Quick Tips for Gimp:

[felidae_sims]

Quick Tips for Gimp:
These tips are for GIMP, but I have been learning from tutorials for PS as well, and have been applying them in GIMP. I found these two programs to be quite interchangeable, which makes sense, because GIMP was made as a free alternative for PS.

While I was re-learning how to make wall recolors, the og tutorials I saw on MTS were making the same step unnecessarily long, which inspired me to write down this list. Mind you, those tutorials were written many years ago, I don't even know if my way was available in GIMP/PS back then.

I use G'MIC-QT and Resynthesizer add-ons. I’ll update this list if I’ll remember anything else.

A general tip for good measurement:
- work over copies. make a backup of the layer before you make any major changes to it. make a backup copy for each significant change, and name it according to the action you've done ["xxx - contrast +0.5" etc.]
- organize the layers in folders/collections, whatever that's called.
This way I can experiment freely without worrying about making changes. It's easier to delete the redundant copies in the end, than trying to retrace the steps you've made in order to reach a certain result.

Dissecting a texture - Get parts of an image:
Get an Image's uhm, Texture/Details:
1. Make it Grayscale:
- Colours -> Hue/Chroma -> Bring Chroma to zero.
- Alternatively, Colours -> Desaturate -> Colour to Grey. Change its definitions... Gives better results but is slower.
- Alternatively 2, run it through Nvidia Texture Tools. Colour options -> Greyscale.
I like this result better than 1.
2. High-pass. Under Filters -> Enhance.
(Basically, make an etch template).
- Optional; play with contrast/ color levels/ other def. first.

Get Highlights:
[Place holder, I forgot ☹] G'MIC-QT [Under Filters at the bottom] → xxxxx → xxxxx.

Get Shadows:
G'MIC-QT → Slice Luminosity.

Remove Colour/Alpha Channel:
- In Channels Menu to the right (next to Layers) → Hide a channel you want to remove.
- Ctr Shift C to copy from visible.
- Paste as a new layer. Make a shortcut for that if you haven't already. I use Ctr Shift V.
- If an Alpha layer has no effect, it can simply be deleted by right clicking a layer in layer panel → flatten image. It will merge all the layers, mind that. It's good as a final step.

Separate parts of an image by shape/tones:
- Fuzzy select (Magic wand icon) or Select by Colour → in tool settings; change minimum point for different selection scope.
- Play with the tool definitions. They are encompassing.

Misc.
Remove an element from the image (Resynthesizer):
- Use the Heal Selection tool; under Filters → Enhance.
Here's a tutorial for it by my fave person for GIMP tutorials, it's concise.

Tip: Save your go-to colours in palettes.
Change Colour (w/hex codes):
- Make it Grayscale.
- Colour to a Primer; Colourize → Colour to mid colour #808080 or lighter, or play around with it.
- Colourize to the desired colour.
When making several recolours; make copies of the ready primer layer and colourize them.
- Optional; play with Highlights/Contrast or other definitions first.

Fill an X sized image with a Y sized texture;
Say, fill a large image with a small pattern, when making a wall recolour.
- Plan the size of your initial pattern; such as, how many times do you want it to be repeated on the larger image?
- Copy to clipboard the small texture.
- In the large image: Shift B to Bucket Fill → tool settings; Select from pattern →
Click the tiny pattern sample → Your clipboard image will be there in the options.
- Fill the image..
- Optional; Ctrl Shift O to offset the texture.

Move around a small image that you've pasted onto a larger image:
Use Align, not Move. Shortcut Q.

Make a pattern/texture appear more organic and seamless (Resynthesizer):
Say for something organic like grass texture.
- Copy the desired image.
- Set new image to the desired size; Edit → Fill with pattern Seamless (at the bottom) → click the pattern preview window → your copied image will be there.
- Select it & Apply or whatnot.
It can take a few moments to apply, depending on the size of the image you're filling (I believe).

Bump Map Effect (make the texture appear more 3D):
- Filters → Light & Shadow → Lighting Effects→ > Bump Map tab.
Is affected by the definitions in the first tabs as well. Play around with its definitions, like light source. Good for textures/patterns.

Bloom Effect:
G'MIC-QT → Blur → Bloom.

Make a wall recolour out of a square texture:
For Windows users:
- Change size to 768p×768p (wall height in the game).
Usually for wall textures, resize method "Cubic" is good.
- Retouch to compensate for quality loss.
- Place rulers to divide the texture in 3 [256p intervals].
- Shortcut R for Rectangular Select; select & copy paste each segment as a new layer.
For Mac users:
That's even easier. The same process, only scale to 512p (or it's xxx if you wish).
Cut in two (width needs to be 256p or its xxx).
(It's probably common knowledge, but just for completion’s sake).

Favorite G’MIC-QT Filters:

General tips for exporting to SimPE.
Get rid of an unnecessary alpha layer:
Delete it by right clicking a layer in layer panel → flatten image. It will merge all the layers. Do that as a final step before exporting.

Image type:
- Export as DDS (Ctrl Shift E to “Export as”),
- choose compression method, and select Make Mipmaps. [DXT5 isn't always necessary, it's worth checking because it takes up more space - Example].
Generally speaking, I prefer that result over importing a PNG and building DXT in SimPE. And it's more convenient.

Colours:
Don't make the Black or white full on Black or white. It'll appear too harsh in the game. Tone it down a bit.
Here's a great visual demonstration by Pineapple Forest.

Size: It does matter.
As Fire Flower wrote concisely:
#let's be honest you should keep polycount reasonable
#but when it comes to optimization in TS2 there's few things more effective than using smaller textures
#2048x2048 and up = catalog freezes 
#1024x1024 and below = happy game
persimmonthusiast: and I've seen many cases where even 1024x1024 textures could be resized to 512x512 without any noticeable loss of quality in-game.
ovytia: #I don’t play the sims but as a texture/surfacing artist I felt obligated to reblog this #textures can be chonky as fuck #sometimes you gotta wait 2 hours for shit to load [yes I’m absolutely being lazy and has copy pasted all that.]

Edit: added a part about removing an element from an image, i.e. the Resynthesizer's Heal Selection tool.
Edit 2: added a general tip at the beginning.

 

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