Re-Colouring Objects Using Wizards of SimPE & Gimp

What You Will Need:

• SimPE
  
• CEP - Required for re-colouring Maxis objects
  
• Legacy Nvidia DDS Utilities - Download and install them, just like any Windows program, then start SimPE, select the menu 'Extra', 'Preferences' and fill in the field 'Nvidia DDS Tools' with the exact installation path (you can use the "Browse" button to find the folder where the DDS Utilities are installed).
  
• Gimp - Free image editor
  

---

Wizards of SimPE comes packaged with the excellent SimPE software. It's a very useful tool for re-colouring objects without having to go through the whole SimPE process if, like me, you find it a bit too complicated!

Here's how to use it. Fire up Wizards of SimPE and click the 'Recolors' link:



In the next section, which may take a while to load, you'll see all the different categories on the left. For the sake of simplicity, we're going to re-colour a basic table, and I'm going to show you 2 ways in which to do it. Click the surfaces image and select the 'NuMica Allinal Card Table':


Click 'Next' and you'll be taken to the next section, which contains all the re-colourable sections of the item you have selected. This only has one part that can be re-coloured, which is why I've chosen it for this tutorial.

Select any texture you like to work with, but you may not want to use the chequered one for reasons that may become apparent. I'm going to use the turquoise one:


Click the texture and then click 'Export':


Save image where you can easily find it again...call it anything you like:


Now fire up Gimp and open the image you've just exported:


Now, for the first re-colour, we're going to use the very simple method I've used in other tutorials. From the top menu bar, select 'Colours/Hue-Saturation':


Adjust the colour bars at the bottom until you find a colour you like, then click 'OK':


This is why we didn't use the chequered patterned table at the start for this particular method.

Export the image ('File/Export'), then go back to 'Wizards of SimPE'. This time we're going to click on the texture, then click the 'Import' button:


Surf to the image you saved, which should now be a different colour, the one you created:

Import the image, then click somewhere in the SimPE window to de-select the texture, which should now show the changed image:


Click 'Next' and give your re-colour a name that you could recognise later if you want to share it:


Click 'Finish' to save the new file into your Sims downloads folder.

---

Okay, here's a way to use a different texture to re-colour the table. In 'Wizards Of SimPE', go through the whole process again until you get to the 'Export' page. There's no need to export the image again as we still have the old one, it doesn't matter that it's been re-coloured.

Open up Gimp again and open the same re-colour, only this time I'm going to use an image to re-colour the table, rather than just adjusting the hue/saturation of it.

I'm going to also open an image I have on my computer and resize it:


The size should be 128x128 (you can also use a seamless pattern and the 'Fill' tool). It doesn't have to be exact, but should be at least those measurements, as that's the size of the exported table image. The image will automatically fit into it, but for better quality should be as close to those sizes as possible:


From the top menu bar, choose 'Select', then 'All' to select the image, then copy and paste it over the image of the table:


Now simply explort the image ('File/Export'), and import it back over the old one in SimPE:


Click 'Next' to re-name the file so it doesn't overwrite the one you saved earlier:


Click 'Finish' and close down the program. We're now going to fire up our game to make sure the re-colours look ok. I've had some hideous disasters using wood textures on this particular table, so here's hoping!

Okay, I'm in the game and thankfully my re-colours are there, and nothing went horribly wrong this time. Here's a couple of pictures of them in action:


Okay, they're hideous, but it's a start! I'd love to know if this tutorial helped anyone, and I'd really like to see some of your re-colours.

There's just one thing...when re-colouring appliances and counters etc., you will need to do 2, a clean version and a dirty one. Just to let you know!

Also, there are many different ways to re-colour items, such as using a pattern fill etc., but these are just the basics to get you started. Hope it helps!

This is an excellent, easy to follow tutorial on how to recolor Maxis objects for those using Gimp, Angela.
It is very comprehensive & well done.
I especially like that you've included plenty of images for those of us who are visual learners AND a list of what we will need for this tutorial.
Thank you for taking the time and effort to share this with us.

Thanks Sugah, I'm so pleased it's okay. I was a bit worried the pictures would be a bit too big but they seem okay.

I'm a visual learner, but I much prefer pictures to videos which is why I create tutorials that are crammed with pics...I figured if I need them, others may too! lol

This is great.
I've never used the SimPe Wizard feature, so I really appreciate that info. And I use gimp for resizing but that's about it. Any more tutorials about changing textures using gimp would be much appreciated.

Our preferred image size is between 650-675 pixels wide, Angela.
Our forum is set up to resize images that are wider automatically.
Yours are only 640 pixels wide ... so they're just fine!
Thank you for your consideration. It's much appreciated.

twerplina wrote:

This is great.
I've never used the SimPe Wizard feature, so I really appreciate that info. And I use gimp for resizing but that's about it. Any more tutorials about changing textures using gimp would be much appreciated.

I'm so pleased, thanks!

Sugah, I do have a couple more tutorials on my own site regarding Gimp, would it be okay to post the links here or would you prefer me to add the full tutorials?

I'd prefer full tutorials be shared here, rather than links to other sites, if you wouldn't mind, Angela.
Just skim over the collection of tutorials we already have at SP and feel free to add what has not been touched upon yet.

Many thanks, in advance!

No problem...I'll be back!

Yaaaay!

Your timing on posting this tutorial is actually SPOT ON!
One of our creative team members is contemplating dabbling in recoloring Maxis items!
(Though I don't know if she uses Gimp in addition to PS. ...
Gimp is a FREE program, is it not? If so, then anyone can have easy access to & utilize it regardless. )

Yes, Gimp is completely free, and almost as powerful as Photoshop. I've only just touched the surface of what it can do.

However, you can use any image editing program you feel comfortable with when creating re-colours. As long as you know how to change colours and add texture with it, any will work just as well. My daughter uses Paint. I just refer to Gimp because I'm used to it and it's free! lol.