If you're using an image of your own,
you need to make sure it's in 16 million colours.
If not, increase the colours to 24 bit.
You do this by going to Colours/Increase Colour Depth and choosing 16 Million Colours (24 bit)
or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-0 (=zero).
(Note: If this option is "greyed-out" in your PSP menu, the image already is in 24 bit.)

We must start with cutting away the parts of the image that we don't want.
We do this by choosing the "Selection" tool.
You'll find it to the left side of the screen.

Adjust the settings for the "Selection" tool on the floating "Tool Options" Palette.
Use these settings....
(Note: If you cannot find any of the different "floating palettes" I'm refering to in this tutorial
or if you close them by misstake, you can to go to the menu View/Toolbar and activate them from there.)

Now use the "Selection" tool on the image to capture the part you want to be the rug.
Look carefully at the "running ants" so you make sure that you've selected
exactly the part you want to use. You may have to zoom in to do that. (View/Zoom)

Once you've selected the part of the image you want to use,
press Ctrl-C on your keyboard to make a copy of the selected part of the image.
Then directly press Ctrl-V to paste the selection into its own window.
Now you can close the other window (BA_TutorialImage.jpg) - you will not need it anymore.
The rug image should now look like this (no yellow border).

Step 3:
Now you need to resize the image to Width 126 Height 177. (Image/Resize... or Shift-S)
Use the numbers and settings I have given you below
and make sure that the "Maintain aspect ratio of:" is unchecked BEFORE you enter the numbers!

Your rug should now look like this!

How did I get these numbers?
Well, I just "unskewed" the original rug. :-)

Step 4:
Before starting the skewing process,
you need to increase the canvas size of your image to 350 x 350 pixels.
(Trust me on this one... okay!)
Go to Image/Canvas Size and use these settings.

The rug image should now look like this in its window.
Lots of space around it so the image won't be cut off when you start skewing it.

Step 5:
As you may have noticed... In the game, you look down on everything from a tilted angle.
There're also four separate rotations.
To mimic that angle you need to skew everything you want to place in the game.
To accomplish this with your rug, you need two skewed images of the rug.
One seen from a birds eye of view from the NE and one from the SW.
(The NW and SE views are created in the T-mog simply by flipping these two rotations.)

You have to skew the image twice.
Start with skewing it Horizontal +45. (Effects/Geometric Effects/Skew...)

Then skew the same image Vertical -27.
(You need to click OK between these two skews as you only can skew in one direction at a time.)

The result should look like this.

Now this is only one rotation of the rug. We needed two rotations.
Create the second rotation by making a copy of this window by pressing Shift-D.
Then just mirror the second image by pressing Ctrl-M.

Step 6:
Okay! Time for coffee break kids.
You'll need it for the rest of this tutorial cause now comes the tricky and time-consuming part. :-D

You can save all of your work by going to File/Workspace/Save
Choose the same directory as you did for your bitmaps
and save it as a *.wsp-file and the images as *.psp-files.
When you're ready to resume the tutorial you just locate the *.wsp file and double-click on it.
PSP will start up with all the images ready and loaded, just as they where when you quitted last time.
Very handy when you're working on large files that takes days or weeks to complete!

Step 7:
Did the coffee taste good? Is your energy bar restored to green again? Good!

Now it's time to open the bitmaps of the T-mogged rug. (File/Open)
As you can notice, they're divided into six separate folders.

Each folder contains two bitmaps - One each for the two rotations you created.
(The other two rotations the T-mog will create for you by flipping these images.)

Step 8:
But before we start to do anything with the bitmaps,
you'll need to understand what parts of the rug they represent.

I think this image says it best.

Notice how one rotation of the rug just is made out of the bitmaps label "..._back_..."
and the other rotation is made out of the bitmaps label "..._front_...".
This image also tells you in what order to place the bitmaps over the rug later in this tutorial.

Step 9:
Now we start with opening the two bitmaps inside the folder named "spirite0500".
They look like this and are called "tile-A_large_back_p" and "tile-A_large_front_p"!
That mean, that the first bitmap represent the "A-back" position on the rug scheme I gave you
and the other bitmap represent the "A-front" position.

Step 10:
Let's begin with concentrating on the tile named "tile-A_large_back_p".
This is a bitmap-file so you need to increase the colour depth of it first.
You do this by going to Colours/Increase Colour Depth and choosing 16 Million Colours (24 bit)
or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-0 (=zero).

Step 11:
I use the tool "Magic Wand" to select the little rug piece.
You'll find the Magic Wand to the left side of the screen.

Adjust the settings for the "Magic Wand" tool on the floating "Tool Options" Palette.
Use these settings....

Now with the wand click somewhere on the yellow background of the image.
You'll instantly notice that "running ants" captures all of the yellow.
Since we don't want the yellow but the rug piece itself, we need to invert the selection.
You do this by going to Selections/Invert or by pressing Shift-Ctrl-I.
Now you have selected only the rug piece.
Time to copy it. Press Ctrl-C to copy the selected rug piece.

Step 12:
Now click on the frame of one of the two, skewed rug images you prepared earlier.
Since this is the "tile-A_large_back_p" piece you can refer to the scheme, I gave you under Step 8.
When the correct rug image is active,
press Ctrl-L to paste the copied rug piece into its own layer on the skewed rug image.
Use the "Mover" tool (looks like an arrow cross) to position the rug piece in the right spot like this...

If you've done exactly like I have said,
the "Mover"-tool should be the selected one for you by the program!

Step 13:
Now you must use the "Magic Wand" again,
same settings as under Step 10.
Click with the wand on an empty place and then invert the selection by pressing Shift-Ctrl-I

Step 14:
Now you have the little rug piece selected.
What you want to accomplish is making a copy of your rug
that has exactly the same shape and is position in exactly the same place as this little piece
For this, you have to learn to work a bit with different layers.

Go to the floating "Layer Palette" and move the cursor over it so it'll expand.
As you notice, your rug image now contains of two layers.
Layer 1 is the one that contains your rug image - The one you want to copy.
Just click on Layer 1 on the floating Layer Palette to make it active.

Make sure that the little rug piece still is selected (have "running ants" around it).
Now press Ctrl-C to make a copy. Since it is Layer 1 that is active, you will copy this piece of your rug!

Immediately after copying the rug, press Ctrl-D to deselect everything (= get rid of the "running ants").

Step 15:
Time to click on the frame to the rug piece window -
the one named "tile-A_large_back_p".
Press Ctrl-E to paste the rug piece you just copied onto this image.
By doing this the copy will stick to your cursor
and you can move the piece around to position it EXACTLY over the default piece.
When positioned correctly just click the left mouse button and the piece will paste.

You need to be very exact when doing this. If you need to, zoom in first.
Not a single pixel of the default rug piece can be uncovered, or the result will not look good!

Step 16:
Okay. Now we save this sprite over the old one.
Go to File/Save As... If you've followed my tutorial to the point, you shouldn't need to change anything here.
Just make sure that the bitmap have the correct name and that the file format is *.bmp.
DON'T save yet!

First click on the "Options..." button and choose these settings.
It's very important that you use the RL-encoding mode (and NOT the RGB-mode)!
The RL-encoding mode gathers the colours that are similar in a way so the bitmap will be visible in the game.
If you do not use this encoding method for your bitmaps, they will not show up in the game correctly.
You only need to do these settings once. PSP will remember them for the next time you'll save a bitmap!

The program will pop two questions for you...
Answer YES to them both!

I'm sorry that some of the text is in Swedish here, but as I've told you... I'm Swedish! :-)
Just click YES to the two questions although they may not look exactly like mine.

Step 17:
Now we move over to the second bitmap.
The one named "tile-A_large_front_p".
For this bitmap, repeat the steps 10 and 11.
Under step 12 choose the other rotation image of your rug, but otherwise do like I taught you!
Continue with step 13 to 16.

Now the two images of your rug should look like this!

Make sure that you have deselected the "running ants" by pressing Ctrl-D on both images.
Now you're ready to move on to the bitmaps in the next folder... sprite0501. (Se step 7)

Step 18:
These two bitmaps are named "tile-B_large_back_p" and "tile-B_large_front_p".
Again, refer to the scheme I gave you under step 8
so you understand where these two bitmaps are supposed to go on the two images of your rug.

Step 19:
Don't worry! I will walk you through these bitmaps as well.

Start with the bitmap named "tile-B_large_back_p".
Repeat step 10 and 11.

Under step 12 choose the correct rug rotation image (I don't know what else to call them :D)
Do exactly like I taught you there, but place the rug piece like this instead...
You may have to zoom in to get a good view. (View/Zoom...)
Use the previous piece as reference, and align this piece alongside it like this...
(You did remember to look at the scheme so you already knew where to place it... Right?)

Continue with step 13 and 14.
Under step 14, your floating Layer Palette now consists of three layers.
However, your rug is still located on layer 1 so just go ahead and finish that step as well.

Step 15 and 16 are just the same as before
so paste the rug piece over the default one and save the bitmap.

Step 20:
Repeat with the second bitmap.
The one named "tile-B_large_front_p"
And again... Under step 12 choose the other rotation image of your rug. Otherwise, do like I taught you there!
Continue with step 13 to 16.

Now the two images of your rug should look like this!

Step 21:
Now you're on your way to making a rug!
Continue with the other bitmaps in the remaining folders
until you've covered your two, rug rotation images with rug pieces
and have saved all of the bitmaps.

The two images of your rug should be completely covered like this...

Step 22:
Now you start the T-Mog and browse down to your rug file.
Click the "Import Object File..." button.

Locate the folder to where you saved all of your bitmaps under step 1.
Locate the *.xml-file for your rug and import it!

See the result and feel very proud of yourself!
You've deserved it, if you've managed to stay with my rantings so far...

Step 23:
Quit the T-mog.
Start The Sims!
Quickly head over to your favourite family...
Go into buy mode, look under Decorative and buy the rug you've just made for them.
Sit back and watch them applaud the new decoration.
...
What are you saying?
They're not applauding?
They're just shaking their heads... waving their hands and going... Uh, uh!
Well, that's a fact of life. There's just no way to please a Sim!