Okay, since this question gets asked periodically; skintones are like any other bodyshop item, only there's 40 (!) files to change instead of the few files that clothing files have.

This is not a SMALL project. It's not really a 'beginner' project. Allow yourself a lot of time to work on this.

All ages and both genders (for teens up) are included in the one skintone file, and for most instances, you should change ALL OF THEM - like if you're making a new skin color. If you're adding detail to certain ages, then you might only change some of the files. If all you want is some face details, like for a celebrity sim, it is better to make a mask than to distribute an entire skintone set. If you share your skintone, be sure to let folks know what was modified, especially if you didn't do the entire skin set.

You will need to know how to use your graphics editor and BodyShop. I strongly suggest doing whichever set of bodyshop-clothing tutorials designed for your graphics editing program available here at mts2 (usually there's 3-4 tutorials in a set) in order to be familiar with BodyShop and with some editing techniques you might use. You will want to work with layers to do this project. (if you don't know what a 'layer' is, please go do the clothing tutorials, you're not quite ready for this yet)

These instructions will help you make a new custom skintone for your game.

Getting started:

Start BodyShop
Create Parts
Start New Project
Create Genetics

Now click on 'skintone' and go find the skintone you want to alter. Note that you should not usually use someone else's work as your base, either use a Maxis skintone or one that gives permission (they'll usually ask for credit).

Once you have found your skintone (note that they look darker in bodyshop than in the game) click on the button on the bottom to create your project files.

** Note: If you have default replacements in your game and you want to get a Maxis skintone for your base, you must REMOVE the default skintones from your game folders before starting BodyShop.



Now you'll go to a new screen to preview your skintone. Whatever Maxis was thinking with this, I don't know - too much of the body is covered up for a good preview. You can get a default replacement set to fix that here. Make sure to take them out before playing.

Anyway, here's your screen. You can use it to view your skintone on each age and for each gender, and you should do so before importing your final project to the game. There's the round arrow 'refresh' button which will read in your graphics from the projects folder. At the bottom is the import to game button.



Now for the fun part. When you look in your Projects folder, you'll find your folder FULL of graphics. There will be a set of graphics for each age and gender (children, babies, and toddlers share the same files for both genders)



The files are named like this:

afbodycut~top~stdMatBaseTextureName.bmp
afbodynormal~top~stdMatBaseTextureName.bmp
afbodysoft~top~stdMatBaseTextureName.bmp
afface~face~stdMatBaseTextureName.bmp
afhair~hair~stdMatBaseTextureName.bmp

first letter:
b - baby
p - toddler
c - child
t - teen
a - adult
e - elderly

second letter
f - female
m - male
fm - both female and male (babies, toddler, children)

type
body, face, hair (the scalp)

fitness
cut - fit
normal - uh, normal
soft - fat

There is also a file 'swatch.bmp' which is a 64x64 pixel graphic which you should customize so that people can recognise your skin in CAS and BodyShop.

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Okay, now - the rest is up to you. The more you know about how to use your graphics editor, the better.

You can carefully hand edit the different files you want to change. You can use simple methods to create a consistant change for all your graphics, such as making a layer that's an overlay and using multiply or transparency settings, and then using that same layer on all the graphics. If you make changes using hue or saturation settings, make sure to write them down so you can repeat them on your other files identically. If you have photoshop, you can create an 'action' and then apply it to the other images.

If you are making more complex changes, you might want to learn how to extract a body mesh and load the mesh and your graphic into a 3D editor to view your edits (which will allow you to see the men's chests, for instance) Look! HP has written the tutorial explaining how to view your new skin using Milkshape .

If your skin shows up with bands of color instead of smooth blends, try adding just a touch of noise to your graphic, so you can barely see it. This graphics oddity tends to happen a lot on darker skintones.

You can come back to this project at any time using the 'saved projects' option in bodyshop, so don't worry about having to finish in one session.

To check your edits, go to bodyshop, hit the refresh button, and see how things look. (Or work in the 3D editor, but in the end you do need to go back to bodyshop to put your work into the game) When you think you're done, remember to check all ages and genders. When you're satisifed, click that import button.

Make sure you look at your skin *in the game*. There you can get a closer look at it and with normal lighting. It will be much brighter in game, than in bodyshop. Matter of fact, before you go and change all 40 files, you might want to focus on making your changes on one age and gender, and then import your skin and check how it looks in game before doing the rest. Just make sure to delete the incomplete file from your Saved Sims, so you don't accidently distribute your incomplete work.

Your new finished file will be in your Saved Sims folder - named with a bunch of letters and the name you originally gave your project. You can go find it and rename it.

In terms of uploading your new skin to mts2 - if you are making a fantasy skin/color shift, please check the skin area carefully to see if a similar color was already created. Duplicates of non-human colors are not likely to be accepted to upload at mts2, although carefully modified skintones are very welcome.

Other related links:

Using Milkshape to Preview Body Shop Textures
Adding texture and other tips
How to make a sim's face using source pics
How to make a custom skintone a default replacement
How to create an 'action' in Photoshop
Making your skin work with the game genetics and not override as a custom skin (tutorial at bogsims)
3D.sk Website - if you find yourself really into improving skins and need photos for source pics, this is the best source of body photos on the web. It is pay, but worth every penny for high-res photos from every angle.
Unclothed Body Shop Mannequins
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hi i am making changes using hue and saturation, but when i repeat the same changes on the other files as i did on the first, the colour is completely different! i dontunderstand why

fiepijah - is this a general problem or can you edit some of your files and get the same color. I suspect you neglected to write down a step you took.

all the files get different colours:S but when i am about to repeat the same changes on the other files, the hue and saturation changes hasn't changed from the first file. for instance: i changed the hue to 1, and the saturation to 103 on the first file, and when i open the other files the hue and saturation hasn't changed, but the colour is still different!

This was VERY helpful. It's my first time doing anything like this and it turned out very well. But I think thats because I know how to use my Paintshop Pro well.

Thanks again!

I need answer about teen face.

I rebuild my new skintone for replace I see only total of 33 files but face teen female are missing ?

Male = tmface-s2_txtr
Female = tfface-s2_txtr - Missing ? I have this from create in bodyshop

Does teen Female share with teen male face ?

Thanks

By default, teen female shares a face with adult female. Teen male uses its own texture. However, any custom skintone can make it so teen female uses its own texture simply by texturing the tf face differently.

If you are making a new skintone project based on a skintone that shares textures for certain ages (especially a default replacement), they may not all export into files properly. Make sure you start your project based on -Maxis- skins without any default replacements in place.

If you are actually trying to make a default replacement, that's not what this tutorial is about - this is just about making new skintones in Body Shop, not making default replacements.

Quick question:

I made a tattoo for a request out of a Maxis skin tone. It is for males only though. Can I delete the 3DIR, matdefs and textures associated with females to reduce the package size?

No, you can't. The skintone won't work properly if you remove all that stuff. What you can do is use tiny textures for the female - 128x128 or 256x256 rather than 512x512 and 1024x1024. However, I would tend to advise against that, as any sims made with that skintone who breed and have girl children will have crunchy, ugly girl children, and changing skintone is not always easy. If you do decide to go that route, though, it's your choice - just make sure you post something very prominently when you upload to let people know the female version will not work, so not to breed that sim.

Thanks. I appreciate the reply!

That is interesting. Too bad, as it could reduce the package size if I could delete it. Since I am not putting the tattoo on the female, she will just have the default Maxis skin and should breed fine. Although, why anyone would choose the custom skin with nothing showing up would be a mystery.

I noticed that when I opened up the file, the genetic value=0. Hopefully, that means the tattoo won't be passed down.

Genetic = 0 is default for custom skintones. If bred with a sim with default or Maxis skin the child will always have the custom skin. If bred with a sim with custom skin the child will have a 50/50 chance of getting the tattoo skin. There's no way to make custom skins truly recessive, unfortunately. Changing genetic values just effects the way they "blend" with Maxis skins - i.e. a sim with a skintone set to genetic value 2 can breed with a sim with a genetic value of 3 and end up with a child with a skintone set to 2.5

Well crap! I guess I will go ahead and change it to a 4 anyway. It seems like there was not a lot of thought put into this one someone at Maxis' end.

I really appreciate you answering my questions.

Well thnx guys! I really mean it.

Nice Tutorial Tigerypum

WELL, not really. I have modified Louis replacements, and in one of my families only one out of 3 children inherited their father's custom skin. (The skintones of Father's parents were custom as well.)
Looks like sims-genetics are not that predictable...

PS.: Father's on my avvie, as a young adult

Custom skintones set for non-custom genetic values will interbreed in a non-standard custom way, i.e. they'll breed like Maxis, with a bit of a blending effect. It's also possible for custom skintones not worn by either parent to be inherited by the child if the skintone is set to a genetic value between that of the parent's skins. Perhaps that custom skintone you were using was set for genetic values, debbycus. I can't identify it from the little pic.

This helped a bunch. Thanks.

hi could we jest add a pic that we have on the pc

datson7 - your question is hard to understand. If you have a detail you'd like to add to a maxis skin, it has to follow the layout exactly of the existing graphics. So if you meant 'if I have a photo of a face, can I make the game use it' No, not without a lot of skilled editing on your part.

If you meant something else, you must write your question with a lot more detail.

When I try to edit a skin, it keeps coming out pixelated or the face well turn a different color. Any ideas about what would cause this?

Thank you fro your help, your tuttorial is great!

Hi all! I tried to make my first skin last night, and I believe I'm missing a step or two, but I don't know where....I exported the base skintone from Body Shop, and did my editing on it (Maxis base, adding celebrity tattoos) but then when I hit refresh in Body Shop, it doesn't show up.......This also happened when I tried to recolor an outfit. Am I not saving the file right after my editing? Or do you think there's a problem with my programs not communicating? I'm using the GIMP program, which compared to the last one I had, is wonderful!! (I used Vashti's (sorry if thats misspelled) tutorial for recoloring clothes using GIMP). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you to all who create and share, and to all who take the time to write tutorials on how to do it =)

~Gina~

PryncessG - go do one of the basic clothing recoloring tutorials. Those hand-hold for exactly how to edit bodyshop files.

ok, this was really helpful but I'm having a bit of a problem.

The skin I used didn't actually have a file for adult female face...which is odd because I've used the skin before and it had the same colour adult female face as the body. So I just made one using the teen female face, but it doesn't work. So my sim is all perfect except her face is default white....Any ideas on what the problem may be?

also, if I edit the whole colour of the texture of faces will my sim have wierd colour teeth/eyes? Just asking because if not that saves me a few history brush steps.

Thanks in advance

is there a way of making the skintone change textures when you get out of the pool or hot tub to look wet?

or making seperate children's faces for male and female? sounds like either one would require adding in some xml code somewhere...