New Fan Interview
We caught up with Judie from All About Style to give us some insight into custom content creation!
Fan Interview - Judie from All About Style
MaxoidMoonBelly from The Sims 2 talked with community member Judie to give some insight into custom content creation and her website All About Style!
MaxoidMoonBelly: What do you like about The Sims game? How long have you been playing? What inspired you to start making your own clothing?
Judie: I started playing the game with Sims1...just about from the beginning. I enjoy game play, but I have really always enjoyed the building and home decorating aspects that the game provides. (plus... I love Sim shopping for the home!) Sims 2 of course provides an even greater challenge. I regret though that once I started my website I don't get to play the game as often as I would like.
I started to make my own clothes and meshes at the tail end of Sims1. I was inspired by Una, webmistress at Comhair. She corresponded with me for awhile. She made historical skins and had created a tutorial which I followed. When BodyShop came out prior to the actual game I started in earnest. I was so amazed that you could actually see the detail and the actual print of fabric etc. Impressive!...I was hooked. I started with making clothing for Elders as they were so neglected. I started with Yahoo groups and then finally my website.
MaxoidMoonBelly: What programs do you use (modeling and texturing)? Had you any knowledge of these programs before you started making clothes for The Sims? Where did you go to learn how to do modeling and texturing?
Judie: I use Photoshop7 and Milkshape. I took two on-line courses at my local community college as I had no idea what to do with this program after I had acquired it. The rest was and still is trial and error. One of the best ways that I learned was by opening up the work of others to try to figure out how they did things and to try to duplicate it. I now have my own techniques and tricks.
MaxoidMoonBelly: What would you say is the biggest challenge to making things for the game?
Judie: My biggest challenge comes in doing my themes. If it were not for the themes I am sure that I would be bored by now. I upload theme selections every Friday and Contemporary every Saturday. I have yet to be bored for even one day in two years now! I am up at 4:00 or 5:00am every day and I am it most of the day unless I have other plans or commitments. Needless to say I am retired which is why I have all of this time on my hands. In any case I can't wait to get started every day and switching from one theme to another abruptly is quite a challenge. I love to collect books, antique magazines and catalogs mostly from E-Bay which I use as reference material for my themes. I have quite a library!
MaxoidMoonBelly: What are the most requested items you get asked to make?
Judie: Most of my requests deal with my themes section. The Victorian theme is the most popular. I really feel a commitment to my visitors to update all my themes as often as is possible. So many of them have themed neighborhoods and look forward to my themed updates. Right now I have many many requests for "Outwear" for my themes..I have done the Victorians, Civil War, Regency and I am just finishing up on Medieval.
MaxoidMoonBelly: If there was a tool that was created to help clothing meshers make content for the game, what suggestions would you give?
Judie: My meshing skills are pretty basic. If there were a school nearby where I could learn meshing I would certainly be there. I find such things as bone assignments and weights very complicated because I don't understand them. Some people are really talented and I am amazed how quickly they pick up on this stuff. I suspect that my age is against me in that I no longer have the patience that I use to and I get frustrated easily...I rarely give up though! So...I guess that any tools that would make that aspect of meshing easier or more understandable would be great with me.
MaxoidMoonBelly: If you could let us know about something about your site that we wouldn't know, what would it be?
Judie: If there was anything that I would like to add it would be to let "Maxis" know how popular themed neighborhoods really are. I think people would really, really appreciate tools that would encourage themes. One such tool would be something that would allow for a way to change "townie" and NPC clothing to suit a themed neighborhood...The current hack is simple not sufficient. I have about 8,000 visitors daily and about 10,000 or more on weekends.
Considering that at least one half or more are downloaded themed clothing I think that shows the popularity of themes.
Thanks for the opportunity to share with you!