@t7,01
@^@f11@cDESIGN .. TIME .. AND EFFORT


@f00@t3Design,  time and effort.  Are they the
3 most important things about a demo in
these   glorious   days   of  increased
quality  and  quantity  of  demos.  The
answer  must  surely  be yes.  The best
demos,  intros  or trackmos of the past
12  months have been the ones where the
team has spent the time making the demo
look  professional and as though it has
been  actually been put together with a
bit   of   pride  rather  than  hurried
together  over  a  couple of party days
where a few boozed up lads want to slag
someone off or say hello to their scene
friends.   Although  their  most recent
intro   was  a  bit  dire, @taMelon@t3  have
produced  some of the nicest intros and
trackmos  this  year  and  why, because
they  have  thought  about the look and
style  of  the demo.  One thing you can
@^@f00@t3


always  say about a @taMelon@t3 production is
that  they are distinctive, you know it
is   a  @taMelon@t3  product  straight  away.
Although  I felt it could have been put
out as a single part demo the wonderful
trackmo  HUMANTARGET  had  some  design
effects  that  some of the TV companies
would I am sure be proud of.  The Melon
logo  that  went from the sprite to the
vector  and  the  way it moved from one
corner  of the screen to the other.  In
the old days guys just went through a ,
how  many, stage.  How many vector bobs
can  I  get  on  the  screen,  how many
polygons on my vector and how many sine
dots.   All this was very good but very
boring.   Now that guys have started to
make  their  demos  more  polished  and
their diskmags look nicer with a better
user   interface   the  magazines  have
@#@t7,01@^@f00@t3finally  stood  up  and took notice and
have  started  to  make  more  and more
space  in  their  mags available to the
scenes  hard  work.  Recently a U.K mag
called  @taCU  AMiga@t3 covered Public Domain
in a seperate supplement, they used the
main  picture  out  of  @taAnarchys@t3 IN THE
KITCHEN   by   Facet  as  the  boundary
graphic  for  their  demo reviews.  The
U.K  group @taLSD@t3 always get their name in
the  magazines.   Often  you will see a
review  of Grapevine and recently their
TOTAL   KAOS   rave   trackmo   got  an
astonishing  9/10 in one mag.  I wonder
how  they  will  vote on JESUS on Es an
all together much more ravey demo ???

The  key to good demo design is to have
a  group  where  the members live close
together  or  at  least in a group with
good  organization  and  communication.
Long  gone  are  the days where a coder
merely  collected  graphics  and  music
@^@t3@f00from  other members and pieced together
a  logo,  scrolly and main effect intro
and been able to get away with it.  Now
adays  the  coders spends more and more
time  getting the routines in time with
a  particualr  pattern of the module or
beat  of  the  tune.  A good example of
this  is  IN  THE  KITCHEN.   The  logo
expands  at  the  start to the start of
the  music  and  the  clever , FLIP THE
DISK,  message  at  the end is timed to
the  ending pattern.  The whole demo is
geared  to  the  music and it is a nice
touch,  maybe  more groups should think
about this technique.

Is good coding an absolute necessity to
a  good  production ?  Well I think so,
all  of  the  example  I have mentioned
have  had a high standard of coding and
only  with  the exception of the last 3
@taMelon@t3  intros  could I possibly have my
mind  changed.   These  have  contained
@#@t7,01@^@t3@f00very basic coding, in fact the last one
contained   hardly  any,  just  a  fade
routine  and  a  text routine, no fancy
routines  or  ideas.   Having said that
though  the  coder  who brought us that
intro    also   gave   us   the   first
GELE-VECTOR  and DRAGONS BALL so no one
could criticise his code.

Well as always if you have any ideas or
comments  on  my  article  then  send a
letter  to me.  My address is in the ad
section.


            @t5 BOB - SD TEAM

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