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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
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            <div align="center"> 
              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 3<br>
                November 22, 1999<br>
                </font></b></h5>
              <h5 align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Under 
                Cover :<br>
                </font><font color="#904C10" size="6">Francis Tsai</font><font color="#904C10" size="3"></font></i></font></b></h5>

              <div align="center"> 
                <p align="center"><a href="http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/cgi/image.pl?image=/content/images/cover2.2.jpg&amp;w=460&amp;h=360&amp;alt=Issue%202.2%20Cover&amp;back=/content/2.2/uc/&amp;name=Under%20Cover"><img src="../../images/cover2.3.jpg" width="460" height="360" border="0"></a><br>
                  <br>
                  <b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  Rowan &quot;<a href="mailto:sumaleth@frag.com">Sumaleth</a>&quot; 
                  Crawford<br>
                  </font></p>
                <div align="right"> 
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                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/q.jpg" width="24" height="43" align="left">uestion: 
                  What does this issue of loonygames have in common with Presto 
                  Studio's recently completed game, <b>Star Trek: Hidden Evil</b>?</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The 
                  answer is, as you may already have guessed, Francis Tsai, concept 
                  artist on the aforementioned game and this week's loonygames 
                  cover artist.</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">OK, 
                  I'll admit it, there's actually no &quot;subtle link&quot; between 
                  Francis Tsai and this weeks feature article - <a href="../feat/index.html">RadPipe's 
                  interview with Barrett &quot;Bear&quot; Alexander</a>, CEO of 
                  Rogue Entertainment - but you have to admit, Francis draws a 
                  damn cool bear!</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left">
                <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font></div>
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
                <div align="left"> Francis started his career on a chemically 
                  orientated path, picking up a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry 
                  at the College of Natural Sciences (University of Texas, Austin) 
                  with some side interest in fine arts and the Japanese language. 
                  His intention initially was to move from there into pre-med, 
                  but well before he finished the course he realized that a future 
                  in either field - science or medicine - was not one that particularly 
                  interested him any more. &quot;It was obvious to me that I was 
                  not med school material, and the prospect of spending the rest 
                  of my life in a lab was making me queasy,&quot; he explained.</div>
                </font>
<p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">His 
                  life long interest in art was looking to be a more suitable 
                  path, but he still stuck around to finish the science course 
                  before moving on. &quot;When I approached the assistant dean 
                  of the architecture school with my intent to change majors, 
                  he advised me to finish my degree and apply to the graduate 
                  school in a year. Initially, I was crushed, but in the end it 
                  proved to be very good advice.&quot;</font></p>
             
                <table border="0" align="right" bgcolor="#D7B582" width="75" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                  <tr> 
                    <td height="43"> 
                      <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/cgi/image.pl?image=/content/2.3/uc/images/tsai_6002.jpg&amp;w=612&amp;h=625&amp;back=/content/2.3/uc/index.php&amp;name=Under%20Cover"><img src="images/tsai_6002.gif" width="64" height="64" border="0" alt="click to enlarge!"></a></font></div>
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr> 
                    <td height="18"> 
                      <p align="center"> <i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" color="#000253"> 
                        <ignoreme>One of Francis' pencil drawings (72k).</ignoreme></font></i></p>
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                </table>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">With 
                  the science degree in his hand, he moved onto a more art-orientated 
                  degree, and within three years had acquired himself a Master 
                  of Architecture (now that is a cool degree!) with &quot;extensive 
                  course work in the School of Fine Arts.&quot; So two degrees 
                  and 8 years of tertiary education but the future was still uncertain.</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Francis 
                  found that the things he most enjoyed (&quot;sketching, rendering, 
                  science fiction, computer modeling, etc&quot;) were of little 
                  use in the work environment he found himself in, and the skills 
                  that were needed weren't ones that he possessed. &quot;I found 
                  that although I was working in a design profession, I seemed 
                  to spend a lot of time memorizing codes, schmoozing clients 
                  and dealing with bureaucrats. The architecture profession was 
                  very different from architecture the academic pursuit.&quot;</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A growing 
                  dissatisfaction with work lead to a growing interest in other 
                  fields, such as multimedia, virtual reality, games, film design 
                  and visual effects, and he also began to again draw the sort 
                  of images that he liked to draw - science fiction and fantasy 
                  images - something he'd done very little of in past years. Next 
                  came a deeper exploration into the various facets of computer 
                  art, such as (2D) Photoshop, web page design, and more recently, 
                  3D.</font></p>
                <p align="left"></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And 
                  then, as if by magic (wait for it), word comes by way of the 
                  SIGGRAPH mailing list that a local game developer, Presto Studios, 
                  the company behind The Journeyman Project and other similar 
                  titles, were having a tour of their residence. Francis and his 
                  wife, Linda (a talented architect in her own right), took the 
                  tour and, at his wife's urging, Francis spoke to them after 
                  the tour and gave then the link to his web site. One interview 
                  later and Francis was finally working in a profession that he 
                  really enjoyed.</font></p>
                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Cover illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Francis Tsai. Under Cover is &copy; 1999 Rowan Crawford. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  you cartoonish villian, you.</font></i></p>
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