Decided to try default-replacing the default EA 'fur' (since we can't add more till MorphMaker is updated!) with the SSO Curly Horse texture and,,, mmmm.......

It has a normal map as well to make the curls pop a bit <: it'll get released, uh, eventually LMAO

Sims 4 horse stencil painting in photoshop 3D

Howdy!

Today I'll show you how to use the 3D horse model @minervamagicka extracted to paint your own markings for Sims 4 horses in photoshop. My photoshop is in german but this tutorial is super easy and I marked everything you need. If you have any trouble I'm happy to help!

What you need:

Step 1

Open the sims4horse.psb. You can rotate your horse with the move tool marked in the first screenshot. In the layer window you see three textures (hooves, body and head). If you double click them they open up separately. You can see that in the second screenshot.

Step 2

Now we paint. Grab your brush tool and paint directly on the 3D model. Make sure the layer of the horse is not locked or fixed and is active. If you're not sure just click on it to make sure it's active.

You can also paint the texture file we opened in Step 1. To update your textures you might need to refresh the texture by toggling the visibility of the texture off and on by clicking on the eyes next to the texture names in the layer window of the .psb file. But most of the times it should update simultaneously.

You can add layers in the texture files if you need it. For this tutorial I chose to keep it simple.

Step 3

If you painted the head and body you will see that the texture files are separate. We need to merge them together to create stencils for the game. Open the head and body texture, if you haven't already, by double clicking them in the layers window of the .psb file.

Step 4

Copy either the head or body texture and paste it on top of the other one. I copied the head texture to the body texture. To merge them I made a layer mask. You can now save the image.

Step 5

You've done it! For stencil making you want to keep in mind that everything that's black will be invisible and everything white is visible. The stencils ingame work like masks in photoshop.

Please follow @h-emera's tutorials for stencil making to move on from here.

Appaloosa Mottling

I remember seeing someone recently complain about their paint mode mottling going crunchy (thanks EA!) so here are some muzzle swatches for you!

You can paint over these in paint mode too so you can connect markings easily.  ♡

Thought these would go nicely with the release of my Appaloosa eyes.

Download!

Appaloosa Brush Set - Updated!

Wasn't happy with how small my appaloosa brushes were able to go, so I've messed with them so that they'll shrink further. ♡

Original post (I have updated the download link!)

Equine Terrain Paints

Includes 3 arena footings (rubber and two versions of sand) and sawdust for your stables!

Download!

Plain Muzzle Swatches

Some prettier versions of EA's sad attempts.

You can paint over these in paint mode too!

Download!

Shine Test Stencil

Honestly, I had to give a realistic shine a go. I was proud of it for a little while...

Until @itskatart decided she was going to unleash the godliest Sims 4 horse shine stencil to date (she hasn't posted it yet, but oh boy will it be worth the wait - I am SO excited). ♡

Regardless, I wanted to share this with you all anyway, because someone out there might quite like it! Otherwise, it's just gonna sit in my files and rot.

I will give it another go at some point using the Photoshop model rather than my current method - hopefully this one will be 10x better.

Download!

Black Points & Dun Stencils

Yay! More things to make our lives easier.

Three variations of black points stencils, a dorsal stripe stencil, and a mishmash of dun shading & markings stencil.

Download!

Sooty & Pangare Stencils

I'm afraid that's all I've got left to share for the time being.

These were much needed though!

I bet EA's dapple stencil over the top of my sooty ones would be chef's kiss.

Download!

Realistic Horse Eyes

Includes all of your usual colors, plus heterochromia, Paso Fino tiger eyes, Appaloosa eyes (visible sclera), uveitis/blind eyes, and missing eyes.

I've made two versions - one for those who play without any kind of head/body mesh overrides and one for those who do (I noticed some weird reshaping and squishing of the eyes so I had to do some tweaks).

These only replace one default eye swatch so you might be able to use them alongside other eyes? Not sure.

Happy to continue updating this with more colors/variants if anyone has anything in particular they'd like. ♡

Download!

Two-sided EA Manes

They're quick, simple manes duplicated on both sides of the neck. Short length textures were manipulated to replicate a somewhat realistic part in the mane - the other mane textures work reasonably well as is and are therefore original to EA.

Download here: http://simfileshare.net/folder/195653/

my fun silly experiments for tonight - Paint Mode coats ripped from CmarNYC's Coat Converter (or not - This is my boy Spare My Sins, and I had painted his textures in 3D previously since I used him for renders, and just baked them down to the TS4 UVs to test) can be turned into custom 'hoof colours' and applied whilst keeping the detail of the horse skin beneath - This is using the default replacement I am working on with @camthecowboyman for example!

This A) Probably could function as a fairly painless way to have painted coats in HQ, and B) also allows post-processing work on the Paint Mode texture to clean up the artifacting. Plus, this doesn't use an accessory slot on the horse. You could even keep the Paint Mode version of the horse beneath the hoof overlay as it actually 'hides' all Paint Mode work, so you can update and re-export when needed.

Or, if you're more savvy in programs like Substance Painter, you could paint your own bespoke horse coat colour and slap it in this way (as I did w/ Sinny).

Re; the artifact clean-up, I personally use ChaiNNer, a node-based software designed primarily to interact with neural network models which are trained to preserve, upscale and 'correct' old media. The TS4 coat textures aren't really 'old media' but they are very damaged by the time the engine is done compressing it & they're exported by Cmar's tool, so a lot of the models designed to fix JPEG artifacts or DDS artifacting can work magic on them.