Survey submitted: Sat 27 Feb 2010

Handle, ex-handle(s):
Exocet

Name, birthday, origin:
Hervé Piton, born 1978 in Orléans, France

Group, ex-group(s):
Just For Fun (PC), Spaceballs (Amiga), Up Rough (Amiga), Industry (Amiga), Checkpoint (ST) - but only Up Rough and Checkpoint can reasonably be considered as active nowadays.

What was your first group, your role in that group and what did that group produce?:
I joined Just For Fun in 1995 I guess, as a graphician. I think my first released art was a small 1-colour font in an intro
We released quite a few PC productions in the MS-DOS+GUS era, good memories!

What motivates you to spend time on the scene?:
Creating stuff and being encouraged to improve my skills thanks to the friendly competition.

What is your favorite color?:
That varies quite a lot!

On what platform(s) did you begin your computing journey, and when was this?:
My brothers and I got a Thomson TO8 when I was around 9, which was an 8-bit computer quite popular in France back then. I have an anecdote related to my naive beginnings with computer graphics - I had no paint program on the TO8 so to create pictures I made small BASIC programs with a set of LINE (x1,y1)-(x2,y2) instructions. That was a method which of course was taking forever to get anything done, especially as I first had to draw the picture on graph paper to get the correct coordinates. At the same time I was seeing amazing CG pictures in magazines and I thought they were all done using the same method and thus required thousands of lines of BASIC and an insane amount of time

What platform(s) do you use now?:
Mostly PC. I was still using an A1200 and a 1040 STE a couple of years ago, but I've been moving around too much lately to make it practical to take them with me.

What is/are your favorite piece(s) of music(s) - from a demo production or a scener (released outside of a demo)?:
Hard to pick one, so many tunes I enjoy... I've got a soft spot for modules from the mid-90's in the typical demo style of that period (think Clawz or Lizardking) and the more symphonic music that came with the Imphobia diskmags. Besides that I really like chiptunes and the crazy tunes from Maf/Silicon. More recently, I always enjoy the new musics from 505, my fellow Checkpoint member.

Which graphician, in and outside the demoscene, inspirated you the most?:
Demoscene-wise, Cyclone, Mic and Ilke have been a great inspirations for their pixelling and artistic skills. Outside demoscene, I enjoy a lot of older painters, like Gauguin, Turner or Kandinsky.

What is/are your favorite picture(s) - from a demo production or a scener (released outside of a demo)?:
Again, hard to pick one... I think the images that had the biggest influence on me, not because they were the best ever, but because they were the first few ones I got hold of, were a selection of the graphics compo of The Party 4 that I got on a floppy disk in a magazine. Suddenly I could see what the best artists of the demoscene from all over Europe could come up with (mostly displayed with the wrong ratio on my PC as they were Amiga pics with unusual resolutions) and the shock was such it got me started with pixelling

What's the procedure when you start a new picture?:
Inspiration > sketching > pixelling

What drawing/3d program are you using the most to express yourself? Why?:
For pixelling I use Grafx2 and Promotion, but before that I used Deluxe Paint 2 for 10 years up to the point when it became unusable with Windows. I also use 3ds Max, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash for higher resolution stuff.

Do you draw on any other platforms beside computers? (Painting, Graffiti etc):
A bit of sketching, but not as much as I'd wish.

What is your favorite demo, intro, megademo, retrogame, slideshow, musicdisk, diskmag, wilddemo?:
Too many! I'll just drop a few names...
Demos/Intros by Nooon, PasMaters, Oxygene, Eclipse, Up Rough, Dune, Complex, 9 Fingers by Spaceballs, Smoke Bomb by Ozone, Nexus7 by Andromeda, 1995 by Kewlers&MFX...
Diskmags: really loved Imphobia diskmags back then.
Old games: SimCity, Civilization, Rodland, Monkey Island, 4D Sports Driving

What platform(s) needs more demos?:
Obviously the Thomson TO8! Check this one: http://www.pouet.net/nfo.php?which=33008

Which parties do you intend to go to, and which parties would you like to go to? Please describe your personal experiences with your most favourite or impressive party you have ever been at:
I've moved to China recently, so most parties are a bit too far to attend
Of all the parties I went to, I think the most enjoyables were some of the Ouline in Holland - right size, good accomodation, good people.

How did the scene alter since you are taking an active part in it? Can you explain why?:
In this timeframe I've probably altered as much as the scene has, so hard to tell whether the changes are purely subjective or not. But one single thing that I think changed the scene a lot, is the internet. I did a bit of mail swapping when I first got into demos and the feeling of receiving floppy disks in an enveloppe was kind of cool. With the hindsight, it was bound to only happen for a few years: exchanging data in a very primitive way before technology could catch up.

What are your dreams/goals in life, did scene help you and have you achieved them yet?:
Be happy, make some other people happy, and do something I enjoy and I feel is having a positive impact on society. Scene definitely helped, as it's probably the reason of having a job I like today: video game artist.

Finally, do you have some special greetings? Feel free to add links to your graphics, screenshots of effects, modules or other pieces of your work:
A quick 'hi' to all the sceners I've met and worked with in the past 15 years! I hope you're all doing alright

A bit of self promotion:
My website: http://exocet.untergrund.net (rarely updated)
My pictures on Pixeljoint: http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/7378.htm?pg=1&sec=icons