


by s7ing and Mop of Alcatraz

MA:
Please introduce yourself to the scene.

RAVEN:
My name is Harald Wittmaack, but most people stick to my
nicknames like Harry, Rabe or Raven. I'm currently living
and working in Ulm, which is located in the south of Germany.
By the time this issue of Mudia Art will be released I will
have celebrated my birthday and therefore I already can
state to be 35 years old!

MA:
When did you take your first steps in pixel painting?

RAVEN:
I must have started in ground school when my teachers
realized that I preferred scribbling or painting to 
mathematics and academic stuff. Later on I attended a
technical high school where I surely was the only pupil that
had English and arts as major subjects rather than computer
technology, physics or biology. My mathematics exercise
books looked like sketching books rather than serious
attempts to learn higher mathematical stuff. I remember one
of my teachers writing onto a test of mine, "Hell.
Mathematically total nonsense. But nice sketches." In the
end it helped. I started do graphics for games and intros on
the C64. When I switched to the Amiga I started NUANCE and
continued to work as freelancer for game teams and
converting teams (to PSone and consoles). I also did things
like snowboard designs, furniture designs, photo stuff
(which I still do), airbrush stuff on metal parts, wood
carving and I even did some weird stuff on different media.

MA:
What Software do you use for creating computer graphics?

RAVEN:
On the C64 I started with the sucking Doodle, but later on
loved AmicaPaint. On the Amiga I started with DPaint and
later on switched to PPAint. On the PC I tested some stuff,
but finally stuck to Photoshop, Illustrator and lately
Blender. In my spare time I mostly have my sketchbook and
a pencil, pen or whatever is at hand. I also do fast
sketches on my NintendoDS when it's the only tool I have
with me.

MA:
Where do you get your motivation from? Do you draw sketches?

RAVEN:
I often draw sketches and previews on paper to capture ideas.
Some ideas come from everyday life, some just grow during
the process of painting. A picture often turns out to be something completely different than what it was originally intended. That's one of my problems when handing over steps at compos. My steps often look confusing. I remember one picture, where I started painting a tiger. Then it was changed into a lady with a tiger head. at the end it turned out to be some weirdo creature in boxing pose. Painting exact ideas or sketches is something I only like to do for the advertisement stuff I do or for the rapid prototyping sketches I do for games.

MA:
Where did you get your inspiration for drawing?

RAVEN:
My inspiration comes from... good question! From "the inside" describes it best. I start to paint a picture and when one part is finished I just continue. I let it flow. I imagine what one person or creature on my picture feels and what fits onto it. I also have a huge section in my sketchbook with slogans and ideas for pictures that could fit. When sitting somewhere and having a look at people I often train my creativity by imagining stories to the people I see. For example the old man I saw this morning in the cafe. I don't know him at all. But he had a scar on the left cheek and I'm just good in coming up with stories and imagining pictures for it. Another example is the picture I competed with at the Buenzli. I saw a beautiful female with a commodore shirt some day. A friend who was with me at breakfast looked at this lady and her boyfriend, who was rather old and skinny and there I got the title for the picture "Bad guys get all the chicks". It was a rather short way to visualize this slogan. You see the girl. You see the (really) skinny guy. And the commodore sign on the ring. Et voila.

MA:
Are you still working with computers or did you switch to other techniques ?

RAVEN:
At work and for the scene I work mostly on the computer using a A2-Wacom/A4-Aiptek and Photoshop. The only difference painting for work are the techniques. In the office I work with huge resolutions and I downscale the finished advertisement or matte paintings to the target resolution. When it comes to scene graphics I surprisingly use totally different techniques. I directly work at the target resolution and contrary to work (where I paint with special brushes) I just use standard brushes for scene work. A lot of scene graphicians think my scene way of painting is kind of evil because I use the smear tool quite often to give my pictures a blurred and dreamy look. But hey. Everyone has his own way he likes best. I just don't want to paint the same style I use every day at work, for a hell lot of hours, also for the scene. In my spare time I use a lot of techniques in real painting like pen and pencil, oil, airbrush (should practise again) and also things like graffiti and sticker-sketching.

MA:
Do you miss the old times pixeling graphics the old way ?

RAVEN:
I often miss them, but lately I restarted to do them for mobile stuff and partly for our NintendoDS stuff. I also got an original C64 from our new NUANCE member Bitbreaker and started to do graphics on this lovely machine. I quite like pixeling but have to admit it takes more time and time is one of the things I run short on rather fast these days.

MA:
Which style of graphics do you prefer?

RAVEN:
I really love every kind of art. From the artists offering their paintings in the streets to art galleries (I really can recommend "Schloß Mochental Art Gallery". If you're in my area, give me a call and I can give you a trip to this lovely place full of nice art) to wandering photo exhibitions. There is no style that is really my favourite except possibly Salvador Dali which I really love.

MA:
What kind of art do you love in "real" life. Is there any artist which inspires you?

RAVEN:
I like a far too wide variety of artists and styles. And I think I'm just inspired by life. Sometimes by nature. Sometimes by the media. Everything that surrounds me inspires me. People also know I love to paint women. Possibly it's a leftover of my early scene years. But I think it's just because the female human body is one of the most beautiful things that exist in this world.

MA:
Which are your favourite graphicians in the demo scene and why?

RAVEN:
There are way too many talented graphics artists in the demo scene these days but I still like some of the people I know from the good old days best, like Danny, Cougar and Golem for example. They achieved many milestones in demo scene graphics both in quality and dithering techniques. But I have to admit, that nowadays graphics artists doing their persons in 3D programs still are considered 3D artists for me and have nothing to do with painting 2D graphics. I have to admit that real 2D artists still get more respect from me. That doesn't mean 3D is bad. I also use it in the office from time to time and they are really necessary for the scene and advertising industry, but for me they're just not 2D artists. I often see a well painted 2D image losing against a rendered 3D perfectly shaped body with some additional 2D stuff in combined graphics compos. I feel sorry for the 2D artists and often go to them at parties (even more if they're newcomers) to pass my congratulations for the fine work. But that's just my own opinion and has nothing to do with the quality of the pictures done with 3D. Most of them are nicely done.

MA:
How did you lead your way to the computer demo scene ?

RAVEN:
When I got a C64 I also got some magazines from a friend. I typed one of the programs printed in endless numbers in the magazine to get a basic painting program out of it. It didn't work and so I got copies of painting programs from a friend along with some games. I also played a bit but I much more liked the cracktros rather than the games. I went to a early copy party (my parents almost killed me for that when they found out because it was quite far away and I was rather young) and started to deliver graphics for two guys I met there. I can remember that the party was in Cologne, but can't remember the name anymore. That's how it turned out. I still have the 5.25" disc somewhere with the intros I did my first graphics for. Reminds me that I have to search for them.

MA:
Are you still active or interested in the Demo Scene ?

RAVEN:
You can surely tell that by yourself. I just won the Buenzli graphics compo and did most of the 2D graphics for the major demos of NUANCE in the past years. Which means that I am still active and I am still interested. The scene changed, but I think not for the worse. Everything changes. My life. People. And so does the demo scene. It's just the way it is. The scene is still one of the nice places to spend my spare time, though it is less time than is was in the early days.

MA:
How do you like the so called new school Demo Style ?

RAVEN:
I just don't care about oldskool or newskool. There are just demos I like and demos that doesn't fit my taste. But overall I give no damn about platforms or age of the demos. Everything shows skill and everything shows the love people have for the demo scene. That is the most important thing.

MA:
Are you still in contact with some of your old scene
friends ?

RAVEN:
Some of my early scene friends are still active in NUANCE and some left the scene since a long time. Nevertheless I do meet some of them more or less regularly. I even know a lot of people that live far away and I often skype with or have a good chat with quite often. I also have quite some business relations with people I know from my early scene days.

MA:
What is your actual project and what are your future plans?

RAVEN:
Besides my everyday job, I just started working as freelancer in my spare time for a rapid prototyping division of a game development team doing sketches and concepts. But concerning the scene I do the same things I did for the last 15 years: Imagining, brainstorming, painting... and enjoying the results. And my future plans? Simple. I want to continue to do so as long as it is fun... possibly until I die. Who knows.

MA:
Has your scene activity had a positive effect in your
"real" job?

RAVEN:
Through my scene activities I got the first freelancing jobs for game teams and since my current boss is one of the coders of the good old "Subtle Shades" NUANCE Demo I can really tell it had a positive effect. But between getting the first game jobs and working at the current company I also had other career steps that were related to graphics but weren't affected by scene connections. The demo scene is a good place to start a career in the graphics industry in general, but it's still related to a lot of hard work and endless learning.

MA:
What are you doing nowadays ?

RAVEN:
As said before I work as leading graphics designer in a company for software development and new media. Most of the time I work in the fields of entertainment design, web design and usability design. In my spare time I do prototype sketches for a US based game development team, work as photographer in the fields of contract and stock photography (www.stock-photos.de) and I also run several web projects (for example www.locationsearch.de with Bitbreaker/NCE/VOZ) together with friends. In general I enjoy life!

MA:
Any last words?

RAVEN:
At this point I really want to send a big thanks to my girlfriend that often goes through hard times before parties when I spend a lot of my spare time to finish demo designs, demo graphics or compo pictures. Also a huge thanks have to go to Pro/Nuance for the nice team we've built up during the last years and the great teamwork we did together. Also the other NUANCE team members did a very nice job, but most of the time I work together with Pro which works quite good and has helped to keep my motivation these last years.

As I don't believe in god, I prefer to say to all of you: Jay Miner bless you. Or better: Thanks to everyone in the scene. Keep up the great work you all have been doing all this long time I'm part of the scene now. I really enjoy (almost) everything you scene fellows release. Take care.