*UPDATE 7-22* Warlokk's Hi-Res Alpha Tshirt & Skirt (default size)

[jaccirocker]

I really apreciate all the hard work you've put into this project. I have been following ( ok stalking ) your forum since the first body shape project and I'm really enjoying the new stuff. I'm here for the long haul. Take your time because I know it will be well worth the wait. I can texture pretty good and some alpha editing (but no meshing) So if uou need any help from me just let me know.

[urkydj]

oooooh when will the next size of this wonderful collection be released?

[Warlokk]

The rest of the sizes for the Alpha outfit will be a while... I've got the full-body nudes in testing now for all the sizes however, and they will be released soon.  Since those are a component in making the sizes for this outfit, it's an important step, plus it'll give everyone some full-body meshes to start making clothes for in all the sizes.  Once those are released, I'm going back to the A's, then we'll go from there.

[Black Sabbath]

I Can't wait warlokk you've been doing a great job so far

[Diva]

Ty Warlokk...Great work:)

[The Pyro]

woot
awesome

[Animera]

YAY!! Thanx very much, Warlokk

[lazcars]

Hello, have you a tutorial to add a alpah part to a mesh, when I do it the mesh is tranparent. thanks for the great job

[Warlokk]

There isn't one yet that I'm aware of, I had some help from Marvine though.  It's tricky though, I'll say that.

[lazcars]

ok and could you explain to me how you do please?

[Warlokk]

Not really, it's been a while and it'd take forever to type up... your best bet is to start with the Hula Skirt outfit from Maxis, that's the one Marvine and I both based our first ones on.  The important thing is the groups need to stay the same, which it sounds like you got... there's a setting in SimPE someplace for Transparency that needs to be set to a certain value, but I forget which... I'll try to look tonight, but my free time has been pretty limited lately.  All the info is over at MTS2 in the Create section though, I believe.

[Chairman Greg]

I was playing with this one to see what it inspired and noticed a fascinating anomaly:


Artifact appears at oblique lighting angles
No boobies were harmed in the making of this screen shot.

Here I filled in the regular layer's alpha channel with solid white and used a skin tone for the texture.  The alpha layer (which is the skirt and blouse) has a solid red texture and solid black alpha channel in the region of the skirt (and no top yet).  Both bump maps ("normals") are flat; this is just a test article.

The amusement happened when I rotated the model in Body Shop.  When the lighting at the sides of the skirt is oblique, a small triangle will appear.  I'm guessing that we're seeing the inside of the skirt because the shading matches light reflecting off the inside.

This isn't a serious problem because you can make a lot of different outfits that blank out that portion of the skirt (such as a shorter skirt).  The artifact will only appear if you try to make a full knee-length skirt based on this mesh.

It's probably something odd about the UV map.  (This UV map has other amusing anomalies that will present more of a challenge to the skinner, but that's a different subject.)

[Chairman Greg]

Here's the challenging bit about the UV map that skinners should be aware of:


The UV map is pinched in the front of the skirt

The skinners at Maxis must have done this to achieve some effect in the hula skirt.  Perhaps they were wanting to distort the pattern of the grass skirt to make it appear more natural.

In any case, if your pattern won't line up in front, this is why.  The UV map is pinched in the tummy area.

Once you get this one open in Body Shop you'll also see that the skirt is oriented sideways in the texture (which is why the letters are sideways in this screen shot).  It will help to export the hula skirt to see how the whole thing lays out.

(Note that you can also see the anomalous triangles in this view.)

[Chairman Greg]

Just in case someone wants the body grid I was using in the screen shot above, here it is:

http://thesims2.simshost.com/images/bodygrid.jpg
(Big file, about 1.1 MB.)

[Chairman Greg]

Aw, darn.  This morning I ran into a problem that is a show-stopper for a sleeved outfit.


UV Map leaves a hole near the underarm
Don't shoot the messenger.

That little ragged hole appears on both sides, on the inside of the sleeve.  It won't go away even if I use a solid white alpha channel for the clothing layer (that would be the "alpha" layer).

It might be that those facets on the skin layer are outside the clothing layer.  Blanking out the skin layer doesn't fix it, but I don't suppose I would have expected it to.

But... hmmm... one might make an outfit with no armpits.  They used to do that back in the 19th century, before the invention of antiperspirants.  It could be a Sims outfit and a history lesson at the same time!
Downloading such an outfit would probably would qualify for college credit in Nyawk or Fornia.

There are also a couple of those tricky bits where the background shows through at certain lighting angles, too.  (You can see one of them here, where the blue part of the sleeve just isn't there.)  This alpha business seems to be more complex than I would have thought!