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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Oct 2019 at 10:11 AM Last edited by Merkaba : 13th Oct 2019 at 7:21 PM.
Default Tutorial: How to make glowing eyes (Vampire pack required)
Since I don’t see too many glowing eye mods, I decided to make this tutorial in hope of inspiring other Simmers to make some!

What this tutorial will do: teach you how to make glowing eyes! I’ve been trying and trying, and I wasn’t successful trying to add an emissive to a custom eye package. So, I looked for a workaround and it worked. It does, however, require you to have the Vampires pack. If you have experience modding then let me spill the beans here: all you have to do is clone the existing vampire eyes and change the textures. Read on to find out how! I just want to underline here that I am no expert, I just happen to like experimenting with stuff and sometimes it works

What this tutorial won’t do: teach you the basics of texture manipulation and Sims 4 Studio use. If you’re new to modding start here:

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...ENCAS_Tutorials

Tools needed:
- GIMP/Photoshop with dds plugin
- Sims 4 Studio

Since I’m far from being an artist I resort to editing the Maxis textures, but if you have your own textures and look to add glow to them, just skip to step 4 – Modify Emission.

Step 1. Clone the existing glowing eyes

Start by using the “Add CAS Part Swatch” in CAS part of S4Studio, then find any of the vampire eyes. Remember here that TYAAE, children and toddlers’ eyes are separate, so start with TYAAE and then repeat the procedure for children and toddlers.

Here I’ll take the green split pupil eyes, make them pretty blue and make the pupil horizontal to make things more interesting.



Step 2 Export Diffuse and Emission

Now export the Diffuse and Emission textures. The Diffuse can be in PNG format, but Emission has to be in DDS.



Step 3 Modify Diffuse and import it

Open up the Diffuse texture and do whatever you want to it. As mentioned before, I’ll change the color to blue and modify the pupil. Import it in S4S as Diffuse when you’re done.



Wow that turned out creepy! What’s good in this is that it will show you nicely how to prepare Emission texture.

Step 4 Modify Emission

Now let’s open up the Emission texture we exported. For green eyes with split pupil it looks like this:



As you can see, Emission is just slightly modified Diffuse – there is no light reflection on it and there is no sclera. The color is also more uniform (there is no "shade" in the upper part). The RGB channel tells the game which part of the eye should shine in the given color. So now I’ll copy the iris of my creepy eyes from Diffuse over on the Emission texture as a new layer and place it in the exact same spot as the green eye. Also, I’ll get rid of the reflection. Since I'm not posting these eyes I'll also be lazy and forget about the uniform color It all depends on what you want to achieve. Experiment to see different results!
The brightness of your glow is determined by the brightness of this texture. You’re gonna have to experiment on this. For my More Vampire Eyes mod I left the brightness as it was in Diffuse – this gave a nice, bright glow. In my Glowing Base Game Eyes mod I reduced the brightness by 25% or 50% depending on the texture, to make them stand out a bit less than Vamp eyes. For these eyes I’ll leave them as they are.



Now for the glowing part. Whether the eyes glow is handled by the Alpha channel – no Alpha channel in the texture means no glow. If you want a constant glow, you need to make Alpha completely black. If you want your eyes to flash, make it grey. The whiter you make it, the faster the flash. I want my eyes to simply glow, so I’m making the Alpha channel black (if the Emission lacks Alpha channel just add a new layer in the channels tab). Import it in S4Studio when you’re done.



Step 5 Setup swatch/thumbnail, categories, genetics

I keep forgetting about this step, so let’s do it now. Choose your swatch color / thumbnail, and then go to Categories. Choose whether you want the eyes to show for Humans, Aliens, Mermaids, Vampires.



Next switch to the Warehouse tab. If you want your eyes to be available for Human Sims, scroll down to “HideForOccultFlags” and untick Human. If you’re reserving your eyes for Occults only, just leave it as it is.



If you want to properly set genetics for your eyes (meaning, your Sims’ children will inherit them) you need to prepare the same packages, but for children and toddlers (textures, of course, remain the same). For an explanation of how eye genetics works, refer to this tutorial by lilleputtu:

https://lilleputtu.tumblr.com/post/...stom-eyecolours

Basically, you need to scroll down in Warehouse tab to “Tags” (almost at the bottom) and click edit. In the window that pops up, go to EyeColor and change the TagValue on the right. As explained by lilleputtu, in theory you can use any of these tags. My other eyes use BuyCatSS, Recipe, FloorPattern… For these eyes I’m gonna choose BuyCatSS_Desk, because why not. You need to set up the same tag for all ages, so repeat for children and toddlers’ parts too.



Save your package.

Step 6 Test in CAS and ingame

Time for the big test (drumroll)



Ugh, Dahlia, you look creepy, but yay, my eyes work! Let’s see how she looks ingame.



Still creepy, but the eyes definitely glow!

That’s it! I hope this tutorial will inspire some of you to make your own glowing eyes.
If you have any questions, I’m here to answer them. I also encourage you to take apart my glowing eye packages to see how I created them.

And most importantly. If you create some glowing eyes following this tutorial and post them, link them back to me. I NEED TO FILL MY CRAVING FOR MORE GLOWING EYES! (it’s my biggest Sim obsession!)

Happy Simming, good luck and I look forward to seeing your creations!
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Test Subject
#2 Old 5th Nov 2019 at 1:23 PM
You. Are. A. Saint! I have been struggelin on and off with this for months! For some reason your tutorial didnt seem to pop up when i searched online, it was a pure quinsidence i found it, and thank god i found it! been trying to make custom vampire eyes for soooo long, massive thumbs up and thank you from here!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 6th Nov 2019 at 7:08 AM
Quote: Originally posted by t4evamos
You. Are. A. Saint! I have been struggelin on and off with this for months! For some reason your tutorial didnt seem to pop up when i searched online, it was a pure quinsidence i found it, and thank god i found it! been trying to make custom vampire eyes for soooo long, massive thumbs up and thank you from here!


Glad I could help Can't wait to see your creation!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#4 Old 14th Dec 2019 at 7:08 AM Last edited by Merkaba : 14th Dec 2019 at 9:34 PM.
Glowing Vampire Goat Eyes by Serpentia! GET EM HERE!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 14th Dec 2019 at 9:33 PM
A note on eye genetics: I came across this after I wrote up the tutorial - if the genetics in CAS seem a bit wonky, be sure you don't use tags like "breed" (as in cat or dog breeds) because apparently they can mix and can create some unexpected results.
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