Spotlight On: Paul Boyer
by Jumbles

Tek: Where do you live?

Paul:  I am currently living in Pasadena California, though this is recent.
The majority of my work as a skinner was done at my home in Mountain Home
Village CA, a small mountain community in the hills above San Bernardino.

Tek: Where does your history in art begin? Were you a "scribbler" as a child?

Paul: I have drawn and scribbled as long as I can remember. As a child I
was always "making things" out of cardboard, wood, or anything I could get my hands on. I am of the opinion that my love of art & Illustration comes from my love of "making" and I think that has what has drawn me to skinning, and in particular DesktopX, I can make my GUI anything I want.

Tek: What is your system like (hardware, memory, monitor, etc.)?

Paul: I have just gone through a bit of an upgrade, to a P4 1.5 with 128 megs of ram. I need to upgrade my memory by another 256 ASAP, but the price of RamBus Ram is still a bit much. At the moment I have two monitors a 19" and a 15". I do the majority of my work on the 19" and use the 15" for apps
thatI need to keep open, such as Outlook.
Besides my main work computer I have another workstation and a File server that I keep pretty busy.  I also have a Casio E-125 Pocket PC that I have become completely reliant on as of late, running pocketblinds of course.

Tek:Do you have a favorite program(s) you use to create skins?

Paul:  I use CorelDRAW 10 & Photopaint 10 to do 99.9 percent of myskinning. I have been quite outspoken in the past on the merits of the Corel Suite, and got some flame on the matter, from the loyal Photoshop & Illustrator fans out there, but I can say that I can't find anything that I can't do in Corel's programs, and usually much quicker, that I can Adobe's.

The only other program I have used a lot in my skinning is Axialis AX-Icons 4.5 which I am very fond of. I use it to polish up my Iconpacks, to make sure they look as clean as possible in all the different resolutions.

Tek: What methods do you use for inspiration,prior to designing a new skin?

Paul:  I am usually inspired to create or improve my skins, while using my computer, and going "I sure wish I could do this", or "Wow what If I could do that". Then I will try it, and about half the time something comes out of it.

Tek: What is your skinning process like (do you create sketches, and develop
them, as in suites, etc.)

Paul:   As a rule, for skins, with some minor exceptions I don't do a sketch before I start on a skin. I do however usually do a few experiments in CorelDRAW, before I find something that I am happy with. Then I mockup everything at 300dpi, sometimes using some screenshots to make sure I am getting things on target. Then I Export my bitmaps for Corel at 300dpi, and any resampleing I need to do I do in Corel Photo-Paint.

I enjoy taking apart other people skins and learning the tricks of the trade. I have mostly taught myself by examineining the work of others. There are many fine skinners out there.

Tek: Is skinning/digital art your full time career?

Paul:  I am a Computer Artist for Disney, and spend most of my time doing signage for the Disneyland Resort. Ironically I am not allowed to do skinning on my system at work, other than the basics, icons & wallpaper, but it's a fun job all around.

I also do freelance illustration and design. My first love is science fiction & fantasy illustration. You can see some of my work, as well as order prints, from my main website: www.odyssey-3.com.

I would love to do skinning for a living, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of openings for it, one of my dream jobs would probably be given free reign to design the new GUI for Windows.

Tek: Do you have a family (kids/wife/dogs, cats)?

Paul:  I have a beautiful wife named Kristin who is in the Masters Program in Cinema and Television at USC. She is my best friend, sounding board and inspiration. I also have two dogs, Cerberus "Bear" and Ancalagon "Annie", both of which are mutts.  I am pretty sure that Bear is plotting to take over the world, but Annie must be his Pinky-esque comedy sidekick, because she doesn't seem to understand much more than CAT.  But they are both lovable.

Tek: Can you tell us what you are working on right now?

Paul:  I am currently in the process of completely re-doing my FauxS-X (LastSTEP) Theme, for Desktop X. I am hoping to have it completely updated and have a more comprehensive use of DX Plugins, up and running before, or shortly after the 1.0 release of DesktopX. I have a few new things in the works, for the release, as well as a spin off of the FauxS-X project, FauxS-XP, that will allow for my many zoomers and plugins to fit in nicely with the new Windows XP Luna themes.

I have a list about a mile long of DX stuff I want to do, as well as looking forward to the possibilities WindowsXP will open up for me to update my FauxS-X Iconpackages.

Tek:How do view the future of skinning?

Paul:  I think that skinning will become more and more mainstream in the future. WindowsXP is a fine example, as well as many less well-known apps. I am a bit worried about the fact that the mainstream skinning sites are going under, but I think corporate sponsored sites, such as wincustomize.com are a very promising sign, and the wave of the future of skinning.

I am of the opinion that this is a good thing, being a Capitalist. I look forward to many more years of watching skins become more popular and more impressive.

Tek: Do you have any any advice for us skinners?

Paul: I skin because I want my desktop my way. I have fun doing it, God knows I have lost money doing it, but it is all about making quality. My advice to skinners is to develop their skins for themselves. I am not a big fan of skinning by committee, if you design the things that you do on the edge of your imagination, you will push the edge of the skinning envelope.

But most of all, have fun with skinning. It's all about making something that you are proud of, and at the end of the day what's more fun than that?

Please answer Fnads's Five

Tek: What skin do you wish you'd designed/written?

Paul: I am a big fan of many of the great skinners out there, I can't keep track of. All the skins by Dangeruss & Treetog that I wish I had done. I have to admit that I Mac's OS-X look and feel made me drool when I first saw it, and I have to admire the fact that they have brought the Postscript GUI to the mainstream. I find the interface too limiting, but the concept is well worth my envy.

I also will always be a fan of frogboys, since it is his objects that I tore apart in the beginning s of DesktopX, and I would have had a harder time of learning without them.

Tek: What would you like to have on your laptop if you were stranded on an
island, e.g., skins, music, proggies, peripherals, games, etc?
        

Paul: CorelDRAW, Photopaint, Word, IE, Winamp,  & to keep be busy the rest of the time Black & White.

Tek: Have there been any skins that have made you laugh? Cry? orgasm?

Paul: The First GUI, which I have to say tainted me forever that I was blown away by Is the original NeXTstep system. As for skins I can't name them all. The most recent skins that has made me
go wow are Sputnick, and Marinara. But there are so many more great skins out there I can't begin to name them all.

Tek: Boxers or briefs? (or, which do you prefer ?)

Paul: Boxer-briefs, and yes I am straight. :-)

Tek: List some sites you visit daily, weekly, hourly...

Paul: Wincustomize.com
            teknidermy.org
            Techtv.com
            Cnet.com
            Wincustomize.com
            Goofball.com
            And did I mention wincustomize.com?

Teknidermy thanks Paul for taking time out to talk to us.