Sometimes you wish to add glass or another fancy material to your Sims 3 objects that aren’t present yet. The following steps will show you how this is done.
Duplicating Group
Right-click on the group you wish to clone and choose Duplicate.
You have to duplicate the group before you export the EA mesh and replace it with your own.
Renaming Groups
Optional step. Right-clicking on a group allows you to rename the groups with your own names. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of groups to work with.
Change Shader
Open the Material Editor by clicking the button next to material.
From the Shader drop down list select the material you want. In this example Glass for objects is chosen.
Next Workshop will ask you if you want to populate the material with the default properties. Important that you click No.
Comparing to existing Materials
The best way to achieve what you want your material to look like is to look at existing EA materials by cloning an item which already has that specific appearance. The following shows a Glass for objects from EA (sculptureFloorChinaCabinetFederal2x1).
The transparency and color of the glass is controlled over Diffuse.
In the next chapter you’ll learn how to achieve this by removing (or adding) properties.
Edit Material Properties
The editing in this chapter can also be done on existing materials and doesn’t require to duplicate a group of course. You can delete properties by right-clicking and choosing Remove.
If you know the shader accepts other properties which aren’t present you can add them over the + Add link in the top right corner of the Material Editor and the following dialog will show up where you can select what you want.
Be aware that not every property works in every shader! For example you cannot add a normal map to an object which has not already one.
Sometimes you require to relink an existing complate, choose Browse when right-clicking on Diffuse map or Specular map and select the correct complate in Project Contents.
If you’re satisfied with the properties and their values, click on Done in the Material Editor.
