+ What has changed in Sims 3 creating?

UV mapping
  UV maps must all fit onto the texture
  Mesh parts should not overlap other parts on your UV map - especially if using baking (see What is baking?)
  Scaling each part accurately on your textures now matters greatly; too large or small and the in-game patterns will blur or distort

Meshing
  There are now separate high and low detail meshes that must be made for each object
  Meshes need to be made for sun-shadows too (Workshop can do this for you)
  All vertices (with exception of wall/ground shadows) are now assigned to joints (not just animated vertices)

Texturing
  There is no 'colour' texture - this is made by patterns combined with the remaining textures you make
  There are separate shading and highlight/reflections textures
  Full shaders (together with the textures) combine to replace material definitions
  Wall/ground shadows are now mapped to a fixed 'shadow atlas' image in the game - you do not draw your own

Output format
  Sims 3's content framework is currently designed for Sims3Pack only. Package files are not recommended.
  File sizes are typically larger

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Is it easier?
A good question! Workshop was designed with complete beginners in mind and has a very easy to use interface so this aspect of creating will definitely feel easier for you. Basic creations are as easy to import/export as Sims 2's Homecrafter. However, the meshing and texturing aspects really depend on upon two things:

  how you mapped your meshes for Sims 2
  how you textured your creations

If you used precision in mapping Sims 2 creations so every part of your mesh was to scale in the game, and if you carefully hand painted your textures, you will probably find Sims 3 creating easier because nothing will have changed for you on mapping, and texturing requires no colour and so will be easier. If however, you didn't map to scale but would tile your textures over your Sims 2 mesh instead of scaling, or you downloaded pre-made textures from the net to apply to your meshes rather than hand-drawing, Sims 3 creation will appear more difficult at first. More Sims 2 creators appear to fall into the latter category so you won't be alone if this applies to you too.

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About those file sizes...
With packages holding a minimum 4 textures and with those textures often being larger than they needed to be in Sims 2, file sizes are greater too. An EA plumbing item, laden with dirt textures too, is not going to weigh in at less than 600Kb or thereabouts, and sometimes is much greater for larger objects such as showers (don't be too surprised by files in the vincinity of 1Mb). Large files do not impact on game performance in Sims 3, but if you intend creating objects for lot builders to use in their uploaded lots under our TSRAA scheme (see: What is the TSRAA?), there are some tips for keeping file sizes down in our Object Creation Part 2: Object Textures tutorial when making objects with multiple dirt textures.

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Where next?
Here are some useful resources to get you started:

Referenced from:

• Resource  How do I create a Sims 3 object?

Keywords:

shadows | meshes | joints | textures | uv mapping