Hi, I recently got into using mods for this game and found two mods that I really liked, Seasonal Villager Outfits https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/2449?tab=description, and Updated Long Hair Penny- Content Pack Version https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/6588. I like how the Seasonal Villager outfit Mod makes them able to change outfits, but I prefer Penny with the longer hair. if someone could please teach how to merge them in a way, whether that be editing the actual files of one or otherwise, that would be very appreciated.
If the poses are the same in portrait-versions of both mods, the easiest way to go about it would be to personally edit each portrait. Cut out the background of the long-haired version in GIMP/photoshop and overlay it over the short-hair version (with the new clothing), and manually remove any details that clash (stray hair, etc). It's the same person, so skin-tone and hair will be the same, and the pose will probably also be identical (I'm guessing the long-hair-mod-author used a vanilla source when redrawing the hair). What you want to do requires artistic, detail-work that just has to be done; there's no real quick fix to get a seamless experience. If you're unfamiliar with photoshop/gimp, this would be a great way to get into it, since it's a very simple, basic exercise that will teach you how to work with layers (two different images), merging them into a new one, and how to isolate specific details (cutting out the background from one file and pasting it onto another). There are tons of great introductionary guides on that subject available online. Since one mod is much bigger than the other (includes more assets), I would make a copy of the seasonal mod and make custom edits/lifts to the penny files from the long-hair mod, rather than trying to make both of them work at the same time.
Thanks, is there any free photo editing software that you would recommend? I had tried manually changing one of the files with the base 3d Paint that comes on my computer and it was not the greatest experience.
Yes; GIMP is a pretty robust tool that's completely free, and available on Mac, Windows and Linux (and probably even more platforms). It's not quite as elegant as photoshop, but it's absolutely servicable. It's very well worth your time to get accustomed to the basics of imagine editing (even if you don't want to do any further modding; it's just good, modern computer literacy to know how to do simple image-editing like working with layers and transparency). What you're trying to do is an excellent introduction to familiarizing yourself with an image-editor. Keywords for googling would be "working with layers in Gimp", "transparency in Gimp", "merge layers in Gimp", how to cut out parts of an image in gimp", "what is an alpha layer in gimp", "how to save as png in gimp". My "style" of helping is not to give precise step-by-steps to a specific task, but rather encourage someone who is unfamiliar with a tool to become familiar with it. What you're trying to do (doing small edits, ie, blending one version of hair with another version of shorter, but otherwise identical hair, on the same person) is basically a perfect little exercise in both learning how to use an image-editor, and also how to personalize other people's work for your own taste and wants. It's an excellent weekened project that you can go at at your own pace, with the security of knowing that there is an enormous amount of free guides and how-tos in both text and video form available when you get stuck (and, since you're working with a new tool, you can go to other forums and sub-reddits for help outside of the Stardew Valley-community). Cheers.
Thanks for the help, and recommendation of what editing software to use, I'll post one edit of the many files to change when completed.
Looks good, I suppose (don't know how the original compares). I'm guessing you found your way around Gimp
yeah I found my way around gimp, if you click on the Seasonal Villager Outfit link in my first post it'll show you some of the portraits of original characters
