Milkshape Tutorial: Creating Texture Maps for Sims 2 Objects

***NOTE: This tutorial assumes you know how to create meshes. If you don't, then you need to learn that first, using a different tutorial. This tutorial simply shows you how to apply and adjust texture maps in MilkShape. Also NOTE that I use Photoshop to create my textures. If you use a different graphics program, you will have to adjust the instructions to meet your needs. This is NOT a Photoshop tutorial. It is also not a SimPE or MilkShape tutorial. This is a texture mapping tutorial and it assumes you know how to use your graphics program, SimPE, and MilkShape.***

Before you begin this tutorial, use SimPE to create a clone of the Juniper Bonsai Tree and extract the GMDC from the clone and import it into MilkShape the way you normally would.

Here's the basics for creating a texture map, step by step. In this tutorial, we will change the bonsai tree into a candy dish. Click on the small pictures to enlarge them when needed. The pictures will open in a new window, so simply close that window to return to this tutorial.

	When you import the Juniper Bonsai Tree GMDC into MilkShape, you will see it includes four shapes. The null shape and the ground shadows shape are not needed for this tutorial, so hide them for now. The only two you should see on your screen are plantbonsai_surface and plantbonsai_surface1.
	Go back into SimPE and export the texture file used for this object. Then open this png file in your graphics program.
	Since I use the .dds format for my texture files in SimPE, I will resize this file to be 512X512. If you do not use the .dds format, you will have to work with it in it's current size. Fill the entire file with a solid color, so we can start from scratch. I chose black. Leave the file open in your graphics program and return to MilkShape.
	Now, add a bowl and two rectangles and four balls to make the candy dish and candy. Do not delete the original shapes in the object, but you can hide them so they are not in your way. When you are done, your object should look something like the one shown here. Notice that I put the balls and the dish where I want them, because these are simply going to be chocolates and a colored bowl, so they don't need fine tuning on their texture mapping. However, the boxes are going to be candy bars with wrappers and need text to be displayed correctly on them, so I left them above the bowl and facing forward. This way, I can apply the texture map for these from the "front" so it is applied correctly. Once I apply the map to them, I can then move them anywhere I want and the map will still be applied correctly.
At this point, I recommend you save the MilkShape file, and save it regularly from now on, in case MilkShape crashes, which it does do sometimes. I saved mine as tempcandy.ms3d.
	Now, rename the balls, dish, and boxes so the names of the objects tell you what they are. Do not rename or delete any of the original objects, just hide them so you only see your new balls, dish, and bars. If you enlarge this picture, you can see the names I chose. Save the file again to update it.
	Leave MilkShape open, but return to your graphics program and make your texture file look similar to mine (this is easier if you used the .dds format and made this 512x512). If you want other people to be able to recolor your file, you can add the labels like I did to make this really easy for them. Click this picture to enlarge it so you can see what I mean. (Once enlarged, you can also right click on the picture and save it to your hard drive if you actually want to use it as your texture map for this tutorial, instead of making your own.)
Save the file and name it something short. MilkShape does not handle long file names well and will crash if you keep that long file name that is currently assigned to the file in SimPE. Like I said, I save my texture files in .dds format, but you can save them as bmp, gif, jpg, png, or whatever format you like. MilkShape allows you to use any of these formats. I named mine candymap.dds.
	Go back into MilkShape and select all of the shapes you made and now want to apply this texture to. You must select all of them so you can assign your texture map to each of them.
	Move to the Materials tab and first click on the button near the bottom that says New. Then click the rename button and name it candy. Press Enter.
	Above that you see two buttons that say <none>. Click on the top one and browse to find your texture. Click Open. Your texture should now show on the ball, and you should see candy at the top and candymap (or whatever you named your texture) on the button that said <none>.
	Click on the button at the bottom that says Assign and you will see, in the 3D window, that the texture appears on your object. However, it is obviously not yet mapped correctly. Save your file to update it again.
Note that this bonsai tree uses one texture file for both of its objects. If you clone an object that uses more than one texture file, you would have to create texture maps for each file. Then you would select the objects for the first file and use the Materials tab to assign them to that. Then select the objects you want assigned to the second texture file; click the Materials tab; click the New button again and assign those parts to the other texture map.
	Make sure all of the objects are selected, then right click in the 3D view and choose Maximize. (I like to do this so I can see the textures being applied as I map them; but this step is not required.) Go to MilkShape's Window menu and choose Texture Coordinate Editor.
	Put a check in the box on the right that says "Redraw". From the dropdown below the Region button, select your bowl. Now you see your texture map, because the bowl was assigned to this texture. If you made a 512x512 file like me, you can resize the Texture Coordinator window so you can see the whole file, by dragging the edges of the window. If you used the smaller picture size, you won't have to do this. Use the dropdown below the one that now says "bowl" to choose "Top" because we want to map the bowl's texture from the top.
	Click on the Region button so it is pressed in. Then move your mouse to the part of the texture map where the bowl texture appears (in my case it's the blue box on the lower left). Drag your mouse so you see a box inside the area for the bowl texture. When you release your mouse button, you will see the box. If it is not positioned correctly, just re-drag to make it again. Click the Remap button and you will see the bowl, viewed from the top, inside the area you dragged across. Also, if you move the Texture Coordinator box out of the way, you can see the bowl now shows the correct texture.
	Use the dropdown that says "bowl" to choose your first chocolate candy. You will see this ball is mapped to use the whole texture. Make sure the Region button is still pressed in (which it should be). We also want to map this from the top, so don't change the second dropdown box. Simply drag to select the area you want mapped to your first chocolate. Release your mouse button, see the box, then click the Remap button and your chocolate is mapped, both in the Texture Coordinator box and on the 3D preview behind it.
	Now, continue on and map the other three balls to the correct part of the texture file. Simply select them from the dropdown, drag to map them, then click the Remap button. Then, choose your first candy bar and map that to the correct part of the texture file. However, we want to map this from the front, so select "Front" from the dropdown that now says "Top", then drag to map it and click Remap. Then map your second candy bar the same way. Be sure to check the 3D preview behind the coordinator to see how everything looks. If you don't like something, just remap it. When you are done, your 3D should look something like the picture shown here.
Here's some extra tips: Once you've clicked the Remap button to assign the area you want mapped, you can: Click the Move button and drag your mouse to move the Region if it is not positioned exactly where you want it. Click the Rotate button and drag your mouse to change the orientation of the Region. Click the Scale button and drag your mouse to make the Region smaller or larger. After you use the Move, Rotate, or Scale buttons, do not click the Remap button again or it will remap it back to the way it was before you made your changes. You only click Remap to assign the region. Do not click it again if you've moved, scaled, or rotated the region. You can also use the Select button, then click to select any vertices on the shape and drag them to move them (as opposed to moving the whole shape). This is helpful when some of the vertices are outside the part of the texture you want. Also, if you have two or more sides to an object and want them to use different parts of the texture, you would have to create the different sides as separate parts, then map them separately. Remember that you can choose Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left, and Right when mapping a region, so choose different ones and preview them to see which gives you the best effect. Conversely, if you want many identical shapes to use the same part of the texture, just make one shape, then use the Texture Coordinator to map that shape. Then, back in MilkShape, if you use the Duplicate command to duplicate the shape, the duplicate shape will include the same mapping as the original.
NOTE: Once you've got everything mapped correctly, close the Texture Coordinator and go back into MilkShape. Save the file to update it, because sometimes the next steps will cause MilkShape to crash. Plus, this is a really good file to save, because you may decide to change the texture mapping once you've seen the object in the game. The next steps will combine shapes into one shape and once that is done, it's difficult to remap the individual parts. So, this is the file I use if I have to remap something.
	Before you combine the shapes, move your candy bars until you have them where you want them. This image shows where I put them. Notice the mapping remains positioned correctly even though I rotated the candy bars.
Now you can unhide the original shapes, delete them, group your new shapes and give them the same names as the original ones so they work in your game. In my case, after I deleted plantbonsai_surface and plantbonsai_surface1, I renamed the bowl to be plantbonsai_surface and I selected all of the different candy shapes and candy bars and regrouped them into one shape and renamed that group to be plantbonsai_surface1. This particular mesh, by default, only allows you to recolor plantbonsai_surface, so the way I assigned the new shapes makes the bowl recolorable, but not the candies. If, by chance, your texture disappears in 3D view, after you've regrouped and renamed the shapes, simply select the one that says <no material>, click on the Materials tab and click Assign. It will show the mapping in 3D view again. However, this isn't necessary, because the mapping is still assigned; it just doesn't show in 3D view if you regroup or rename parts. But, if you are like me, and want to be sure it's still assigned, simply selecting the new grouped/renamed shape and assigning the texture again will show you it's OK.
	Now that your texture mapping is done, simply export your GMDC file out of MilkShape and import it into SimPE the way you normally would. Then import your texture map into SimPE to replace the texture file that's in there. And then, finally, just complete the creation of your new object the way you normally would. This picture shows how my new Candy Dish looks in my game. If you want to download it, along with a red recolor I made to test it, click here. Enjoy!