Interview with a DA skinner, #sowmiles, his work and thoughs on today's skin scene...read on !

Meet with a skinner | issue one

Meet with sowmiles aka Rain Pikner

Interview with a skinner from DA, today #sowmiles

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interview

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Lcourni: *pressing record button

sowmiles: lol

Lcourni: SO. this is the first interview on the skin blog at modblog dot com

Lcourni: how do you feel sowmiles ?

Lcourni: you're the chosen one...hehe

sowmiles: i feel honored

Lcourni: let's start by introducing yourself... your (real) name, age, location...

sowmiles: My name is Rain Pikner (20) and I live in Estonia

estonia

Lcourni: anything else in your profile ?

sowmiles: hehe not really

Lcourni: so, let's get to the point then....

Lcourni: how and when did you start skinning ?

sowmiles: Well I started it a year + ? ago (first skin Buster for winamp 3) , I always liked to do detailed interface work (have done graphic design about 3-4 years) even before i started skinning skinnable applications . How I got to skinning? hehe by accident Just did a interface and someone told me i should make it as a application skin for some media player. and Buster was born

Lcourni: oh, so buster was your first skin ever ? You must have been pleased by the feedback...this skin is a very popular one !

sowmiles: yes buster was the first skin Oh yes i was very pleased with the result.

Lcourni: you got quite an original style... who are the skinners that inspire you ? or skins ?

sowmiles: I think I have to thank the skins factory for the inspiration. Their truelly amazing.

Lcourni: indeed

Lcourni: you have some skins in the work right now ?

Lcourni: didn't you start a visual style ? what's up with that...new skinning direction ?

sowmiles: Oh yes I have one in progress, ive been doing that from June I think. And its almost ready!

sowmiles: and a windowblinds skin which i try to finish.

Lcourni: tell me more !

Lcourni: winamp 3 skin ?

sowmiles: yes its a winamp 3 / 5 skin

sowmiles: originally for 3 but we try to have it on both

Lcourni: "we" ? who is your coder ?

sowmiles: well im not really coding it , rpeterclark is doing that and hes doing really fine

Lcourni: ...and he is also a great skinner ! gifted man...

Lcourni: what does the skin look like ?

sowmiles: well you guys see it when it comes out

Lcourni: hehe...fair enough

Lcourni: switching subject... I'd like to get your feeling on today's skin scene...

Lcourni: As you know I stepped back a little...

Lcourni: and I think you did too at some point

Lcourni: is that true ? what were the reasons ?

sowmiles: its true, its just that skinning isnt really an income source ( need money for living..) . ppl do it for fun. well... most do and well skinning isnt a well apprciated (most people dont even say thanks) , i guess thats ok.

Lcourni: that lead us to your feelings on the "premium" skin sites around...like skinplant or pixstudio... are you interested in that concept ? would you like to SELL skins ?

sowmiles: Yes i would sell skins. gotta make a living somehow you know and skinning is hard work, would be good if I get payed for those hours I work on one skin. But people dont really like the idea of buying skins, even their doing that already by buying windows XP (the user interface isnt free you know )

Lcourni: By the way, how is doing your webdesign site ?

sowmiles: to be quite honest i havnt dealed with it a long time.

sowmiles: and i dont have it up anyway

Lcourni: To conclude this interview, what do you think of that blog ? What I'm planning to do is treating it like if it was the skin community's blog

sowmiles: its a good idea.and I wish you good luck with that.

Lcourni: thanks alot !

Lcourni: anything to add before we call the interview done ?

sowmiles: i think its pretty much ok

Lcourni: alright. Thanks alot for chatting with me, sowmiles, it was a pleasure

Lcourni: *releases the "record" button

(end of interview, AIM log)


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some screenshots
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Buster skin



Sowmiles devID




#sowmiles got also wallpapers and tutorials on his page ! go check'em

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Bye for now,

Post comments and/or questions to sowmiles here, I'm sure he'll gladly answer

Please also give feedback on your feelings about interviews beeing posted in this gallery... If you guys like that I will do more of them.

[interviews also available on my site, the the Skin Scene Blog"