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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 32</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
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        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Under 
          His Skin<br>
          </font><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"> 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Rowan &quot;<a href="mailto:sumaleth@frag.com">Sumaleth</a>&quot; Crawford 
          </font></b></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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              <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="protofiend.php"><img src="images/protofiend_i.gif" width="32" height="32" align="middle" border="1"></a></font></div>
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            <td> 
              <div align="center"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">That 
                %$#&amp; amazing Protofiend skin. </font></i></div>

            </td>
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        </table>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The step from your QuakeWorld 
          skin style to your first (and only) Quake 2 skin was a huge one, the 
          'Protofiend' skin being one of the most admired skins around, what led 
          you to develop this newer style? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tools. My previous work was 
          done in an eight year old copy of Corel Photopaint. With Adobe Photoshop 
          I was given a lot of new toys to play with. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>This "new" style is seen 
          throughout Daikatana (and is already showing up in the Quake3 Arena 
          screenshots), so lets come forward in time a bit. Did the ION job come 
          about due to your work on the SkinForge site? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Was it a hard decision 
          to move to Dallas and work for ION, or was it a dream come true? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The decision was easy, but 
          it was quite a radical and terrifying change. Leaving all my friends 
          and family to move to a different country... Apprehension doesn't describe 
          it. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Did you get much input 
          into the game design at ION Storm? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I got a lot of leeway on 
          my end of things, but it's John's baby. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>What was a typical workday 
          like at ION Storm? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In at nine thirty/ten. Push 
          pixels until midnight/two o'clock. Go home. Weekends were often the 
          same story, though I usually come in much later. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>While at Ion you developed 
          a bit of a fetish for cryptic .plan updates, particularly of the quote/poem 
          variety. Were you making statements that some people would understand, 
          or do you just love quotes?</b> </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I wandered into a lot of 
          stupid territory with my .plan, it was mostly a fun/irreverent outlet. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Got a fave quote? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&quot;I wasn't kissing her, 
          I was whispering in her mouth.&quot;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">-Chico Marx </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Lets get into the technical 
          side of your artwork now, starting with software. What software do you 
          use to do the skins and textures? And what have you used in the past? 
          </b> </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Previous to ION I was using 
          an eight-year-old copy of Corel Photopaint and a mouse. Now I use a 
          Wacom Tablet, Adobe Photoshop (both 4.0 and 5.0), Lightwave 3D, and 
          <a href="http://www.cinegraphics.net/Products/uview.html">UView</a> 
          to apply creature textures. </font></p>
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              <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="hacxtitle.php"><img src="images/hacxtitle_i.gif" width="100" height="62" align="middle" border="1"></a></font></div>
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            <td> 
              <div align="center"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">The 
                title image drawn by Ken for 'HACX'</font></i></div>
            </td>
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        </table>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Was the HACX title image 
          done in Photoshop or Photopaint? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oil Paint :). It was needed 
          rather quickly, so I pounded it out in oils and took it to a place to 
          be scanned to disk. Most of the time was spent in resizing and touch 
          up, as the Paint program I was using didn't do anti-aliasing (Corel 
          Photopaint 3.0/1992). </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Do you work like a "pixeler" 
          (ie. someone who works at the pixel level, plotting each pixel carefully 
          and methodically), or more like a 'freehand' style with a graphics tablet? 
          </b> </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I do both, I'll lay in broad 
          areas of 'paint', and then go down to the pixel to give sharp edges 
          and detail. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>With game graphics shifting 
          now from 8bit up to 24bit textures, do you think the days of 'pixeling' 
          are over? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, but I think it may be 
          impractical (time wise) for higher resolution images. Still, I can't 
          imagine being able to create articulate surfaces without it. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>The strength of 24bit 
          may be more in the area of 'photorealism' rather than the stylized approach 
          to game art that has reigned supreme since the days of Bob Stevenson. 
          In fact, virtually all of the notable game artists of the past to this 
          point, such as Dan Malone, Rico Holmes, Bob Stevenson, the id duo of 
          Adrian and Kevin, and including yourself, have each had a 'stylized' 
          approach to game graphics. Do you think this sort of 'gamey' stylizing 
          will continue to lead the way in the future, or can you see a time when 
          game art will be more photorealistic, and even (*cough*) digitised? 
          </b> </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the strength of 24 
          bit is simply the wider range of colors and shades. I DO have an interest 
          in making things as real as possible, but not at the expense of visual 
          dynamics. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How do you see your own 
          style progressing in the future? Do you prefer photorealism, or artwork 
          with a touch of styling about it? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't think they need be 
          binary opposites. There are plenty of illustrators who deeply understand/create 
          light and volume, but also have a strong sense of dynamic. Lately I've 
          taken to researching interesting surfaces and light phenomenon, and 
          working from reference photo's. :b </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are you a bilinear filtering 
          on or off kinda guy? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Trilinear :). </font></p>
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              <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="onspec.php"><img src="images/onspec_i.gif" width="100" height="154" align="middle" border="1"></a></font></div>
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            <td> 
              <div align="center"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Kenneth's 
                award-winning illustration.</font></i></div>
            </td>
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        </table>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>I remember reading once 
          that you had won various awards for your art over the years, could you 
          give us a little insight into what those awards were for?</b> </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Three years ago (96) I won 
          the quarterly 'Illustrator oft he Future' contest, boasting entries 
          from all over the world. In 97 I was nominated for an Aurora for my 
          cover work for <a href="http://www.icomm.ca/onspec/">Onspec Magazine</a>. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>As your work started to 
          become known, and your name with it, were you approached by other game 
          companies trying to poach you away from ION? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh man, yes! The cool thing 
          about that is, I managed to develop some fairly good friendships with 
          folks in other companies. A lot of good, friendly people in this industry. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>When a large portion of 
          the Daikatana team left to form their own company, Bloodshot Entertainment 
          (now Third Law Entertainment), were there ever any thoughts that you 
          might tag along? </b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I owe those guys a lot and 
          grew very close to a lot of them before they left. I think I would definitely 
          have entertained the idea had I not _this_ option. Sverre Kvernmo is 
          really the person responsible for my first break in this industry (along 
          with Cleaner and Squirrel) and the first voice I heard from ION about 
          working there. Andy Chang really opened up my eyes to a lot of more 
          creative uses of Photoshop. It's a good team, and a miss them a great 
          deal. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the beer is on me. 
          </font></p>
        <p align="LEFT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p>&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+1">(<a href="index3.php">continued 
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Rowan Crawford. All other artwork &copy; 1999 
        their individual authors. This interview is &copy; 1999 Rowan Crawford 
        &amp; Kenneth Scott. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it...or we'll erase you. </font></i></p>
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