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#1 Old 23rd Aug 2014 at 2:29 AM
Default Issue with custom tattoo being washed out?
I've been working on a custom tattoo for a friend's simself and no matter what I do it always looks washed out. I'm using photoshop cs2 by the way.
This is how it looks in photoshop


but in game it looks like this


Does anyone happen to know?
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#2 Old 27th Aug 2014 at 11:38 AM
I still haven't worked this out. Ideas?
Sesquipedalian Pisciform
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#3 Old 27th Aug 2014 at 11:46 AM
what tool are you using? Color Magic?

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#4 Old 27th Aug 2014 at 7:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by leefish
what tool are you using? Color Magic?


Yes, Color Magic and s4pe.
Thank you for your response.
Pettifogging Legalist!
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#5 Old 27th Aug 2014 at 7:40 PM
Have you seen this with other kinds of CC as well, or is it specific to tattoos? And have you made other original designs in (this version of) Photoshop yet, or is this a new thing for you? (I think I've seen you post CC somewhere but I don't recall where/what)

Asking because the first thing I'd look at is whether color management in Photoshop is set up correctly .. but I never looked at tattoos, maybe they have some sort of specular/mask/overlay or whatever that clothes don't have.

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Lab Assistant
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#6 Old 27th Aug 2014 at 8:43 PM
I'd also check the alpha channel, just in case. It doesn't look like it's an alpha problem, but you never know. These things pop up in the strangest of places.
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#7 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 12:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by plasticbox
Have you seen this with other kinds of CC as well, or is it specific to tattoos? And have you made other original designs in (this version of) Photoshop yet, or is this a new thing for you? (I think I've seen you post CC somewhere but I don't recall where/what)

Asking because the first thing I'd look at is whether color management in Photoshop is set up correctly .. but I never looked at tattoos, maybe they have some sort of specular/mask/overlay or whatever that clothes don't have.


Nope, the tattoo is the only one. I followed someone's tutorial for making custom tattoos and I tried a few times and every time it shows up like this.
I have a slew of clothes on a thread over at the EA/Sims forum and on a tumblr account, may have been either of those.

If I hide the rgb group in the channels tab I'm left with a black field with a white lump (that's the scientific term, I swear) for where the tattoo is. http://sims-sala-bim.tumblr.com/pos...are-some-things I used.

Thanks for the responses guys!
I wasn't originally planning on fiddling with tattoos quite yet but my good friend said she'd love to have her tats in game for her simself so... heh
Eminence Grise
#8 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 1:48 AM
Maybe tats have some built in transparency when the game layers them on the sim? you could try basing it on something else, like an accessory, or makeup...
Lab Assistant
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#9 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 2:10 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Srikandi
Maybe tats have some built in transparency when the game layers them on the sim? you could try basing it on something else, like an accessory, or makeup...


Nope. I used a tattoo as the base for Fenris and Poison Ivy. They came out fine. You have to edit the alpha channel, though. The tattoo alpha is weird, if I recall.

Best bet is to take your tattoo into a separate layer (no background or surrounding areas, just the tattoo itself), crank the Lightness all the way to max (so it's solid white in the exact shape of your tattoo), and then merge that layer with a totally black layer. Copy the result over your existing Alpha channel.

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#10 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 2:27 AM
I've attached a screen snip of how the alphas part looks, maybe it'll help. And a rar of the layers/swatch dds and regular dds, in case someone wants to poke at it, maybe someone will see what I'm doing wrong and call post a little "do this to fix it" kind of thing.

I feel pretty silly about it.

*Thanks for all the responses*
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: rar  TellysTat.rar (1.30 MB, 18 downloads) - View custom content
Lab Assistant
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#11 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 2:41 AM
Okay, I poked at it, and figured out the problem.

There's NOTHING wrong with what you did.

In order to enhance the 3D look of the Sims, there's an overlay that brightens up certain areas. (If you look at a Sims's arm, for example, you can clearly see there's a bright streak). That's streak happens to run right through and OVER your tattoo. It makes sense as to why, it's just causing you some trouble in this instance.

You can see this is the case by just moving the tattoo to the side of the arm instead of the front. It looks fine.

I would recommend making the tattoo a little darker and higher contrast. That should clear it up. (I tested by increasing the Contrast by about 80%, and lowering the Lightness by 10%. That looked good to me, but you'll probably have to play around with it to match what you're looking for.)
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#12 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 3:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MaclimesZero
Okay, I poked at it, and figured out the problem.

There's NOTHING wrong with what you did.

In order to enhance the 3D look of the Sims, there's an overlay that brightens up certain areas. (If you look at a Sims's arm, for example, you can clearly see there's a bright streak). That's streak happens to run right through and OVER your tattoo. It makes sense as to why, it's just causing you some trouble in this instance.

You can see this is the case by just moving the tattoo to the side of the arm instead of the front. It looks fine.

I would recommend making the tattoo a little darker and higher contrast. That should clear it up. (I tested by increasing the Contrast by about 80%, and lowering the Lightness by 10%. That looked good to me, but you'll probably have to play around with it to match what you're looking for.)


Ok, I feel pretty silly for not having noticed that! Thank you!
If it were just a regular ol' tattoo I'd maybe just change the placement but since that's where my friend has the tattoo I'll go fiddle with what you said, that all made sense!
Thanks a bunch.
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#13 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 4:09 AM
Ok, I tried your suggestion which kinda made it kinda spooky and the person it's for and I were like "nope, not yet" so I got even more whacky with it...
I opened it up in photoshop and made a white square on a layer over it and set it to overlay and then when it looked as bright as it does in the game (more or less) I went and made a little fuzzy blurb layer where it looks like a searchlight glowing and fiddled with the opacity on there until that made that blazing spot a bit easier to deal with and then I grabbed the layer with the actual tattoo and played with the exposure settings until it seemed about right and then hid the white layer and smashed it's butt together and saved a new dds.

:D
It's been approved by it's owner.

Thanks a bunch! It made me think about it further and then I realized it'd be easier to fiddle with it's settings if I did something to replicate the white-out effect the game uses (or highlight... heh)

(bright picture is what happened when I just fiddled with brightness/contrast and the more full picture is after I fiddled with a bunch of stuff)
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
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#14 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 4:11 AM
Brilliant idea! Sure beats my plan of edit, import, test, edit, import, test, edit, import, test, edit, import, test ...

Glad it worked out for you!
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#15 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 4:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by MaclimesZero
Brilliant idea! Sure beats my plan of edit, import, test, edit, import, test, edit, import, test, edit, import, test ...

Glad it worked out for you!


I wouldn't have thought of it without your help!

The shoulder tattoo I said I'd work on eventually work on is going to be... fun... the way the flat sims are splayed out means I'll have to get tricky, I'm sort of not sure I'm up for it... haha
Lab Assistant
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#16 Old 28th Aug 2014 at 5:51 AM
This might help. It's the unwrapped texture file, including vertexes/faces. It doesn't show you exactly where things connect (like shoulder to torso). But it does help you wrap things. It's already in exact correct dimension, too.

The other image is a basic skin texture, same dimensions and locations.

Put these two in a new document (layered on top of each other). Any DDS you export will be the exact same layout, dimensions, and locations. If you play with the transparency on the layers, you can see what I mean.

Makes editing a BREEZE with this handy dandy reference.

It's the male, but the arms and stuff are exactly the same as on the female. Only difference is the breasts, and even then, it's not much a difference.
Attached files:
File Type: 7z  malelayout.7z (972.3 KB, 30 downloads) - View custom content
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