It seems as though in the past few years you have risen to become one of the primary gear skinners in the community, what made you feel like you wanted to learn how to make gear and contribute like this?
Since high school, I have always been into graphic designing. So, when I saw an opportunity to use some of the skills I learned in school and apply them to something that I really enjoyed, it just clicked. I really wanted to learn because I always like challenging myself to learn new things. How did you get into skinning; did you have people that taught you? YouTube tutorials? I got into skinning through a very well-known person in the community, and that is MxBrina. She was the one that actually got me started with learning how to skin on the JRE model and was always open to answer any questions that I had when I was first starting out. As I progressed, I reached out to some other content creators to help me with my work, and critique it. These people consisted of Freddy, Lynds, Jmertz, Hoffman, and Reid. All of these creators really had an open-door policy for me, meaning they always answered all my questions, and they were very helpful. Obviously one of the biggest issues in sim right now is the rampant gear ripping that goes on, what do you think is the best solution to preventing ripping going forward? I think the best solution to gear ripping is watch who you sell to, and also do private work for people. There’s really no definite way to stop it because there isn’t a way to protect the actual file itself once it’s sold to someone. It really has to be on merit that the person you sold to, follows the content creator’s rules that they set into place. I think ripping has always been an issue, and there will always be someone who is trying to get stuff for free, so as content creators you have to pick and choose who you sell too and limit your market.In addition to being one of the biggest skinners in the game right now you’re no slouch on track, I myself found that out the hard way last outdoors season, do you find it difficult to find a balance with creating and practicing? Last season I jumped up to the big boy class, 450 pro, and I got a rude awakening for how fast AND consistent the top guys are. Their pace is unreal. As I have gotten better with skinning, I find it harder to want to practice more for racing because there is a lot more that goes into my work now compared to before. I can make gear fast but at the same time the process is more detailed. I also find myself wanting to take more breaks now from playing because I am getting older, and I tend to get burnt out if I keep doing the same things constantly. How do you decide which gear you’re going to make next, is it personal preference, what you think will sell best or even at the request of customers? For making gear it’s really personal preference at first, but when people start to come to me for projects, that was really drives my decision for what I’m going to need to make. If it were up to me though, I would make whatever looks the best when it comes out first. I really don’t bother with thinking about what might sell per say because I feel like it’s about the quality of work that people are looking for. So, I don’t worry too much about making off brand stuff if I do, because I know people will still enjoy it because of the quality.Do you have any interest in other creative facets of the game, such as track building or modelling? I really enjoy skinning, but I would love to learn how to model. It seems really rewarding when these creators make something from scratch.So, what’s next for phobiiaz, more racing, skinning, do you still enjoy the game like you did back when you were topping the ams sheets? What’s next? Well right now I’m just taking a bit of a break from the community as a whole. Supercross is coming up though, I am a new team owner as well, so I do plan on hoping back into the saddle and starting to make content again. I do still enjoy the game a lot because I’m a motohead at heart. I grew up with Motocross and Supercross, so it’s in my blood.Finally, thank you for answering my questions anything you’d like to say to the people? I would like to say thank you for the time and I appreciate you guys reaching out to me. This was a lot of fun to do, and I hope that everyone enjoys the holidays that are coming up. |