Interview with frozzzen
I had honor to interview frozzzen famous Aston skinner and designer. frozzzen influenced my work the most (still far far away from that quality ). There is no better way to start this web site than interviewing person who brought that much eyecandy to our screens :) Huge thanks to frozzzen for giving us some of his precious time.
(interview taken on 04.12.2007 over ICQ , PA=krstatzar)
PA: Hi frozzzen how are you?
frozzzen: a little tired, trying not to fell asleep:)
PA: Ok do you wanna take a nap and do this some other time?
frozzzen: lets do it now, im going to make a cup of tea and we can start ok?
PA: Ok in 10 minutes I'll go make some coffee :-)
......10 minutes later
PA: Ok I am ready :)
frozzzen: ok me2
PA: Ok I'll ask you the usual stuff
Tell us a bit about yourself where do you come from and what do you do.
frozzzen: I am Eugeny Chernov, 19 years old from Russia, Izhevsk. You may know me as frozzzen. I am on the 3rd grade of university. My specialization is economic, particularly finances .
PA: Oh that is interesting I graduated economy. Feel a bit odd to have a 19 year old for a role model
frozzzen: ^_^ hehe, what's your age?
PA: 30, I started late. But years don't matter he he.
PA: How and when you got involved in skinning ?
frozzzen: I made my first skin 5 years ago, it was December and I got nothing to do I think, thats why I started to make my own Aston skin. It was based on wallpaper 'Copper Deck' by treetog. Well, the theme was 90% made in mspaint and little programs for icons drawing, so it wasnt really good, but that's how it started :)
frozzzen: there I should say how I met Aston
PA: How?
frozzzen: I was interesting in computer and hardware news, so I had usually bought magazines. There was a one called 'Chip', I liked it most. One issue of it had an article about shell-replacement programs, and what is more interesting, there was a CD with these programs.
PA: Great, You met Aston through shareware CD.
frozzzen: As far as I remember, there were Talisman, Aston, Litestep and DesktopX. It was old versions of products, and surely they very differed with versions available nowadays.
PA: OK so when did you discover Photoshop and was it hard at first?
frozzzen: Wait, there is interesting fact. I tested them all, found Aston good, but not good enough to stay at my computer :)
PA: You didn't like Aston at first that is something
frozzzen: But my best friend, who had 'wooden' computer continued to use it, because of low system resources usage.
PA: What version of Aston was it? do you remember? When did you start to like Aston?
frozzzen: 3 months or more passed since this moment. I might totally forget about shell replacements, but my friend came to me and said that he was totally enjoying a fresh version of aston. It was version 1.80 or something like that, where the top panel plugin appears.
PA: Yes I liked Top Panel the most
frozzzen: And I must give a shot to Smanic, who made a perfect "MyAqua" theme by this moment. It was fantastic.
frozzzen: Thats when I finally started to use Aston :)
PA: That is quite a story
frozzzen: yep
PA: Smanic is the one to blame I guess
frozzzen: Ye, mainly smanic, and the gladiators team, who involved top panel plugin
frozzzen: So, few time passed and I started to created themes
PA: Ok you talk how it all was I'll listen coz I am very interested in all this history:-)
frozzzen: Learned some details about art submission, because Copper Deck was deleted on some sites (I didn't know about permissions etc.)
PA: Your theme was removed I cannot believe that
frozzzen: Ye, but I contacted treetog, and he gave the permission to use his wallpaper.
I had a bunch of free time, and I made a new theme every week. (that sounds weird for me now)
PA: I remembe fantastic Sputnik theme concept by treetog
Yes I know many good Aston skinners started like that.
frozzzen: ye and Universe metal concept is made by him too
PA: Didn't know that
frozzzen: Quality of my 1 week themes wasn't high as u can guess :)
PA: I always loved your themes even the old one :)
So how did you move from MS Paint to PhotoShop was it painful?
PhotoShop can drive you mad at first I can tell
frozzzen: No, the work mspaint was real pain. When I launched PS first time, i quickly closed it, because was scared :)
PA: And now every of your theme has hundreds of layers:-)
frozzzen: It wasn't a clue, so I downloaded some PS tutorials, to learn something
PA: And you learned a lot :-)
frozzzen: and I learned step by step by tutorials of different authors, so my skills improved by time
PA: So you started with the basics and then build up your skills
frozzzen: I never read any big photoshop books, just small tutorials of interesting techniques/styles. Ye, first of all I learned how to create these aqua buttons :))
PA: Yes I agree it is much easier to learn stuff as you need them
frozzzen: That still being my favourite style.
PA: It is your signature do you agree?
frozzzen: ye maybe :)
frozzzen: for example I learned 2-3 techniques and made 1 week theme basing on them
PA: Theme as practice that is great way to learn
frozzzen: But there was a crossroad.
PA: I am all ears. What kind of crossroad?
frozzzen: After I made 'Aqua' theme, some guys from aston community (Sacrat, Smanic) gave me a sight. I was very impressed that they liked my theme, because every theme before I only get comments by them like 'froz make quality not quantity'.
PA: Yes I got that from Smanic too he is good at that:-)
frozzzen: Well on my example it's good motivation
PA: So you decided to focus on details and quality?
frozzzen: yes, there were no 1 week themes anymore. By the way, the A.R.T. community was created by this time, and I was invited there.
PA: Yes A.R.T. was very significant for Aston development
frozzzen: It was a mailing list of best Aston theme creators ^^ I was glad of being there
PA: You sure deserved it. Too bad it does not exist anymore
frozzzen: yea, very sad
frozzzen: so it was golden time of aston skinning. I made my best themes, such as Insignia and NsysExtasy which are still being popular
PA: Yes masterpieces:-)
frozzzen: Well, the extazy theme was a really huge work to do
PA: How long did it take you?
frozzzen: It took around 3 months to finish
PA: Wow that is a lot of work but it is one of my favs too
frozzzen: But I started to enjoy the process, not the time after uploading
PA: Yes I understand . Still enjoy it?
frozzzen: Sure :)
PA: So when did you go pro?
frozzzen: I felt myself pro when I got Daily Deviation award on Extazy calendar :D
PA: You felt like you were in heaven, right?
frozzzen: Dunno about heaven, but I was happy and satisfacted by my hobby.
PA: Sure do you see it as hobby now?
frozzzen: Ye, and this is very pleasant hobby, which creates a little money for me sometimes :)
PA: That is great :-). Do you accept pro assignments often?
frozzzen: To tell the truth, I don't search job, job finds me. There are not huge works, for example logo design.
PA: Sure since you are a great designer:-). But I guess you accept the one that you find interesting
frozzzen: yea sure. I cant get use of Illustrator, its so weird, so i dont prefer vector jobs.
PA: Don't like vectors myself too. I see you made 2 great A2 menu skins was it hard ?
frozzzen: Well, the hardest thing to do was to create a main concept of menu
PA: But before I was told it was made by you I knew it, how did you achieve such recognition? Your style is unique and beautiful :-)
frozzzen: thx
Recognition? Maybe because I made an eyecandy themes, which looked good and tons of people downloaded it and found it good enough to use.
PA: Yes but I always wondered who doesn't like the eyecandy? It is not that easy to achieve
So do you see yourself in skinning five years from now?
frozzzen: There are still much info to learn, PS gives a good opportunities and the imagination is really infinite :)
PA: Agree:-)
What advice would you give to people that are just starting skinning (Aston especially)?
frozzzen: Never stop! Only practising in photoshop can make your works better, and there is no matter in which way u will achieve it. Try to start with tutorials, there are a lot in web, some are even hard for me now.
PA: Very hard for me to believe that :-)
frozzzen: Well, there are a lot of artists, from whom u can teach. Adni18 influenced on my a lot :)
PA: Adni18 is awesome:)
frozzzen: And the best way of inspiration is looking on someone else's works
PA: Yes I started by looking at your Lamburghini theme:-)
frozzzen: :D
PA: Is there any other piece of software that you would recommend?
frozzzen: No, I wont advertise any other software I think :)
3 Programs I launch on computer is PS, Opera and Warcraft3 (+icq,mirc)
PA: Ok :-) PS is more than enough
I am Opera fan for Years myself but I suck at WarCraft :-)
PA: What are you working on now?
frozzzen: Nothing important, I am doing studying now, soon sessiya :(
PA: Ha ha.
I won't take any more from your precious time for the end of this interview can you tell us what do you do in your free time?
frozzzen: Usual things, like going outside with friends, playing photoshop and wc3.
Not much to do at Russian winter really.
PA: So the Russian winter we should thank for all of those great themes:-)
Ha ha ok thank you very much on this anything else you want to add?
frozzzen: Nothing :).Just thanks to gladiators for their software, as usual
PA: Ok I asked too much already:-)
I'll do that and now that I have your ICQ I might ask you for an advice or two
Not now you need to study:-)
frozzzen: ye, u are welcome |
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