Inteview with Optic
found in | Type | Author | Year |
Diskmagazine AGA Chipset required - interviews | Darkage Avenger - Babbage - Bytex - ... | a9/98 |
\\\\//// __ _ _ _ _____ _|___ __|_ _ __. | ____ \___/____/ ____ | . .. OPTIC UNDER THE LENS .. \ _ _ \o |_ °/ __ / | \_\\ (__) _ /_/ | An Interview Made By Matarazzo 980624 _ _\\______/\// _ ___|. \________/ High up in north there lies a country called Norway. Ever heard of it? Of course you have... Norway is most known for there good skiers but they also got good graphicians.At least one :) .His handle is Optic and I have made an interview with him for you. Hello Optic! I hope your not too nervous about doing an interview. Mabye I might be more nervous because I havent made an intervied with anyone before :) To begin this interview I want you to fill up this list as an introduction of yourself.It will give us a good picture of you :) Age : 22 Real Name : Hans I live in a city called : Oslo Group(s) : TRSI, DCS and Planet.Jazz (of importance anyway, I parttake in two trackergroups aswell) E-mail addy : optic@forpresident.com Shoesize :) : 44 Favourite food : Asian food in general I like to drink : Coffee :\ The thing I hate most here in life : Probably having to get up in the morning Countries I have been to :Ireland, England, USA, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,Greece, Austria Favoutite computergame : Right now, I'd have to say Starcraft and Warhammer,Dark Omen Music I listen to :Anything goes. Im not too fond of opera, and such tho.. but occationally some of it is quite good. Best Movie(s) ever seen : Bladerunner is one of my all time favourites. If I were to give a run down of all my favourite movies, I would go on forever. Im a fanatic movie buff. A person I admire and would like to know : John Steakley, author of Armor and Vampire$, aswell as Dave McKean, kick-ass designer/artist. Best demo seen this year : DCS-Nebula Best demo ever seen : Andromeda- Nexus7 Top 3 graphicians in the scene : 1:Made 2:Cyclone 3:Nero Best overall graphician : Made Most underated graphician : Dunno, seems most graphicians get a fairly reasonable rating. Theres probably some odd feller stuck away in some far-away country thats not being paid enough attention, but in that case.. i haven't heard of him either. How did you come up with your handle "Optic"? Um.. round 91 I guess, when i grew tired with my lame-o old nick, which was Wigflipper (inspirated from Butthole surfers 'flip your wig' tune) . I wanted something that reflected artistry, and found that Optic might work. As my reference to the name 'optic' is the eye or sense of sight, or the optic nerve.I do get alot of tedious puns refering to 'optic' and 'glasses' ... How long have you been an active scener? Since 89 more or lessly, I had a break from late 94 till late 96, when I was generally very tired of the scene as such, and had other more pressing matters at hand. Tell us about your computerhistory.What was the first computer you had? What equipment do you have today? The first computer that was only mine was an old c64. Today I have a steamengined A1200 020, and a p166. Who introduced you to the demoscene? A friend of mine, who bought a shitload of PD disks from a 'local' PD library. After watching some demos that were on the disks, we decided that we could do this too. Prior to this, we had been making games and such, much unaware of the size and content of the demoscene. Personally I will stay in the scene as long as it exist. Will you be there with me ? Most likely, now I have a more distanced relationship to the scene than I had back in the early 90's, but I think, as long as I still have fun doing this, there is no reason for me to quit the scene. But I dont 'live' the scene, as alot of people do, and alot of people did. I tried that aspect of the scene, and it ended in me taking a break. I suppose you do have a life beside the scene.What do you do in your spairtime when not computing? I collect books, comics and movies. Hence I read alot, and watch alot of movies. I also try to spend as much time as possible with my girlfriend, Tonje. And the rest of the time usually goes when im drawing/painting (paper/canvas, not on the computer). I used to do alot of martial arts aswell, but my right knee gave in on me last summer, so I have to relax a bit, and give it time to heal, before i start doing that again. Are you a regular partyvisitor? Which is the best party you have been to? Not regular as such, I try to attend as many parties in Norway as possible. But as for foreign parties, I can seldom afford them..sigh.. The best party.. hm, I'd say that would have to be TG 92 or 93. Very nice sceneish atmosphere, and scene activity everywhere. These days you have to roam around searching for scene activity, and you're quite lucky if you find any, amongst all the gamers. Which is the worst party you've been to ?(if any),please motivate. I'm not sure, Distance98a was pretty bad, with only 25 attendees or so. But parts of that party was pretty cool tho. Like demo and intro compos running on a 17" monitor... heheh .. I didn't like it at TG98 either, thats why I left after one day. Too many people, and too little atmosphere. I know you are going in a kind of art/design school in real life. Tell us a little about it. I'm currently studying graphic design here in Oslo. And..well.. it revolves around all things graphic design-y.. heh .. Its my first year of two, and after that (even after the first year) one have the possibilty to continue studies in England or the US. What are you plans after school is out? If I don't get a job right away, I'll most likely move to England to continue the studies and get my masters degree. That will take me four years. But at the bright side, four years of studying means 4 years that I dont have to get up in the morning to go to work. Do you think your computergfxing have improved since you started that school? Not my pixelling skills, those are pretty much undeveloped. Maybe my sense of colour and composition have improved, but nothing majorly. I've become quite good at photoshop tho, after I started at the school. And freehand drawing sure have developed a few notches. It's just too sad that im too lazy to try redrawing any of my original work instead of copying. I guess thats basically cause i do copying other work and photos which much greater ease, and carelessness than I would redrawing original sketches and artwork. Im very picky about my work, and thus its easier being sloppy with stuff that other people have "done for me". And it also saves me from having to sit down and ponder about shadows, contrast and colouring, as my drawings usually are linedrawings, in black and white. I do prefer drawing with ink on paper. I have only seen low-res pictures from you.It takes more skill of the graphician of course but do you think there is anymore benefits from painting in lowres? It takes less time ... thats the reason why I only do low-res. I dont want to spend too much time pixelling. I've started two hi-res pictures, but I dont see no end to them. I have no idea how i will manage to finish them within my lifetime :) .... or maybe I'm just lazy.. hehe How do you feel about hi-res painting? Too timeconsuming for my taste, but details improve alot. How long time do you spend on making a picture? Of course it depends on the motive and size but in general. In general i use 1-3 weeks on a fullscreen low-res picture.. sometimes it takes longer tho. I very quickly tire of a motive, and jump on to something else. Were do you get your motives from? Do you use to draw sketches on paper before starting on a picture? I usually read thru wathever magazines that are lying on the coffetable, or find something neat in my artbooks. From there on i decide whether to add something or remove something from the picture, or combine motives. If I decide to add something, or remove something substansial to the picture, I redraw the motive on paper first, and add/remove till the sketch satisfies me. From there on I spend a week or so fiddeling about redrawing that sketch on the computer, till I'm satisfied with the proportions and such. Then I starts shading, and if i dont tire completely, detailwork follow. What program are you using when making your pictures? Dpaint and gfx2. Gfx2 being the only useable pixelling program on PC. If I make pictures or logos as part of a webdesign, or for a flyer or something like that, I usually use Photoshop. Sometimes I also render parts of such pictures. But I'm not very good at this 3D stuff yet. You have to think completely different when drawing in all 3 dimensions. You both got an Amiga and a PC.If you compare PC's pixelpaintingprograms to Amigas DPaint and PPaint are there any differences? What is the benefits of Amigas program respective PC's program? Well, at them timebeing, I.. cof cof... only pixel on PC, and watch whatever the result or outcome of a final product is, on the amiga. The reason for this, is that my amiga monitor is so utterly crappy, its impossible for me using it while pixelling. If it weren't for the monitor, I'd probably use Dpaint, as I feel more comfortable with this program, and for the time being, it got more features than Gfx2. Are you using a digitizingtable? (Wacom etc.) I have one, bought cheap from Boo. But as i have some problems with drivers and compatability and those gewgaws, its collecting dust under my desk. Whats your oppion about copying/redrawing pictures,is it okej or not? It completely okey, in my opinion. Its probably preferable using photos for redrawing, as means of reference. Not copying everys single itsy bitsy detail, and adding stuff and style that makes it your own. What is questionable, is copying pieces of established art, and thereafter winning a pixelcompo or such with it.. thats stealing.. But, in all..I don't really mind that either.. It helps develop technique and such .. The whole nocopy/copy discussion is grwoing a bit tiresome, and I don't really have nothing original or new to add to the context of it all. Mostly of the pictures made in the scene are of women.Im starting to get bored of todays graphicians.Allmost everything you see is variations of babefaces.Do you think there is to much womenpictures? Yeah.. and its even a stepdown from what things used to be. Before it was babes in different positures, and shapes riding dragons, and holding swords etc. Today theres only babes, no swords, no dragons, no fat little axe wielding dwarfs.I guess the reason for all these babes, is the ease of winning votes at compos (with tits), and the ease of drawing it all. At the partys pixelcompos, photoshoppictures is getting more usual theese days.Do you think there should be two separate compos at parties,one for pixeled pictures and one for thoose Photoshopmade? Hmmmm, I really dont have an opinon about that.. yet.. At the present, there is no need for this I think. But as photoshope pictures gets more and more run-of-the-mill, seperate compos would be preferable. Like they've done with renderings and 2d art.. I remeber when they used to run both 2d and 3d in the same compos... sucked. In the future,do you think theres gonna be any pixeled 256 colored pictures or is the 24-Bit generated and Photoshopmade pictures gonna take over? Depends really. There will be more 24bit pictures, but I dont think we'll see any fewer 256colour pictures in a while yet. Some graphicians have said they wanted a jury at partys to judge there pictures instead the visiors voting.The jury should contain of graphicians who can zoom in the pictures and determine how well the picture is made. This to get a fair ranking and no silly friendsvoting.What do you think about this way?? Depends on the size of the compo/party. It would prove a valuable asset on smaller parties, where there is alot of friendship voting. And it would probably help the guys that don't draw tits for every compo too. Is Trsi or Planet Jazz planning on any productions for the nearest future? As for TRSI, I'm not sure.. We probably have some stuff up our sleeve, with new members and all.Planet.Jazz however, will soon finish a new intro, the oldtime way. We wont release this under any special 'below this or below that' kb limit, nor will it be entered in any compo as far as I know. It will be released when its ready, and we're satisfied with whats become of the original idea. Apart from that another PJZ intro is under planning, aswell as difuse thoughts about a demo/bigger project. If you would get the chanse to be invisible for one day what would you be doing? Having an awfoul lot of problems finding where my legs are so i could fit into my trousers. How are you feeling about Norway being out of FootballWorlCup in France? Even thue there out they really gave Brazil a tuff game,I must say. What is football?.. I hear alot of people talking about this guy called Football, and some other geezer called Soccer. But I've never met any of them. What is Optic doing in 10 years ? Is sleeping an option ? Okej Optic...Everything has to come to an end and so does this interview. If you wanna say something to all the readers,here is your chance. Mabye greet someone... Some last minute Hans-shakes flies out to everyone keeping the scene alive, and everyone that made the scene what it is. Special greets to Ilke, Guffaw, you, friends at #amigascne and everyone in PJZ, TRSI and DCS. Dont drink and drive, stay in school, and take lots of candy from strangers!