I wanted to create a little how-to on how I make my lookbooks because it's so, so simple and if you've been thinking about learning how to make them...here's your sign!
PART I - POSES AND EDITING
Mid-April I stumbled upon this video by @itselliandra and created my simblr.
Before I watched that video, I was still actually playing the sims. Now I am like the rest of you/those memes I didn't relate to where you only mess around in CAS and never touch the actual gameplay. Don't worry; I am very happy with my choice and have a renewed interest in the game I never had before.
In Elliandra's video, she explains where to download poses and how to use them, where to download a free photoshop-like program (GIMP), and how to use said-program to make the background transparent and have a boarder; aka the only things I do to make my lookbooks.
PART II - FINDING CC
Now you know how to take nice pictures and do the very minimal editing I do...I'll tell you how I find custom content.
- If I am doing a theme I am not entirely familiar with, I research the topic to get an idea of what I'm looking for.
When I actually start CC shopping, I start with Lana's CC Finds Sims 4 tag. While the blog is no longer posting new content, there are still years and years of content broken up in convenient categories.- Looks like sssvitlans deactivated early 2021 😔
- Maxis Match CC World and MMOutfitters are good active blogs with navigations to look through.
- I then go to The Sims Resource and search.
- I also google "theme Sims 4 cc" and see what comes up.
PART III - TIPS & TRICKS
- If you arrive at a deactivated tumblr or a dead link, do not fear! Copy the url and go to The Wayback Machine. Enter the url and if it exists in the internet-past, it will populate a graph with versions of the page from previous years. Click a year and then a calendar day. The download link you see on the wayback machine version of the page will not work. Instead, right click and copy the link url. Paste it and remove the wayback machine url before the actual url. Sometimes '/' becomes '2F%' in the urls, so you will need to replace the '2F%' with '/'. Once you've done that, you have a working link!
- The creator may still have deleted it from the file sharing service, but usually you can find the content this way!
- You can bypass ADFLY and other paywalls with browser (Chrome) extensions! Since some creators are still using paywalls, blocking ADFLY and others will protect your computer from malware you may be exposed to. It doesn't work for all links, but it comes in handy!
- I use the following:
- Ublock Origin (removes ads from TSR! (and Hulu!!)
- Universal Bypass (#2)
- Adfly Skipper
- Skip shorte.st ads
- If you are having trouble finding items, try looking up aspects of the theme. For example, when I created my Mexican and Hungarian Cultural Lookbooks I needed embroidered items. I searched for 'embroidered sims 4 cc' and found more content.
- If you find a creator who has more than one piece of content that you're looking for, browse the rest of their content!
- If you downloaded a piece of old cc and it didn't show up in your game, try running the Cats and Dogs Batch Fix in the Sims 4 Studio. Sims 4 Studio ➪ Content Management ➪ Batch Fixes ➪ CAS ➪ Update CAS CC Pets Batch
- An additional bonus of running this batch fix is that my computer boot up time went from around 10 minutes to a few seconds! I don't know why they're related, but a friend of mine tried it and had the same result!
- When I find content I download on tumblr, reblog it on my CC Finds blog because it is easier to find content there than searching through 'likes.' If the content isn't on tumblr, I favorite it on my browser so I can find it later to link to.
No one asked for this lol but I hope you find it useful!
❤
