MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Sims 3 Custom Patterns
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Sims 3 Custom Patterns
Introduction
Have you created some neat new custom patterns using Delphy's Pattern Packager or the Create-A-Pattern tool? Here's MTS's guidelines for sharing custom patterns!
Quality/General
This is by far the most important factor in pose uploads, but also the hardest to quantify.
| Time and effort |
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| Most good creators spend hours upon hours on even simple creations. We understand that not everything has to be that difficult, but we do expect you to not just slap together something in 15 minutes and upload it and expect it to get accepted. Really try to put some serious effort into what you create, and it will show through in the quality.
This is probably the hardest one to quantify, but it's something that is obvious whenever upload moderators look at an upload: have you really expended some serious time and effort on a creation? You can't just crank out a bunch of stuff in a short amount of time and expect it to be good. Nor can you spend a while just fiddling with something but not really trying and expect a good result either. |
| Must Be Truly Custom (*) |
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| We only allow uploads of REAL custom patterns - that is, ones that you have made with a pattern creation tool. Please do not upload saved pattern presets made from within the game itself - anyone can make those themselves with very little time and effort.
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| Aesthetics (*) |
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| Is the pattern you've created useful? Does it look nice? Can it be used on a decent range of different types of items? Remember, just because you CAN make something into a pattern doesn't mean you SHOULD - stuff that looks like Myspace backgrounds should not become custom patterns.
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| No Logos (*) |
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Please make sure your pattern is an actual pattern, that can be used in more than one occasion. Logo's and single, isolated pictures of, for instance, cartoon characters may look lovely on a shirt, but will not be good for wallpaper. To make a shirt with a logo or picture, please use Delphy's Clothing Unitool (CTU) instead.You can find the CTU here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=348082 |
| Seamlessness (*) |
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| Your patterns should always be fully seamless. The means it should be able to tile in multiple pieces without the edges being visible. |
| Good Default Colors (*) |
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| Please show your pattern in the default colours, so people can find it in-game. And please choose some good default colours - nothing too bright or garish, or too dark and hard to see. You can always take additional pics of your pattern in other colour options.
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| Tiling Size (*) |
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| Large patterns and/or images that dominate one whole tile rarely look good on anything else other than walls. Meaning, it generally won't tile nicely on clothing and furniture. When ever possible, please add multiple versions of your pattern with varying tiling sizes, so that the downloaders can have a variety of sizes to choose from. Thereby, making your patterns more versatile for CAST.
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Screenshots
People want to see what they're downloading! Your screenshots sell your upload - if people don't like the look of your screenshots, they're not going to download - and if your screenshots are too bad, you won't get your upload approved.
| Big Enough |
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The larger your pics, the better! Tiny pics won't show enough detail to see what you've made.
Please don't just take a small pic and size it up in your graphics program to get bigger pics - this only makes the dimensions larger but doesn't add any detail and just gives you a blurry, pixellated larger pic, not a nice clear one. |
| Well-lit |
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 At the same time, make sure you don't use too much light: if you put light-coloured item under a bright light, it can wash out and lose a lot of the detail of what you've made.
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| Good angle |
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| Show the whole thing |
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 You CAN use cropped or closer pictures to show detail and/or for your thumbnail shot, but make sure you have at least one pic that shows everything.
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| Close enough |
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| No Photoshopping on required screenshots (*) |
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| While it can be tempting to get artistic with your screenshots in Photoshop, please don't. Screenshots need to be just as things look in the game, with no extra filtering such as contrast, sharpen, blur, saturation, etc.
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| Maximum Number of Inline/attached screenshots |
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You may now upload up to 100 pics! Of course, please keep it to a reasonable quantity... only things like huge sets, full worlds, etc. should have that many pics! Remember, you can always collage several different images together into one image if you have a bunch of stuff to show off, or want to show multiple angles of an item. For the bonus photos, we recommend you use a spoiler tag to hide the images, then people can click on it to see them. Their pages will load faster if all the images aren't downloading at once. [spoiler=interior rooms]http:// wheveremypictureis/picture.jpg[/spoiler] The 'interior rooms' can be replaced by whatever grouping you want to present, 'hidden garden', 'pool views', 'master suite', 'kids room', etc. You may place as many photos within a spoiler grouping as you'd like.
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| Screenshot tips |
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| Camera Controls:
Take some time to just play around with the camera. It can take a while to get used to the camera controls, and even once you are experienced in their use, it may be challenging to get the shot you want with the constraints on the controls. If you haven't taken many sim pictures before, here is a list of camera controls:
Using Print Screen: If you have enough RAM to run Photoshop or another graphics editing program at the same time as TS2/TS3, you may want to take screenshots yourself, without the use of a program to store them for you. To do that, simply press the Print Screen or PrntScn key on your keyboard - it's usually off toward the right, over the arrow keys, above Insert and Delete. This will copy your current screen to your Windows clipboard, as if you had selected and copied it as an image. Then open any graphics editing program, create a new document the size of your monitor's resolution, and paste into that document. Your screenshot should appear in the document.
There are many programs available, free and pay, that will take screenshots for you by using a hotkey, and save them to a folder - just like The Sims 2 with the C key, but with options for much better quality settings. A quick Google search for 'free screenshot program' will also bring up many other options, which may have other features that are of interest to you.
Many simmers struggle with getting their images to be clear, crisp and under the maximum file size while keeping the image size larger than 800px by 600px. After getting your images from the in game camera or using a print screen program you will need to resize them and compress them into a jpeg image. Many graphics programs have a built in optimizing feature. Here are a few common ones: |
Required Screenshots
We require certain screenshots for custom pattern uploads - if you do not include these screenshots, your patterns will not be approved!
| Show Everything Twice (*) |
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| You need to show at least one picture of EACH and EVERY pattern included in your set, showing them on at least two items.
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| Multiple Colors (*) |
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| You will need to show your pattern in the DEFAULT colours and at least one OTHER set of colours.
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| Tiling (*) |
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On at least one of those items, the pattern must be obviously tiling/repeating. Bedspreads, walls, floors, and rugs are all good options. You may show your patterns on additional items such as clothing if you choose, but such images will not be sufficient for the required shots!
One of your required screenshots MUST display your pattern on a 4 tile or longer wall. That way the downloaders can get a clear shot of how the pattern will tile. However, this rule may be bent if you are uploading a pattern that obviously would not belong on a wall--such as carpet. In this case, you may display the pattern on a large floor.
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| Appropriate (*) |
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| Please make sure you use appropriate items upon which to display your patterns. A plaid pattern may look good on clothes and bedspreads, but would be silly on a car. |
| Create-A-Pattern Tool (*) |
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 The Create-A-Pattern Tool has a built in "preview" feature that allows for you to test your patten on various objects. However, these simulations are NOT permitted as part of your required screenshots for your upload. You must take all pattern screen shots in the actual game.
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Uploading
Once you have your creation made and screenshots taken, you need to make sure you have all the information and file types in order when uploading.
| Zip, Rar, or 7z |
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| To upload your file(s) to MTS, you will need to compress them into an archive file, which makes them smaller and allows you to include many files in one download. The archive file formats we currently accept are .zip, .rar, and .7z.
For instructions on compressing your files into an archive, please see: Creator Guidelines: Creating Archive Files.
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| Package format only - no sims3packs |
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On MTS the preferred format is .package files. We do not accept uploads with .sims2packs/.sims3packs except in those areas where it is absolutely necessary (worlds and lots).
Please do not also include a .sims3pack version of your files attached to your upload here at MTS. You may, however, upload .sims3pack versions elsewhere and link to them in your upload... i.e. "If you would like a sims3pack version of this item, you can get it here: (link)" - this is not meant to advertise your creations elsewhere, just allow those who may want a sims3pack version to get it.
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| Upload in sets |
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| If you have created several items in a set, or similar items in the same sort of theme at the same time, please upload these together in a single set, all on one thread (instead of all separately, one by one, on different threads). This is easier for everyone: on our upload moderators, as they only have one thread to review rather than several... on you, as submitting a single thread is much quicker and easier than several... and on downloaders, as they can get everything they want all in one place rather than having to hunt around.
If you are doing a huge set, you can always break the set up into pieces, posting more screenshots along with the downloads as comments in the thread, as is done here and here. To do that, create a new thread in the Creator Issues Forum and arrange your thread there, using the first post as an introduction, and attach your uploads and images to subsequent posts in the thread. When you're done, PM a moderator to have it moved to the upload queue. For more information, read the message that displays when you go to post in Creator Issues. |
| Good title |
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| You'll need a good title for your upload which describes what it is, and interests people in downloading it.
Good titles:
Bad titles:
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| Good description |
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| In the main text of your upload, you'll need to write a good description of what you have made. The description must be about what you have made - what it is, what its features are, etc... You don't have to write a novel here, just a few sentences to get people interested. Please make sure this description is in English, don't over-use smileys/emoticons, and if necessary, run it through spellcheck and proofread for typos.
Good descriptions:
Bad descriptions:
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| Number of Palettes/In-Game Category (*) |
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| Make sure to mention the number of colour palette options (1-4) your pattern(s) have, and what category or categories they show up under in-game! |
| In-Game Picture as Main Thumbnail (*) |
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| If you include pictures of just the texture you used for the pattern, please make sure to pick an in-game picture as your default thumbnail in the upload wizard. |
| Credit custom hair |
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| If sims in your screenshots are shown with custom hair, then you will need to provide links and credit. This is not optional!
A link and credit means writing something like: "Everyday hair by Anubis360: http://www.modthesims.info/d/402962" - it states the item, the creator's name, and gives a direct link to where it can be found. Just linking to a site is not sufficient! You may use content from the EA Store on your sims, but again, you need to link and credit it as such, so people can get it. |
Additional Stuff
- If your upload is rejected or marked as changes required and you're not sure why, ask in Creator Issues.
- If you're not sure whether your patterns are ready for uploading, use the Creator Feedback Forum to get feedback on it.
