Welcome to Skinmasters! A series of interviews with top graphic designers and skinners on deviantART.

The eighth interview of the series (and long overdue ) features an artist who's work I can always count on to be quality. He has created some very unique skins and because of this he is worthy of this honour. It's a pleasure to interview him and everyone say hello to Yuanpeng Liu aka ~lypnjtu

You should definitely check out his works! I've selected a few of my favourites for your viewing



Hello lypnjtu, for those that haven't heard about you... could you give us a brief biography?

Hi,everyone. My name is Yuanpeng Liu, I come from China. This year I'm 23. I'm not a professional designer, only an amateur. My job is an architect. The first time I Started to make theme is about 4 years ago. Many thanks for my friend JJ.Ying, With his help, I had more and more intrested in theme making. Now I can get happiness from making themes.


I don't know about anyone else but I sure wouldn't call you an amateur Looks like you started off with a good skinner behind you for guidance. So you started about 4 years ago you say?

ern...let me see..Maybe I started to make skin at 2004.And my first skin is for TECENT QQ. And my first wb skin is CNY2006 which is made on January, 2006.





Hmmm, I always thought brissy was your first wb skin because it's what first brought my attention to you . Anyway, when your creating your skins, whats the main tools you use?

At the most time, I'd like to use Photoshop CS2, Aliaxis IconWorkshop, SkinStudio, Ulead GIF Animator


I use exactly the same actually, well, apart from GIF Animator. I use something else but I tend not to bother too much with the animation side of things, more out of lazyness . So what inspires you to make a skin or do you just open one of these progs up and see what happens?

Inspiration? It's hard to say...It may be come from my life. Such as music,movies,games...




OOOOOh you didn't mention DA, surely it's played a role? (shameless plug alert)

Yes. From DA I made many friends whcih come from different country. And I can find many inspiration from it.


Phew, that should keep the big cheeses happy . DA is awesome for making new friends and finding people with similar interests. Is there anyones work you specifically look for?

oh..it's too many. apb2 ,treetog ,JJ Ying ,MikeB314 ,Danillooc , adni18 ,SKoriginals ,basj ,navigatsio ,spider4webdesign,Tiggz,Josephs,dianita89,007TINAR,Delacro,PixelPirate and you, and other many designers is my favourite designers. Maybe I named too many? -__-


What was that? make sure I bold the part where you say i'm one of you fav skinners? ok, I will . Seriously though, I watch many of them too. You have good taste . I'm curious about your name, where did it come from?

You mean "lypnjtu"? It come from my Chinese name "Yuanpeng Liu" and my university "Northern Jiaotong University".


Ahhh, your learn something new everyday. Speaking of learning something new, what advice would you give to people wanting to learn skinning?

If you like it, Ok, do it now!


Hands on approach huh? I agree. No time like the present. Well its been great speaking with you, it's about time I wrapped this up. I know your a busy guy . Any last words before I let you go and create another awesome skin?


Enjoy reading it By the way, I must say at this time, My homeland China, thousands of people lost their life and home in this large earthquake. If you can give us a little help, I think more and more people can be saved. Many thanks for every people.
At last, if you want to get more themes and skins please visit my blog [link]






We are all glad you are safe and hope you lost no-one close to you in the awful tragedy. Myself and everyone at DA offers china out deepest sympathies and hope you all get the help you need.

On a quick lighter note, visit his blog, I know I do


Thank you,
Stephen aka ^mrrste