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

Antonio is a very talented creator. He’s been creating for his own site, CoolSims, for some time and with every mesh he’s getting better! He comes from Spain, studies in a high school and has been playing the game since The Sims 2 Pets was released. To know why he prefers creating hairs and how he’s learned to create all that awesome stuff, go on reading!

Spring4Sims: Hello, Antonio! First of all, let’s talk a little about yourself: can you tell us how old are you and what do you do in real life?
Antonio: Well, I’m 15, and I’m a student of high school.

Spring4Sims: How long have you been playing the game?
Antonio: Hmm, my first game was The Sims Unleashed, since then, I’ve bought all the other games. So… many years.

Spring4Sims: When did you realize that you really like creating custom content for the game? Did you miss something in it or just thought “I’d really like to try it!”?
Antonio: I started to create custom content about 2 or 3 years ago, things like clothes and hair recolors, but they weren’t very good. Then I wanted to create things in 3D, so I searched many forums, and I started to upload hairs in one forum. Then I decided to create my own website, CoolSims, it was very simple and the download weren’t very good, but I made some progress and now I make things much better than before.

Spring4Sims: You’re a boy, but it seems like you mostly prefer creating stuff for girls. Why is that so?
Antonio: The reason is, I like doing hair meshes, but girls have more hairstyles than boys, although I’m making male ones, too.

Spring4Sims: From all that stuff you have on your site, there are a lot of hairs for females. Why do you find this kind of downloads so interesting?
Antonio: The first hairs, I don’t think they’re good, because when I started to make meshes, I wasn’t very good at it. Now I’m making a pack with my friend Chandra from TharaSims.com and I’ve made many pretty hairstyles!

Spring4Sims: I’d say that most of the stuff have Maxis-like look. Do you prefer when your Sims look real or “cartoony” in the game?
Antonio: I prefer real Sims, but if you say it for the hairs I can tell you the reason: I have learned a lot of hair tutorials, and all of them are different, so I made different textures. Now I make them more realistic, like this one – this hair and the textures are like that – more shiny and real.

Spring4Sims: What usually inspires you to create?
Antonio: Well, it’s probably my sister’s hair, or my friends, who send me images or requests, and I try to make them. I’m not very good at meshes, but I try to improve my knowledges about them, I would like to be as good as Peggy or Rose, but I think that is impossible.

Spring4Sims: And where did you learn to create meshes and textures? Did you get any help from somebody else? Or were you just self-studying?
Antonio: I learned on my own, because all my MSN contacts (Spanish people) didn’t know anything about meshes, so I tried to make meshes every day. The first ones were horrible, but with more practice, I learned a lot, textures… the same, I used maxis ones at the begin, then I found a tutorial in TSR, it was good, the most of the textures were from this tutorial and they look like this. Then, I found more tutorials, and I saw one that I think is the most real, but I need a tablet for make the textures better – now I’ve got a mouse.

Spring4Sims: How do you find working with SimPE? I think many people find this program hard to use, but it’s the only one we have… if you could change it somehow, what would you change?
Antonio: SimPE… I hate using simPE, because I think it’s boring. But I prefer a boring software rather than no software. Yeah, it’s very hard to use, but I only know basic things for create meshes… But I think, SimPE would be better if it contained less words and more images, and just would be more simple.

Spring4Sims: What’s your most and least favorite part about creating?
Antonio: The most favorite is 3D Studio Max, because you can create everything, you can design and make your creativity free. The less, I think it’s SimPE.

Spring4Sims: Does creating for the game bring any benefits in your real life? Maybe new skills you can use at school or something like that…
Antonio: At school no, but in the future, at university maybe yes, I want to be an architect, graphic designer or something related to computers.

Spring4Sims: Have you ever thought of creating for some other site like MTS2 or TSR?
Antonio: I uploaded clothes at MTS2, but I think is very difficult to upload things there… Many steps to upload 1 thing…

Spring4Sims: Or how about other people joining your site? Would you like somebody else to participate, or is it just your own project?
Antonio: I prefer to work on my own, because I’m a little disaster, and maybe the other people will get angry with me. Chandra helps me when I need it, and I help her when she needs me, so, I think I do not need anyone else. Cool Sims also has a great staff, and it helps me with the web and with personal problems, so I’m happy with them.

Spring4Sims: Do you play some other games apart from The Sims 2?
Antonio: Some games for PS2 like Jak & Daxter, Sly, and when I was younger, Spiro. Games like that, adventures, magic, etc…

Spring4Sims: Do you have any recipe for staying enthusiastic when it comes to playing the game? For example, sometimes I have a problem to find the game really interesting, but it usually gets better when I download new stuff…
Antonio: Well, I think the new things that you can do with new expansions, like traveling, or find the “rare” Sims, like Plantsims, lycanthropes, witches, etc…

Spring4Sims: What do you usually do when you’re not playing or creating for The Sims 2?
Antonio: I do a lot of stuff with my computer, listen to music or chat on MSN…. I also go to an English academy, so I don’t have so much of free time.

Spring4Sims: What’s your most and least favorite expansion pack for the game?
Antonio: I like Bon Voyage or Nightlife the most. I don’t know which one I like more. And the least… Pets, there’s not many items on this EP, only the pets.

Spring4Sims: What skill points would you have as a Sim?
Antonio: I don’t know, probably creativity, logic and clean skillpoints.

Spring4Sims: If you think there’s something more you’d like to tell us, then speak up your mind!
Antonio: Hmm, something more… I want a wacom cintiq, if anyone wants to gift me one at my birthday, please contact me LOL. (Joke) I’m very optimistic, so, when I started to learn how to make meshes, I never stopped trying it. Because many people do it – when they can’t do something, they stop doing meshes, and that’s the problem, you have to try and try and try until you can. That’s a recommendation.

Thank you very much, Antonio, for your nice answers! Wish you lots of luck in the future and in your future projects!

You can download Antonio’s creations at CoolSims or chat with him at his forum.

Are you a creator? Would you like to like to tell your fans more about yourself? Than what are you waiting for? Read our FAQs before you apply and then send me an email at HannahSpring(at)gmail.com and become more popular than you were yesterday!