Inteview with Prowler
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Diskmagazine AGA Chipset required - interviews | MadWizards 3d Addict - Acid - Arp - ... | a10/97 |
Interview with Prowler by 3d addict, re-edited by Ctp/Mawi^Link124 -------------------------------------- (3d) - 3d addict (Prow) - Prowler/Scoopex 3d - Tell me a little bit about yourself. Prow - My real name is Klas Benjaminsson. I live in Sweden, just outside Goteborg, the second largest city in Sweden on the west coast. I'm 21 years old, and I'm right now studying to a master of science degree in engineering at the "Chalmers University of Technology". Most of my time is spent here, the rest is split up between my girlfriend and my hobbies. The way things are right now, I don't seem to have any time left for anything. But I'm happy it's not the other way around. 3d - Please describe yourself as a person. Are you a cool type of a guy or more funny one? Do you take life seriously or are you more relaxed and live the life without thinking much about the future? Prow - I think that most people consider me as a rather unserious guy, but I take serious things serious and the rest as it comes. I think a lot about the future, making up big plans for everything, but mostly I end up with something completely different. 3d - What was your first computer, and what computer do you use now? Do you also miss the the good old days of c64 and A500? Prow - Well, I think it all started back at the Nintendo "Game&watch". I was just crazy about those little toys and used hours trying to complete the different games, also admirering the game design that was put into them. I guess I didn't think of it back then, but I made some drawings of own games I wanted to design when I "grew up". Later, I got a old Luxor TV game with 2 different games: Pong and a Arkanoid clone. This was just great! In 1986 (I think) I got my C64. The graphics and audio was stunning, but I just played games on that and made some games in Shoot'em-up construction kit. I also liked the tunes by Rob Hubbard, Jonathan Dunn etc., that I recorded tapes with SID's (it was about now people started to wonder). In 1990, I got my first Amiga, and I sort of grew up with Wild cooper, Star duo, Shut Berlin, Vortex 42, Plasma force, Red sector and so on... But it took a long time before I got in contact with real scenepeople. The first group was a small game team I and my friend Martin Dahlbom started on the Amiga. We made one game, "Seawar", which took one summer of REAL hard work on AMOS and DPaint (I don't think I ever have worked so hard since that). 3d - How and when did you become involved in the scene and when did you start drawing? Prow - The first contact was made with a musician called Quant of Extacy (NOT the PC-extacy). I started to draw a lot of logos for their group when they changed name to Hysteria. Nothing got ever released from them, and I never joined their group, but it was a good start. Some years later I went to my first party, a halloween party in Herning, which was a real mess. But I loved it! I met people like Electron, S. Duvan, Puh, Probe, the Reflex team and DuffE. Later I joined Reflex, but quit together with the productive part and founded Pointless. We released one musicdisk and an intro (Songs of Infinity and Illtis). 1994 I joined Passion and now it's Scoopex. 3d - Which hardware/software do you use for drawing, and where do you get the inspiration from? Prow - I use my old A1200 (original chipset) and a PC for all my graphics. Programs used are: Dpaint4AGA, PPaint, My own AMOS-coded palette fixer, Photoshop4, 3D Studio MAX. Inspiration comes from everything. To rank things that brings out the inspiration in me: Nature, things, people, art and last but not least music! 3d - How many hours a day do you spend in front of your computer, and how many of those hours are used on making gfx? Prow - Most of my time (like I said) is spent on the school, but in front of the computer I spend maybe 1-2 hours a day. Maybe half of this time is spent on making graphics, but I spend more time than that a day painting/drawing on paper. I think it will be a lot more this summer, as I got a job as graphic artist at the lokal TV station here. There will also be a lot of web design with Electron. 3d - When drawing, do you have a perfect vision in your mind or do you draw more freely, by letting your image evolve in whatever direction you may feel like it. Please describe in steps how do you create an image. Do you start by making an sketch on paper, or is everything done on the computer. Prow - Mostly, I work on an idea a long time in my head before I do the first rough sketch. This is often the most interesting and exiting part of the whole creation of the picture, watching it grow on the paper. . . If the third or fourth sketch result in the image I wanted, I scan the sketch in high resolution and works from that. Otherwise, I just start pixelling the shapes in DPaint. Then the shapes are beginning to get ready, I start to make some rough colouring to check the different ideas I've thought of while drawing the shapes. I mostly do this by using aquarells on paper or photoshop. When the colours are selected and the shapes are good, I start adding shadows and highlights where necessary, and also start thinking about reflections. The lights in the picture is also an important part, where shadows casted different can make a very cool impression without having so much of an object. This is a great advantage the 3D-artists have, as the shadows always get correct. I sometimes use quite easy methods to create a depth in the picture, as in Oepir#3 titlepic, where I just made things father away more darkblue and smooth. However, this is just on the idea stage yet. When I got a pretty good idea about the picture and how it will look, I start on the real picture. And this is when the hard work begins. 3d - I know from my own experience that it can take days and often weeks to draw a good picture. How long does it take to draw a good picture for you, and what are the most important aspects of making a great image? Prow - It changes quite much between each picture. Sometimes I just feel like an obligation to finish the piece once started. In those cases, the picture could take more then a month to finish. In other cases (most cases, I like to think), the picture gets more interesting as it grows. 3d - What do you find the most difficult to draw, and which phase of your drawing do you enjoy most. Personally I like mostly making the finishing touches when the image is about 95% complete. Prow - Yes, I would like to agree, but most compo pictures are "finished" one minute before deadline. As a matter of fact, I have runned to the information desk at every party I have participated in the graphics compo. Things I like to draw is mainly fantasy creations that reminds the viewer of something he or she has seen in nature. Therefore, I like to start drawing the surroundings and give the scene much new graphics. . . 3d - Thanks for interview, pal =) Prow - Ok, bye for now!