Spring4Sims – The Best Finds, Downloads & Hints for Your Sims

I think there’s only a very few people who don’t know Dave. He’s the owner of SimGuys.net, a Select Artist at The Sims Resource and apart from creating skins for male Sims, he enjoys making Sim-art pictures at Flickr. He says he’d wear his own creations full of radiant colors and extravagant pieces that are mostly inspired by the latest fashion trends. So why shouldn’t our Sims wear them, too? Meet Dave and his own little world of The Sims 2.

Spring4Sims: Dave, tell us a little about your self – how old are you, where do you come from and what do you do in real life?
Dave: Hello, I am a 20 years old boy, I am from México. I don’t know what to say about me, I am a Graphic Designer that loves music, cartoons, manga and a big list of other stuff.

Spring4Sims: Is Dave your real name or is it a nickname?
Dave: No, my real name is David but a long ago my friends started to call me Dave so I adopted this as my nickname in the network.

Spring4Sims: I think you’re quite popular in the Sims community. How has it all started?
Dave: Well, SimGuys began as a kind of news portal in Spanish called MyFormulae, what a weird name for a Sim-page, right? But to tell the truth it was not in my plans to create a Sims 2 website, it’s just happened… after a few months I realized I wanted to do something different and so SimGuys.net was the result, a small site that would focus on CC for male Sims.

Spring4Sims: Why did you choose creating skins, especially sets for males? Is it because you’re male or did you have any other reason?
Dave: There were two reasons: as everyone knows, the vast majority of artists/fansites are dedicated to girls and I wanted to distinguish by something special. And perhaps the second has to do with being a guy, I like to create clothes that I would have or dress, this makes the entire process much easier.

Spring4Sims: You also create body-meshes. What do you find harder: messing with Photoshop (or any other paint program) or 3D programs?
Dave: Oh, definitely 3D Programs, I don’t know much about it and what I now know about meshes of The Sims 2 is thanks to my great mentor and friend Yakov (best known for his excellent work with BB on InSIMenator.net).

Spring4Sims: Have you ever thought of designing furniture or objects?
Dave: Not really, it’s not something that catches my attention, but whenever I see the beautiful things of certain artists from the community, I would like to begin testing.

Spring4Sims: Your work is full of colors, latest trends in fashion and, in my opinion, a little metrosexual style. Why do you prefer this kind of look?
Dave: Because I like everything about Fashion and clothing designer, a lot of clothes I’ve published are based on fashion magazines or in such events. I’ve heard so much that it is somewhat metrosexual, the truth is that I enjoy creating clothes that only extravagant Sims can use to wear at work perhaps? Hahaha, I think that it’s what the whole game is about, to do things than ever imagined.
Spring4Sims: I see! I must say I love the colors! I would definitely wear your stuff in real life. Fashion is a great thing for sure.

Spring4Sims: What inspires you to make all of your stuff? Do you visit certain sites or places that give you new ideas?
Dave: I’m definitely inspired by events and fashion photographers, when I see pictures of this kind I say WOW – I want to prove that in the Sims!

Spring4Sims: We all know that The Sims 2 is a really time-consuming game. Does skinning take you more time than playing the game? How much?
Dave: It doesn’t really take me much time when I am pretty inspired, probably do not realize it but when I update in a very short time it’s because I had done something that was not planned, it’s very entertaining for me. Frankly, that’s the way I play The Sims 2.

Spring4Sims: What’s your favorite part about making custom content? Or is there even something you really hate about it?
Dave: My favorite part… could say that the only thing that I hate about this is when I have to wait to load my game to test the stuff, everything else can I say that is something I enjoy.
Spring4Sims: Haha, I know exactly what you mean. The load screens are so annoying!

Spring4Sims: You post your creations on various places – on your site, forum and TSR account. Which of the places is your most favorite?
Dave: My website for sure, I update my Web-Forum when I do things that do not fit into the system that I have for the website (or when I must confess I have laziness to update, haha).

Spring4Sims: How do you feel about being a Select Artist at TSR?
Dave: I feel good, some people hate that fact but everything is still for free. TSR was a good way to reach people who didn’t know my creations.

Spring4Sims: You have posted about 200 photoshopped Sims-pictures on your Flickr account. That’s quite a big number. What’s a bigger passion – skinning or taking pictures of your Sims?
Dave: Oh, this is difficult one, the truth is that I think they’re complementary, taking photos is inside the process of updating my site and it’s something I really love and a lot, but I usually take pictures of the new things I do.

Spring4Sims: How would you describe The Sims?
Dave: The Sims is just a whole new world, anyone can have fun with this game and what I like most is that you can play with in different ways, creating, living life, building, recording, taking photos, even coding… I think it is a universal game.

Spring4Sims: The latest statistics about The Sims games has shown that the games are played a little more by women than by men (the ratio is circa 3:2). Do you think that male players/artists are given a little more attention than the female ones?
Dave: I think that if you are a girl or a boy, it doesn’t matter when people like your work, unfortunately as the statistics prove there are more females playing and hosting fansites, probably every time that you enter a site your first thought is something like “Oh this girl has a good taste…”, but we really don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy; just in this case the community probably gives us less attention.

Spring4Sims: I’ve noticed that some fans are rather disappointed with The Sims 3. We know that there will be a lot of new things, but still it’s a bit sad to move on from one game to another. Do you think it’s going to be worth it?
Dave: Until a few days ago was not interested in The Sims 3 but then I saw a behind the scenes The Sims 3 video on the official website, I found it very interesting. Not so much to become a fanatic, I am not a person who only conforms with something popular and new, I hope they release soon a Beta version of the BodyShop as when The Sims 2 was close to be out, then I should know If I’m gonna buy that game the first day when it’s out.

Spring4Sims: Do you plan to create custom content when The Sims 3 is released?
Dave: No for right now, let’s see when the game’s out or when they release a BETA for BodyShop.

Spring4Sims: When you don’t play the Sims, do you play something else?
Dave: Yes, I like many video games, I have a Wii and DS, I also greatly enjoy Age of Empires or legends like FF, RE or Silent Hill, my favorites.
Spring4Sims: Age of Empires is one of my favorites, actually.

Spring4Sims: What other stuff do you like to do in your free time when you’re not creating custom content for the Sims?
Dave: I do a lot of things, many random things – I hang-out with my friends, watch movies, play videogames, go hiking, shopping, or I’m designing… many things.

Spring4Sims: What do you like the most about the community?
Dave: The chance to meet people around the world, it’s absolutely brilliant.

Spring4Sims: If you’d like to say something you didn’t have a chance to say – do it now!
Dave: This game gave me the opportunity to implement my abilities in many things I like as web design and I am very happy for this, it’s also given me very special people who I love so much, it’s incredible where you can find people who share your interests and become part of your life.

I want thank to all those people who have helped SimGuys.net to be where it is, I am glad that people enjoy playing the things that I’m doing. Thank you.

You can find Dave’s stuff on SimGuys.net, SimGuys Forums and his TSR account. If you’d like to see his Sim-pictures, see his Flickr account. All pictures are created by Dave.

Thank you, Dave, for answering all my questions! I Hope your inspiration will always be a bottomless pit!

Are you a creator? Would you like to like to tell your fans more about yourself? Than what are you waiting for? Send me an email at HannahSpring(at)gmail.com and be more popular than you were yesterday!