Sims1
FORWARD MOTION
I started playing the first generation sims, and my venture into custom content started when i wanted to alter simple things like eye color and hair color, back then files were not hard to break into it was kinda all laid out and obvious to "hack" i mostly experimented with just textures but by the end of 2003/04 i had started experimented with meshes, making things focused around my favorite store at the time, urban outfitters. I had a website to display my downloads called Avigo, and I tried to make my downloads available for purchase, which was very popular for people to do even though it was against the ELUA and the developers made it obvious they didn't want us content creators making money on this. My website changed to Forward motion” and I renamed it FM Thrift later.
Sims2
RubiCon
When the sims2 hit, it was a WHOLE new game, real gamers started playing and hacking into meshes and there was a lot more to play with but it was still relatively easy to open the files and figure out how to make new content work. I became obsessed with creating more ethnically diverse meshes in the game, i created afros and bold jewelry to represent the diversity i wanted to see in my game.
ATLAUA
I was 14 or 15 at the time and I started getting interested in runway shows and specifically Haute Couture. I had met another simer named Adamo who had a french couture themed website called Salvatore. We hit it off and decided we would put together a sims fashion week presentation in the style of The Chambre, a famous french organization that dictates what is real couture or not. None of us thought this would catch on and no one was expecting much but we released the videos live and we all had fantastic themes. I really only remember my collection and Adams though. mine was inspired by my mexican heritage and the victoria secret runway shoes which were really popular at the time. Adam was inspired by the 80s, John Galliano and huge Roman icons. The shows were very popular and I started seeing the large potential in making money with the sims. Which was important to me only so i could justify spending all my time on my computer making artwork.
I made several shows with adam and other designers over the years until around 2009, under the name Altaua Haute Couture, inspired by the aztec goddess of water. I also designed under Rubicon, my ready to wear website and then icon sim, which was more high fashion focused. The sims helped me realize my potential as a designer outside of the digital world.
SALVATORE BY ADAM HUNT
Three examples of his work, the Ram inspired look is from his premiere collection, his opening look. The geisha and Sketch are both from unreleased Collections.
ATLAUA VIDEOS
Although i don’t have any of my old runway shows anymore ( i am currently trying to get into old computer to find these files) luckily there are several creators who made their own runway shows with my clothes inspired by my original videos.
This was a test i uploaded, but its all i have left from one of my “pre show previews”
This modern sims4 show was inspired by my Alatua collection and i love that even all these years later, people still remember me. it reminds me how awesome the sims community is.
UNreleased 2009 atlaua collection
late sims2 work
Sims3
Rub-iCon to ICON-SIM
When the sims 3 came around i was starting to focus more on becoming a fashion designer, but i still had my PC and i still had iconsim running and i was still making around 300 dollars a month through random donations. I was venturing into making content for modthesims, where I was a constant part of the creators community. and then i decided to move all my content to the sims resource, where i was hoping i'd be easier to make and upload content without having a website. I was made a featured artist quickly but I became bored with the lack of style the website offered and the constand ads made me not want to show random people my work. i moved back to iconsim and continued my work more centered around just the sims3.
The sims3 was just problem after problem, very hard to keep downloads consistent from game to game.
SIMS4 and BEYOND
By the time the sims4 came out, it was still really difficult to create custom content for the sims3, the openworld of it all meant you had to make 3 versions of your meshes, one for far away, one for in the distance and one for up close. The lighting was always a problem and even with lots of mods everything just felt dirty compared to the clean, bright and persistent quality we had with the sims2. and then when 4 was released, it was the hardest yet to even crack open. I think it was about 6 months after the release that I gave up on custom content. and soon after that, TSR released their tool that became a huge game changer, but i had already sold my computer.
It wasn’t until years later when I was in college that I explored making modern computer art with my old sims files, it's a project I hope to build on in the future if I ever find more of my old meshes.
