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Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#76 Old 2nd Aug 2010 at 12:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ToFSimmer
Im having an issue with shadows. I can get the colors and everything working right except when I go in game my tat is semi transparent. Meaning that the shadowed affect I gave my tattoo is transparent and when I put another tattoo behind it (like a heart) I can see the heart through the shadows. I'll take pics soon. Im going to try one more thing to see if it works, but if you have a solution I would greatly appreciate it. (I am using PS CS4)


How did you do the shadowing? Shading should be done in the alpha channel. Can you post a pic of the main image, without the alpha?
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Test Subject
#77 Old 3rd Aug 2010 at 10:36 PM
hey i was wondering if it was possible to chain a tattoo together through the different body parts. Like if a person was to design a sleeve tattoo and break it up so that it fits the different parts of the arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist, etc). is what I'm talking about even possible?
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#78 Old 4th Aug 2010 at 2:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Clint Eastwood
hey i was wondering if it was possible to chain a tattoo together through the different body parts. Like if a person was to design a sleeve tattoo and break it up so that it fits the different parts of the arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist, etc). is what I'm talking about even possible?


Why not? The bicep and forearm tattoos match up very nicely, and the edge of the shoulder tattoo fits well with the bicep but at a different size. The chest and belly tattoos also match perfectly.
Screenshots
Test Subject
#79 Old 5th Aug 2010 at 5:05 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
How did you do the shadowing? Shading should be done in the alpha channel. Can you post a pic of the main image, without the alpha?


That is with the alpha channel. I actually ended up doing something different after numerous headaches. I separated the shades of green in both the blue channel and the green channel and it looks great. The only part that's transparent is its neck but unless its on the sims entire back with something bright behind it, you can't tell.
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#80 Old 5th Aug 2010 at 12:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ToFSimmer
That is with the alpha channel. I actually ended up doing something different after numerous headaches. I separated the shades of green in both the blue channel and the green channel and it looks great. The only part that's transparent is its neck but unless its on the sims entire back with something bright behind it, you can't tell.


Glad you solved it, but I'd still like to see the image or if you would upload it so we can see what caused it, since transparency in only one part of the tattoo is a nice effect some people may want to use.
Lab Assistant
#81 Old 8th Aug 2010 at 12:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by WolfoftheNyght
Ahhh, alrighty. I shall do that!

Posted and moved to this section by a Mod. Thanks to whoever moved it for me!

Paintshop Pro Tutorial is here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=414778 :3


thanks for that, i should try it right now

They tell us everything's alright and we just go along;
How can we fall asleep at night when something's clearly wrong?
When we can feed a starving world with what we throw away;
But all we serve are empty words that always tastes the same...


Nickelback - When We Stand Together
Test Subject
#82 Old 15th Aug 2010 at 4:51 PM
Thx CmarNYC for this tutorial, i'm sure this will be useful to me.
Test Subject
#83 Old 25th Aug 2010 at 5:37 AM
Ok, so ive gotten everything up to the saving part. I downloaded the plug in, but it says that it can't work. Ive tried reinstalling it and still nothing. Am I doing something wrong? Did I download the wrong versions? Please help!
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#84 Old 26th Aug 2010 at 4:55 PM
CityOfSpirits: Can you post the text of the error and a screenshot of the save options? Does it give you the option to save DDS? Can't help without more details!
Test Subject
#85 Old 11th Sep 2010 at 11:47 AM
Ermmm.........This is OT(off topic)but I saw a lot of decen Gimp users and I would like to ask how you can change the language settings.I am used to working with gimp in english but now I have it in greek.I still can create tattoos but it feels weird.By the way this is an awesome tutorial!
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#86 Old 11th Sep 2010 at 2:27 PM
Second question in this FAQ tells how to set the language in GIMP. Google is your friend.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/faq.html
Test Subject
#87 Old 11th Sep 2010 at 2:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CmarNYC
Second question in this FAQ tells how to set the language in GIMP. Google is your friend.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/faq.html


Thanks a lot!I feel kinda embarassed... Thanks again!
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#88 Old 12th Sep 2010 at 1:45 AM
No worries!
Test Subject
#89 Old 26th Sep 2010 at 11:15 PM Last edited by friendlies : 26th Sep 2010 at 11:35 PM. Reason: no reason
Thanks for the tutorial!
Test Subject
#90 Old 6th Oct 2010 at 9:11 AM
help
okay im very lost i did my whole tattoo but i forgot to install the plugin so i went back and tried to install it but i didn't see the option to install anywhere so would any one mind telling me how to install it because i cant see the download please

life is not every breath you take but the moments that take your breath away
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#91 Old 7th Oct 2010 at 3:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by betyluvu
okay im very lost i did my whole tattoo but i forgot to install the plugin so i went back and tried to install it but i didn't see the option to install anywhere so would any one mind telling me how to install it because i cant see the download please


Download the GIMP DDS plugin from this page: http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/d...win32-2.0.9.zip

(If you're using Mac you can download a tar file from http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/ but I don't know the exact steps after that.)

There's a readme file in the download, just do what it says:

To install, extract these files to your GIMP plugins directory.
This directory is usually located at:
C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins


The next time you start GIMP the plugin should be there.
Test Subject
#92 Old 21st Oct 2010 at 8:10 AM
I cannot extract the file.
It just says:
Extracting to "C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\"
Use Path: yes Overlay Files: no
Error: Access denied.
Cannot create C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\dds.exe.
Administrative privileges may be required.
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#93 Old 22nd Oct 2010 at 12:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Crussidull
I cannot extract the file.
It just says:
Extracting to "C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\"
Use Path: yes Overlay Files: no
Error: Access denied.
Cannot create C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\dds.exe.
Administrative privileges may be required.


You don't have privilege to extract a file into the Program Files folders. If you're logged into a non-administrative account, you need to log in as Administrator or another account with admin privilege. If you are an administrator and using Windows 7/Vista, you may need to extract the file to another location like the Desktop and then copy it to C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\. (I've seen extract not work on Win 7 but copy does.)
Test Subject
#94 Old 21st Nov 2010 at 11:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Elinenger
I feel so stupid now, and I really want this to work, but when I try to preview it in tattooinator, it just says "DDS image dimensions must be 512*512. Please try again" Of course the image size is 512*512, what is wrong?
Sorry to bother you, but this is just so great so I really want to make it work :P


This came up for me, too, and i corrected it by going (in the file, edit, etc... bar in gimp) Layer > Layer to image size.

I figure the problem could be that your layers are bigger than your canvas, and therefore larger than 512px

Worked for me, and I hope it helps whoever else has this problem
Test Subject
#95 Old 23rd Nov 2010 at 8:47 PM
I spent ages getting my alpha channels to work, and my tattoo was exactly the way i wanted it in tattooinator, but it won't show up in CAS.
I don't have Ambitions, but my game patches and upgrades are up to date and I have tons of custom content that works perfectly.
Any ideas how I could fix this?
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#96 Old 13th Dec 2010 at 10:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Demoxille
I spent ages getting my alpha channels to work, and my tattoo was exactly the way i wanted it in tattooinator, but it won't show up in CAS.
I don't have Ambitions, but my game patches and upgrades are up to date and I have tons of custom content that works perfectly.
Any ideas how I could fix this?


Possibly you're using an old version of Tattooinator? The first version made tattoos that would only work with Ambitions installed.
Test Subject
#97 Old 14th Dec 2010 at 9:06 PM
First, thank you, CmarNYC, for this tutorial, and pointing me towards this great tool. Tattoos in packages! That's what I want!

I've been fiddling with Sims 3 Tattoos with a goal to produce a way to make photo-tattoos.

Ok, first, I hope everyone considered the easy option - grayscale photos. Take a photo (invert if needed), use Colors->Colorify thing in Gimp, make it red - voila.

But that's not, what I've been after. I wanted to get the right way to mix colours. First, I've noticed, that colours in tattoos are mixed in subtractive way, not additive (like in RGB colour model). So, I went for the most popular subtractive colour model - CMYK.

Also, I did tests in tattooinator to "decode" the way EA mixes the colours in channels. I've used pure red, green and blue colours in channels with black skin (later double-checked the results with white). The formulas I came up with are rather saddening. Lets see:

R, G, B, A - values we have in a pixel;
r, g, b, a - values we'll end up with after mixing.

r=R^2/256*(1-G/256)*(1-B/256)*(1-A/256);
g=G^2/256*(1-B/256)*(1-A/256);
b=B^2/256*(1-A/256);
a=A^2/256.

As you can see, if you have high values on upper payers, the background layers will become basically invisible.

Despite these worrying calculations, I've decided to write a program, which:
1) Converts RGB values into CMYK, using this algorithm.
2) Arranges the colours, according to user settings (conversion from black to white is also available. It's needed, because you should be able to achieve black-ish colour by mixing full values of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, but white means there is no paint, which for us means naked skin).
3) Tunes the channels, using my calculations, to increase the values in background channels.
4) Saves data in 2 images - one for RGB, other for Alpha. I found out, that if my picture has alpha channel, Gimp discards RGB channel information.

Unfortunately, the results are far from desired ones.

This is the image I'm chopping:


This is the end result:

With settings:
Red<-White,
Green<-Magenta,
Blue<-Cyan,
Alpha<-Yellow.

As you can see, there is some nice green colours, but all the darker regions are just swallowed by yellow in top layer . This is logical, since my "tuning" of values has a ceiling - the 255 value, and doesn't actually fully happen in some cases.

I've tried several different settings, several pictures, with the end result being the same - the top layers dominating.

This is rather sad. The stupid way EA decided to mix these layers, is just beyond my understanding. After few days of work, I've basically given up. Yes, I could try to lower the values in upper layers, using formulas or just randomly, but... The end result could mean a lack of bright colours, or transparency problems...

And here are the grayscale kittens:
:D
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#98 Old 16th Dec 2010 at 1:59 AM
First... OMG cute kittens!

I can kind of understand EA's thinking - they assume tattoos will be done in up to four solid colors with no blending except use of the alpha for shading. This is similar to the idea for recolorable clothing - the RGB channels are a mask for the actual colors and patterns and each layer basically replaces the ones underneath.

Your idea of pre-processing the image to weight the 'higher' RGBA colors to compensate and produce a more photo-like blending is a very interesting one. When I get time I'll take a look at the math and see if I can figure something out.
Test Subject
#99 Old 19th Dec 2010 at 5:53 PM
Yeah, I kind of understand, that full range photos aren't the tattoos, that were intended with this system, but... It still makes more sense for me to have the values of the channels on the skin directly representing the values in RGBA channels, instead of using overlays - it would lead to much more intuitive results, and allow much more flexibility.

In the end, just having an option for stencil tattoo would be great. I have found so many nice widely coloured tattoo sketches, it's a shame, that my sims can't utilize them.

All things considered, I think I'll come back to this later. Need to try out all options I have in mind to tune the values better. Also, might start using something like Gimp Separate plug-in, to make RGB to CMYK conversion (I'm not sure, how good that algorithm, that I use, performs). I'm just also short on time at the moment.
Ms. Byte (Deceased)
Original Poster
#100 Old 20th Dec 2010 at 12:49 PM
I'm also going to see if I can do something in Tattooinator - Convert to Stencil or phototattoo option as you mentioned. And spare time is short for me too right now so it may have to wait.
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