Post by $Visigoth on May 26, 2006 23:44:59 GMT
SolidSnakeDesigns: Hiya Matt! Let's just cut to the chase: Who are you?!
Assassinator: I’m not quite so sure how much I’ve made known about me to the rest of SSD, I guess this interview is for you guys to get to know me better. So here it goes. My full real name is Matthew Louis Day. I get a little banter at school because Day rhymes with a certain word. I haven’t been able to make a successful anagram out of it (as one of my friends consistently does to everyone) but my friend did start writing some stories about a guy called Yad Wehttam (work it out). I’m at a lousy age of 15 where buying 15 rated stuff is now no fun anymore and I live in a small town 40 minutes away from the big man himself(Oliver, of course) where the only interesting thing that’s happened in the last month is that a pub burnt down at the end of my road... I do a lot of music and currently I’m frantically worrying about a performance I have to make in under a month. I’ve been put into a competition where all other schools in the area have to submit two of their best musician. There’s £300 up for grabs. So I’m practicing a really hard piece and hoping for the best. Oh, and I write quite a bit once I get going.
SSD: That's quite the purse! Good luck with that! Moving on, though: You're one of the forum's leading users of Terragen. We all know that it's not the most respected medium, so how'd you decide to start using it?
A:The first I heard of Terragen was when Jack(bless the aussie) got a Terragen work featured here. It was an entirely new concept, so I asked about it and what the hell it was. All I got was a link to the Terragen home page(as every Terragen user does, much easier to explain that way). I downloaded it and got to work producing some fairly abysmal stuff which I look back on and say ‘how did I even bring myself to submit that?’. I’ve come a long way. Not as far as I would like to have come but I’ve only been using it for just over half a year or so.
SSD: As of late, we've noticed you're moving away from the landscaping side of things and pursuing a more abstract line of thought. Any comments on this?
A: Yeah, at the moment I’ve been enjoying far more the photomanip side of abstract art. Patience is something I haven’t got. So when I attempt vector it’s normally not finished or it’s quite rushed and simple. So I stick at what I like. I’m still keeping TG in the side lines because no matter what I do I just can’t leave it alone, no matter what the render times on it are now.
SSD: POP QUIZ #1: PIRATES OR NINJAS!
A: Well, the pirates were very rich because of all the treasure and stuff they stole. Ninjas kill people for no apparent reason(it’s quite hard to get hold of them after they’ve assassinated someone) and pirates kill for money. The pirates are more logical. So pirates it is.
SSD: Terragen isn't known to be the easiest program to run on the planet, in terms of resource-hogging. Tell us a little bit about the beast that tackles it on your behalf.
A: Oh dear. Although I’ve grown some sort of affection to this machine I would always want a new one. Why? Because I need one. I have about 2-3 GB left on my 20GB hard drive. I have 256RAM with Pentium 3. It is on Windows Professional but that’s the only thing I can boast about it(not much is it?)…Oh, and the fact it has a nice Mac theme which makes everything look sexy. I never open Illustrator, Photoshop and Terragen at the same time, that would kill it. The furthest I’ve taken my computer is rendering a huge Terragen and a few Apophysis fractals rendering at the same time while downloading stocks with Photoshop open.
SSD: Renders take a while, and setting them up can take just as long. How do you work? Music? Food? All the gory details. In fact, we'd like a picture of the workstation!
A: How do I work? Well, lets see. I normally have music blaring, so much so that my brother always comes in and turns it down. When I confront him on the matter of the fact it being my space and I can have my music as loud as I want he simply says that everyone in the house can hear it, which is most probably true. I do have an annoying habit though. When my iPod(one of the older mini variants) gets to the end of an album/playlist I don’t really notice. I’m too engrossed in what I’m doing on the computer. The only way I notice that the music has stopped is when my stereo goes onto standby. When it does this the speakers click because they’ve been disconnected from power. That’s when I get up and switch something else on…just like now. *sticks on some Muse*. When I’m working I prefer to be alone, I don’t like people seeing my work uncompleted because it just doesn’t look very good until it’s finished. I get my brother asking ‘what’s that?’(I hope you imagined that as a whiney annoying voice). I tell him to get lost. I normally eat chocolate digestives when working and drink either coffee(which normally makes me tired) or orange juice(which is refreshing). I’m afraid I have nothing gross that I do while working. I furthest I go is probably chewing on my school tie(yeah, get used to it, I’m british). Here is a picture of my desk(at wallpaper size so you can fantasise over it whenever you wish):
My Sexy Workstation
SSD: You, unlike 99% of people we'll interview, are staff here. How is it working for, as you put it, "The Big Man himself"?
A:I am very much grateful for my moderator position here. To know that I am a moderator at the second biggest proboards forum is very rewarding. Yes, I have thought of leaving, but it’s the members that keep me here. I put quite a bit of effort into this place. I could do more of course but I don’t think people realise what it takes to be a mod of the battle board and constantly keep you guys pleased with new ideas etc. I have to say we do have some ideas in the pipeline so look out for them. If I were given the chance to go higher here I most definitely would, some of you guys are great and I want to make this place as enjoyable as possible for you. One thing I miss is surprises, is not knowing what’s round the corner. We as mods are kept pretty much up to date, there are several things we don’t know about(silly Oliver) but we as mods are the guys who produce the ideas so we know what’s going to happen. A message to all you mod wannabes: It may seem glamorous having an orange name but you don’t have it for nothing, you have to work and eventually you would get tired of it, you realise that it’s not as great as it looks. I guess we’re just here to keep the illusion.
SSD: Time for a classic question: What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?
A: Hmm, the best advice honestly I’ve ever had is ‘keep at what you’re doing and don’t stop going up’. I am very grateful for everyone who tells me that I’m doing a great job. A message to everyone that looks at great work and groans is to be patient. It took me a year to get to where I am and I’m not fantastic, some people might say I am but in my own mind I’m no where near where I want to be. Don’t expect to be able to do an amazing piece of art immediately, you need to work on it. What’s the point in replicating some ones art through a tutorial? Where’s the skill and technique in that? Forget tutorials. I’ve learnt most of everything I’ve learnt today by myself. Studying other people’s art, working out how they did it and then going off and experimenting, implementing my own style. An inspirational artist which I can only dream of being like is *shinybinary(in fact there’s an interview him with him). His work is just amazing. I just can’t work out how he does it. I know the basics but I just don’t have enough technique to replicate any of his stuff in my work.
SSD: POP QUIZ #2: FAVORITE MOVIE AND WHY!
A: Best British movie would have to be Shaun of the Dead by far. It’s up there with other great films like King Kong(which I watched for the first time last Saturday…please don’t hurt me). I’m not a big film fanatic so I don’t watch that many. I can’t give you a favourite I’m afraid. It’s just Shaun of the Dead has fantastic humour mixed with some ironic, witty horror. I haven’t watched it for a while so I might go dig that up…
SSD: We're just about done here, so do you have any final advice and/or closing words for our wonderful readers?
A: Stay safe little kiddies and don’t talk to strangers(especially ones of the plastic, race changing variety)…oh and keep away from that sweet box outside your front door, it might be harmful. And remember, they don’t call me Assassinator just for laughs(they call me ass instead). Now, what are you still doing in my house? Get out…Nah stay for tea and crumpets, oh come on, it’ll be fun! Oh fine, leave. Enjoy the box of sweets. *cackles ominously*
Assassinator: I’m not quite so sure how much I’ve made known about me to the rest of SSD, I guess this interview is for you guys to get to know me better. So here it goes. My full real name is Matthew Louis Day. I get a little banter at school because Day rhymes with a certain word. I haven’t been able to make a successful anagram out of it (as one of my friends consistently does to everyone) but my friend did start writing some stories about a guy called Yad Wehttam (work it out). I’m at a lousy age of 15 where buying 15 rated stuff is now no fun anymore and I live in a small town 40 minutes away from the big man himself(Oliver, of course) where the only interesting thing that’s happened in the last month is that a pub burnt down at the end of my road... I do a lot of music and currently I’m frantically worrying about a performance I have to make in under a month. I’ve been put into a competition where all other schools in the area have to submit two of their best musician. There’s £300 up for grabs. So I’m practicing a really hard piece and hoping for the best. Oh, and I write quite a bit once I get going.
SSD: That's quite the purse! Good luck with that! Moving on, though: You're one of the forum's leading users of Terragen. We all know that it's not the most respected medium, so how'd you decide to start using it?
A:The first I heard of Terragen was when Jack(bless the aussie) got a Terragen work featured here. It was an entirely new concept, so I asked about it and what the hell it was. All I got was a link to the Terragen home page(as every Terragen user does, much easier to explain that way). I downloaded it and got to work producing some fairly abysmal stuff which I look back on and say ‘how did I even bring myself to submit that?’. I’ve come a long way. Not as far as I would like to have come but I’ve only been using it for just over half a year or so.
SSD: As of late, we've noticed you're moving away from the landscaping side of things and pursuing a more abstract line of thought. Any comments on this?
A: Yeah, at the moment I’ve been enjoying far more the photomanip side of abstract art. Patience is something I haven’t got. So when I attempt vector it’s normally not finished or it’s quite rushed and simple. So I stick at what I like. I’m still keeping TG in the side lines because no matter what I do I just can’t leave it alone, no matter what the render times on it are now.
SSD: POP QUIZ #1: PIRATES OR NINJAS!
A: Well, the pirates were very rich because of all the treasure and stuff they stole. Ninjas kill people for no apparent reason(it’s quite hard to get hold of them after they’ve assassinated someone) and pirates kill for money. The pirates are more logical. So pirates it is.
SSD: Terragen isn't known to be the easiest program to run on the planet, in terms of resource-hogging. Tell us a little bit about the beast that tackles it on your behalf.
A: Oh dear. Although I’ve grown some sort of affection to this machine I would always want a new one. Why? Because I need one. I have about 2-3 GB left on my 20GB hard drive. I have 256RAM with Pentium 3. It is on Windows Professional but that’s the only thing I can boast about it(not much is it?)…Oh, and the fact it has a nice Mac theme which makes everything look sexy. I never open Illustrator, Photoshop and Terragen at the same time, that would kill it. The furthest I’ve taken my computer is rendering a huge Terragen and a few Apophysis fractals rendering at the same time while downloading stocks with Photoshop open.
SSD: Renders take a while, and setting them up can take just as long. How do you work? Music? Food? All the gory details. In fact, we'd like a picture of the workstation!
A: How do I work? Well, lets see. I normally have music blaring, so much so that my brother always comes in and turns it down. When I confront him on the matter of the fact it being my space and I can have my music as loud as I want he simply says that everyone in the house can hear it, which is most probably true. I do have an annoying habit though. When my iPod(one of the older mini variants) gets to the end of an album/playlist I don’t really notice. I’m too engrossed in what I’m doing on the computer. The only way I notice that the music has stopped is when my stereo goes onto standby. When it does this the speakers click because they’ve been disconnected from power. That’s when I get up and switch something else on…just like now. *sticks on some Muse*. When I’m working I prefer to be alone, I don’t like people seeing my work uncompleted because it just doesn’t look very good until it’s finished. I get my brother asking ‘what’s that?’(I hope you imagined that as a whiney annoying voice). I tell him to get lost. I normally eat chocolate digestives when working and drink either coffee(which normally makes me tired) or orange juice(which is refreshing). I’m afraid I have nothing gross that I do while working. I furthest I go is probably chewing on my school tie(yeah, get used to it, I’m british). Here is a picture of my desk(at wallpaper size so you can fantasise over it whenever you wish):
My Sexy Workstation
SSD: You, unlike 99% of people we'll interview, are staff here. How is it working for, as you put it, "The Big Man himself"?
A:I am very much grateful for my moderator position here. To know that I am a moderator at the second biggest proboards forum is very rewarding. Yes, I have thought of leaving, but it’s the members that keep me here. I put quite a bit of effort into this place. I could do more of course but I don’t think people realise what it takes to be a mod of the battle board and constantly keep you guys pleased with new ideas etc. I have to say we do have some ideas in the pipeline so look out for them. If I were given the chance to go higher here I most definitely would, some of you guys are great and I want to make this place as enjoyable as possible for you. One thing I miss is surprises, is not knowing what’s round the corner. We as mods are kept pretty much up to date, there are several things we don’t know about(silly Oliver) but we as mods are the guys who produce the ideas so we know what’s going to happen. A message to all you mod wannabes: It may seem glamorous having an orange name but you don’t have it for nothing, you have to work and eventually you would get tired of it, you realise that it’s not as great as it looks. I guess we’re just here to keep the illusion.
SSD: Time for a classic question: What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?
A: Hmm, the best advice honestly I’ve ever had is ‘keep at what you’re doing and don’t stop going up’. I am very grateful for everyone who tells me that I’m doing a great job. A message to everyone that looks at great work and groans is to be patient. It took me a year to get to where I am and I’m not fantastic, some people might say I am but in my own mind I’m no where near where I want to be. Don’t expect to be able to do an amazing piece of art immediately, you need to work on it. What’s the point in replicating some ones art through a tutorial? Where’s the skill and technique in that? Forget tutorials. I’ve learnt most of everything I’ve learnt today by myself. Studying other people’s art, working out how they did it and then going off and experimenting, implementing my own style. An inspirational artist which I can only dream of being like is *shinybinary(in fact there’s an interview him with him). His work is just amazing. I just can’t work out how he does it. I know the basics but I just don’t have enough technique to replicate any of his stuff in my work.
SSD: POP QUIZ #2: FAVORITE MOVIE AND WHY!
A: Best British movie would have to be Shaun of the Dead by far. It’s up there with other great films like King Kong(which I watched for the first time last Saturday…please don’t hurt me). I’m not a big film fanatic so I don’t watch that many. I can’t give you a favourite I’m afraid. It’s just Shaun of the Dead has fantastic humour mixed with some ironic, witty horror. I haven’t watched it for a while so I might go dig that up…
SSD: We're just about done here, so do you have any final advice and/or closing words for our wonderful readers?
A: Stay safe little kiddies and don’t talk to strangers(especially ones of the plastic, race changing variety)…oh and keep away from that sweet box outside your front door, it might be harmful. And remember, they don’t call me Assassinator just for laughs(they call me ass instead). Now, what are you still doing in my house? Get out…Nah stay for tea and crumpets, oh come on, it’ll be fun! Oh fine, leave. Enjoy the box of sweets. *cackles ominously*
That Coltrane poster is teh sex 
