The Prinstream series of skins for CS:GO is one of the most popular in the game. In July, its author Juthapat "Non" Lmmpattanakule, also known as JTPNZ, gave an interview in which he talked about how he comes up with ideas for new skins and works on their implementation.
JTPNZ was raised and born in Thailand, completed his undergraduate studies at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington, and now trains as a 3D artist in his home country. He notes that he is younger than most of the skin creators he talks to. However, it was his works that have already gone down in the history of CS:GO.
Non started creating skins back in 2016: he says that at that time he was studying mathematics and exact sciences, but he already understood that his interests lay in a different area and was looking for opportunities to get distracted. He stopped working on skins for a while because going to college was too time-consuming, but soon returned to this activity again.
Initially, he did not plan to turn Printstream into a series and created a skin for AK-47 as an experiment (It has not yet been selected for the official version and is only available in the Workshop). However, the community liked this design, and Non decided to make several more skins for CS:GO in this style. He finds it funny that Desert Eagle Prinstream, which is his least favorite, was the first to be included in the official version. Now in the game, in addition to him, two more skins from this series are available – M4A1-S Printstream and USP-S Printstream.
At the same time, the design of the skins, which is based on a combination of white, black and pearlescent, arose in a sense by a happy accident: Non thought that the iridescent effect would be applied only to individual elements of the weapon, but after uploading the model to the Steam Workshop it turned out that it extended to all white surfaces. It is this version of the skin that has gained popularity.
Creating the Printstream design, Non was guided by what he saw around – quotes, lines of code, fragments of text. For example, the heart symbol that can be seen on the body of the M4A1-S Information flow – This is a reference to the song Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana, and the inscription "B42" - to one of the commands for purchasing weapons, which was still in CS 1.6. And the author was inspired to decorate the skin with symbols of the twentieth century by reflective stickers that he pasted on the case of his computer.
Perhaps this is the secret of Printstream’s popularity – These are designs that have whole stories behind them, a real person who creates them. By the way, the name of the series itself is also not an accident – Non took it from the Java programming language, where it is a command to display information.
