The Sims 4 Tutorial: How to create Clothing Recolors

Hello everyone,

I have been asked many times to create a tutorial on how I make my recolors. I will be showing you two different and simple ways to create a recolor. We will go over clothing recoloring in this tutorial, but you may use the same methods for object recolors as well.

I will not be explaining how to export the .DDS images you will need to create your recolor in this tutorial.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the SC Social thread.

For this tutorial you are going to need the following programs:

Sims 4 Studio(*Registration Required)
Photoshop, Paint.net, or Gimp
Photoshop DDS Plugin

For this tutorial I will be using Photoshop CC, but you can use any art program as long as you can create layers, alter opacity, and edit with hue/saturation.

Be sure to download and install these programs, if you have any questions on installing please ask.

In this section I will be showing you how to create a clothing recolor using the Hue/Saturation method. This is one of the most common ways to create a recolor.

So, let’s get started.

1. This method is very simple. First open the .DDS image you would like to recolor.

2. For Photoshop users, you can find the Hue/Saturation adjustment on the right side of your screen under the Adjustment tab.

If you do not have it available on your screen you can also go up to: Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

3. Now a window called Hue/Saturation will open.

There are 3 bars as pictured below.

~ Hue– Color or Shade

~ Saturation – Measures the degree to which a color differs from gray

~ Lightness – How dark or light the image appears.

4. Next, simply move the sliders for Hue to achieve the color you are wanting.

Then, change the saturation to change how vibrant the color is.

Finally, change the lightness to adjust the shadows and highlights of the item.

In this section I will be showing you how to create a clothing recolor using my own method. This is the way I create all of my recolors for all of my work. I use this method instead of the Hue/Saturation method because it eliminates any pixelation in the image.

So, let’s get started.

1. First, create a new layer. Using the Spill bucket

spill black on the image.

Next, go up to the filters and select Color. This will turn the image into black/white.

(Even if your image is already black and white, do not skip this step.)

2. First, next to your layers tab, select Channels.

Then, go down to the bottom and click the box next to Alpha 1. This will cause the white background of the image to turn red.

Next, uncheck the box next to the RGB channel. This will deselect the image and leave you with a black and white image (Alpha).

3. Hold Shift + Right Click the ‘Alpha 1’ image. This will select the alpha as pictured below.

4. After your alpha is selected, check the box next to the RGB channel. This will allow you to see the texture again.

5. Next, create a new layer.

Once again, using the spill bucket spill black on the layer.

Go up to Opacity and change it to 85%. I usually use 85% but you can go anywhere between 70%-85% as long as you can see the details of the original texture. Now you have a black recolor of the item as pictured below.