Hi!
I tried to make 2 new Frozen dresses but I encountered some problems with the shadows, especially on Anna's dress.
I used Lidiqnata's shadow tutorial, which I always do, but then the shadows on Anna's dress look really weird, and they don't seem to "blend in" my texture.
So I included a photo of the dress before I added shadows (I also kept it like this in the project, so I can always start from there when the shadows go wrong) and one after (also the second project).
Anyway, if someone could please tell me what I can do to fix it, that'd be great!

Then there's Elsa's dress, which I personally like a lot, but the shadows are hardly noticeable. Should I make them darker, or is the dress good enough as it is?

Thanks in advance!

Personally, I think the shadows look nice as they are. If you don't like them, perhaps change the colour of the shadow layer to a darker blue rather than black.

Thank you, I will try that
If that doesn't work, could I upload the dresses like this, or do the textures still look too plain?
I really try, I'm not really good at this whole shadow/highlights thing :P

It's best to show some bigger shots In Bodyshop thing always look different than in-game.
The short dress:Seeing it in SimPE - first why do you use 2 alpha layered mesh for this dress,i think there are normal meshes,that does not require alpha to look like that. This usually saves time recoloring What mesh are you using?
Second - the bottom part has no shading(just a plain blue paint) and thus why the dress looks like cut off. The shading should go all the way down.
And lastly - i see you have painted(probably by hand)a lot of nice details,but they look very pixelated/edgy at the ends. I am not saying to use smooth option,but try making them nice and trim And just an advise - try not using so much noise - it makes the transparent layers above it edgy as well(something is not right in Gimp about it)

Do you run the game on a old/slow pc? Because if not - try taking pictures with "more smooth edges option on" and bigger resolution.Oh an the "squares pixels" there was something for that option too.

They do need to have some shading - and Elsa's dress in particular could use more contours on the torso. The shadows on your green Elsa dress are absolutely gorgeous - what method did you use for that?

Sorry, I had to go cry over my exam results for a while...
Anyway, I found it very hard to find a suitable dress mesh for Anna's dress, I couldn't quite find one which had the right length, or from which you could edit the length. So I was glad I found this one (it's from Zodapop - TF Alpha Mesh 0001 on TSR). But I was confused by the many files when I wanted to recolour it :s
Yeah, about the bottom part, I'm still trying to add more shadows but it's harder than I thought... Usually it's the tops that give me trouble -_-
I'll try to work something out with the details
About the noise, I used to do everything with paint, so I'm not really good at GIMP, and I didn't know how to save the file so that I could keep the layers, so unless I start all over, I don't think I can fix that? But next time I'll totally keep that in mind
About the photo's, these were taken very quickly, I also made some photos in game, but I hadn't added any shadows at that point, I'll add some anyway

Yeah, I suppose Elsa's Ice dress could do with some extra shading The shadows on my green Elsa dress were done by following the tutorial from Lidiqnata, using GIMP
Maybe I can get the shadows on this dress as good as that, but I find it easier to add shadows to a plain colour, than to a "print" like the top of Elsa's ice dress..
(I hope you sort of get what I mean, I'm not good in technical english at all )

Ok so i looked around for teen mesh like that and yeah it's hard to find something suitable. I came across a mesh from All-About-Style that was ok,but a bit too short than your dress. I can offer a mesh that i made,but do not know it'll like it.(pic attached)
Aside from that Gimp is a lot better to use than paint. There are many tutorials that can help you with the basics of Gimp-how to start/save/edit options and so on.So i am suggesting you try and finish the dress in Gimp,because you can make the details really smooth and nice.

And finally that something i had to say about the square pixels - turn it off in-game. :D

Whether you want square pixels on or off depends on your resolution, I think. The simplest approach is "if your sims look squished or squashed, change square pixels" .

I think (the pixels) was available for me when i had the crappiest pc with the 600x800 resolution. But of course,it matters if you can run it at good graphics

If I use a your mesh, do I have to start all over again?
I also have that mesh from AllAboutStyle, but the length didn't really work out for Anna's dress
About the photo's, I really have no ideas which settings are default in my game, so I'll have a look at that
If I finish the dress (I find it really hard not to just give up) I will try to make the details better in GIMP..

You said you saved your work in case you mess something up - the png of your texture will work on all meshes(just you have to combine the bottom and the top if it's not an alpha mesh). Just copy your anna-last-edit texture to your new mesh(of course if you wish to do so). I just suggested it,because the two alpha layers are not needed for her dress

Oh okay, will that solve the problems of the shadows as well? Cause I never really had any problems with adding the shadows to the skirt in my previous uploads and I really have no idea what I'm doing most of the time so
but where can I get your mesh, please?

I offered my mesh,because it was simpler to edit than 2 alpha-layered dress Does not mean that you must use it. But if you wish - visit my home page.
In addition - what exactly problem with the shadows do you have? Because the only thing that i noticed in SimPe,was the cut off bottom plain blue part of the dress? You just have to put those shadows down to the end of the dress and that would be all. Because the UVmap of that mesh is ok,not different than any other Maxis mesh.

Usually my shadows kept the triangle shape more when I added them, but now they look very rounded at the top, which is why I feel like it doesn't really blend in with the blue skirt...
And I've tried to make it unnoticable, but it doesn't work :s
I don't really understand what you mean with "put those shadows down to the end of the dress" I'm sorry :s ugh, all my knowledge of the english language seems to have left me :s
I guess I have to play with the shadows a little, maybe I can solve it..

Keeping it triangular is not ok - smooth and round,after blur is better. This way it blends better,as for the shadows - just to cover the plain blue part of your dress(at the bottom). See picture for example - the red is no,the green is yes.

Oh I see, okay thank you
I'll see what I can make of it

Hey there, i love your Elsa dress, :lovestruc will it put on as a download? Sorry for my English

Did you see how much $ people are paying for frozen stuff?? that's insane!! Glad this is free!!

The first thing that popped into my head when I looked at the first dress was "Wow! That is some shade of blue!" I'd tone it down a bit, I actually thought it was a broken mesh. It's a little oversaturated, I mean.

The thing that poppled into my head when I saw the second dress, though, was "What's that picture of Elsa doing there??" Good job!

very cool job.