Little Dica Chats to Maria from LaarStudio about Custom Content & Spaghetto

Maria aka LaarStudio

catching up with… Little Dica

Alessandro, tell us a little about you as a person. Where are you from, how old are you, what is your favourite dish, any pet peeves you have, are you a cat or a dog person and anything else you’d like to share with us?

I’m Alessandro, known as Littledica in the community! I’m from Italy, near-ish Rome which I get to visit often and I’m forever grateful for and will GREATLY miss when I will eventually move out of the country. I’m going to be 23 in June of the coming year! That sounds insane to me, it feels like yesterday that I finished high school. When it comes to my likes and dislikes, speaking in The Sims terms, I definitely adore the cuisine of my country. There is nothing in the world I crave the most when coming back from a vacation abroad than tons of home-made Italian dishes, and thankfully my mom is always there for me for that. A huge pet peeve of mine is when English speaking countries misuse Italian words! Especially when I see people talking about pasta, it’s always referred as “spaghetti”

even when it’s a single noodle. People, the singular is spaghetto! I can’t pick between cats or dogs, or any other animal really, I love them all. My city has a lot of cat colonies roaming around residential areas. It’s so charming when you’re going about your day and a cat approaches you out of nowhere, it just makes my day. I’ve been late to many things because of that!

What is your most favourite activity to do outside of the Sims universe, who are you out there in the real world? What are your hobbies?

Outside of the community, a lot of my hobbies still revolve around technology really. I’m a huge fan of many other games, although The Sims remains my number one top favourite. I really enjoy going to the gym, I’ve never been a huge sports person until I discovered weightlifting. It’s extremely calming and therapeutic for me when I’m going through a stressful time. I love to doodle and draw, I’m not the best at it but I enjoy it regardless. You don’t have to be the best to enjoy an activity after all!

You are an extremely talented CC maker in the Sims world, do you have any other talents or skills that you are proud of?

When it comes to other skills I’m really proud of, you’re experiencing one right now! I’m extremely proud of my English. It’s not very common to be as fluent as I am in English in my country. I’m always up for helping my friends struggling with their English skills and it used to make me so happy and proud when I’d successfully help my high school colleagues in taking our tests.

Tell us about one of your most happy memories or experiences.

Well, calling this one a “memory” is a huge stretch, but I’ll try my best. On the last day of university, me and my class friends decided to go celebrate our new “officially unemployed” status by going to an Irish pub later that night. Needless to say I had too much… let’s say “juice”, and basically I woke up the next day in a friend of ours bed, without a beard and with clothes that were definitely not mine. It was a hot mess but it was the best night I’ve ever had with friends.

Do you play any other games, mod or make cc for except the Sims?

While I don’t mod any other game outside of the sims, I do enjoy playing other franchises. One of my favourites is Cities Skylines, I’ve played that game way too much. I also really like nonsimulation games like Overwatch and GTA.

Now lets talk about the Sims, if you were to create your Simself which character traits would you pick for yourself?

If I had to pick from the game’s trait, they would definitely be Paranoid, Creative and Perfectionist.

The nickname you go by on Patreon and some of your social media accounts is LittleDica, how did you come about that name for yourself?

The name “littledica” was created around 2008 or 2007 when I created my first email. I’ve used it ever as a nick name. Since I’m the younger brother of my family, I went for “little”, and dica is the initials of my last name.

How and when did you first get into CC making for the Sims, what was the one thing missing in the game that made

you start off your CC making journey?

I got into making cc around 2016. I’ve always had an interest in 3D modelling but I never understood how to do it. I finally decided around that time to look up tutorials and learn the skill, and learn I did. I mostly saw a lack in realistic technology in the game, all the TVs, tablets and the phone were (and frankly still are) so clunky and outdatedlooking. I really wanted something that a techie like me would love and appreciate in real life as well.

Tell us a little about the process of making one CC item such as a sofa, what tools do you use? How long does it take to make 1 object?

Making an object starts from gathering as much reference pictures as you can. Many angles, preferably of the same object, many lighting conditions and in general just a ton of pictures. As far as tools go, I use a bunch: lender for the model itself, Photoshop and the Substance Suite for texturing and, occasionally, Zbrush for sculpting. The time it takes to make an object really depends on the complexity of it. For example, a sofa would take at least 2 to 3 days cause it’s such a big asset and you want to have as much maxis-match detail as possible. I usually give myself a day as well to just look at the finished product and see if there’s anything missing, send

it to my friend, see what they think. You don’t wanna be my friend on Discord if getting a ton of 3D model pictures in your Direct Messages sounds like a nightmare.

Do you have any special tips for beginners that you wish you had known when you were just starting to make CC? What would be the best tools to use as a fresher?

My best tip for someone just starting is, please accept criticism and feedback, especially from people who have been doing what you just started doing for years. In our field, you never stop learning, and the quicker you realise that, the better artist you will become. I think the best tools for beginners would be Blender and Photoshop. Blender, compared to Maya (the paid, industry standard software for 3D modelling) is, first of all, absolutely free of charge. Blender has a ton of plug-ins for modding of many different games, never ending t u t o r i a l s on youtube and, in my p e r s o n a l opinion, it is MUCH more responsive and intuitive than Autodesk’s Maya. I find inspiration for what I create mostly from what I think is lacking in the game, or what I’ve seen in the real world that isn’t in the game yet. A lot of times, it’s things that exist in Europe that the rest of the world has no idea about. When I made my Greasy Goods fast food pack, a lot of people were shocked European fast food restaurants could look so “fancy”. Well, it’s the standard here! It was also very funny to hear some of them say “it’s hard to believe a fast food restaurant like this would have table service with the Dine Out game pack mechanics”… Well, McDonald’s here in Italy has table service.

Is there anyone you’d like to give a shout out to, someone who has helped you along your CC making career or anyone else in general?

I would like to shout out my uni teachers, they taught me a lot of techniques and greatly improved my skills but most of all, they taught me the right attitude to have towards this career and art. I would also love to shout out my friends Ravasheen and Syboulette, fellow CC creators that were very patient with me and helped me solve some CC conundrums I’ve had throughout 2021. In the end, I’d like to shout out all my friends in general that helped me through these past 2 difficult years, you guys are the best.

Where do you find your inspiration and design ideas for all the gorgeous items you make?