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How to Make Skintones in the Sims 2

To make custom skin tones for your "Sims 2" characters, you need "The Sims 2 Body Shop" application, which installs with your "Sims 2" game, and a graphics editing program that can edit and save bitmap (.bmp) files. The "Body Shop" tool gives you access to the existing skin tone files in "The Sims 2" game. These files serve as the base for your customization. Each Sim age group and each gender within that age group has different texture files that make up their skin, for a total of 39 files.

Things You'll Need

"The Sims 2 Body Shop" application
A graphics editing application

Instructions

- 1
  Start "The Sims 2 Body Shop." Click the buttons "Create Parts," "Start a New Project" and "Create Genetics" as they appear on the screen.
- 2
  Click the "Skin Tone" button that looks like a hand. The four default skin tones that come with the game display in the window.
- 3
  Click the skin tone you want to use as the base for your new skin tone.
- 4
  Click the "Export Selected Textures" button at the bottom of the window to export the 39 texture files to edit.
- 5
  Enter a name for the project. Click the check mark button to confirm. "Body Shop" places the exported files in a "Projects" folder inside your "Sims 2" saved games folder.
- 6
  Look at the top of the export confirmation window. It displays the path and directory where you will find the texture files to edit.
- 7
  Leave "Body Shop" running and start your graphics editing program.
- 8
  Open each of the 39 texture files with your graphics editing software and change the color of the entire image, using a command in your program that colorizes or changes hue, saturation or tone.
- 9
  Save the file changes and make sure the file type remains .bmp.
- 10
  Exit the graphics editing software and return to the "Body Shop" application after you have changed the color on all the texture files in the project folder.
- 11
  Click the "Import to Game" button and select the name of your project in the import dialog box.
- 12
  Exit "Body Shop" and start "The Sims 2" to use your new skin tone in the game.

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