Hi there! In this tutorial you will learn to create a project from scratch and add color swatches, that is, swatches where the mesh does not change.
Learning to create empty projects is essential since projects that are created with the wizard has been identified as the cause of the “never blonde hair” bug.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
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Your FBX mesh (exported from Blender or Maya, with the Modkit)
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The Diffuse & Normal Textures for each of your swatches
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Ideally but not mandatory, the ORMA / ARM texture for the base color (your default swatch, that is)
STEP BY STEP GUIDE
CREATING THE PROJECT
We create the project by clicking twice on “Create Empty Project”. In this example, the name will be FA_CandanceTop (FA if its for female adult, FC for female child, MA for male adult and so on). Dont worry about the “Description” you can add it later when uploading to Curseforge.
In the bottom window we look for our project, right click - utility - Open Import Resource Tool and we import our mesh and all of our textures into the modkit.
The textures folder will look like this:
Now, let’s create 1 material for each swatch we want to add, in my case I have 4 colors that I want to add, including the “base” so I will create 4 materials, calling them something I can recognize later.
To create the material:
Right Click on your Project name > Utility > Script > CAZ > Create CAZ Material. Then you give it a name (BaseMat/BlueMat/PinkMat etc) and click “OK”.
Once you are done, your material folder should look like this:
Lets add the textures corresponding to each material by double clicking the white ball, Clicking “Base Color Map” + “AO, Roughness, Metallic” + “Normal Map” so they have a blue tick beside their name and then dragging your textures like this:
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DIFFUSE: Drag to “base color”
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NORMAL: Drag to “normal”
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ORMA/ARM: Drag to “AO,Roughness,Metallic”
Save and close, then repeat with each material “ball”, adding the same ARM Map to every ball but their specific normal and Diffuse Maps.
Now, double click the mesh and drag your base material (first material you created, in my case “BaseMat”) to each of the slots you see, one by one.
DATA EDITOR 01 - GARMENT_____MESH
Save and go to “DATA EDITOR” clicking in the arrow that appears when we hover over our project name (bottom of the left panel, like in the pictures bellow).
Once you are inside the Data Editor, you will see a long list of game data. Now you use the search bar on the top left to look for the term closer to what we need as explained bellow.
If you are creating only a top (shirt, hoodie, sweatshirt), search the word TOP and double click both:
- GarmentTopMesh
- GarmentTop
If you want to create a full outfit (swimsuit, dress, two parter etc), search the word FULL and double click both:
- GarmentFullMesh
- GarmentFull
If you are creating a bottom piece, search for BOTTOM and double click on both:
- GarmentBottomMesh
- GarmentBottom
Now that we have what we need in our “Working Data” workspace, we will first double click on “GarmentTopMesh”, and in the giantic list at our right, search for something similar to what we want (in my case I will select a W_T_Shirt or “(W)oman +(T)op+ Shirt”) and rightclick + “append new item”
This is a list of existing in-game clothing items. From their names you can guess the type of clothing it is and choose a piece of clothing that is similar to the one you want to create (sweater, swimwear, pijama, T-Shirt, etc).
Important to click append and not edit.
Now let’s create our base mod, by adding the mesh, the base material, again the mesh and the GENERAL NAME of it, so then we are able to add more swatches, in my case, the Group ID will be “W_A_CandyTop”. Do as in the pictures bellow:
In “thumbnail”, chose whatever placeholder you want (or your thumbnail if you already have it).
Click Apply at the bottom + Save at the top right.
Now scroll down the whole list until you see the name of your mod with a tiny color on its side, right click it + “append new item”. We will append as many items as colors or swatches we want, clicking in the last item we created, naming each of them “W_A_[NameOfYourMod]+number”. It will look like this, where “00” is my base/first color and “03” my last.
IMPORTANT: Check that the “Group ID” is “W_A_NameOfYourMod” in each of them, and B1Appearance Table Row ID is the name + the number of swatch (see picture)
EACH TIME, CLICK APPLY THEN CLICK SAVE
Once you are finished appending, this is what you should see:
I will upload a Covering/Drawing/Body regions tutorial soon. Dont worry too much, if you dont get it right away you will still be able to change it later, as many times as needed.
DATA EDITOR 02 - GARMENT_______.
Now, lets go back to “Working Data” space and double click our GarmentTop (Or GarmentFull /GarmentBottom, depending on what you are creating):
Again, on the list on the right, look for something similar to what you need, in my case that would be “W_T_Shirt”. Right click on the name and click “append new item”.
This part is what will make the mod show in our game with all its swatches.
In “Variants”, click “+” and add as many as swatches you want, in my case I will have 4 total. If you already see variants, change the names as indicated bellow and delete those that you wont need.
Change the names of the variants for the ones you gave each swatch on GarmentTopMesh, like this:
IT IS MANDATORY THAT THE NAMES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.
IMPORTANT!! In “Num Colors Channels” should be set at least to 1. If you leave it at 0 your swatches won’t show up in game.
Scroll to “Outfit Category Tags” and choose where you want your outfit to appear in the game (formal clothing, everyday, sleep etc). For this one I wil choose “Everyday” and add “Summer” by clicking “+”.
Scroll to “UI” and choose your mod thumbnail/placeholder.
Scroll to “B1Appearance Table Row”. In “ID” write the name of your mod (the one you chose for Group ID and did not change in each swatch). In my case, that would be “W_A_CandyTop”, with no numbers.
Click “Apply” at the bottom
Click “Save” at the top right
Now the Working Data Panel should look like this (no longer greyed out!):
EXPORTING TO THE GAME
Now close this window (“X” on the top right), hover over your mod name again and click “Create Local Mod Package”. Once its done and you hear the bell, you can go into your game and check everything is alright.
(When you see the pop up bellow you will know your mod has been succesfully exported to the game).
