At MXskinz, it started out with two people skinning like crazy, and then as time went along, so many wonderful talented people have contributed to the site to make it the variety that it is!

Here as a big thanks to each of them, MXskinz will feature a skinner each month or so! Thanks so much to all of them!


Name: Darren Seward

Net Nickname:
Dare and []V[]orph. I use []V[]orph when Dare is taken, lol...

Where do you live?: Recently moved to Trenton, Mich, nice little blue collar town! Went to school here as well, nice, cozy place.

What programs do you skin?: I skin for WinStep (NextStart and WorkShelf), these are desktop enrichment programs. Allows you to modify you desktop to the greatest degree. It is a fabulous program and no, I am not on their payroll. I also skin for WinAmp. Seen hundreds of great skins, and one legend in particular, "Treetog." That maniac inspired me to start skinning. Never spoke with the man, but his work stood apart from the others, like hieroglyphics to the cavemen.

What programs and graphics do you use to make your skins? : For more advanced design functions and filters, I use PhotoShop 6. For simpler, rudimentary functions,I like to use MSPaint. I also have dabbled in Terragen and Bryce, but I have found no use for them in my skinning nor design quest, as of yet per se.

Website URL: Embarrisingly enough, I have not found the necessary time to construct my own website. I have the knowledge and skill to do so, just that little cruch of the clock that inhibits me. But fear not, through a most magnificent website, www.DeviantArt.Com (onwed by $Matteo and $Jark, praised be them), I have my own personal folder where I test my creative skins and designs on other artists. The feedback I recieve is most useful in determining avenues of where I am going with my skinning and design work.

Hobbies: Computer art, yea that was a gimme, and my second love is the guitar, both eletrical and acoustic. I own a Fender Stratocaster, a Westone Paduack I,a Guild '79 Limited Edition eletric, and a Yahama left-handed acoustic (got this one on sale). I am left-handed, but the rest of my guitars are right-handed by design. You have to special order, and pay more, for left-handed guitars/equipment. So, I, like any seasoned gutarist/technician, modify the equipment to suit my style of play, and handedness of course. Fact of matter, there is an article somewhare in cyberspace about one of my eletric guitars, the Paduack I(Japanese Ash) guitar. If anyone is interested, I can provide you with a link.

Do you have a favorite skin?: It's link picking a favorite child, hmmmm? Nope, don't think I can answer that question.

How did you get interested in skinning?: Skinning, in a manner of speaking, allows one to alter their personal and sometimes place of employment computers. Instead of have one model of design for every desktop. Skinning allows us to customize many of the programs that we use frequently. It's a freedom, for lack of a better word, to be able to express ourselves in our own ways. Reminds me of something Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said on a television commercial, about writing a poem, them ripping it up and throwing it away in seperate trashcans throughout the house. It's then that you discover that you have already received your reward. Not in the act of destroying the poem, but in the mere act of creating it.

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