Sometimes we see an article of clothing and we wish we could make it a little more "interesting." One way to make that happen is to make all or part of the article of clothing transparent. For purposes of this tutorial, I will not go into how to make clothing. Also, I will assume you already know how to make a texture (.dds) file. Finally, I use GIMP, so I will assume you have a working knowledge of GIMP. I do not know how to use Adobe PhotoShop, but I would assume the techniques are similar. OK, here we go:
1. Open your .dds file in GIMP. Use the free select tool to outline the part of the clothing you want to make transparent. If you want to make the entire article of clothing transparent, then you do not have to outline anything.
2. Go to the menu on the top and click on "Colors." From the dropdown menu, select "Components" (near the bottom) and then "Decompose." A dialog window should appear.
3. Click on the dropdown menu and select "RGBA" and then click on "OK." A new window with a black background should appear.
4. Now go to your "Layers" dock. (If you don't see that dock, click on "Windows" and select "Recently Closed Docks, Dialogs...".) Click on the eye that appears next to each layer, except for the Alpha layer (the last one). This will close those layers and make it easier to work. Now you should see a window where your texture is white.
5. Go to your Toolbox dock. Click on the "Select by Color" tool. It is a hand with three colored squares. Then click on the white part of your texture. You should now see a blinking broken line (sometimes known as the "marching ants") around your texture.
6. Go to the top of your window and click on "Select." Click on "Shrink" in the dropdown menu. A dialog window should appear. It should indicate that you are shrinking by 1px. Click OK.
7. Now click on the color square near the bottom of your Toolbox. (It is probably black.) A dialog window should appear. Select the "V" line. That is the "Value" line. Use the cursors (or highlight and replace) to set the value number. The number you use depends upon how transparent you want the item to appear. Higher numbers are less transparent and lower numbers are more transparent. I usually use 60. Press "OK."
8. Click on the "Fill" icon (the bucket) in your Toolbox. If you have not already, make sure your "Tool Options" dock is up. (To make it appear, click on "Windows" and "Dockable Dialogs.") Make sure the "FG color" and "Fill Whole Selection" lines are selected in the Tool Options dock. Click in your texture. It will look solid gray, but don't worry.
8. Go to the top of the window and select "Colors," "Compose," "RGBA," and "OK." Export this layer to a .dds file. It is OK to overwrite or replace your prior .dds file as this is the texture with which you will now work. Also, save your project as a .xcf file. Close out GIMP.
9. Open the TSR Workshop. Go the the Textures tab. In the square labeled "Multiplier," click on "Edit" and then the three squares. At the top of the new window, click on "Import." Browse for your new .dds file. Click "Done" when it appears. Wait for the texture to load, and then you should be able to view the new texture. Please note, however, that sometimes the texture will not show as transparent in the Workshop. You will have to export the texture and check it in the game. You can export it as a .sims3pack by clicking on "File" "Export." If you want to export it as a .package file, click on "Edit," select "Project Contents" and then select .package.
I will try to add pics at a later date.
I want to thank cshenrich for the information which allowed me to make this tutorial.
GIMP is available, for free, at
http://www.gimp.org/. The 32-bit .dds plug-in for GIMP is available at http://gimp-dds.googlecode.com/files/gimp-dds-win32-2.0.9.zip The 64-bit version can be found at http://www.aljacom.com/~gimp/gimp-dds-2.0.9-64bits.zip
