Interview with Bridgeclaw of Darkage & Gods

Hi Henning! Please take a seat here by me and don't look into the spotlight.. or if yes it will kill your eyes. Hehe. What do you want to drink? Some whiskey or what kind of alcohol do you prefer in cold, cold Norway??

Hy Ghandy, and thank you for inviting me, and for thinking of me... ;) We're actually having quite warm weather these days in Norway, almost no snow but green grass and the sun is shining, quite wierd if you ask me. But I guess it's just Mother-Nature's way to say "This world is going down!". :D I'm quite simple in my drinking habits... Beer, beer and A LOT of beer. I prefer drinking "Hansa Premium", which is a beer made in Norway.

Please, as always in interviews, boring but very important: Introduce yourself to the public. Who are you? What are you doing in real, what are your hobbies beside pixeling etc. etc. (age, job, girlfriend?, hobbies etc.)

My name is Henning Ludvigsen, but my computer name is Bridgeclaw. I've been active in the scene for.... hmmmm... A LOT of years, I actually don't know, but now I'm 24 years old and I think I started out ACTIVE when I was about 15-16 years old. I've been a member of IRIS, TRSI and GODS. I must confess that my pixeling days are over, I greatly thank those who invented the anli-alias engine in Photoshop and progs like that. :) I also have my own appartement with a little home-office where I have an Amiga, Macintosh and a PC. Here I also have my own mini-music-studio with which I do some small songs and stuff like that just for fun. I also love listening to music, and I like bands like: Motorpsycho, Pixies, Barbie Bones, They Might Be Giants, Morten Aabel and so on. I work as an Art director/Illustrator fulltime, and I also have two other jobs, which I operate from my home-office. I have enough to do and I've done a good living out of this. I also use quite some time (and money) on Star Wars stuff, because I'm a GREAT fan! :D

How come that you're a graphician? Which graphician or which production did inspire you to do so? Or if not, tell us about the start of your scene career please....

I've always liked to draw, but for many years ago on the C=64 I started out as an programmer. When I moved over to the Amiga I started composing music and a couple of pictures. But I counted myself as an musician and didn't do too much with the graphics. It all started at The Rendezvous party some time long ago. I competed with one pictures and one song... The song didn't do it to the final, but my picture ended up at third place. I joined IRIS as a grapician and then the story goes on...

When you're doing a pic, how do you invent it? Do you have a clear idea of your motif or do you start without any idea and the picture invents a life of its own? I mean, while you're drawing, more and more details are added etc.

Every professional who is planning to draw for instance some kind of human HAS TO use models or something like that to get the REAL LIFE look. As most of the other starters I also used other professionals as reference when I did drawings. Boris Valejio uses his own personal models, often nude when he paints. And as not TOO MANY starters know people which allow you to take naked photos of them, you've got to use others work to get the REAL-LIFE look. Hehe... One side effect of this is if the pro gets 96% of the propotions right from the model, and you get 80% right out from his work again, it might start to lose some effect too... So this isn't easy. Nowdays I am using friends and other people to do small (dressed of course) photosessions with me. At my homepage you can study some of them, and I must say that pictures that are FULLY yours and no copy at all makes you want to do more and better pictures. My motto is: Copying is not a crime, but hell... Invent your own for your own sake. Just for the notice, there are many copied pictures at my site too...

Maybe you know that many graphicians have left the Scene because it's nowadays nearly usual that pics are scanned from photos and retouched with tools like Adobe Photoshop. What do you think about this movement?

I can't say why pictures that are retouched can be in the same competition as the drawed ones. Hell... Do a seperate Retouch-competition... If I competed with a "faked" picture I can't say what was the purpose of doing it. When I do a picture that I'm satisfied with, I want to show it to the world... I wouldn't respect myself if it all was a fake!!! If you can't draw, at least don't fake that you can, try doing music or something else. But I still have to say that getting inspiration from others is a "must", these words were just for the ones who are "painting over" a scanned photo! I do my own research these days, I take photographs of people I know and get my inspiration this way!

Some more of your drink?? (Don't get drunken though!) Hehe. Keep'em comming kid... I'm a pro'!!! Juh Scheid?

How did it come that you began to combine raytracing backgrounds and handpixeled motifs?

Hmmmm... I've done some studying in Raytracing as well... This is something I use sometimes at work and as I'm aware that I'm NOT a raytracing-guru, I've just kept it at this level, but this technique has helped my in many ways at work. There are so many great 3D-modellers out in the world, so I just don't bother doing more of it!

I heard that you're in these days a bit disconnected from the Scene. What happened? Aren't you in touch with the Gods members anymore?

Hmmmm... Work, work work... I worked for about 8-15 hours each day 7 days a week, so that's the story about that. I'm in good contact with the Gods members, and I have done some pictures now and then. But I guess I am going to show something in near future as I'm planning to contribute at the Gathering in both graphics- and demo-competition this year (2000). We are working as we speak with our new demo which I just KNOW you're gonna love!

Rumours told us that you're drawing with an Apple Macintosh. Why? Which things are better with programs from a Mac? Which advantages does it have, and which disadvantages? Which programs do you use on Mac? (And why?)

I do most of my pictures on the Mac these days, but some are also done on PC. I like Mac because I'm used to using it (plain and simple) and I also use an ArtPad for much of my work. This

to get away from clear computer generated graphics and to make my pictures more dynamic and lifelike. I have been passed some personal tips from Boris Valejio himself from someone who knows him... He had a lot to teach me about getting the REAL LIFE look... As I work with design, illustrations, web-sites, multimedia, preproduction and so on I use A LOT of programs, but for the creative part I use Photoshop and Illustrator on both platforms. I have no big disadvantages for the mac, but for the PC I just HAVE TO hate Windows, which I really think stinks! Sorry for all you Billy-fans out there. :)

Is there any second slideshow planned for you after "A few good men" back in ..mhh.. was it 1994 (???). Besides, what are your future plans? What kind of jobs are you planning to do in real life and what are your scenerelated projects?

I don't have any plans for a second slideshowm but who knows... Maybe it's in the mailbox someday? My future plans are to concentrate on my fulltime job, and do pictures at my "spare time", which will be used in scenerelated productions... But I don't have any GREAT plan written down, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I can strictly recommend to visit your homepage. Any news about it?

Hmmm... The only thing I can say is that it WILL BE updated shortly, I have some new stuff to show off... But the present version is quite old. Please bookmark it and check it from time to time.

Last but not least: Would you like to send out some greetings? Then do it now!! I would like to thank all the other GODS members for having patience with me (I don't always deliver gfx to the deadlines they want, upps). I don't have a complete list so I did this the old fashioned way, ok?

Bye, bye then!!! Bridgeclaw wrapping off.

Bridgeclaw & Ghandy