Rendy's Car Skinning Life: EP 05 - CRAZY CHICK WITH A GT3 SKIN!

"More Wayhaught horsepower than you can fit in"

FINALLY! After learning useful techniques such as Smart Objects and Reference Point when Free Transforming, I have finally crafted what could be my first TMUF skin! It's actually 90% completion, but it shaped up nicely after spending 2 days and a half figuring out how to work the skin despite the "pain-in-the-buns" template especially when talking about the front fascia part which somehow stretches and bends whatever you put there if you don't pay attention.

After series of WIP which led me to some cases of discontinuation due to template problems (Debenhams DBR9, back when I started to skin in TMUF), HDD problems (anything 2013 and below) and lack of motivation (the FTO, among others), this has to be the most completed skin I ever worked. I felt bad that I had to go AWOL from TMUF forums for almost a year (or is it already?) just to think about my re-entry with the FTO's update, but I know that I finally overcame my problems and can have something worth introducing on my WIP thread. Tell your mothers: TheRebirth is about to reborn once more!

The 360 (No, not the Endurance Race Project!)

Apologizes yet again for the almost-zero activity in my blog this month, because I had to prioritize my unfinished Internship business, which I had to wrestle with a software I am remaking due to my advisor demanding a fix since a couple of months ago, which unfortunately took its toll to my motivation to combine the two applications. What's worse is that my "brute force" approach (read: literally going without any plan whatsoever) also costed a lot in the remaking, so I had to make a concrete plan as I restart this process. Nevertheless, I have to soldier on.

Between the process of "soldiering on", however, I peeked at two of the already-downloaded ZIP and RAR files on my laptop. These two files hold some of the interesting cars that can be useful for my next batch of projects. I'm very amazed at how the roster for those packs are considering that they do relate to what my big project really needs.

Those files are in fact Whiplash's unfinished car packs, divided into two different packs. These cars, while having no defined physics as they are "unfinished cars", exactly what the tin says, have 360 rotated images which reflects the lighting for each rotation. In addition, these cars are taken from 3D models of Forza Motorsport series, of which car models for this series are available at... drumrolls please, this site, of all others.

Rendy's Car Skinning Life EP 04: Everything Looks Better on rFactor Somehow (Probably...)

Skinner's Block is a bitch. The struggles I had in search of paint splash brushes for use in my Desigual FTO Super Touring Car WIP skin took its toll, and so did the Alpha Layer business. But that is just a TMUF story, as right now I tried my luck skinning in rFactor (as the title suggests) because of one thing: Global Racing League. Before starting this post, I cordially invite you to Global Racing League, one of the best motorsport role-playing series based on rFactor, where racing, cuteness, and role-playing mix together with numerous racing disciplines! More on GRL can be seen in the full post.

Working on an rFactor skin for the aforementioned reason, I felt like the process is much more enjoyable than in both GTR2 and TMUF, especially the previewing part. The fact that you can immediately see your car once the game starts is really a plus and makes previewing a straightforward process without all that hassle going through menu and stuff, especially if you turn the "Player Car" option to "Full" in the Settings. That said, this pops out to my mind: "why can't I just do skinning in rFactor?"

Another New Turbo Sliders Version? Are You Serious?

"Alright, who woke me up with an announcement of the new Turbo Sliders version?"

That was exactly my thoughts after waking up in the morning, logging in to my Facebook, and found out that a new Turbo Sliders version is underway, and has some of the new features including more car-related and server-related parameters, although it wasn't documented beforehand. The best thing was it coincided with SpoilerTV's Character Cup timeline and later the day of Primetime Emmy nominations (which I don't feel like batting my eye on right now save for some I got spoilered as a result of Twitter timeline exploration), but I got to try the game hands-on and would love to tell you what the game will have for this new version. The amalgamation of the three revelations were what causing some Spongar Primitive Spongebob effect on me.

Of course that this isn't final as chances are there will be some fixes here and there since the time of this posting, but there are things that are certain: 1) Big shout out to Ande (Antti Mannisto) for the new version work, and; 2) I have to update ALL of my real-life cars!

GeneRally Spirit Re-Awakens Once More!

It's been a long time...

I have never played GeneRally since the long time, all I focused on right now are Turbo Sliders and MiniRacingOnline. There are so many stuffs to be made on TS that I couldn't find the right time to do some GR stuffs, and the only thing that's very recent is the ZOKKER, a random bosozoku-inspired car with a very wide front bumper and a pair of large rear exhausts. Some people point out that it is the ringer to my Legendary Schneider WIP, but it was purely made out of boredom and I don't seem to have an interest on Kaido Battle / Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift series like I did before.

Some time before the fasting month Ramadan came, I remember I shared a link to one of the articles on the GR2's Developer Blog on Facebook, thanks to the "On This Day" feature. As I shared the article, my GR-circle online friends took their time for some hot discussions on my link's comments. Although as hot as it is, I still believe that there will be GeneRally 2 someday.

And then James's recent post changed everything, and what I said on the memory, having them coming up with a surprise, has been true.