˙˙00˙ ˙00˙01˙03˙01A Few Bytes on the Title Picture˙00 ˙˙ ˙01Title pictures have always been important for magnetic publications. Art Centre felt, however, that the pictures and the artists behind them get too little publicity. Therefore, we will from now on write some brief words on the title picture in each issue. ˙˙ ˙00˙ ˙03˙02TOBIAS "ELECTRON" JANSSON / CITRON. ˙02˙01˙01˙00˙˙ Usually we'd ask someone to draw a title picture or, in other cases, someone would offer to make a picture for us and if we'd like the proposal we'd give him free hands. This always results in the artist's sitting by the sweat of his brow the last hours before the release, trying to finish the promised masterpiece in time (I am right, am I not, ˙02Prowler˙01?). This time however, it was more like the other way around; we actually received two high quality pictures before we had as much as thought of the title picture for the fifth issue. ˙02Bandy ˙01drew the picture you can see below. However, the picture we choose to put as a title is "˙02Spectrum˙01" - a raytraced picture by ˙02Drakemule / Exceed˙01. ˙05 Our choosing Drakemule's picture in favour of Bandy's is mostly due to the fact that it somehow bears a more professional touch. It is also more original; Bandy's picture e.g. features a hackneyed dragon with a sword. We would however, thank Bandy for sending his picture and wish him good luck with his future graphics! "Spectrum" is not the first contribution to Oepir Risti from Drakemule. The perceiving mind might remember many of his illustrations that has been published in previous issues. The "Combat Chicken" in the editorial of issue three is more or less legendary by now. Drakemule likes to draw kind of strange (Hope you don't mind my using this word, do you, Drakemule?) pictures that depict funny animals and other weird looking creatures. He's had a handful of illustrations published in the Eurochart and has competed in various competitions - latest at The Party IV with his "˙02Avoid˙01" picture. He's a humble fellow and says that "the only thing I could be known for is the slideshow, '˙02Mosaic˙01', that me and my pal, ˙02Motion Lotion˙01, did this Christmas." Art Centre had a look at this very picture collection in the last issue and found it original and rather funny and atmospheric. "I have spent much effort into making game graphics but so far nothing has been finished", Drakemule tells Art Centre. Having had a brief look at some of the graphics in question one cannot but look forward to seeing the result. A year or two ago Drakemule was a devoted pixeller but he has now ventured into the world of traced rays - on the PC! "The program that I used was ˙023DStudio ˙01and I added the lens flare in ˙02Photoshop ˙01afterwards (it's better than the ones that exist in 3DStudio). The textures were done in ˙02DPaint˙01, which by the way is terrible on the PC. The objects are fairly simple. Basically it's just a twisted tube. The whole scene consists of ˙028588 faces ˙01and it took 13:49 minutes to calculate it in a 640*480*8 mode on a 33MHz 486", Drakemule says. Oepir Risti received the picture somewhere during mid spring and was faced with a - not very simple - problem: The image held a total of ˙02308k ˙01in possession. Considering the fact that the Oepir Risti code still doesn't feature or support any packing routine whatsoever, the picture was far too big! Though, the undersigned played around in various programs and finally converted it to 640 x 256 which made ˙02142k ˙01- much better, but a slight loss of quality! The bottom of the 'tube' suddenly featured a great deal of magnificent alias that couldn't possibly be accepted. It thus hade to be made smoother and I started to pixel some handmade anti alias and fix some other small 'bugs'. The result seems OK - also in Drakemules eyes. Though, if you'd like to see the 'complete and unabridged' version, just drop Oepir Risti a line! As yours truly knows next to nothing about raytracing I won't give any further comments as to the technique. I think Drakemule has created a stunning picture that, at a first sight, takes one's breath away; well chosen colours and good composition. If one should complain on something it should be that 'issue 5' is somewhat hard to read - but that is just a minor drawback, partly caused by my converting the picture to the 640 x 256 resolution. Moreover, the picture has something of a rave flyer atmosphere - if this is negative or positive I leave for you readers to decide, though. At last, Drakemule is worth admiring for having managed to avoid the 'effect-trap' that the bulk of all raytracers seems to have got caught in - using too many flares and flashes and sparks and spotlights, that is. "Hope you like it", Drakemule finally wishes to add. ˙01