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With Thurask

When looking for a Member to feature in this month’s magazine, there was one who stood out above the rest and it was a unanimous decision from the team in getting to know more about them.

Thurask has been an active member of not only our website but our social media pages, our discord group when we had it, and is also an active member in our NSFW group. Thurask has a wonderfully dark imagination that helps to bring their stories into life and some of the best taste in The Sims CC Lingerie I have ever come across, yet instead of keeping their discoveries to themselves, Thurask is always happy to share just where this CC is found and provide a link if needed. Not only is Thurask a truly supportive member in our own community, but in so many others, so for our last printable magazine (for now), we just had to share with you, a wonderful community member and simmer in the incredible Thurask.

We’d love to know a little more about you. Who are you, where do you hail from? What do you do in your spare time that isn’t creating stunning Sims and Simotography? I’m again going to borrow from our favourite game and ask you to let us know your favourite colour, music, décor and weather.

Call me K, I live in Toronto but I'm originally from the Middle East. I'm a full time student so most of my R&R time is spent Simming, I have to say. Still, I find the time to slot in other games (Skyrim's always good), books, practising my Python and binge-watching Netflix on occasion. As for my favorites, my favorite color is black; my favorite music is either classical or oldies (Paul Simon's Graceland is my desert island record); my favorite decor is simple and out of the way, which is probably why I'm no good at build mode; and my favorite weather is warm but not too warm and bright but not too bright.

Speaking of weather, as our theme this month is summer, what would make the perfect summer for you? Are you a lying on the beach kind of person, or are you more like me, a hiding in the house with all the curtains shut and the aircon running on full kind of person? What is your favourite summer activity IRL?

K: Oh, definitely air conditioning and closed curtains! Even if I go somewhere warm for the winter I end up sipping coffee indoors and reading a good book rather than turning into a sundried tomato on the beach. My ideal summer day is sleeping in and wolfing down takeout while playing Sim photographer on my laptop, I gotta say.

You have been such an active member of our site since the very beginning, can I ask where you found out about us and what made you want to join?

K: I help out with the Dark Side Inc Twitter account (https://twitter.com/DSI_discord), and about a year ago I saw that we were Twitter mutuals with SimmedUp, as you were then. I liked what I saw on your page and I really liked what I saw in your Discord. I thought it'd be good to see what the SFW side of the community has to offer, especially a smaller Sims Discord, away from the "main community". When you moved from Discord to your current platform, I came along for the ride, and it's been great fun since.

I have to say it, you make some drop dead gorgeous Sims. Where do you get the ideas for your Sims? Do you have a favourite Sim that you or someone else has created, what makes them stand out to you?

K: Ideas for Sims vary, but I'll take my two favorite ones as examples of the usual thought processes. Right at the top is, with apologies to Van Morrison, my brown eyed girl, Leila (SFW photo 1). At the time I was in a rut with making Sims, they all kind of looked similar, pale girls with glasses and preset faces; not that there's anything wrong with that, but I decided to broaden my perspectives and make a Sim that looked, well, different. At the same time, fortuitously, I was listening to my music and Eric Clapton's Layla came on; I put two and two together and put the song on a loop while I got to work in CAS. I think she was one of the longest design processes in CAS I ended up doing, getting to the point where I was putting my arm up against the screen to get the skin tone *just* right, or going back and forth to get the curvature of the nose *just* right. I think that unique quality of putting a little bit of myself into her creation process is why she's my queen. :) Music can be a good inspiration for Sims, other than Leila I've got a Cecilia by way of Simon & Garfunkel and a (Darling) Nikki by way of Prince, among others. As for my other favorite, Yvonne (see SFW photo 3), I sometimes get inspiration for Sims when I'm just browsing Reddit or Instagram, or watching a show or movie. In

Yvonne giving bedroom eyes to the camera. The top, bottom and gloves are Regina Raven; "gothy" is one of my favorite aesthetics to try to pull off.

From left to right, Rebecca, Thalia, Carmen, Nikki, Mariko, and Nina (Leila's sister), all wearing Sentate's Midnight collection. Sentate is another one of my favorite authors, especially for haute couture yet Maxis Match CC.

Leila in her natural habitat, i.e. posing somewhere. Behind her is Tartosa, the main reason why I bothered with the Wedding Stories pack.

her case, I remember she's based on someone from a TV show, but it's been long enough ago that the show's slipped my mind completely. The more I step away from presets the better I feel about the end result, and trying to go off of a real person is impetus enough to throw presets to the wind and design from the heart.

The outfits you find for these Sims are always so striking, how do you find the amazing CC you use? Are there any CC creators you particularly lean towards, if so why?

K: I much prefer Maxis Match to alpha, although there are occasions when alpha or alpha-like CC has its places. Still, my usual ports of call for finding CC are the Maxis Match finds blog (https:// maxismatchccworld.tumblr.com/) and the pose master-list blog (https://ts4poses.tumblr.com/). If I browse for something to scratch a specific itch and end up finding what I want, I check to see the creator's other offerings, which more often than not are stuff I'd end up liking and downloading. As well, I generally keep tabs on the creator's Tumblr or Patreon or TSR page to see what they come up with in the future. Repeat that process over three or four years of Simming and you end up with a 240GB mods folder. ;) One trick I like for outfits is clothes in accessory slots, like accessory corsets, bolero jackets, stuff that you can layer over or under another outfit to add a bit of spice as long as the textures don't override each other. There are many CC creators who really gel with my favorite aesthetics for Sims, I know I can't name them all, but if I had to pick three I think need shouting out: Nany Design (https:// nany-design.tumblr.com/) for absolutely gorgeous clothing CC; Bellassims (https:// bellassims.tumblr.com/) for all sorts of neat Maxis Match CC; and Regina Raven (https:// regina-raven.tumblr.com/) for impeccable goth-style CC.

Your in-game photography is always stunning, are there any tips and tricks you can give us and our readers around how to improve our simotography game?

K:When I started Simming I was running TS4 on a business laptop with bottom of the barrel graphics; upgrading my laptop a few years later and playing on all ultra helps, as does Simp4Sims' graphics overhaul override: h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / p o s t s / overhaul-01-57965057 . I don't use ReShade at all, or any post-processing in GIMP if I can avoid it, I try to get as much as I can done inside the engine. The stage lighting objects added by Get Famous help a lot, as do the color and dimmer options for the in-game lighting. The teleport option from MCCC is also vital, as I can plop down a garden gnome teleporter to get grid-perfect positioning if needed, as well as placing multiple Sims inside each other for group poses. Wicked Whims newly added a pose player system, which also works with its positioning system, so with some practice I can get even finer control on where the Sim stands during the pose. Wicked Whims is also useful for the instant undress options, which let me change outfits and remove accessories midphotoshoot, without popping open CAS. Andrew's Studio Effect Player is good if I need to set up a backdrop of flames or some other effect. I don't use CAS poses, I do everything in live mode; for backdrops I usually find a lot or room from gallery that matches the aesthetic I'm going for and place it down. For framing the shot, I usually fiddle around with the free camera's field of view for better framing; my idea of framing is mostly based on gut feelings and half-remembered high school lectures about the golden ratio and the rule of thirds. And one other tip, to keep the walls and ceiling visible during a shot, bring up the walls fully, go up one floor (or more if the setting is a courtyard, atrium, or something similar), turn on free camera, then drop the camera through the floor to the level where the Sim is. Last, but definitely not

Ekaterina, wearing Nany Design, in one of my "fun rooms". I turned off all the lights except for the NoirAndDark neon sign on the wall for a chiaroscuro effect.

least, the pose itself is important, scouring the pose finds blog for good poses and good creators is important to build up a library of stuff for photoshoots. If I had to recommend a few pose creators for photoshoots off the top of my head, again, I can't name them all, but some names that come to mind are: JoanneBernice (https:// joannebernice.tumblr.com/); Moc (http:// micnpanchi.blog97.fc2.com/); ROSELIPA ( h t t p s : / / r o s e l i p a o f fi c i a l . t u m b l r . c o m / ) ; Sciophobis (https://sciophobis.tumblr.com/); and Acha (https://acha-sims.tumblr.com/).

If Maxis could create a pack especially for you, what would it be and what sort of things would it include?

K: To be honest, I think what Maxis could offer me while remaining SFW has already been done between Get Famous and Moschino, i.e. things to help out with Sim photography. When it comes to new packs my priorities are probably different than most other players; I bought the My Wedding Stories pack knowing it was a buggy mess if I were actually to play through it, but since it came with a lovely new world and new CAS items for me to use and for CC authors to remix, I felt good about it. That said, my very short Maxis wishlist since day one is base game nails (which they already did), slow dancing (which they also already did, with the My Wedding Stories pack), and a couple more Newcrests so I could plunk down more lots; really new worlds in general is something I'd like, blank canvas or not, but still. Of course, if they want to bump up the game rating from T to M, I'm all ears. ;)

Now, I want to talk a little about Dark Side Inc (DSI), if that’s OK. It’s fairly new to me, so please correct me if I’m wrong. It’s a Discord server, quite heavily biassed towards the NSFW crowd, where like minded Sims can get together, chat and share their creations. Like I asked earlier about how and why you joined us, can you tell us a little about your journey with DSI?

K: It started a few years ago as a safe space for NSFW. I had discovered the joys that NSFW Simming had to offer by that point, so it only felt right to join a dedicated community. The different vibe between it and other Sims Discords was something I liked and still like, it felt like a classy club with cigars and cocktails, as it were. In fact, I have to say the monthly photography challenges that DSI runs were what sparked me to really get into pose photography. After some time posting and chatting I was offered a spot on the moderator team and I've been a moderator ever since. I was also asked to help run the Dark Side Inc Twitter account when that started up as a way to drum up engagement, which is how I found SimmedUp, and the rest is history.

You can find thurasks amazing Sims cc free on the gallery. Their origin ID is thuraski!! Written by The Simming Spoonie

Top: Nikki and DeMarcus, one of my power couples. If I remember correctly the animation is actually a Wicked Whims animation; if it works, it works. Yvonne giving bedroom eyes to the camera. The top, bottom and gloves are Regina Raven; "gothy" is one of my favorite aesthetics to try to pull off. Bottom: Ahsoka Tano fighting an Imperial officer. I made this for Star Wars Day this year, the interaction is from the Batuu pack while the lighting is placing down a bunch of fires with the Studio Effects Player and putting the camera at just the right spot to get the silhouette effect.

Eighteen of my self-made Sims, which is about half of my cast; for the pose I think I went on the masterlist and looked for the biggest one they had. Front row L-R: Mariko, Diana, Leila, Paul, Cecilia, Yvonne. Back row L-R: Siobhan, Carmen, Thalia, Melissa, Robert (being held), James, Patrick, Edwina, Rebecca, DeMarcus, Ekaterina, Nikki.