Which is
your favourite skin by another artist?
GrimSheep's
Mnemesys
Have you
e-mailed any of the artists of skins you've liked to tell them how much you like
their work?
Yes, though if I see the
skin in development on the various boards I post there instead.
What do
you find influences your style the most and do you feel it is
distinctive?
My style? I don't know if I
have one. I've never really thought about it. HarlequiN, do I have a style?
My influences would be
things I see during the course of my day. I don't tend to deliberately draw from
anything in particular. I don't like tribute or fan skins, so I don't mimic
other skinners' work or characters from film, etc. I basically decide who the
charcter is and it just comes to me, so despite the fact that everything is
derivative of something I can't tell you what my work is shaped by
specifically.
It's hard to answer this one
as I haven't done a lot of skins and I haven't been doing this for very
long.
Harley Note:
Milla certainly does have a style, as you can see from these images, she's also
been doing this almost as long as I have ;)
How long
does the average skin take you?
Between 20 and 60 hours,
depending if there are colour variants or not.
Do you
find the way Q3:A models have their meshes laid out to be a hindrance to what
you create?
Not at all. There are of
course some models that have been mapped oddly or that have impossible geometry,
but the implementation in general I find excellent. Then again I don't have much
basis for comparison. I've only done the skins listed above and they're all for
Q3.
Do you
feel that modellers should include JPEGS of the skin meshes with the .zip to aid
skinners in their work?
Definitely. Unless a
modeller wants to see a series of derivative evolutionary stages for their model
they should give skinners the means to work with a clean pallette. I only work
with id models at the moment as the meshes for them are available freely and I
refuse to work of someone else's work now.
Have you
had any accolades or strong feedback about your work?
I get next to no feedback
from users. I think you can count the mails I've had on one hand. I get a lot of
encouragement and criticism (which I take full advantage of) from the
skinning/modelling community, and have received a few very flattering accolades
for my work. I think that my work is enjoyed more by those who can see what I
put in more than by those wanting a pretty character. Perhaps my technical
ability outweighs my mass appeal too much.
Harley Note:
Milla's pretty forgetful, among her accolades are a Polycount Top Pick for "HO",
A QBranch Silver and Gold Star, A QBranch Skin o' the Moment and a Monsterhouse
Silver Medal :)
How did
these make you feel?
I love doing this and I
think even without the feedback I'd keep skinning. The process of producing a
character is the best bit, but the awards have completely buzzed me out one
after the other, and I've experienced a very pleasant sensation of 'perhaps I'm
not wasting my time releasing this stuff' from the few user mails I've had. The
community response has been the most overwhelming, both in the form of the
awards and the critiques I get in my dev threads. Getting such positive and
useful remarks coming back from the people who do what I do is incredibly
encouraging and motivating.
What
drives you to produce game skins?
The pure joy of painting
them, the hope that I'll reach a level of skill where someone will hire me to do
this, the satisfaction of seeing my skin in the player selection menu. The most
powerful part is the pleasure I get from doing the work though.
Do you
still feel as motivated to produce skins now as you did when you
started?
More so. I still love it, if
anything I love it more now than in the past. I've discovered I'm good at it, so
I'm beginning to think I could actually build a career based on the thing I
enjoy doing most. I just love the learning and the progression I see from my
first works to the ones I'm developing now. That's all very
compelling.
Do you
feel it is easy to get started as a skinner?
No. If you don't enjoy the
process you'll find it becomes hard work very fast. If you're not willing to
take constructive criticism you'll be completely put off by the frankness of
your peers. If you're not willing to scrap hours of work and start again you'll
always settle for less, and that takes a lot of motivation out of it. For me it
was dead easy, but then I combine all the elements a person can have that are
conducive to getting into skinning. I was born to skin...
What do
you feel are the greatest mistakes made by new skin artists?
Painting over existing art,
as I did, not taking in and applying criticism, not taking the time to learn -
shortcuts don't hold water in skinning.
What do
you most respect about other skin artists?
Their willingness to take an
interest in the work of others, help make it better, and applaud a worthy
finished product. It's the humility and generousity of the majority of seasoned
artists that has made the biggest and best impression on me.
How do
your Friends and family relate to your hobby?
My partner, BaM, is
incredibly encouraging and gives my work and my ambitions for it his
unconditional support. My family are a little confused by it I think, though
they're quite admiring of what I produce, and they are getting more accepting of
the idea that I want to make a career of it. My friends are quite fascinated I
think. They're mainly gamers, so they are a few steps ahead of my family from
the get-go.
Have you
any other work, other than skins, that you would like to
show?
Yeah, I've got a picture I
made from a pattern with the smudge tool alone, which was a weird little
challenge I set myself, and my latest character design has become a painting -
I'm quite proud of her.
