Ok... here is how to retexture an EA hair using GIMP & CTU.

You will need:

GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

GIMP DDS PLUGINS (YOU MUST HAVE THESE!!!): http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/

CTU: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=364926

**NOTE** If you are having trouble installing the plug-ins, follow this tutorial:
http://shyneinnocence.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/tutorial-installing-gimp-plugins/


Part I - The Diffuse Map

The first stop to texturing is to decide on what texture you are going to use to replace the old one. This is a texture I found on the internet, and I used to retexture the hair my avatar is using

For a start, make a new folder, call it TUTORIAL HAIR, and save this texture into it. It will make things a hell of a lot easier and faster for you and me.
I generally try to use textures that are at least 250 pixels wide, but beginners are best to use textures that are large, like this one, so they can paste it over the whole texture. You will see why soon enough.

Ok, now you have your BASE TEXTURE, find a hair you want to retexture using the CTU. This only allows you to retexture BASE GAME hair, but that is an excellent place to start as they always look a little bad no matter what texture you use, but the more you play around with them to improve them the more you learn.

For the purpose of this exercise, we are going to use a bob.

The CTU

Ok. This is the tricky part. It will take you a long time to get your head around all the different programs used to fiddle with the files. CTU is pretty straight forward though.

To select the Bob, open up CTU. Now select the Age (ADULT – no young adult doesn’t work), Gender (FEMALE), Type (HAIR). You’ll come up with lots of ugly base game hairs. Scroll down until you find this one:



Ok, this is the bob we want to use. Now hit the Designs tab. This is the tab you will use the most.

Now click the Textures tab. It’s blank. Click on Add New Design, Add New Blank. It will load up this grid:



Now we’re cooking with gas. Ok, let me explain the parts of the hair I use (maybe other creators know how to use other parts of the hair, but I don’t).

Clothing Specular: My favourite part of the hair. It makes the hair either really shiny or really dull. As you all know… I like it shiny.

Control Map: This part of the hair controls the colouring, or where and how the hair colours.

Diffuse Map: This is what you’ll be learning about for now. It is how the hair renders.

Click on the strings of letters and numbers next to Diffuse Map. Then click FIND on the bottom left. It will come up with a screen like this:



Click on EXPORT. Save it as Bob_DM or something like that so you know what it is lol

It will save in DDS format. That is why we needed the DDS plug in for GIMP.

GIMP

GIMP took me forever to master. But once I did, it is the easiest thing ever to use.

Open up Bob_DM.dds in GIMP. It will look like this:



Ok, now open the texture in GIMP as well. It may not open in front of you but will be minimized. Click on the file in the toolbar and it will come up on the screen. Now, this is the easy peasy part.

Hold CTRL + A. You will have selected the whole texture. Release CTRL + A. Hold CTRL + C.

Now you have copied the texture, open up Bob_DM.dds. Now press CTRL + V. You should have pasted the texture over the original image. If you're using the texture I gave you, you'll need to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. To do this, go to LAYERS, TRANSFORM, ROTATE 90 DEGREES CLOCKWISE.
I reshaped my texture to fit over the entire texture underneath, using the scale tool, which is circled in the picture below.



See the little arrow next to Mode: Normal? Hit that. The very bottom layer effect is the one we want. It is called Value. Select it. Your image will now look like this:



Now, to finish off this retexture, select the Layer menu at the top of the screen. Select Anchor Layer. There. You’re completely done. Just press CTRL + S to save your texture. You may want to adjust the brightness and contrast if you are using a different texture - I've adjusted this one so it's perfect (in my world lol).

Back to the CTU

Go back into the CTU. The string of numbers and letters next to Diffuse Map should still be selected. On the bottom left of the screen is the Replace button. Hit that. Find your Bob_DM.dds image and import that.

Now hit Commit at the bottom right.

Ta da! Go to the Meshes tab. Rename the mesh. Call it ShyneSuckyRetexture if you like. Make sure you hit COMMIT.

Now for the SPECULAR and the CONTROL.

CLOTHING SPECULAR

(PICS COMING)

Ok, so we’ve got our texture down-pat.

Now we want to do the hair SPECULAR. This is the shininess of the hair. In the beginning I set it way too high – everything in CAS looked like plastic. But I’ve learned how to make it sharp and effective now. Here is how.

Step 1.
Open up your Diffuse Map that you just retextured in GIMP.

Step 2.
Hit CTRL + A, then CTRL + C.

Step 3.
In CTU, remember how we exported the Diffuse Map from the hair? Well now we have to export the CLOTHING SPECULAR (as circled). I usually just called it CS and save it in the same folder as I saved the Diffuse Map. Open it up in GIMP.

Step 4.
Now you have the Clothing Specular opened up in GIMP. Hit CTRL + A, then hit delete. You should have a blank canvas. Fill this in with black. Now hit CTRL + V. Ta-da!

Step 5.
Go to COLOURS, BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST. Ok, so some may say I’ve set it too bright (too much white), but I like it a bit shiny. If you prefer a more soft look, have your white areas a little darker by decreasing the brightness further. Hit OK when you’re happy with how bright / dark your Specular is.

Step 6.
Go to LAYER, ANCHOR LAYER. And you’re done! SAVE!

Step 7.
Don’t forget to replace the CLOTHING SPECULAR in CTU with the one you just made!

Clothing Speculars are very quick and easy. I always do them as soon as I’ve finished my DIFFUSE MAP.

CONTROLS

(PICS COMING)

Ok... we’ve done our texture and our specular. It’s lovely and soft and shiney now... but it still has a horrible way of colouring. My technique is a bit... odd, I don’t think anyone does it my way. But that’s ok! Because my way is the best way to get a control to perfectly match your texture 
Step 1.
Still got your DIFFUSE MAP open? Well open it up again in GIMP.
Step 2.
Go to COLOURS, LEVELS. This sucker is really intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be a pro. Grab the middle tab thingie, as circled, and move it all the way to the right.
(PIC)
You’ll get something like this:
(PIC)
Step 3.
GREAT! Hit ok. We have the perfect amount of highlight vs. Dark. If you’re not happy with the amount of highlight that you’ve got left over, just jump into Brightness and Contrast and play with that  Now it gets a bit complicated. Go to COLOURS, then hit INVERT.
Step 4.
Go to COLOURS, then COLOUR TO ALPHA. Click in the white rectangle. Move the colour sliders around until you get BLACK. I just grab the V slider and move it all the way to the left.
Step 5.
Hit ok. You should have a texture without any black in it, like this:
(PIC)
Right, so now... we go to COLOURS, COLORIFY... and pick red. We’re going to pick the area for the ROOTS :D Your image should look all red, something like this:
(PIC)
Step 6.
We need to delete the crap we don’t want to be the roots. So click on the rectangle tool, as shown, and down in the toolbox there’ll be an option to ‘FEATHER EDGES’. Check this. Now slide the radius bar all the way to the right, so the little box next to it says: 100.0.
Step 7.
Select the part of the image you don’t want to be roots. This is how I’ve done it:
(PIC)
You may wish to make your roots larger or smaller, depending on the effect you’re going for. I usually make them small, like so.
Step 8.
HIT DELETE!!! Ta da... You have roots.
Step 9.
Go back into CTU and export the CONTROL MAP as shown.
(PIC)
I usually just call it CONTROL.
Step 10.
Ok... open up your CONTROL in CTU. Ew... right? Select all and delete (CTRL + A, then DEL).
Step 11.
Go back into your newly made roots, which was originally your DIFFUSE MAP, if you’ve forgotten.
Hit CTRL + A, CTRL + C.
Step 12.
Go back into your CONTROL file. Fill it with black. Now PASTE (CTRL + V). Now anchor the layer (LAYERS, ANCHOR LAYER). TA DA! We have roots!!!
(PIC)
Step 13.
Guess what we’re gonna do now... TIPS! Go back into your DIFFUSE MAP. Hit CTRL + Z until you’re back at the completely white stage.
(PIC)
Now go to COLOURS, COLORIFY, but this time choose BLUE.
Step 14.
Again, select the part of the texture you don’t want to be tips and delete it. Make sure you’ve got FEATHER EDGES on and up to 100.0.
Step 15.
Select all, copy, and paste into your CONTROL. Anchor the layer. It should look like this now:
(PIC)
Step 16.
Go back to your DIFFUSE MAP. Hit CTRL + Z until you are back to the part before inverting the colour, as shown:
(PIC)
Step 17.
Now go to COLOURS, COLOUR TO ALPHA, and it should still be black in the box. Hit OK.
Everything disappears except for your highlights. Go to COLOUR, COLORIFY, and pick GREEN.
Step 18.
Copy and paste this green highlight into your CONTROL. Anchor the layer. TA-DA! You just did a CONTROL!
Step 19.
Save it and replace the CONTROL MAP in CTU with your CONTROL.

So... now you know how to do a full hair retexture using GIMP and the CTU. But what about other hairs, such as Peggy and NewSea? Tutorial coming very soon ;)

Thanks for sharing this Shyne!!

Its amazing what you find when you start looking, i might have a go at this sometime in the future ...

Ang you would not BELIEVE how much I somehow miss!!! I get all giddy like a school kid when I come across something that isn't actually new...but is new to me. I can't keep up with it all!!

Yay thanks Shyne this is awesomes

I checked out that comp ^all natural and was interested in it until I read you couldn't use mod poses...

Awww no mod poses, thats a shame as I think it makes the pictures more interesting when the simmie is striking a pose.

Thanks for checking it out though CeCe....it's quiet a hard competition I'll admit but it tests your creativity rather than how much you can abuse or masteh the editing programmes available lol I edit my piccies sometimes and thought this seemed so different to anything out there.

I know this is an older post, but this is an excellent tutorial. This is a stupid question, but when you're making the control - are you working on a black background (where the images stop in the tutorial....oh I am so slow)?

I do use a black background yes, but it doesn't matter to be honest, as long as you have the red channel, the green channel and the black channel. I really should post these images... -_- lol

Yes, where are the images? LOL.

Great tutorial!

So my retex went fine. I just have to test in game.

Post! Post! Were you retexturing an EA hair or a custom hair?

A EA hair. The custom hair I tried this on looked great in CTU, but showed up bald in game. So I don't know why. I'll guess she will have to update tutorial in order for me to find out.

I'll post later.

How would you retexture a custom hair? When I do it it just turns bald and I don't know how to use milkshape!

You don't have to use Milkshape! You only need Milkshape if you are actually editing the hair's mesh or bone assignments.

You need Gimp OR Photoshop to edit the actual texture files.

If you are using Photoshop, you must use the 32-bit version rather than the 64-bit version because the NVIDIA DDS Plugin is not compatible with the 64-bit version (as far as I am aware, maybe this has changed since I installed.)

And you can use S3PE, Postal, or even TSRW to replace the hair textures in the package/sims3pack file.

If you want to use TSRW, Miktiger did a mini tutorial here:
http://miktigersims.tumblr.com/hairtutorial

Anubis also posted a tutorial about how to use S3PE OR Postal to replace the textures here:
http://anubis360.blogspot.com/2011/02/replacing-hair-textures-easy-tutorial.html

Shyne's tutorial shows you how she is actually putting together the textures themselves. You can use this tutorial to texture a custom hair (Newsea, Peggy, Rose, etc) by following her same steps to create the diffuse, specular, and control textures and then refer to the Anubis tutorial OR the Miktiger tutorial to use S3PE, Postal, or TSRW to add your new textures to the file instead of CTU!

I doubt anyone will reply to this, but on the off chance that someone does...

So after following Shyne's tutorial I have created the diffuse and specular with no issues at all (I even made my own texture and know how to replace the textures :o)...however I'm completely lost with /making/ the control.

I've followed several different tutorials and most don't go in as much depth as Shyne's or are just down right confusing (Poseidon's WTF?)/badly written/have no pictures (I'm a visual learner and pictures are pretty much necessary XD). If anyone has some extra time on their hands and doesn't mind throwing up some pictures to go along with Shyne's tutorial for control making and even the specular section I'd appreciate it very much.

Edit: I should add I'm retexturing a custom hair (I know I can use S3PE/Postal to switch out the textures so I'm not sure if it really makes a difference). Also, I'm trying to do adjust shine highlights or whatever.

Edit2: Holy crapcakes I think I did it...well the tips looks weird. But it's an improvement. *talks to self* :o

Edit3: OMG OMG OMG OMG I DID IT!!!!!!!!! Just ignore this post then, I figured it out. THANK YOU SHYNE I LOVE YOU. <3


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I could not help but giggle as I read this...especially the end!! Don't worry...I talk to myself ALL the time....well not ALL the time, but well sometimes I find that I may make a comment here and there and nobody is around to hear it...does that make me sound crazy...? *talks to self* "I maybe should have stopped after I wrote the end...

AnYWho....beautiful retexture and I so glad you figured it out and I learn the same exact way...piccies!!

You know, after completing that hair I can't believe it took me so long to understand. I'm a chemistry/math geek but wow. GOOD GOD HOW COULD I NOT GET THAT!?

Now to start retexturing old Rose/Raon hairs 'cause for some reason no one does those.. .-.

Edit: Lol now I see why. Whoaaaa.

I know this thread topic is really old but I just wanted to say thanks! I just did it and hopefully one day you will complete the Peggy hairs because I swear to Bob they need to be retextured.... BADLY. Lol thanks again.

lmaoo i know right :p I'm happy this tutorial is for gimp too (:

Hello many thanks this tutorial, well explained by the author. I was hoping so much the rest of the pictures are included? I can follow the tutorial easy but i find the pictures a good guide. If the author is so kind maybe have the time to post the rest of the pictures for the tutorial, i would be greatful. If not possible, ok. Thank you for reading