Hi everyone,
Today I will show you how to create eyes for your Sims 3 games! It's really easy, simple indeed, so easy in fact I should get a slap around my plumbob for the 2 star rating. You will need to be creative and also it helps if your good at drawing :D You can do this in under an hour, yes, it's quick too.

• Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

You will Need: 

• A graphics editing Program that can support DDS files e.g. Photoshop or Gimp
• DDS plug-ins for your Graphics editor
• s3pe - Sims 3 Package Editor
• TSR workshop (TSRWS) or CAS Texture Uni-Tool (CTU)
• A Graphics Tablet (If you have one, if not that's okay you can still do this without a tablet)

Creating Non Defaults:


Step 1: First open up s3pe and extract the eye files from the fullbuild package, you will use these as reference to size. Or just download this: Download me happy bunnies which is an EA eye you can use as reference for all ages and genders.

Step 2: Open the EA eye file in your graphics editing program
Step 3: Now we are going to draw our own textures, let's start of with the shape of the actual eye. In a new layer I start with a blank circle - making sure it's roughly the same size as the EA eye:


and then I add another layer with the 'multiply' filter. I pick a mid grey gradient and start drawing thin lines in the circle, I pick a darker tone and do the same in the gaps that are left and likewise I pick a lighter tone and draw more lines in between the mid and dark tones. Then I draw more lines in another layer with dark at the outer Iris, then mid tones, then the light tones in the inner Iris, back to mid and then dark in the middle.

As you can see it's not within the white circle so I edit it more, adding more lines till I can no longer see the white circle.

Now we must add the pupil, that's easy draw a black circle (make it a tiny bit smaller than the EA ones if you can help it - we want to preserve as much of the actual Iris' texture as we can) and then smudge the outside of the black circle using a very low rate. Now add some shine and highlights to the desired positions using a white tone and if necessary use an overlay filter. Next, in a new layer with the overlay filter, trace the outer Iris of the eye with a black tone and then smudge and blur till smooth. This creates an outer Iris realistic shadow:


If you need to use contrast and brightness levels and adjust the lighting effects. It's hard to get perfect lines without a graphics tablet so you can use filters instead such as wind effects and line Novas. You can see in the above picture, that my eye texture is nice, crisp and not pixelated when zoomed in. That's an advantage of hand drawn textures, usually if you take images of the internet and apply that to your texture, it requires re-sizing which causes pixelation, which is why I don't use textures of the web I recommend hand drawn textures, even though it takes a lot more work.

Step 4: Now you are done with your eye texture but if you want to, you can also draw you own eye whites AKA sclera. This is more tricky, choose hues that are too dark or too bright and you'll end up with dark scleras in the game but choose hues that are too light and dull and you'll get scleras that are too faint. But for Sims 3 you'll need a tone that is more towards a light gradient for the sclera. First use an off white (towards yellow) tone and apply it in the sclera area of the EA eye diffuse map. Then use as many different tones that are lighter and darker than the off white tone as you can and apply it to random areas of the sclera. Next you want to use a blur or blend tool to blend the different gradients. Now we add the small veins on the sclera, you have to be extremely delicate, the lines need to be really small and not too long, they must remain in the corner of the eye. Get a pale red tone and draw on the veins. This will add extra realism to your eye texture. Once your happy with the result, play around with the transparencies of the sclera layers in your program so the sclera doesn't come out dark in the game.



In the above picture my sclera is done I will now adjust the transparency.

Step 5: Time to save your texture, first save it with all the layers just in case you need to go back and change something, so in Photoshop save it as a PSD and in Gimp save it as an XCF. Now we need to save the texture with all the layers merged, so merge all your layers together and save your texture as a DDS file in the format of DXT5 or DXT3. This DDS file is the file we will import into CTU or TSRWS. Congrats you have now made your eye overlay.

Step 6: Because we are making contacts/Non defaults we need to make a mask for the recolourable areas of the eye. 3 channels are enough for eyes. Open up your saved layers (PSD file or XCF file etc..) and recolour your lines for the inner Iris red - this will be the first recolourable channel. Next recolour the eye lines for your outer Iris Green - This will be your second channel. Lastly recolour the lines in the middle of the eye and the highlights purple - this is the third channel. Merge the layers and save as a DDS in DTX5/DXT3 format. Make sure your colours have a RGB value of 255, 0, 0.




Step 7: Nearly there! Now that we have finished our textures we need to package the content. Open up TSRWS or CTU and choose face overlay/costume make up. Import the eye overlay into the overlay area and import the mask into the mask area. Edit the age, clothing and gender flags to your liking. Import a custom thumbnail if you like. Now export/save your package/sims3pack.

Step 8: Test in your game, like the eyes? Your done!

Default Replacement Eyes:

Step 1: emmm....Do everything that's stated in Step 1 to 5 above :D
Step 2: Now that you have your eye overlay we need to import it into s3pe for packaging with the right instance ID so that it will replace the EA eyes. Rename your overlay eye texture from whatever you named it to ' S3_00B2D882_00000000_C2B560673F00D806%%+_IMG ' (this will produce the instance for all ages and genders - I'll type in the names that will produce instances for other ages and separate genders below). Open s3pe, click 'New' right click in the empty white area and click 'import from file', browse to were you save the overlay and import that.

Step 3: Save the package and install it to your game. Test it and see if it looks good. Good? Your Finished!

Extract these overlays from the fullbuild packages and combine your eye overlay with the other facial overlays in these extracted dds files. If you want a combination of two or more of the ages or genders then you should make more copies of your combined eye overlay - EA facial overlay and rename your the files to the names below:

• S3_00B2D882_00000000_6F853F0E35157E26_amFace_o_0x6f853f0e35157e26%%+_IMG - for the Adult Males
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_7EDD5D417BC66682_emFace_o_0x7edd5d417bc66682%%+_IMG - for the Elder Males
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_8ACF6FE36D35C200_cuFace_o_0x8acf6fe36d35c200%%+_IMG - for the Child females/males
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_40E5744B0DBFC321_afFace_o_0x40e5744b0dbfc321%%+_IMG - for the Adult Females
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_66F8047C00C00CB9_yfFace_o_0x66f8047c00c00cb9%%+_IMG - for the Young Adult Females
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_503C527E546E8C5D_efFace_o_0x503c527e546e8c5d%%+_IMG - for the Elder Females
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_821A4C77B0C52A66_tfFace_o_0x821a4c77b0c52a66%%+_IMG - For the Teen Females
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_598325880B644F6E_ymFace_o_0x598325880b644f6e%%+_IMG - for the Young Adult males
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_ABEC795968CF5761_tmFace_o_0xabec795968cf5761%%+_IMG - for the Teen Males
• S3_00B2D882_00000000_F27771ADAE43381D_puFace_o_0xf27771adae43381d%%+_IMG - for Toddler male/female

Tips:

• Your eyes can be almost any shape or size...square eyes []__[] ...nice
• Be adventurous with the shine and highlights, you can create many styles with this such as 'anime eyes' or 'Doll eyes'
• Take advantage of the tools your graphics editor provides, you don't always have to rely on your graphics tablet.
• If your making HQ eyes, then use a texture map that is 2048x2048 or larger though 2048 is big enough.
• Make the Non default eyes more lighter for better recolouring in CAS

Confused? Stuck? Post your comments below and me and Felix will see if we can help you! :) Liked the tutorial? post your thoughts and feedback below also, hoped you enjoyed my first tut, I'll bring plenty more in the near future.