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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 6:24 PM
Default Playing around with textures
I attempted a birdie, it's not great, but it's the first time I've tried. I was considering throwing the birds into the themes as well...




This was before it had eyes, but I don't have a 'with eyes' shot that show it's 'cheeks' properly
Screenshots
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Scholar
Original Poster
#2 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:09 PM
Possibly the most retarded bird you'll ever see, but still something cute about it :}




Here you can see it has a little Mohican
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:11 PM
[QUOTE=ChickieTeeta]I attempted a birdie, it's not great, but it's the first time I've tried. I was considering throwing the birds into the themes as well...

I have never paid real close attention to the birds. And I've never seen one enlarged that much.

I know you said, it was your first and that you were fooling around with the textures. I know you said you didn't think it was all that good.

I want you to keep in mind a few things before I ask, and I have to ask. Keep in mind I am not a modder. Keep in mind that I personally think you're a genius. Keep in mind I think you're very brave for even thinking of attempting to mod a bird.

Without being rude, and without meaning sarcasm or criticism or any kind, I have to ask if the birds actually look like a third graders badly made papier mache pigeon or were you just fooling around with textures to see what was what?

Like I said before, I've never paid much attention to the birds, nor have I ever seen one that close up, so no insult is intended to your work.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:16 PM
[QUOTE=ChickieTeeta]Possibly the most retarded bird you'll ever see, but still something cute about it :}

Actually, I can see real potential with the second bird. It doesn't look nearly as retarded as you think. With a little tweaking this one could end up quite striking.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Scholar
Original Poster
#5 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ladyskye
[QUOTE=ChickieTeeta]I attempted a birdie, it's not great, but it's the first time I've tried. I was considering throwing the birds into the themes as well...

I have never paid real close attention to the birds. And I've never seen one enlarged that much.

I know you said, it was your first and that you were fooling around with the textures. I know you said you didn't think it was all that good.

I want you to keep in mind a few things before I ask, and I have to ask. Keep in mind I am not a modder. Keep in mind that I personally think you're a genius. Keep in mind I think you're very brave for even thinking of attempting to mod a bird.

Without being rude, and without meaning sarcasm or criticism or any kind, I have to ask if the birds actually look like a third graders badly made papier mache pigeon or were you just fooling around with textures to see what was what?

Like I said before, I've never paid much attention to the birds, nor have I ever seen one that close up, so no insult is intended to your work.


No offense taken.
No the birds have feathers, but they come from the texture not the mesh, so unless I texture it to look feathery it has whatever look I give it, which is great because then the mesh doesn't get in the way of what you're aiming for...like dragon scales, but I don't think I'm that talented. I'm just seeing where everything lies on them just now, and the second one uses an unused area which is how I got the Mohican and the extension on the bottom of the wings and tail. The mesh for the head crest is there but it's been made transparent with the texturing on the game birds. So it seems like different shaped wings could be made, but I'm not sure how far you'll be able to cut in to them with transparency yet.
The first was meant to look like dried out cracked paper, so the look you interpreted is what I'd been aiming for anyway, so I couldn't really take offense :P
The second one is drawn.
Scholar
Original Poster
#6 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:30 PM Last edited by ChickieTeeta : 16th Jun 2013 at 9:04 PM.
Here's one of the original falcons. I have the parrots somewhere, just looking for them.
My fave is the steam punk bird though, and the skeletal parrot is great as well.

original parrot
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:33 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ChickieTeeta
No offense taken.
No the birds have feathers, but they come from the texture not the mesh, so unless I texture it to look feathery it has whatever look I give it, which is great because then the mesh doesn't get in the way of what you're aiming for...like dragon scales, but I don't think I'm that talented. I'm just seeing where everything lies on them just now, and the second one uses an unused area which is how I got the Mohican and the extension on the bottom of the wings and tail. The mesh for the head crest is there but it's been made transparent with the texturing on the game birds. So it seems like different shaped wings could be made, but I'm not sure how far you'll be able to cut in to them with transparency yet.
The first was meant to look like dried out cracked paper, so the look you interpreted is what I'd been aiming for anyway, so I couldn't really take offense :P
The second one is drawn.


OK, then. As a dragon wing, it would be neither scaled or feathered. It will be the shape and the bone structure that would make it distinctly dragon and not bird. You're doing very well with the drawn bird. The wings could then be filled with a smooth or small grained leather texture in a gradient color. As for the dragons skin, if you could find an alligator texture in the leathers it might work for dragon scale. I suppose you could use it on the wings too if you had to. Just a thought. Don't know if it's possible or if it would work.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ChickieTeeta
Here's one of the original falcons. I have the parrots somewhere, just looking for them.
My fave is the steam punk bird though, and the skeletal parrot is great as well.


I'm kinda partial to the little skeletal parrot as well. There's something charmingly pathetic about it. Too bad you couldn't use the skeletal parrot as the foundation of your dragon. The angular thin shape would be much better suited.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Scholar
Original Poster
#9 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ladyskye
OK, then. As a dragon wing, it would be neither scaled or feathered. It will be the shape and the bone structure that would make it distinctly dragon and not bird. You're doing very well with the drawn bird. The wings could then be filled with a smooth or small grained leather texture in a gradient color. As for the dragons skin, if you could find an alligator texture in the leathers it might work for dragon scale. I suppose you could use it on the wings too if you had to. Just a thought. Don't know if it's possible or if it would work.


It's not that simple, the bird textures aren't laid out like other textures, so taking a texture from somewhere and trying to apply it isn't the easiest way to go about it...
to make it harder
they have the wings open texture...

and the wings closed texture..

Both of these have to be made as similar as possible. My colors don't quite match up between the 2.
There's probably an easier way to do these that allow for using borrowed textures, I don't know what it is though.
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 8:53 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ChickieTeeta
It's not that simple, the bird textures aren't laid out like other textures, so taking a texture from somewhere and trying to apply it isn't the easiest way to go about it...
to make it harder
they have the wings open texture...
and the wings closed texture..

Both of these have to be made as similar as possible. My colors don't quite match up between the 2.
There's probably an easier way to do these that allow for using borrowed textures, I don't know what it is though.

Ok, now I really think you're a genius. What a royal pain in the a$$ trying to follow that. I haven't worked with a graphics program since I lost my Paint Shop Pro7 and I'm not sure that I would have been able to do much with what they gave you. If you have access to TS1, there were baby dragons in that one in Makin Magic. Could one of them be used as a pattern to modify a bird mesh? Or is that possible? Or is that one of the things we aren't allowed to talk about?
Another question. Would it actually be easier to fill in the skeletal parrot mesh rather than using one of the fleshed out birds and trying to modify it?

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Scholar
Original Poster
#11 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 9:01 PM Last edited by ChickieTeeta : 16th Jun 2013 at 9:12 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by ladyskye
Ok, now I really think you're a genius. What a royal pain in the a$$ trying to follow that. I haven't worked with a graphics program since I lost my Paint Shop Pro7 and I'm not sure that I would have been able to do much with what they gave you. If you have access to TS1, there were baby dragons in that one in Makin Magic. Could one of them be used as a pattern to modify a bird mesh? Or is that possible? Or is that one of the things we aren't allowed to talk about?
Another question. Would it actually be easier to fill in the skeletal parrot mesh rather than using one of the fleshed out birds and trying to modify it?


I lost my psp 7 as well. I have gimp just now, which is better since it will work directly with dds. I always thought psp7 was doing everything I required, but I do really like what I've seen of Gimp so far.
The layout will be different and a squillion times smaller in size for TS1.
I'm convinced dragon valley dragons are our birds, I'm fairly sure their textures could just be renamed as ours, but it's store content so the packages can't be opened to even look at the texture.

=D
This is the skeleton wings open texture
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Lab Assistant
#12 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 9:12 PM
[QUOTE=ChickieTeeta]I lost my psp 7 as well. I have gimp just now, which is better since it will work directly with dds. I always thought psp7 was doing everything I required, but I do really like what I've seen of Gimp so far.
The layout will be different and a squillion times smaller in size for TS1.
I'm convinced dragon valley dragons are our birds, I'm fairly sure their textures could just be renamed as ours, but it's store content so the packages can't be opened to even look at the texture.

=D
This is the skeleton wings open texture

I'm sure you're right about Dragon Valley. This actually looks like it might have potential. Don't know. Have to go to sleep right now, but maybe I'll get really brave and open up a couple. I have gimp. But right now, it's sleep time. Work nights and haven't been to bed yet. Have to work tonight.

But don't give up because you're actually doing better with this than you think you are.

I like playing The Sims. I don't like to be played like a Sim.
Scholar
Original Poster
#13 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 9:19 PM
Thank you

I hope you do open Gimp, it will be nice to see someone else's work.

Hope you have a nice, refreshing sleep.
Scholar
Original Poster
#14 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 10:15 PM
The skeleton bird wouldn't work very well. You can close up the body at the sides, but everything else is still skeletal looking. It's also painfully thin from the front. It was designed to be exactly what it is.

Re-textured, it's shape is more suited to a giant wasp

or an alien lol (also showing it's full body width from the front.)
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Test Subject
#15 Old 16th Jun 2013 at 11:53 PM
I love the 2nd bird ChickieTeeta :If you could recolor it's beak, it would look great :D

The skeleton bird will give me nightmares though. You should gift him to your Grim Reaper
Test Subject
#16 Old 18th Jun 2013 at 11:57 AM
I'm with the others, ChickieTeeta. I think the second bird looks really beautiful. I was always very disappointed with how undetailed the birds are in Medieval, especially considering that Pets was already out at that point. I'm curious where you're going with this.
Field Researcher
#17 Old 18th Jun 2013 at 2:52 PM
Scary...
Test Subject
#18 Old 19th Jun 2013 at 5:49 AM
Since you're just going for the dragon textures, you could just pirate Dragon Valley, nab the textures, and then delete. Not gonna lie, it would be awesome to have pet dragons in Sims Medieval, I would probably start a whole new ambition just for a dragon-based theme.
Scholar
Original Poster
#19 Old 19th Jun 2013 at 8:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Pariah
Since you're just going for the dragon textures, you could just pirate Dragon Valley, nab the textures, and then delete. Not gonna lie, it would be awesome to have pet dragons in Sims Medieval, I would probably start a whole new ambition just for a dragon-based theme.


I wasn't going exclusively for dragon textures, it's not my main thing, I'd really like to see one in there somewhere though, but if I ever do anything with these I'd like a good mix of...weirdness lol (not the alien though, as I agree that's a little scary :P)
It was why I'd originally extracted the bird textures to check out the shape and layout etc to see if a dragon could be done.
I don't need to pirate Dragon Valley, since I own it :P. I did try and see if the texture layout was even slightly similar but you can't get in to the files.

Dragon Valley Dragon in TS3...
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Test Subject
#20 Old 19th Jun 2013 at 6:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by ChickieTeeta
Dragon Valley Dragon in TS3...


ChickieTeeta- It would be so awesome if you could make this happen and then show us how. :lovestruc You can't believe how much my Khalessi would want her dragons!
Scholar
Original Poster
#21 Old 19th Jun 2013 at 9:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SweetDalilah
ChickieTeeta- It would be so awesome if you could make this happen and then show us how. :lovestruc You can't believe how much my Khalessi would want her dragons!


Well, if you could get in to the dragon valley packages and if the dragon was the same layout as one of the birds, then it would just be a case of overwriting the texture file of a bird you didn't mind losing.
Someone could always beg EA to let us have one of the textures lol
It's not quite the same shape though, so I don't know if it would be simple as just overwriting an existing texture, probably not.
Test Subject
#22 Old 21st Jun 2013 at 11:22 AM
Chickie, there's actually a way to break up the original sim3.pack. It's just... hm... not a quick method and boring.

You will need Delphy's Multi-Extractor (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038). Since your copy is legit, you should not have trouble doing that. The program will convert the different items in the sims3.pack to package files which then can be opened in s3pe. However, in the process, the files' individual names will be lost, so you will have to sort through a lot of files in order to find what you are looking for. Unfortunately, there's no way around that that I know of.

The dragons do indeed look similar, but I do have doubts as well that it will be as simple as swapping a texture. I am not sure... there is a new packager for objects, but is there a way for us now to actually clone objects from the game? Another option might be to default replace the mesh along with the texture, but that might not work the way it should without more extensive editing either.
Scholar
Original Poster
#23 Old 21st Jun 2013 at 11:41 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Amaryll
Chickie, there's actually a way to break up the original sim3.pack. It's just... hm... not a quick method and boring.

You will need Delphy's Multi-Extractor (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038). Since your copy is legit, you should not have trouble doing that. The program will convert the different items in the sims3.pack to package files which then can be opened in s3pe. However, in the process, the files' individual names will be lost, so you will have to sort through a lot of files in order to find what you are looking for. Unfortunately, there's no way around that that I know of.

The dragons do indeed look similar, but I do have doubts as well that it will be as simple as swapping a texture. I am not sure... there is a new packager for objects, but is there a way for us now to actually clone objects from the game? Another option might be to default replace the mesh along with the texture, but that might not work the way it should without more extensive editing either.


I have Delphy's MultiPack Extractor as I hate the sim3packs, and prefer to have everything in packages. It's how I know that the actual packages can't be opened.
It comes up with this error in S3PE Error message:
Expected magic tag 'DBPF'. Found 'DBPP'.

I thought decrapifier might work for it, but it didn't. Then I stopped trying since I'm not convinced it's the same layout anyway.
Test Subject
#24 Old 22nd Jun 2013 at 12:09 PM
That's... strange. I have actually done just that, because I wanted to extract one of the dresses to convert. I never had any trouble opening the package files/extracting parts from them.

I guess I could take a look, if you still care?
Scholar
Original Poster
#25 Old 22nd Jun 2013 at 2:16 PM Last edited by ChickieTeeta : 22nd Jun 2013 at 2:36 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Amaryll
That's... strange. I have actually done just that, because I wanted to extract one of the dresses to convert. I never had any trouble opening the package files/extracting parts from them.

I guess I could take a look, if you still care?


I tried with a few different packages and none of them would open. I just figured what I might have done wrong though. I don't normally use de-crapifier. I extracted them and then ran them through. From what I recall of decrapifier, I should have ran the S3Pack through before extracting them. It's been a long, horrible week...and I'm a bit thick lol
I've got them now.

Completely different. It may be able to be mangled on to the steampunk bird, but I doubt it would look right even then
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