A long time ago I contacted Unreal after seeing his amazing slideshow Dreams or Reality. I asked for an interview and he accepted. There was only one "but", he did not speak English very well, which slowed the interview down somewhat. After 3 years, 2 translaters, switching of GFXZone editors, switching of providers and emailaddresses......it is finally done. I'm going to lie down now........

Hello Unreal, we always start interviews with the same question. Tell us a little about yourself. Hello, my name is Kemeri Csaba, and I'm 23 years old. Emm..could you tell me a bit more? Like what kind of person you are? Well, I'm the quiet, calm type, but sometimes the little everyday things are makes me very angry. Increasing prices, stupid politicians, stupid peoples (we have a lot of stupid people in Hungary: for example the idiot drivers). When did you first notice that you had a talent for drawing art? Hmmm... you won't believe it, maybe when I was 12 year old ;) When I saw that my classmates liked my drawings. Spaceships, cars, of course: they were the cool things then. (serious). All of my life I've drawn while I was in school: that's why I was not that good a student. I drawed funny things, my friends gave me pencilkeepers and other stuffs like that to draw something on it. Then drawing for the school, and then came my first computer, a plus4. I made 1-2 logos (actually this is when it all started) and after one year I was on the graphician's toplist. I got a lot of nice words from my friends, and that's why I continued. When and how did you first get in contact with the scene? I met with it on my plus4, and I didn't know that it had anything to do with scene. (Actually I heard that on Amiga first time). I didn't know what it was. I saw that some guys were so famous (for example Muffbusters (they were my favourite, but there was so many cool groups like Scorpions, Methabolix Inc. :) )), and it started to interest me. I started to make logos - the first ones weren't so good, but I learned fast. My first really group was the Methabolix inc. We made a lot of demos. (ftp.funet.fi if you interested in it, search the mx directory. We were so cool ;) Later I worked with a coder from another group (hi Steve/Scn), and I got a lot of f*cks from my team members. At that time there wasn't doublemembers. In 1994 when I got my Amiga, I send my second graphics to the Assembly 94. Yes, that was my second fullscreen gfx. I think that it was nice... I like it nowadays too ;) How did you get in contact with Faculty? When I released the Morfeum picture at Assembly, some members of Faculty saw my graphics. I went down to Nyiregyhaza (it is 40-50 km from Debrecen, where I live) to a Fcy member (Fate/Faculty) to copy. I met there with Scribe who started to code on PC. I didn't care about it, I needed a good team, so I joined. Actually when I started to think about joining, Scribe told me that I was already in. :) I liked the atmosphere, good men were in the Faculty (Hi Snotty, Scribe, Fate, Airsmith, Steve) What was your first computer? Like I said, my first was a plus4. I got it from my parents at Christmas of 1989-90. The next was the Amiga in 1994. I was happy with my plus4 so I didn't want it. Now I'm using an Amiga 1200 with Blizzard 060/50, SCSI, CD writer, 8G HDD, Pixel64 gfx card, ethernet card in a tower. Of course I work with it. I make graphics, logos etc. I bought an Amiga4000, so maybe I continue my work on that, and sell my old config. What programs do you use for creating your pictures? Well... I use photoshop nowadays with mac emulator and TVpaint. When I do a job, there is no time to pixelize - everybody knows that. If I draw for the scene, then I use only Brilliance (but I don't have time for the scene...) My last picture, the Motherhood for the Symposium2000 and a Disc logo for Tricktrax/Iris (Hi mate!) is made with Brilliance too. And in the past? I used Dpaint4 from the beginning (what else?), and when the Amiga 4.5 version was out, I changed to that. Later the Brilliance was a little strange, but I got used to it. I used both programs (for example for my Nah Kolor Gfxs). Lot of my pictures has a sign: made on Amiga with Dpaint+Brilliance

How do you start when creating a picture? Do you first draw stuff on paper or do you draw directly via a computer? Most of the time (when I made nocopy pictures) first the idea comes. For 1-2 days I think about what can I do with the idea, then draw some ideas down. Then, I start to draw it on computer. I put it down before me, and draw it. I never use a scanner for scene pictures. I use scanners for my job. As far as I can see, your pictures never use more than 256 colour. Why didn't you switch to True-color? I tell you honestly that it didn't bother me that those who started to work with Photoshoph were howled down at once, but I think you know that as well. They said "Look at that picture. It is too smooth and it has too many effects". There was a time when the effects of Photoshop were overused and they did a very bad job, people hated Photoshop works and everybody who turned to this program. Since then the situation has changed of course. On the other hand the 8 bit was enough for me. I preferred pixelling technique, to use colours economically, on the other hand photoshop or any other kinds of 24 bit programs seemed very strange to me for this job. But now of course I work with photoshop, too, but I use it only for commercial works. Do you only draw on computer or also on other media? Painting or sketching? Yes, of course. These days I very often draw on paper as well, since I want to go to an Art College. I have just taken my entrance exam. Most of the time I work only with coal and pastel, but I would also like to paint. If I think about it I don't think that I would be able to paint alone in a room sitting in front of the canvas. What I mean by this is that I couldn't be a "hermit painter", I have already thought about it a lot. What I would like to do is to make illustrations for books, games or to prepare level designs for games or book covers, etc. Where do you get your ideas from? Well... from my mind ;)) When I look around, I notice things (shapes, places and so on) which I can use later. I was on a graphicians course when a graphician said to me that sometimes you have to watch, see things a lot more, then draw. As far as I know, you have made one slideshow. How did Dreams or reality came about? Hmm... Well I saw the Lazur slideshows and I liked them very much, and I thought that a scene graphic designer must have a Slide of his own, which sums up the work he has done so far, and I also wanted it to be a kind of Faculty's return to Amiga that you can see from the introduction. The name itself originates from the fact that there are a lot of fantasy names in the stuff, however, there are some reality pictures as well (Face of a Woman, etc.), so this is where the name came from. I wanted to prepare another slide, too, the name of which would have been 2 Below Zero. It would nave contained a few unpublished pictures and logos that I sent to you and people can see them on my GFXZone gallery. Where do you get the ideas for pictures from? Mostly photos from magazines or persons, movies, depends on the situation and your work. Music is very important to make something good - it helps me to keep my balance. I often switch between motives because I can't see the pictures for a long time.

Of all the pictures you've made, which one do you like best? Maybe the The Defence Destoyer is my favourite. (it is in the Puzzle demo) or the Towers? Maybe Tattoo? I don't know. These pictures are mine. I didn't copy them, and they didn't exists before I drew them. And which are not so hot in your mind? Well, there were some pics in my slideshow that I don't really like, for example what I most dislike is Nativity, the woman with wings. I look at it in a different way now because I believe I have improved a little since I made it:) The whole figure is misproportioned, so I don't like it, but as an idea it could have been good. On the other hand the horse on picture named Sanction looks also quite shit..;)

What do you find hard to draw? Maybe the Morfeum, which I made in a week. That was the most difficult. And why? Because I learned the technics, I learned Dpaint at that time. Another difficult picture was the Smaugot above Esgorath from 1996. It was my first 640*512 picture, and I had to "put down" 4 times more pixels... And for last an end pic for NahKolor (Elison from Melrose Place) the Unauthorised Lands. It was made with another kind of technique like the others.

And easy? The Towers picture was it, because the idea came out very easy. I drew it on one afternoon. I sat down, and drew it. If you could give beginning artist a point of advice, what would it be? Well to tell you the truth I really couldn't give advice because I also have to improve my skills a lot. Not long ago I got a very good art anatomy book made by Bames. It is a very good book, beginning artists have to copy figures from it, practice using pencil, coal, anything, though it is much better if you have a chance to draw a model. If someone really wants to do this job I can recommend to him or her to go to a good art group and draw as much as he or she can with the others. Don't sit at home and draw like a hermit. It was very useful for me that I started to do these things that I have just mentioned relatively not too late, and devoted more time to hand drawing than to computer drawing. Ok, time for some short questions. Any favourite Artists? Real life or in the Scene? I don't have favourites on the scene, because I left it, and I don't follow the happenings. Sometimes I visit the GFXZone site, that's all. A long time ago I had, but now there are a lot of newcomers who are very talented, so I can't answer this question now. Around 97-98 I really liked pictures by Lazur and Made. Painters : Michael Whelan (rocks !!), Jean Paul Avisse, John Howe, Luis Royo, Jacek Yerka, Larry Elmore (we e-mailed once-twice - really cool guy;) and lot more. I collect their picture and albums. And your favourite picture? There is a lot of cool art in the scene and in the paintings. It is almost impossible and not necesary to pick one. The picture which had the greatest impact on me was a graphic by Rendall which depicts a tram. It is in one of the hidden parts of his slideshow, and it was on the cover of a record magazine as I can remember. What projects are you currently working on? Well, now I work for a company where I have to draw in different applications. We develop programs for Set-top boxes and embedded systems. We develop softwares for American customers. Besides this I also take part in a game project as a graphic designer, but I'm not sure how it will go, since I don't really have time to work on it because of my work . And scene stuff? Well, as far as the scene is concerned, I am not working on anything. A lot of people turned to me with their requests but I don't have enough time for it. The Drake pirate game is a good example for it, in which I had time only to make an intro picture. In connection with demos I can say that we were to prepare an intro with Kangooroo which would have been released for Symposium 2001, but unfortunately it was not finished by that date. Any favourite demo? These days I haven't been looking at demos on Amiga since I sold my 060 and now I have a weak 040. But with one of my friends I saw the new TBL demo, the Perfect Circle, and I really enjoyed it. There are a lot of cool 40k intros like Push2 made by Potion. It is really cool! Out of the old demos I like Technological Death the most because it is a very dynamic demo. And what are you planning for the future? Now I am taking exams to enter an Art College and these days I'm busy with making drawings for it. Besides this I'm planning to buy an airbrush and I will work with it, but I'm not sure yet. As I have already said I would like to make illustrations for book covers, etc. I don't know exactly what I will do, I will see what I feel like doing. I don't really know on which branch of graphics I should go on. What I mean is that whether I should stay a computer graphic designer or illustrator or not, I don't know yet. I think that I am talented to a certain extent, but I don't know whether I have that much talent to become a "great painter" or I don't know what. I think that time will decide it. It's time to end the interview. Anything you would like to say to the readers? Any hellos? I would like to thank my English teacher Ildiko Talas and Foozy (Sandor Kulcsar) who translated this interview and all sceners and friends who I used to work with and I'm still working with. Thank you for your time Unreal and I wish you all the best in the near future. Visit our Unreal gallery. Unreal can be reached at this email address or you can visit his homepage.

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