Skinning Jewelry for TS2, a comprehensive tutorial by Crechebaby.
Using: Adobe Photoshop 7.0

For this tutorial you will need a working knowledge of:
The Sims 2 Bodyshop
Adobe Photoshop
Skinning in General (you don't need to be an expert, you just need to have skinned a few things)

I'm starting off this tutorial assuming that you've already completed a skin to which
you would like to add some jewelry. You should have the skin loaded in Bodyshop so
we can check out our work as we go along.

The first step, of course, is to find a piece of jewelry that complements your skin, and
that lends itself well to skinning. Some things to look for when searching for a good photo:

The image doesn't need to be as large as the photos you use for the actual clothing (if you're
a photo skinner), but it does need to be crisp, not blurry. A nice contrast-y background is
a good thing to look for too--it will really cut down on the amount of work you have to do.

Here is the skin I'm going to add jewelry to, and the necklace I've chosen for it:



So lets get to work!

In Adobe Photoshop, open up your texture, alpha, and normal map files, as well as the jewelry
image you're going to be using.

Select the Magic Wand tool, and check the box at the top of the screen that says "Contiguous".
I'm going to go with a tolerance of 32, because my background contrasts fairly well with the
necklace, but you might have to experiment a little bit to find the right level for your image.


Select the white area (or
whatever color your background is)
around the necklace, zooming up close
to select the little pieces in the middle
of the necklace. I find it's easier to start
out by selecting the background instead
of selecting the necklace itself.

If you end up selecting parts of the
necklace itself, or can't quite get all of the
background, you can use the Polygon
Lasso Tool (beside the Magic Wand) to
select or deselect by hand. Holding down
the SHIFT key while selecting
will add to your current selection. Holding
down CTRL will subtract from the selection.

Once you've got all of the background
selected, go up to the SELECT menu at the
top of the screen, and click on "Inverse".

Now you have the entire necklace selected.
Hit copy (or CTRL + C).





Pull up your ALPHA file, and paste your selection onto it.

Use "Free Transform" to scale the necklace down and place it
above the front collar on your alpha. Don't worry about being too
exact, we're just guessing right now.

Then zoom up close and check out your necklace.



Because of the size reduction, I've lost the part
of the necklace that attaches the pendant to the chain.

In order to fix that, I use the Polygon Lasso Tool to
select the butterfly's tail, and nudging it in between the
chain and the pendant.







Merge that small piece onto the necklace layer by hitting CTRL + E.
Lets check out our work so far in Bodyshop. Flatten the image, save, and reload your skin in Bodyshop.


I guessed pretty well on this one, but the necklace is still a little off
center. I think it needs to be pushed about 1 pixel towards her right
shoulder.

Go back into Photoshop, and either choose "Undo" to un-flatten your
image, or take a step back in the History window.










In order to make the back of the necklace, we're going to drag the necklace layer down to the little page
icon in order to duplicate it (see below).





















Select the layer copy and use CTRL + SHIFT + Left Arrow Key to scoot the necklace copy over to the
back side of the skin. We're using this macro because we don't want to accidentally move the necklace up or
down while sliding it over. This is important to making the necklace line up properly.



Now go up to the EDIT drop down menu, and select Transform>Flip Horizontal. The necklace copy is now an
exact mirror image of the original.

Lets check out our work in Bodyshop. Flatten, save, and reload in Bodyshop.

Almost perfect. Depending on how well you guessed, you
might be a little off, or a lot. I'm off by about one pixel.















In order to line up your skins properly (any skins, not just jewelry) it's important to know how the skin wraps
around the mesh. A Sim's skin wraps around the mesh right to left, like a sheet of wrapping paper.

I marked the shoulders in the alpha file to make it a little easier to visualize.



The two inside shoulders combine to make her right shoulder, and the outside shoulders combine
to make her left. With me so far? So in order to get the back of the necklace to line up with the front,
I need to nudge it toward her right shoulder, using the CTRL + Arrow Key. Again, using the
macro will ensure that we don't accidentally nudge the necklace
up or down.

Then check it out in Bodyshop again. Repeat this as many times
as you need to in order to get it placed just right.

Once you're satisfied with where the necklace is positioned, we can finish the back of it.

In Photoshop, unflatten the layers and carefully erase the pendant from the back of the necklace.
This is where you can get a little creative. Depending on the necklace, sometimes I leave the
back of it intact, other times I just remove the jewels. It all depends on your personal preference
and the piece you're working on.

For this necklace, I'm going to just erase the butterfly pendant.



If you feel like the back of the necklace hangs too low, you can use the Free Transform option to
squish it up a bit. This is especially useful when making long necklaces.
The length of this necklace doesn't bother me, so I'm going to leave it as is.

Our next step is to transfer this necklace over to the Texture and Normal Map files.
With the necklace layer active, use the Rectangular Marquis tool to select the entire top portion of
the image, corner to corner, every last pixel.




Then take your paintbrush, and in a contrasting color (I'm using grey, paint a dot at the upper right
hand of the selection.

This is our marker. It's going to help us line up the necklace properly in the other images.
Copy the selection, and switch over to your Texture file.

With the Texture image active, grab the VIEW drop-down menu at the top of the screen, and make
sure "Snap" has a little checkmark next to it. If it doesn't, click on it.



Now paste your necklace layer onto your Texture image, and slide it into place. You'll notice that
it will snap into position, because of the little white dot we put at the upper right-hand corner.
Ever wonder what those white squares at the corners of some Maxis textures were for? Now you know!



Erase the guide dot, and flatten the image. Save it. We're done with this file.

Now go back to your ALPHA file.
Select the Image drop-down menu and click on Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.
This little tool is one of the best things you have to work with when recoloring skins. It has a zillion uses.

Push the saturation slider all the way to the left. That
will remove all the color from the layer.

Then push the Lightness layer all the way to the right,
which will make the necklace completely white, allowing
the Texture image necklace to show through completely.

These next two steps aren't ESSENTIAL.. you could simply save the files here and be done with it,
but I think they really give it that extra little something. The thing that seperates a good skin from a
truly exceptional one is the details. Pay attention to the details, and you'll turn out much better
quality work.

We're going to give the image a little more depth by creating a drop shadow.
Grab your necklace layer and duplicate it. Then select the bottom necklace layer, and nudge it over
one pixel to the left, and one pixel down, using CTRL + Arrow Keys.

Now because of what I explained earlier about how the skin wraps around the mesh, each side needs
to be an mirror image of the other in order to meet up properly at the edges. That means we need to
go flip the drop shadow on the back of the necklace.

With the bottom necklace layer active, draw a box around the back of the necklace with the Rectangular
Marquis tool.

Then go up to the EDIT drop-down menu at the top of the
screen, and select Transform>Flip Horizontal.

Perfect.












Deselect, and then open up the Hue/Saturation box again, by selecting Image>Adjustments>
Hue/Saturation. This time, push the Saturation slider all the way to the left. The image is already
colorless, but this allows us to see what shade of grey we're creating. Then move the Lightness
slider to the left, and find a nice dark shade of grey. You might have to tinker with it a bit to find
the perfect shade for your drop shadow. You can check your work in Bodyshop as you go along.

This looks just about perfect to me.

The last step is to create the bump map. This is nice to do even if your video card can't display them,
and with this method, you don't have to worry about messing it up.

Select the top necklace layer (the white one), corner to corner, every last pixel.



Copy the selection and switch over to your Normal Map file.
Again, make sure there is a check mark beside Snap under th "View" drop-down" menu.



Erase the white marker in the corner, and flatten the image.
Do the same to your Alpha and Texture files, and save everything.

We're done. Go into Bodyshop and admire your jewelry :)