X I N S I G H T: ze trip GFX competitionX(T.R.i.P. - was organized by DeathStar an italian group. They
supposed to make it as "the first, real Italian Demo Party". It was held
in new structure of fair of S. Giorgio del Sannio (BN), in
the South of Italy in the province of Benevento, near Naples - from
2nd January 1998 till 4th. - Ed.)1. UNREAL/FACULTY&NAH-KOLORThe Hungarian Unreal from Faculty and Nah-Kolor, who just released a slideshow, won this competition pretty easily, with the contribution "Evolution". His work is a picture of an eagle's head in front of a sunset in mountains with clouds and fog. This motive is nothing special at all. It's a "no copy" image, which is good, but it lacks of fantasy.
What I first thought of was the colors; they are green, blue, brown," orange, red, pink, turquoise and yellow. It's actually horrible. Just to mix those orange and pink should be illegal, not to mention brown and turquoise, yellow and pink etc. etc. This guy has a lot to learn about what colors stand for and how they should be used. Ra mixed some of those colors too, in his picture of an eagle, "Ah. Self d.", and I don't really like that mixing either even though Ra's work is very good otherwise.
Unreal has used Brilliance, on the Amiga, if I'm not mistaking. It's 640*512 big and some of the colors are made using a special Brilliance (and PPaint?) dithering function, which I really, really dislike. Quite a lot of graphic artists uses this technique, among them are Cyclone / Abyss and Louie / TBL & CNCD. The difference is that Cyclone uses it in a cool way and Louie in an intelligent way, nowadays, but I don't advice anyone to ever use this.
Even though Unreal has drawn mountains in the back, there's no real depth in the picture. This is because of the colors; they are far more advanced to use than what one can imagine. The Russian artist Kandinsky once said that the yellow color "attacks the observer", while the green is very laid back. He's right, but in this picture the yellow is in the background and the green in the foreground, which results in the loss of depth. Of course one normally doesn't draw a yellow eagle and a green sky, but then you have to use darkness and lightness a little more intense.
What is positive about this picture then? As a competition picture, this works. Big motives and clouds satisfies most party attendees. This is the definite picture to win a small Italian party with few skilled competitors.
2. BITSCOUT/RITUALBitscout of Ritual was to me unknown before I saw this picture, and I doubt I've seen anything from this guy before. "Mulino a vento" was his contribution and I like it. It is not a picture drawn with the pixeling talent as the winner. Firstly, it's drawn on a PC, and probably in Photoshop in the end. Secondly, it's a far simpler image than Unreal's. What this picture has, compared to the winning piece, is feeling. It's more than just entertaining, and isn't that what art is all about?
On the picture there is a desert, with mountains and a sunset. There's a hill about 200 meters away from the foreground on the left. On the hill there is a windmill and beside the windmill there is a man, who waves. This person waves, probably, to the woman, who's standing in the foreground on the right side. But she isn't waving back. She's holding her arms crossed. Why? If she loved this man, she had probably not just been standing there, and not trying to get to him. The fantasy flows. And I like it.
The colors are brown, yellow, turquoise and some red. They doesn't make me stunned, but they are co-operating much smoother than in "Evolution". The light is also realistic set to the objects, which is a very important part of this picture. The clouds are realistic and the proportions of the humans are all right.
What Bitscout thought of when he drew this I don't know, but obviously he thinks, not only physically. This is the way to go. And I like it.
3. COLONELThe third price winner is a hard picture to analyze. It's made by Colonel, and I don't know if he's partly ray-traced, or not. The graphic artist behind this picture has definitely used some kind of rendering tool, as straight lines set between polygons can be seen on places in the background where rounded shapes would be normal. Fractal design painter or a similar program is probably used. That's what I think. However, it's an image with manga hi-tech style; red mountains, polluted atmosphere and a Star Wars-inspired city on a fungus-alike ground hanging in# the air. In the foreground there is a manga-girl with a stony uniform and a gun staring at you very expressionless.
I don't usually like these kinds of pictures. This is no exception. I've never liked manga and I'm not very fascinated of futuristic pictures in any form, especially when they're not original. It might be so that not many thinks like me, which I accept. I actually thinks that this picture had got the second place in another graphic competition. Futuristic sci-fi pictures are often very much liked by youths.
The pixeling of this picture, if it's even pixelled, is not good, but I like the light on the face of the girl. It has got an orange hue which suits more than well. But again, is it ray-traced? The hair looks very stiff; it's shaded almost in an inhuman way. I can't stop wonder about how this image is made, but Colonel has not drawn the whole image by hand, that is obvious. Colonel has made a boring picture, but it works OK as a competition picture.
4. FMThe fourth place got to FM. He competed with a classic motive of an old magician with long white beard, white hear, a violet covering and cap staff. He's got a very sly expression and is sitting next to a wall built by stones and in front of him blue, red and violet colors are enlightened by his staff.
FM has probably used Photoshop or a similar program for this picture. All edges are very smooth which proofs that he for sure has used the airbrush tool and maybe a drawing table connected to the computer. It's a pity he saved it in JPG-format as it destroys much of the original quality when you take a closer look.
Just like Bitscout's picture this is for me something more than just an image. The magicians face and his hiding position indicates in an interesting story around him. He's probably sneaking around listening to the evil people. I think of Gandalf, the magician in the Tolkien fantasy-trilogy at once.
What is good with this picture is that it's not expressionless, like the previous described. Just a little more of magic, not only with the mouse, had brought FM to the top three. It's a nice picture really...
