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DemoScene Starter Kit 3 06
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³ DESIGN FOR DEMOS ³
³ PART 6 OF THE DEMOSCENE STARTER KIT V.3.0 by Zippy of Utopia. ³
³ DO NOT DISTRIBUTE SEPERATELY FROM THE STARTER KIT. ³
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This section concerns a subject that has been on people's lips since
the very beginning of the scene. How do you design a demo?
Yes, I *know* this has become quite a clich over the years,
but I wanted to write it.
Don't worry this isn't going to be a 'tutorial on demo-designing',
but more a monologue on this particular topic.
Ever since around 1990, we've had the well-known problem of demos constantly
consisting of little more than a 3D cube rotating on the screen,
maybe with some voxel-stuff in the background. This sux big-time,
but most people have accepted this now.. Before that, everyone was doing
scrollies. I don't really mind scrollies that much, so long as they're not
too irritating, so long as it's possible to read what it says on them,
and so long as they say something interesting.
Nowadays it isn't really the effects that get duplicated,
but rather the styles. A lot of people especially try to be like
Orange and Nooon, because they are popular groups.
It's logical: "They do well, so if I try to be like them I'll do well".
The only problem is that that's not how it works. The reason groups like
Orange and Nooon are popular is because they are original and have their own
ideas. When designing a demo I think it can be quite good to have a special
theme in mind while going along. Another important thing is to try to make
the effects flow into each other, and also blend them in with the music
(demonstrated so beautifully by EMF's 'Porno', with the opposite beeing
demonstrated in FC's 'Unreal'). What I really like seeing in
demos is 2D-effects mixed with 3D-effects. Take a look at the intros
'Paper', and 'Jest' and you'll see what I mean. The key-word is originality.
If you can code really good stuff, then use your imagination and code
really *new* stuff. That's what's so special about good demos,
the creators have used both sides of their brain, the logical,
*and* the creative! That's what it takes to make a demo good.
It doesn't really matter how well the stuff is programmed,
if it's no fun to watch! That's definetely the essence of demo-making:
mergin creativity with skill. If you can do this, you've succeeded.
As far as I know nobody has tried to duplicate
the 'Something'-effect from FC's 'Unreal'. Don't know why.
I really think this is one of the coolest effects I've seen.
It's just so unique, original, and impressive, and that's coming from me.
People who know me will know that I'm *not* a big fan of FC.
The thing is, that whatever people do to be original
it will almost always be copied by someone else if the
effect/demo/tune/style is popular or does well at competitions.
An important thing to remember is not to make the demo so the graphician
is doing one project, the musician another, and the coder a third.
You know what I mean; the coder codes some sci-fi-style effects,
and a little .PCX-reader to show the Tolkien'esque graphics that the
gfx-dude has made at the end, and the musician has his guitar-riff
running totally out of sync with the rest in the background.
This is the recipe for failure. A demo should be something
that everybody in the group is in on, and design together,
then everybody sticks to the theme/style that has been chosen.
The best thing is to do sketches on paper first. This is one of the reasons
not to have a group which has it's members spread all over the world.
When you're all in one country it becomes easier to design a good demo,
however if you've got all the right Internet-tools it should be very
possible to design a good demo even in an international group.
I don't want to say "This is how it's meant to be done".
Some demos may be really amazing even if they just show one effect after
the other (take 'Unreal' by FC). However I think 'Design' is going to be
the the catchphrase in the demoscene for the next few years.
It gives a demo so much more. I'm not just talking about deciding what
happens when, and how the music should be. I'm talking about putting
a theme to your demo, or giving it some meaning beyond the standard
"showing off the computer & showing off what the coder/graphician/musician
can do". I like to see demos with some poetry or other text in them.
But don't use poetry unless it would be a good poem just as a standalone poem.
Just putting some weird text in a demo with a weird wobbly font doesn't
make it art. Making demos really should be considered a form of modern art.
Some people lean toward making demos like films or animations with
3d-characters, and a story line. I presonally don't see the point of that,
'cause unless you use a lot of special effects it can be done better with
a standard camcorder. The only good movie-like demos I've seen is Claudia
by DeathStar, and Tribes by Pulse. But they have their fair share of
art and meaning in addition to the plot.
Other people would prefer to see demos made more like
music-videos, but I feel that doing that would make them more shallow and
without meaning. You've got to find balance. Modern art is what I want.
A blend of colours, music, poetry, and deeper meaning..
That's what I want to make.
Not really a good section this, but perhaps not as bad as I originally
thought it was. I'll cut it off right here, line 90.
[EOF]
