Interview with Fairfax

The most busy graphician at Funcom these days took some time off to reveal inner truths of his personal life. Please meet: FAIRFAX / ANDROMEDA


	

		
Name:
		
Torkell Berntsen
	
	

		
Handle:
		
Fairfax
	
	

		
Group:
		
Andromeda
	
	

		
Former groups:
		
Network, PMC, Offence
	
	

		
Function:
		
Graphician
	
	

		
Age:
		
19
	
	

		
In the scene since:
		
1990
	
	

		
Occupation:
		
Game graphics designer at Funcom
	
	

		
Resident:
		
Oslo, Norway
	
	

		
GFX equipment:
		
None
	


Computer graphician from the start
In opposite to many other people in the scene, Fairfax has never done anything else but drawing graphics on the computer. He started drawing some 4 years ago and has followed the natural development from smaller groups to the present membership in Andromeda.

-The computer environment in my home town didn't contain any skilled coders, so I never really got any contact with assembler programming. There are some famous musicians and graphicians in Bergen, but as my musical abilities are very poor, I feel that drawing graphics suits me the best. I've never thought about doing anything else.

In his spare time, he plays soccer. He used to play active on a team earlier, but now it's just occasionally. He enjoys being with his friends and do fun things together with them.

Famous graphician - Brilliant techniques?

There are many ways to improve your graphics, Fairfax says.

-You constantly learn from the work of other good graphicians in the scene. I watch pictures closely to see which techniques they've used, for instance how they did the aliasing. I use this afterwards in my own way when I'm drawing. I also experiment a lot. Trying and failing, trying and failing again, that's what it's basically all about. To do a picture, you need some kind of an inspiration before you can start.

Fairfax has a lot of different sources from where he gets inspiration to his graphics.

-I have a lot of different kinds of books which I use to look through when there's a picture that needs to be done. If somebody needs a picture fast, I've got some fantasy books which I've drawn pictures from before. This is a fast and simple method, but those pictures are not what I like to do best.
I've got many photos which have some good motives and I've done several pictures from this. Photos don't have the contrasts and shadows fixed and finished, so it often demands more to draw such ones.
Lately I've started to draw pictures completely by myself, which is more difficult, but yet much more satisfying as an artist.

Eventhough he's been into the Eurocharts since June '92, and has the 4th place as his best position, Fairfax is not the graphician who spends extreme amounts of time on his pictures to give them an extra polish or improve small details.

-I admit I'm a bit sloppy with my graphics. I'm not like Uno or Hof who always does perfect pictures. I admire them for that, but personally I often get bored of a picture and stop when I think it's OK.

Some may wonder why he still is active in the Amiga scene when he works at a software company and gets the money he needs from his graphics there.

-Competition is my major source of motivation for staying in the Amiga scene. I still haven't achieved all of my goals in the scene. My main goal is to reach the no.1 spot at the charts. Besides, I have a lot of friends, especially within Andromeda, and I enjoy being a part of the scene.

A lot of people think that Fairfax is extremely productive making graphics, maybe the most active in the scene. But those days are past now, according to him.
There were times when he was always working on some new picture, logo or design. He always had several tasks to do - maybe only with some slight lazy periods in between, not long enough for the scene to notice, though. 

-I seldom dropped a picture, I always finished them and got them released. I think that's one of the major differences between me and other graphicians in the scene!

It's quite the opposite now; he's beginning to get fed up with the scene, mostly because of his 8-10 hour work each day with computers at Funcom.

Seven Seas - The scene charthitter
"Seven Seas" was his first slideshow ever, though he's been having the plans for one for more than 1 1/2 years.
-You see, It never went all the way through. Each time, the idea was hot and everything looked like I was going to get a slideshow done, but it failed everytime until now. I had a slideshow almost ready on the CRB conference way back in Porsgrunn '92, but then I felt that the pictures I'd done was too bad.
 "Seven Seas" was almost delayed for a year. I remember I first announced it on The Party 2 to be released in Easter, but you all know how it went.

"Seven Seas" is one of the best slideshows which have been released on the Amiga, but he can reveal that the way to get it released was not that easy as it might seem.

-Things take such an awful amount of time! "Seven Seas" actually gave me a lot of disappointments before it was out to your screens. The coder was very demotivated for the production in periods, and I sometimes felt that I was the only one doing anything in the group.

Only copying? - No way!
"Seven Seas" contains a lot of beautiful landscapes and motives from the fantasy genre. But he hasn't drawn everything off from books:

-I drew the wide picture in the beginning all by myself. I also drew mostly the whole titlepicture out of my own imagination. Besides, many of the fantasy pictures have been further developed by me.

Simple code? - Come on!
When looking through "Seven Seas", you might think like yours truly - that there was very little and simple code in it. The truth is actually the opposite;

-The code in "Seven Seas" is good, but it is a bit "hidden" to the normal user, that's true. The zoom-routine in the middle of the slideshow is very advanced. All the coordinates are calculated down to the smallest detail, and this was a process which took a hell of a lot of time for the coder. The slide also contains a completely new trackloader.

Compatibility seemed not so important...
For the lucky owners out there, like myself, with an Amiga 4000, "Seven Seas" was a pain in the ass when it comes to compability. On my machine, only the first disk works. When it's originally going to load the second disk, the whole thing just "hangs".

-The production was not fully tested before release. When I came to the coders afterwards and said that it neither worked properly on the A4000's nor my own A2000, they were a bit uncertain of what caused the error and didn't care to fix it.
To me, compability is not the most important thing in the world, but I agree that they could've relased a new version when they found out what made the error.

"Without R.A.W I'd be nothing"
-The worst thing is to not getting your works released. Eventhough I finish almost all of my pictures, I'm perhaps a difficult graphician to work with and most of my works doesn't really fit into any production. As I'm not a part of the designing of the demo itself, the pictures and graphics "clash" a bit with the rest of the demo. I think this is my biggest weakness as a graphician.

Still, I've gotten a nice amount of releases through the times. I did the intro picture for "Mindriot", got three pics in "Mirror", two in "Sequential" and the whole "Seven Seas" slideshow for myself. Besides this, I've competed in most of the graphics competitions at the parties the last years with good results.
But without R.A.W, I'd be nothing. It's definately all my releases in this diskmag - intropics, panel-graphics, etc. that has really made me known in the scene!

Hights in the career
Eventhough he has won both the competitions at Rendezvous 92 & 93, he still looks upon the 2nd place at The Party 2 as the biggest thing that happened to him in his scene career.
Of course, finally getting his own slideshow released was also a big thing for him.

Most popular picture
Fairfax says that the picture from The Party 2 gfx-compo and the "Winter Courier" picture are the ones which are the most popular among his fans.

- I've gotten a lot of positive remarks from guys I know on these pictures. But thinking of it, some people say they like one picture, others another, so... There's not one picture which is way better than the rest, and people have different tastes.

Which he thinks is the best himself
I think the endpicture I did for "Sequential" is the best I've done. I actually made it during X-Mas 92, and the motive is quite cosy.
On the other hand, "Silkworm", is the worst I've ever drawn, the motive is reprehensible!

The hardest one to draw
-The picture for TP2, "Winter Courier" and the flute player in "Seven Seas" must be the toughest pictures I ever did. I spent a lot of time working on those pictures!
You know, what's typical for me, is that I often think that a picture is going to be very simple and easy to draw, and then I end up with a very complicated and large fullscreen picture.
Most other graphicians concentrate very much on the foreground/motive of the picture, and neglect the background. I don't think like that. In my drawings, everything is so distinct, I don't just fade out the background, with some loose fog-like mountains, but prioritate the background almost 50%.

Work versus leisure
Fairfax started working on the expanding Norwegian software company Funcom, at January 1st, 1994 He's experienced a lot since then, both concerning his personal attitude to his graphics, and the technical parts.

-The biggest difference from the scene to games developing, is that when you draw graphics for games, you have even smaller limitations to work within than in demos.
It's been mostly work and sleep during the last months at Funcom. I left my friends and family in Bergen, and I have to spend a lot of time drawing. This is typical for many of the guys that work here. Most of us has moved away from our hometown or even homecountry to work at Funcom, and this marks our social life.

Funcom is doing so well that they are constantly on the look for skilled artists to join their forces. They've implemented almost the entire ex. Norwegian demoscene, the last one to begin working here was Lone Starr/Spaceballs. Now they're raising their heads, looking for wider horizons;

- Already in-house are Mithrandir (GFX) and Asterix (code) from Sweden. "Funcom has been in contact with for example Walt (Melon Dezign France) and others which I can't reveal at the moment.
Newcommers to the company often come in as primadonnas, but they are very fast jacked down.
The good thing, is that we've been able to sort of keeping our working habits from the scene into the new job as game producers. It's very loose, people can come and go whenever they want as long as they keep the deadlines set for each project (this might end up like Ranx/BLC, who worked 10-16 hours a day, 7 days a week the last weeks before his deadline for a golf game! -Cs)

- It's not so long ago since Funcom moved into a great new office building. There are 40-50 employees and many of them got a rise in their wages just recently. We're soon going to expand the office area with another 1000 square meters. I think its success will continue for at least another 5-10 years, I simply cannot find a point where they should fail! The people who work here are all very talented, and everybody wants to impress the others all the time - or at least not get negative critics of what you've done.

Funcom - Top secret, sorry.
When asking about Fairfax' current projects at Funcom, the guy suddenly changes from being very talkative to only doing some silent mumbling.

-We're not allowed to speak of games not released or finished yet, sorry. My last project before this, though, is the so-called "Santa Claus"-project. Since it's not released yet, I can't mention the exact title, but I guess you'll notice it when it comes to the stores. It'll be out both on Sega and Nintendo.

Eventhough he's earning well enough to live from his graphics in the future, he says he won't stay at Funcom for more than a couple of years.

- I want to get a proper education, perhaps take a study of arts at some university. I've taken ex. phil, which is a 6-months course everybody has to take before getting into the studies. But, it's also a matter of good grades in order to get into the universities in Norway, so I might have to go abroad. 
Within 2-5 years I probably won't stand working at Funcom any more, though the company seem unbelieavable promising.

Below the magnifying glass
Personally, Fairfax admits that he could've been better to draw on freehand than on paper.

No more copying!
From now on, you will hardly see any picture by Fairfax with a copied motive. During the last months at Funcom, he feel that he's developed as an artist and become more creative.

-I've gotten a more loose attitude towards the scene. I think many get quite locked up by the high expectations from the scene, and what you make is formed by it. There's less risk by copying pictures, but this is something which is completely taboo on Funcom.
Now I want to draw more out of my own imagination, and I've also started taking up freehand-drawing on paper. I think this will be much more fun!
I reckon most of my work will be AGA from now on, since I'm using this machine at work, and you have more colors and resolutions to work with. Of course, it depends on which tasks I'm assigned to.

But, like he said earlier in the interview, he was quite fed up with the scene, and in my last chat with Fairfax, he certainly didn't seem motivated for any scene work within the nearest future. Tough luck, fans!
Though, he did talk of a diskmag especially for graphicians which he was perhaps going to do together with BCR/Stone Arts and Joachim/Ex. Razor 1911 (both works at Funcom), but it was a bit vague. Besides, we've already got one of those; Gallery / Intense FR.


CONTRAST - Other people's opinion about fairfax

Ra/Sanity:
He was as good as he is nowadays when I started my graphic activities. Drawing mountains as a signature, he is moving with fashions.
He only uses Interlace, so he's a very resticted style graphician. In a way it's quite negative ...
He loves pictures full of pixels and I wonder where his part of creativity is. Anyway I fell in love when I saw his
face in the Eurochart 25, he just need to lose some weight to look the same as one year before.

Archmage/Andromeda:
Fairfax is a very talented graphician indeed and he is improving all the time. This development may best be seen in his slideshow which I find stunning every time I watch it.
His drawing-style is sometimes a bit rough and I guess he doesn't sit for hours trying to figure out whether a pixel fits his picture or not, but it is his overall quality that I find impressive.
Also the speed of his drawing is tremendous and he has never ever exeeded a deadline that I know of. The period of his "career" that was dominated by nature-pictures lasted a bit too long, I think, but he has now started moving into new and more interesting realms of motives. He really deserved to win The Gathering '94, and I think that the picture he released there is his best so far.
He has by no means let his success get to his head, as is the case with some other famous scene-graphicians. He is very serious about his work but he is also open to criticism, and he gives very constructive criticism to others as well.