed currently, so I don't have access to some paintings, even though TSWR likes to show me them in the selection screen (what you're looking at right now) just to tease me. For our purposes, choose the weird detective poster. Trust me, he won't be weird for long. Then click Next.

STEP 6

Rename it. Whatever you enter for the Project Name, enter for Title. Also, give it a description. Something nice. Descriptive, even. DO NOT click the little box. It'll screw you over like Santa did when he forgot to deliver your pony for Christmas. Just don't. Trust me. Then click Next. Because I don't want to add another step, click OK when the 'Finished' box pops up. Still with me?

STEP 7

So there's a fair bit going on here. The thing in the red box that looks like a compact mirror (for those who don't know, the highlighted blue box south-east of HELP...if the red box didn't give it away) is what controls the green half of the screen. It automatically turns itself on. I prefer to turn it off. None of that nonsense here. So don't panic if the green bit goes away. I'm just trying to mess with you.
The long, narrow box that says "Launcher thumbnail" and a white box with "(none)" next to it is very important. Don't do anything about it just yet, but we'll need to fix it up sooner than later.
Now, for the real deal behind Step 7. The TEXTURES button! Click it.

STEP 8

Click the picture in the Overlay box. An EDIT button will pop up. Click it.
Also, there's still a green line. I forgot to turn it off. Oops.

STEP 9

This'll pop up. Click EXPORT.
And I turned the green line off. If you didn't, it'll still be there in the background, taking up space.

STEP 10

Save it somewhere. I save it in Documents > Electronic Arts > My Creations (> Decor, if I'm feeling particularly neat and tidy). Create that My Creations folder, or put it some place you'll remember it.
Don't be afraid of that big, long name. Change it up if you want. Also, make SURE it's a .dds file. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but I have to say.

STEP 11

Open that SAME file in GIMP. Click the Rectangle Select Tool and highlight the creepy detective. The entire picture, mind you. Everything you select is going in the picture frame.

STEP 12

Edit > Copy Visible. After that's done, Edit > Paste As > New Image. Copy the image you want to use and Paste As > New Layer in the same window.

STEP 13

Click Layer > Scale Layer.

STEP 14

Scale the image down to the size of the canvas. Can't find the canvas size? It's in the top circle.
To save myself about five more steps, I'll just tell you. Merge the layers together (your image on top...in this case, a white peacock). Then play with the effects, if you desire. If not, ignore this. I like to Cartoonify and Softglow. It makes it more...well, Simmish. I also add a thin black border and blur it. For whatever reason, it makes the picture look better in the frame. Now, Copy Visible and Paste back into the TSRW Export window (the one with the detective and the million MITMAP layers). If you've closed it...why would you close it? I didn't tell you to...open it back up again and Paste As > New Layer.

STEP 15

Holy crap. Step 15 already? Time flies.
So anyway. You're going to want to use the Move tool (in the red box) to move the peacock or whatever you're using on top of the detective. It has to match up PERFECTLY (zoom to get those stay pixels), or else your framed picture will look wonky. Merge the peacock and detective layers and delete 'mitmap 1 - 9' layers. Save it.

STEP 16

Go back to TSRW and click IMPORT. Find the file and click OK or whatever affirmative command your computer throws at you. A pop-up will read: "Uncompressed DDS. This is an uncompressed DDS file. Uncompressed DDS files will result in larger packages. Do you still wish to use it?" Click YES.

STEP 17

It should look like this, although not with the peacock. With whatever image you've chosen to use. Click DONE.

STEP 18

Ta da! You've got yourself a customized picture! Feel free to customize the other variations (frame colors) with the same or different images.
Now, we're not done yet. Remember that Launcher Thumbnail we talked about in Step 7? Yeah, we're doing that now. Fortunately, it's so easy it doesn't even merit a picture. Considering what I've screenshot thusfar in this tutorial, that's saying something.
Simply click on the little white box. A button with three dots (...) will appear next to it. Click this. Find wherever you saved the original image (you did save a copy of the original, right?) and click OPEN.
There. Now you'll have something to click when the time comes to place it in-game.

STEP 19
This doesn't merit an image either. You're just saving the new painting, although you do have to do it *twice*.
FIRST: File > Save As > White Peacock (is already entered, because that was what I called it in Step 6. Yours will say something different.) > SAVE
SECOND: File > Export > To Sims3Pack > you'll have to name it and put in in the download directory (Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Downloads)
Open your launcher, click the Downloads tab, check the painting, click Install, wait for it to install, click OK, and you're ready to play!

[Alexa Rose]

Amazing tutriual! But you missed that you need a plug-in for gimp to run dds files.

[Skye Valens]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you.

[Arabelle Denson]

Oct 26, 2012 21:50:32 GMT -5 Alexa Rose said:

Amazing tutriual! But you missed that you need a plug-in for gimp to run dds files.

Ah hah! Thank you. It's been added. Also added another bit to Step 12 about pasting as a new layer because that's kind of important. Thanks.

[Shiann Crowe]

Awesome! Thank you!

Hmm... Methinks... A screenshot of a horse.. Turned into a painting.. Would look very good beside the stalls or the trophies. ;D

[Kyler Vigoss]

I needed this like 3 weeks ago haha But this is awesome!

[Arabelle Denson]

It has come to my attention that some players are wanting to customize paintings that do not have textures. After strenuously burrowing through TSR Workshop's many caverns, I google'd it and swam through TSR's forums until I came up with an answer. To wit, the tutorial extension you are about to see.

Step 1 - Step 6
Essentially the same. Instead of the creepy detective picture, though, we're going to use the creepy grim reaper.

Step 7

Instead of clicking on TEXTURES, click on MESH. Make sure you have High Level of Detail selected in the dropdown box under MESH. Otherwise, Group 1, which is what you need, won't show up.
The first table entry under Group 1 says Default Material somethingblahblah. Click it, then click on the box with the ... in it that appears to the right.

Step 8

Click on the image circled. Then click on the box with the ... in it that appears to the right.

Step 9

Look familiar? Good! Export this to a place you'll remember. Do NOT change its name under any circumstances. Also, do not click DONE until you've replaced the image of the grim reaper with one of your own.

Step 10+
Go back to the original tutorial.

NOTE: Non-texturable paintings don't have any recolorable channels in-game; therefor, you can't make collections. If you want twenty variations of that grim reaper, you'll have to make twenty separate packages. Sorry. ALSO, it is possible to change that three-piece musical portrait this way, although be warned - it is a bit different. If you're having problems, PM me. I may make a tutorial for that one specifically in a few days.

[Arabelle Denson]

...the images are small. >< I apologize for the inconvenience. I'll fix it as soon as I can.