Look at what I made and worship me! (Post Your Creations)

[pinksmoke]

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted that Bon Voyage Hula Girl hair without the annoying headband doohickey. So I made an Alpha Edit. Gonna be posted here soon. Anyway, I love the new layout, Nouk! I see you use Obsidian Dawn brushes- My favourite brush site! -worships Nouk even more-

[aingeal]

The piratey layout theme is great! My only critique is that the text in the framed page is a bit hard to read: the non-bolded text against the striped background, and the black text against the dark grey background at the top, particularly. Not sure if it's just on my screen and in IE, though.

i really like the male outfits, Renegade - sexy, practical and something i can actually imagine normal guys wearing.

[HIM-six-six-six]

aingeal, WOW! Your sims are super hot! If you want to upload stuff without feeling the need to remove meshes try Wicked Sims, You can upload any mesh with your stuff there.

[aingeal]

Thank you! i might do that one day - have to get over my bad habit of lurking there ^^;

(And thank you so much for doing all those amazing hair conversions and edits - it's so hard to find nice, longer hair for male Sims, and it was like dying and going to Sim heaven when i found all the hairs you'd done!)

[HIM-six-six-six]

Thank you! i might do that one day - have to get over my bad habit of lurking there ^^;

(And thank you so much for doing all those amazing hair conversions and edits - it's so hard to find nice, longer hair for male Sims, and it was like dying and going to Sim heaven when i found all the hairs you'd done!)

you're very welcome, We sure needed more hair for the males! And of course you are welcome at Wicked Sims ;-) Jessica is awesome and kindly allows sharing of paystuffs with creations too ;-)

[pinksmoke]

Any tips of brightening textures besides Brightness/Contrast and the Dodge and Burn tool? Because that's the only reason I'm not posting a hair here or Insim (Which I haven't posted to in awhile but I love their approval system- or lack thereof - But in my case that's a good thing because I'm impatient)

[Renegade]

Burn, dodge, burn, burn, burn, dodge, dodge, burn, dodge, dodge, burn, dodge, burn, burn.

No, seriously, I personally need more info.  Though I assume that like the rest of the commercial whores out there, you use EVIL PHOTOSHOP!

Okay, really, no, I'm just jealous of anyone who can use Photoshop, cuz I don't know how

[Anouk]

Got photoshop? Research (google) using Levels.

[pinksmoke]

Fankoo tons. The Hula Girl hair textures are seriously borked. I'll post a picture here soon.

[Ren]

google about the shadow/highlight tool under image->adjustment, too.

[mando]

You'll probably have to use a variety of techniques and adjustments in order to get proper highlights and shadows. I tend to use levels, hue/saturation and brightness/contrast (the Exposure adjustment can do some really nice things as well). Painting on highlights and shadows at different brush opacities and on different layers is a really good option as well (a bit more fiddly though), as is using blend modes. I also recommend duplicating your layers and adjusting the darkness and opacity in order to create shadows and highlights that follow the shape and texture of the base image, and then erasing out what you don't need. I hate using dodge, as i find it screws things up way more than it helps and I would much rather paint on my highlights with a brush (I don't find I have the same issues with the burn tool), but if you aren't depending on it or overusing it, it can be helpful.

Most important, learn how to use layers and adjust your options (and apply your adjustments either to adjustment layers or duplicated layers so you can go back and fix any errors), and practice, practice, practice!

(If you can try CS3 or have a copy on hand, they have much improved the brightness/contrast tool. It's does a much nicer job of adjusting the lights and darks based on the specific objects as opposed to adjusting everything the exact same amount as CS2 did.)

[Problematique]

Expanding on what mando said, particularly blend modes, screen will lighten both highlights and shadows, and you can then use a layer in soft light or multiply to compensate. Playing with the opacities also helps . And layer masks are also your friend, if you're too lazy about drawing in highlights and shadows as I am.

[aingeal]

Besides what's been mentioned, i also play around with Curves to adjust the amount and intensity of light and shadows. Normally what i do is to use Curves first, maybe some Brightness/Contrast, then adjust the hues with Hue/Saturation and sometimes Colour Balance. Then some manual painting to touch up parts.

There are really quite a few ways to go about getting the effect you want, it's just a matter of experimenting to get the effect you want in a way you like. i rarely ever use the Dodge/Burn tool too ^^; It has its uses, but i prefer to use the other tools.

[pinksmoke]

Ah, I found the easy fix. I just found out the Hilary hair has the same textures as the Hula Girl hair. I think. I better not jinx it. -crosses fingers-

And I can't handpaint to save my life. And I'm the laziest bastard you'll ever know,so ........

By the way, I have the 'cheap' or 'lite/light' version of Photoshop CS2, I believe it's called Photoshop Elements. Does the job on several occasions, but sometimes you need to stretch a little bit more with filters.

[pinksmoke]

I'm no newbie at eye defaults, and I made a pretty decent pair of eyes. So I made them into defaults. My sims' heads all turned RED! Doh.