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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><a href="../../2.1/uc/index.html"><font color="#904C10" size="3">Under 
                        Cover - Francis Tsai</font></a></i></font></b><br>
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        Rowan &quot;<a href="mailto:sumaleth@frag.com">Sumaleth</a>&quot; 
                        Crawford</font></div>
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                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 3&nbsp; <br>
                      November 22, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After 
                initially working on one of the <b>Journeyman Project </b>games, 
                Francis moved on to became one of the conceptual artists on <b>Star 
                Trek: Hidden Evil</b>, a pre-rendered (with real-time characters) 
                third person adventure game set around the <i>Star Trek: Insurrection</i> 
                movie storyline (although the game doesn't follow the movie's 
                plot). Being a conceptual artist on the project also meant that 
                he got to work on other areas of the game.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&quot;I 
                was involved in the design of all aspects of the game beginning 
                shortly after an initial storyline had been proposed. I participated 
                in story and gameplay meetings and produced design work based 
                on ideas we came up with in those meetings. During production, 
                I worked with Victor Navone, our creative director to oversee 
                the actual modeling and animation of all the assets.&quot;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Being 
                a <i>Star Trek</i> game, the assets mentioned were to be either 
                based on canonical <i>Star Trek </i>elements, or elements that 
                were to become canonical elements. I asked Francis what it was 
                like working on a franchise as massive (and potentially finicky) 
                as the <i>Star Trek</i> one:</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
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                      <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_cyborg.jpg&amp;w=474&amp;h=596&amp;back=/content/2.3/uc/index2.php&amp;name=Under%20Cover"><img src="images/tsai_cyborg.gif" width="64" height="64" border="0" alt="click to enlarge!"></a></font></div>
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                      <p align="center"> <i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1" color="#000253"> 
                        <ignoreme>A example of Francis' character conceptualising 
                        (52k).</ignoreme></font></i></p>
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                &quot;Very exciting. Paramount and Activision were both very helpful 
                in terms of providing us with a wealth of reference material and 
                original sketches and designs from the movie. Paramount is very 
                selective about how their property is treated. Luckily, almost 
                all of us on the team are pretty hard core <i>Star Trek</i> fans, 
                in particular our writer Eric Dallaire. We started out with a 
                pretty good story concept, and with all the reference material 
                we had, it really was a labor of love.&quot;</div>
              </font>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And, since 
                this Q&amp;A format is working out pretty well, I asked Francis 
                what his favorite book and favorite movie of all time are:</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&quot;Right 
                now, my all time favorite SF book is <i>Snow Crash</i>, by Neal 
                Stephenson. On the surface it's cyberpunk, but the book is about 
                so many things besides that, and on so many different levels. 
                <i>Neuromancer</i> would probably be a close second.&quot;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&quot;Favorite 
                movie at the moment - I'd have to say <i>The Matrix.</i> I really 
                enjoy seeing a science fiction movie that doesn't make me wince 
                with embarrassment at any point in the film. <i>Blade Runner</i> 
                is a very close second.&quot;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And Favorite 
                games?</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&quot;I 
                actually don't play a whole lot of games. The games that do come 

                to mind are <b>Starcraft</b>, <b>Half-Life</b>/<b>Team Fortress</b>, 
                <b>Grim Fandango</b> and <b>Myst</b>/<b>Riven</b>.&quot;</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Francis' 
                art &quot;style&quot; is really unique - I've certainly never 
                seen anything like it before - so I asked where the style came 
                from, whether it developed of its own accord or whether it came 
                from any particular influences; &quot;I'm not sure where my &quot;style&quot; 
                comes from. I never really set out to create a totally new drawing 
                style. I think it's really a matter of having a wide variety of 
                influences, and trying to incorporate those bits and pieces of 
                each that really spoke to me. I haven't really seen other artists 
                who draw exactly like me, but I'm sure there are others around 
                who are at least similar.&quot;</font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: 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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