General FreeSpace > Archived Interviews

DragonClaw interviews Darkage about lots of stuff.

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DragonClaw:
11-16-02


DC - Hey Darkage, you feeling well?

DA - Yeah, feel great.

DC - Thats good, is it ok if I ask you a few questions?

DA - Sure go ahead, I'll be happy to answer them.

DC - First of all, how did you first get involved in the FreeSpace community?

DA - Well, a few years ago I bought a games magazine with the game FreeSpace advertised in it, so I went to the store and bought the game. I followed a link that was on the box.
Thats how I got to the VBB. And started to read and post in the forums.

DC - Ah, the VBB - just for kicks, do you remember how many posts you had before it went down?

DA - Not very much, I was always kind of shy to post somthing or make suggestions. But I think my post count was around 250/300 before it went down.

DC - I'm sure you found Hard Light Productions and Volition Watch from people on the VBB, which one did you visit first?

DA - I was browing the VBB when things went really bad, I clicked on a topic made by Setekh if I remember corectly. It showed a link to HLP that was just open a few hours before I visited. It had no Bulletin Board at that time. I found out about Volition Watch when I was browsing the links on the HLP site. That's when I started to visit both sites and the Volition Watch forums.

DC - So you came to HLP when it first started? That's a rare thing to find these days, with all the vets gone AWOL. When did you first get involved in the modding community?

DA - Yup...I've seen HLP grow from a small site to a healthy modding community. I started real modding when I downloaded some mods people made and then I got interested in how these mods where made, so I started to search for tools and other things that could point me in the direction to my first mod. Slowly over time I started to do some table editing and later on, changing texture maps with tutorials I encountered at Volition Watch. That's how I basically got started and how I got myself integrated with the modding community.

DC - What was the first campaign you worked on?

DA - Ahh...memories... Anyway, I was adding as many Freespace community people to my ICQ list as I could, and that's when I started to talk to Woomeister. I showed him some of my new weapons. He liked them, so that's when I offered my help to him with his campaign Inferno. A few days later I got an e-mail stating that I was hired. And that was the first campaign I started working for and doing it with great pleasure. It also improved my modding skills a lot. I did a bit of remodeling on the original Freepace ships in addition to the weapon creation as well. 'Till this day I have been working on Inferno, but less than in the beginning though; Real life is a pain.

DC - Yeah, Inferno has evolved a lot since it started. What other campaigns do you work for?

DA - I am curently working as an ANI artist for OverTheTop, Reprocity, as well as some small things for BlackWater Operations and for Devil and the Deep Blue.  OverTheTop is what I do the most work for at the moment.

DC - You just said you do Ani's for OverTheTop, what first got you started in the graphical area?

DA - I was talking to Thorn one day and we were talking about rendering kick-ass images and animations. He already started working on 3D stuff with Lightwave. DragonClaw introduced me to Lighwave first though. That way I learned how to render proper images and small animations. I was very impressed of the program and downloaded loads of 3D meshes from the Babylon 5 universe, and started to experiment with settings. That was the moment I knew I really wanted to go for this.

DC - Yeah I've seen you've come a long way from where you had started, do you plan on getting a career in 3D production or not?

DA - Yes, I intend to go to CGI school ( if I can find any in Holland ) and then try to get a job at a games company or a company that makes 3D movies like Ice Age and Shrek, as I have always been interested in computers. I also follow a 4 year study of ICT - after that I'll go to search for a CGI school that can teach me all the great goodies of the 3D worlds.

DC - What are your thoughts on which 3D package is best?

DA - I started with Lightwave; that's my personal preference and easiest to use and understand in my opinion. But I also worked a few times with Max; I didn't like the button layout and the overall interface much. But both are powerful 3D packages. I guess it's what everyone prefers the most. After all it is the user who makes the image/animation look good with the help of the 3D packages of course. :) But so far Lightwave has been my choice.

DC - How long do you think the Freespace community will last now that it's so old?

DA - I think that if enough good campaings are made and people keep on modding, then it will last a year or 3 more. The recent Source Code project will extend its lifetime as well. It gives modders/modelers/animators/etc. a lot of new things to play around with. It will eventually die though, as no game can live forever in my opinion. But I am sure there are a lot of other games that can be modded to it's full capability.

DC - Speaking of new games, are there any that you are particularly looking forward to?

DA - Well FreeLancer seems to be an interesting game that I look forward to playing. But other then that, I haven't been waiting for a particular game that I would like to play. ;)

DC - Indeed, FreeLancer looks great. Do you play any strategy games like StarCraft?

DA - Yes, I like to play those games from time to time, I play StarCraft and C&C Tiberian Sun the most. Both pretty old games but still very fun to play. Also Homeworld and Homeworld:Catacylsm are also fun to play. I recently played WarCraft 3 and enjoyed it very much. Great graphics and game play. These games are must to anyone's game collection.

DC - Homeworld 2 is going to be released next year, do you plan on buying that?

DA - Yes, that's a game I really would want to play ( hmm...that's one I forgot to mention :D). It seems a very big improvement over the two other HomeWorld games. Not only in graphics but also in gameplay and story. The first two games really were stunning and both had great stories and missions to play, they always keep you on the edge of your seat. I am sure it will be the same in Homeworld 2.

DC - StarCraft: Ghost is going to be released for Console only, how do you feel about that?

DA - It sucks. It seems it would be a very promising game for the PC platform, although I haven't really been following the development of StarCraft: Ghost. But if it comes out on PC, by a miracle, I am definately going to buy it.

DC - You somehow came by acquiring the title of Crazy Render Rabbit, Freak of Justice, and something about Cornflakes - on HLP. Care to explain how?

DA - Hehehe...LOL! sorry a little outbreak :D
Well, the Cornflakes thing started when Kazan posted a similar thread as the "Post your ugly mug" thread. I made a few pics: 1)Of myself and 2)Of my desk and that way I took a pic of a box of Cornflakes. That's how I got associated with Cornflakes.

The Freak of Justic, hmmm, I don't really remember how it started. But it was in my Photoshop days when I started to mess around with it. I used a smilie ( the most ugly one I could find at that time ) and played around in Photoshop and made up the Freak of Justice or in short FOJ.

Aah, the Crazy Render Rabit. That was something Setekh made because I was pumping out a lot of renders when I just started with it. I was proberly drunk at the time I made up the Freak of Justice - funny stuff when I think back about it :D

DC - If you remembered anything about the Freespace community at Hard Light Productions 2 years from now, what would you remember most about it?

DA - Hmm...that's a hard one, I've seen so many great and fun things, but the thing I would remember the most would be the campaigns I worked for then. So much fun and great learning experiences.

And not to forget, the great people that have come and gone. That would be the two things I would remember the most.

DC - Before we end the interview, I would like to ask what your real name is, and what your job is if that is OK with you.

DA - Sure, no problem.
My real name is, Daniël Robeer
I am 18 years old.
And at the moment I work at a supermarket.

Thats actualy it:)

DC - Well I enjoyed this interview, and I hope you did as well. I hope you have a nice day/week/month/year/decade/century/life. :)

DA - lol...
I enjoyed it also. :)

gevatter Lars:
Seems as if I am not the only one with problems finding a CGI school. Damn if I could I would go to USA and learn it there...but I have the most common problem...no money.
Hope you find something.

Darkage:
There are proberly enough CGI's schools here but i realy don't know where to start looking;)

Stealth:
you want to learn CGI?  do it online ;)

oh, and on that note, does anyone know where i can learn mySQL?  i need it for school :p

EDIT:  i mean, a good webpage with tutorials and stuff

Darkage:

--- Quote ---Originally posted by Stealth
you want to learn CGI?  do it online ;)
 
--- End quote ---



No....I want to learn it on a real school not some ****ty site or a damn chat channel.

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