Tutorial for The Sims 4 CC - Creating a top

I will be using Marvelous Designer 8 (MD), Blender 2.79 also Blender 2.70, Sims 4 Studio (S4S) and Photoshop (I have CS6).

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In MD I will only show you the beginning part and how you need to export your creation, if you want to learn how to use MD there are plenty of tutorials you can watch. Because for that I would actually need to make a video for it.
*This how I create my custom content and it might be different from other creators. I will be showing screenshots, which is pretty easy to follow and I will also explain what I'm doing step by step or also any shortcut keys I use, I will write them.

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You will need the Sims avatars, nude meshes etc., which you can get here. These were uploaded by Jordutch, so credits to them!

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In Marvelous Designer 8 is where we create.

(File - Open - Avatar)

I will choose the female avatar because I'm creating a top for a female sim (if you're creating a top for a male sim you would choose male avatar etc.).
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So on the left side is where you'll see the 3D avatar/preview and on the right is where you create your top, so it should look similar to this.
This will be a simple top, it's just for the tutorial, always start with something simple if it's your first time trying something just so that you get familiarized with everything.

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After you have created your top you will need to export it, make sure you check these settings when saving it (I highlighted what you need to check).

*It's best if you create a folder for each creation, this one I will create a folder named "TOP", what I create in MD I usually save it as "md".
You can also Save Project if you want but I don't usually do that.

(File - Export - OBJ).

After choosing these settings press OK at the bottom and you're done with MD.

You can now close MD.

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Once you are done with MD you need to open Blender 2.79.

First you need to open the nude mesh according to what you're making, so for me I would open the Female Top Nude mesh because I'm making a top for a female sim.

(File - Open - Nude mesh).

This is what it should look like and you can press the N key to close the Transform options to your right because we don't need those (well I don't use it).

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Now we're going to import what we created in MD.

(File - Import - Wavefront) navigate to the "TOP" folder and open the "md" file.

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Select "md" on your right, click on Object Data (which looks like a little triangle).

Scroll down to where it says UV Maps and under, where it says "UVMap" double click and rename it to "uv_0".

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Now select "md" and shift click "s4studio_mesh_1", click in the middle of the avatar where the top is and CTRL+J to join both together.

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 Now enter Edit Mode by using the TAB key or choosing from the bottom menu. 

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You'll need to add a UV/Image Editor screen, to do that drag the upper corner to the left and now you'll have the same screen twice, so on the new screen to your left, on the bottom left corner you need to click on the little 3D box and from the menu choose UV/Image Editor.

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On your new screen on the left, you'll have new options on the little menu at the bottom, now you need to open the UV template you downloaded.

On the bottom menu you need to click Image - Open Image and select the UV template and it'll now show up on the screen to your left.

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Select the UVs with the B key drawing a box around the top (you can also use the C key to draw what you want to select), now press the S key - Y key and type .5 and press enter (that helps the UVs go back to it's original size because when we opened up the UV template image, it stretched them vertically).

*When you have all the UVs selected, with the G key you can move it around, with the S key you can make it smaller or bigger and with the L key we select a certain UV. Example, if I want to select the right side of the top, I would have to put my cursor over it and press the L key to only select that and SHIFT+L to select multiple.

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Remember that each UV should go in the correct area or it will not show up right in the game, for example if I put a top where it says bottom, your top will not show up in the correct place on the sims body.
Always remember this so try to get used to the colors and where each UV should go.

As you can see I put my top UVs at the bottom where the free green space is.

*Some people like to delete part of the body UVs to make more space but remember that when you delete part of the sims UVs it will be see through in the game so since this top is so small I can't really delete any. Maybe if the top was bigger and not a crop top or if it had long sleeves I could have deleted some and also part of the arms but now it's not possible with this top.

The smaller the UVs the more blurry the texture will look in game if you're not using the HQ mod, with the HQ mod you won't have any problem. You can find out more about it here.

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Now we need to add a black image so we can bake (the baking is for the shadows and textures for the top).
Create a new image 2048 x 4096 *this is the size I use which is for the cc to be HQ compatible.

Bottom left menu (Image - New Image - Width 2048 / Height 4096) Make sure the color is black and press OK, it should already be black by default but make sure anyways.
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We need to Bake, to do that on the right screen we choose the Render option that looks like a little camera, scroll down to where you see Bake, check and select the options I highlighted, change Mergin from 16 px to 1 px and after you're done press Bake.

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During baking on the left side you can see the textures start to show up, this might take 2-3 minutes, depending on your PC and on the taskbar where the Blender icon is you can see a little green bar showing you the process.
When that is done you need to save the image.

Bottom left menu (Image - Save As Image) I usually save this as "baked".
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You need to open Sims 4 Studio.

Under CAS select Create 3D Mesh and press CAS. Search "salmon" and look for the bra, select it and click next (bottom right).
Now you'll have to name it and that's when you choose choose the name for your custom content.
Example "uonosims_floral_top". So it'll look like this "uonosims_floral_top.package" in the Mods folder.

If I'm making a bottom cc I choose the salmon panties.

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Now switch to the Meshes tab and press Export Mesh, this is what you will use for Data Transfer, so I usually save it as "reference". Don't close S4S yet.

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Go back to Blender 2.79

Switch to Object Mode (TAB) and append your reference.

(File - Append) Select the reference.blend you just exported from S4S, choose Object and "s4studio_mesh_1".

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On your right you can delete the extra .001 "rig" and "bone" if you'd like (we don't need those) by right clicking and choosing Delete.

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Now choose the one that says s4studio_mesh_1 and click on Object Modifiers which looks like a little wrench.
Select Add Modifier and from the menu choose Data Transfer.

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Scroll down until you see Source Object and choose "s4studio_mesh_1.001"

Check Face Corner Data and choose UVs and next to that select uv_1 for both and press Apply at the top.

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Select s4studio_mesh_1.001 and switch to Edit Mode (TAB). Press W key and S key (subdivide) as many times as you can, I usually do it 4 times.

  *Try not to over do it because Blender will lag and freeze.

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After you've done that go back into Object Mode (TAB) and save as "lod_0".

(File - Save As) You can now close Blender 2.79

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Open Blender 2.70

Open the lod_0 we just saved in Blender 2.79

(Open)
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We need to do the weights transfer, so you need to click on "s4studio_mesh_1.001" and shift select "s4studio_mesh_1".
On the bottom menu where you see Object Mode, click on it and from the menu choose Weight Paint.
To your left you'll get new options, you need to check Auto Normalize and scroll down until you see Transfer Weights, click that and wait for it to finish.
Now go down a little and you'll see three options, on the one where it says Method click on Nearest Face and choose Nearest Face again.

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We can now delete "s4studio_mesh_1.001" you can do that by right clicking on it and choosing Delete, we don't need it anymore because we're done transfering the weights.

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Now to duplicate and flip normals so that when we turn our sims in game the top wont go invisible in certain parts.
Press the A key to deselect all, put your cursor over the top and press the L key, that should select only the top and it should look like this.

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Without moving your mouse press SHIFT+D (that duplicates the top) - press enter - press the spacebar and type "flip normals" and enter again.

After that, go back to Object Mode and save.
Now we're almost done so don't close Blender just yet.
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Switch back to S4S

In the tabs, click on the one that says Meshes, where it says LOD 0 click Import Mesh, and wait for your mesh to save.

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To your left your new top should look like this.

and to your right the new lod should have changed with the new poly count.

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Back to Blender for the last time.

We need to do the rest of the lods now, remember you need to be in Object Mode to do this.

To your right choose Object Modifier and click Add Modifier.

From the menu select Decimate, scroll down until you see Decimate and look for the number "1.0000".

Double click on it and choose something lower, I usually use 0.8 for each lod.

After changing the number to something lower press Apply above that.

The lower you make it the less polys it will have but the uglier the top will look because UVs will start to get deleted.

After you applied, save this one as lod_1 (File - Save As - "lod_1") and we repeat the process for lod_2 and lod_3.

Always choosing decimate, changing to 0.8, pressing apply and saving after each time.

Now you can close Blender because we won't need it again.

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Now we use S4S again.

For each lod you need to import the new lod you saved, just like we did for LOD 0.

For LOD 1 you would import lod_1, for LOD 2 you would import lod_2 and for LOD 3 you would import lod_3.

That is why I save each name like this so that later when I have to do this I do not get confused.

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Open Photoshop

That's it! Now with the baked image we saved back in Blender 2.79, with that you can make the shadows and the swatches for the top.

In S4S where it says Specular and Normal I make those blank because I don't make or use those but you can, there should be tutorials for that.

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For the Shadow, in Photoshop you need to open the "baked" image and we need to remove the top(shirt) part and body part and only leave the black part, you should be able to tell it's the shadow of the shirt.

So delete everything around the shadow, so you can only see the black part.

Change the opacity to 25 or 30 (I use 25) that will make the appearance of a shadow.

Create a new layer under that (CTRL+left click on new layer) paint it all white and go to the Channels tab.

It should now look something like this.

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In the channels tab ALT click new layer and click ok, that creates an Alpha channel.

Click on any of the channels above alpha 1 (it doesn't matter which one), now we're able to see our top again.

Select the shadow part with the rectangular marquee tool (shortcut M key), click back on the alpha 1 channel, color that in with white.

DO NOT merge it just click save as and save that as "shadow" PNG.

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Now import the shadow image to where it says Shadow.

Don't panic when your shadow isn't showing up in S4S becacuse it doesn't, but it will be visible when you go in The Sims 4.

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Now the baked texture looks pretty crappy to use it for our shirt so we need to make it a little prettier and smoother.

I learned this cool technique from a tutorial Serenity has.

Open the baked texture again and delete everything except for the top.

Should look like this.

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Make a copy of this layer (CTRL+J) now you'll have layer 0 copy and layer 0, select layer 0 and CRTL+left click on it to select it.

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Select - Modify - Expand, expand it by 4px

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Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur - 4.7px

Repeat this action 10 times by pressing CTRL+J

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On the top menu go to Layer and select Merge Visible at the bottom, this will merge all your layers.

Now go to Filter - Noise - Reduce Noise. Select the settings I have and click OK.

Repeat this action 6 times (CTRL+F 6 times)

Now you need to save this as "swatch" and Import it in to S4S where it says Diffuse.

*Always remember to save (bottom right) because if you don't save the changes and close the progrma you will loose your work, it will not be applied and you won't see the difference in game.

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Here's a tip to make more swatches with color or with patterns.

CTRL+J the Layer twice, now you'll have the top three times. Make the first layer Soft Light with an opacity of 60 and the second layer Linear Burn with an opacity of 60.

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Choose the last layer "Layer 1 copy 9" and now CTRL+left click it so you can select it.

At the bottom choose the circle that's split in half and select either solid color or pattern.

So after you picked what color or pattern you want to use, you need to go to that layer and change the layer to Multiply.

Merge Visible after you've chose what you want and save it as "swatch".

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Now go over to S4S, add a new swatch and Import the new swatch.

For every new swatch you want to make repeat this step.

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