Credits go to...? (and two other questions)

[fireflyastori]

Hi I'm really new to modding and creating things for Sims 2. I just got started yesterday! ^_^

I want to create a wardrobe for a sim based on the outfits a character wears during the course of their stay on a television show. Some of them I've created with the maxis, but I've found that in order to get everything I'll need to venture into using recolors or new meshes outside of the original game.

I'm all for giving credit where credit is due, of course, but who gets what? I was looking for a certain kind of outfit/mesh recently and found that recoloring and designing a recolor was easier for me than recoloring and designing what the mesh was originally from.

So who would get the credit? Who would I link back to?

Also, there are a few pieces of clothing that I'm not sure what mesh is used... how do I know which one is used so I can link back?

In bodyshop, how do I package clothing? It's very easy to package a sim, but how do I just do the clothes or hairstyles?

[StarboardParoxysm]

How to share your stuff: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Body_Shop_Recolouring_FAQ#How_do_I_share_my_Body_Shop_creations.3F

If you've completely retextured, re-alpha'd, and re-bumpmapped the mesh you recoloured, you don't need to give credit to whoever created the recolour you started with.

You -do- need to link back to the mesh creator and give them credit. It's up to you to know which meshes you've recoloured, and sorting out which it might be if you don't know can be a big hassle. Later EPs do pack meshes for hair and clothing with the sim, so if you have a later EP you can pack up a sim wearing the outfit and the mesh will come along with it, so you can see which one is the right one... but if you only have the base game or only up to Pets, you've got a conundrum.

What I would do is get DDO (Delphy's Download Organiser, found under Delphy's profile here at MTS2), sort out only body meshes, and then take out everything else but your body meshes and the recolour you want to find... and then narrow it down by half at a time. Run Body Shop, see if the mesh still shows up for your recolour... if it does, take out half the body meshes and try again. Sort that way till you find it.

And in future, don't recolour until you know what mesh it is.

[fireflyastori]

How to share your stuff: http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?title=Tutorials:Body_Shop_Recolouring_FAQ#How_do_I_share_my_Body_Shop_creations.3F

If you've completely retextured, re-alpha'd, and re-bumpmapped the mesh you recoloured, you don't need to give credit to whoever created the recolour you started with.

You -do- need to link back to the mesh creator and give them credit. It's up to you to know which meshes you've recoloured, and sorting out which it might be if you don't know can be a big hassle. Later EPs do pack meshes for hair and clothing with the sim, so if you have a later EP you can pack up a sim wearing the outfit and the mesh will come along with it, so you can see which one is the right one... but if you only have the base game or only up to Pets, you've got a conundrum.

What I would do is get DDO (Delphy's Download Organiser, found under Delphy's profile here at MTS2), sort out only body meshes, and then take out everything else but your body meshes and the recolour you want to find... and then narrow it down by half at a time. Run Body Shop, see if the mesh still shows up for your recolour... if it does, take out half the body meshes and try again. Sort that way till you find it.

And in future, don't recolour until you know what mesh it is.

Thanks for telling me about the Download Organizer. I'll be sure to use that.

And I haven't recolored a mesh yet... I wanted to make sure I wasn't taking the long way around something until I asked. I have a tendency to do that and I don't end up figuring out the simple solutions until much later, when I'm more experienced. Right now, though, I'm 80% noob, so I figured asking couldn't hurt.

I'm still a little confused about the credits thing... I think I worded it strangely, though.

For instance, I found a pair of bibs that I want to recolor. The original mesh that I was told to download with the bibs seems to be simply a pair of shorts. The person who did the recoloring linked to the original mesh. Who should I link back to? The original mesh or the recolor/design?

What does re-bumping and re-alphaing mean?

Also, if you create a Sim and wish to share it, and you package it, does it package all the meshes used for the clothing with it? Or do those need to be linked seperately?

[StarboardParoxysm]

Okay, so... if you haven't recoloured yet, then you're better off than I thought. Just know what mesh you're colouring before you start and you're fine. :)

If you completely change all of the textures (and don't use bits of the one you start a project from in Body Shop) as well as the alpha (the black and white graphic) and bump map (the shades of grey graphic - may or may not be present depending on the mesh) then you don't need to credit whoever made the recolour you started from. If you use any part of their original texture, alpha, or bump map, you need to credit them (and make sure they're okay with that in the first place).

If you completely make your own new texture, alpha, and bump map, then all you need to credit is the creator of the mesh, not the recolour creator as you'll have made your recolour entirely yourself.

If you create a sim and wish to share it, and you have any EPs from Pets or later, it will package any meshes used for the clothing or hair. However, unless you've recoloured those meshes yourself, and the creator allows it, and they're not hosted on MTS2, you need to remove the meshes from the sims2pack before uploading and link to them separately.