Interview with Tinster by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 10/2002 Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions (www.acid.org) HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview=11 ÜþþÜ ÜÛß °ÜÜþß Üß°Û þþß ß ÜÜÛ±Û Üß Û±Û þ Ü Ü ÜÛß Û²Ý ÞÛ±Ü Û²ÛÜß Ü±ÛÜÛ²Ý ÛÛßþÞÛ²Ý ÞÛß ° Þ²Û Û±Ý þß Ü ÛÛ þß ± ° ÛÛÜ ßÝ ÜÜ²Ý ÞÛÝþܲ±Ü ß ± Û²ÛßþÜ ÞÛ±² ÛÝ ÛÜÛ²ÛÜ ß ÜÛþ þÜþßÜÛÛ²Üþß ßþ ÞÛÛ±Û ßþ ßÛÝ ß ßß kzßþÜÛÛ²°Ý ßþ Ü ²ßþ ß ßþ Ü þß iCE: Tell us about yourself. First name, age, occupation, hobbies, etc. For those who don't know me - I'm Tin. I'm 33-years-old. I guess I'm technically a DESIGNER, but I fancy myself a Jack-of-all-traits because I've worked professionally doing everything from pure software development, game design, game development, web development, you name it. But I'm the most happy when I'm just simply drawing stuff that comes purely from me - without anyone paying me to do it. As far as hobbies - I enjoy reading graphic novels. Not superhero stuff - more self-contained short illustrated stories like "Ghost World". I also like collecting toys - nothing in particular, just things that I find cool - EBay can be as addictive as Heroine to a toy freak! I'm in rehab. My favorite piece is my 1979 Alien figure from the movie. I also collect DVDs. . iCE: Where are you from? Have you lived anywhere else? I was born in Saigon, Vietnam. I came to the US in 1975 when the communists took over Vietnam. I lived four years in Pennsylvannia, then four years in Texas. I moved to CA in 1983 and have lived here ever since. iCE: Tell us about your art - what you have released with the group and what you do commercially. I really believe that I've grown immensely as a designer in the past couple years. This is because for a long, long, time - I was caught in the rut of being a purely commercial or corporate designer. I did corporate logos, brochures, marketing collateral, presentations, etc.. I learned alot from that experience, but it also disconnected me from the designer I am at heart. I was being defined as a person who is paid to design, rather then one who does it because he's good at it and enjoys it. When I first picked up a pencil and started scribbling at 4-years-old, - I didn't draw a logo. I didn't create a page layout. I drew vikings and stick figures of cowboys and indians. And only in recent years have I started to do so again - mainly because of DarkHalo and his introducing me to ICE (drawing in general - not drawing stick figures). Up until then - I went for 8 years or so without doing a single sketch out of the pure enjoyment of sketching. Everything was paid for work. So now I really enjoy finding time to start a project that doesn't have a budget or time restriction. That's why I really enjoy submitting work to ICE. iCE: How long have you been a member of iCE? I'm really bad with time, so I think I've been a member for less than 2 years. That's as close as I can pinpoint it. [2001-05-15-Current] iCE: What software do you use to do your art? Hmmm. I don't really have one particular program that I always use. I tend to go through periods where I would focus on one piece of software, and then drift to another. Recently, for example - I've been doing a lot of vector illustrations in Flash. But I'm now doing a Photoshop illustration. In my professional work - I find that most of the time I end up using a combination of software packages to arrive at the final product. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, 3DStudioMAX, and some others. iCE: Are you really so insane that you do some of those HUGE images entirely with vector-based tools? What happened to you as a child to give you the dedication to finish those, and why did it seem like a good idea? It's strange. All of the vector illustrations that I've done were all started on a whim. I didn't plan to do them completely in Flash. But there's this weird moment when I'm working - then all of a sudden I look at the clock and it's the next day. And I realize that there are 200 Layers of stuff all neatly labelled. I stare at all that work for a moment and realize with some helplessness that I have no choice but to continue until it's done. Then - later I'd reach a point where I don't know whether to stop or keep going. Nothing else matters - not food, work, family. Then - when I'm finished with it - I think it sucks! So in a way - it is insanity - momentary insanity. I'm sure all of you have experienced this. iCE: What do you do in your free time? I watch a lot of movies. I like movies from the late 60s and 70s. Movies from that time have complex characters, stories, and they make you think. I'm a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick. iCE: What would you be doing if computers didn't exist? I'd probably be a professional chalk outline artist. I'd revolutionize the field by incorporating different colors into the chalk outline. Why does it have always be white? Why does it have to really resemble the corpse? I'd definitely push the envelope. iCE: What do you like and dislike about the online digital art scene? I consider myself a newbie to the whole scene, but from what I've observed so far - the only thing that I'd like to see is a little more variety of styles. There's a lot of dark, gritty, game-type artwork, but I'd like to see more work that incorporates brighter designs. I know for myself - this is harder to do because darkness helps to conceal or mask flaws in the design. It's much more challenging to "shine the light of day" on your design so that every little nook and cranny is there for the world to see. iCE: If you were a snowman, would you rather go with a pipe like the classics, or would you be concerned about the kind of image you'd be sending to the children? I have no problem with the pipe - as long as you illustrate the consequences of tobacco use. Maybe use candy corn to show how tobacco made Frosty's teeth rotten. iCE: Given that you are a sand castle on the beach, would you rather have some punk kid violently trample you gleefully, or have a wave slowly steal your features until you were just a lump? I wouldn't mind having the surf carry me out to sea, as long as the punk kid is pulled out with me. iCE: Have you ever considered chiropracty? Do you think that nerdy blond kid in the old encyclopedia TV ads ever did? Ughhh! I used to work with this Executive Producer at Sony that looked, spoke, and dressed exactly like that kid in the commercial. Makes me cringe to even picture him/them. Thanks for putting the image in my head. SAUCE00Interview with Tinster iCE Staff iCE Advertisements 20021031ËPŠ