Daniels Creative Fun

Stefan Bogdanovic, on the internet known as Mrmo Tarius or Mrmotinjo is a Computer Graphics Designer from Serbia And Montenegro (Belgrade).

He makes the most amazing pixel art, and has been so kind to let me interview him. The result of a month-long sending messages to each other on the pixel community Pixeljoint is here below!

Hap = Daniel (Hapiel)
MRMO = Stefan (Mrmo Tarius) 

HAP:  I think I speak for the whole of the pixel community if I say that your latest works have been very interesting and refreshing, a new original artist has joined the elite!
Let’s start of simple: Where does your nickname come from?

MRMO: Hello and thank you!
My nickname is a derivation of an old internal joke/fad. We used to call each other ‘marmots’ (‘mrmoti’ in Serbian) back in high school, and the name kinda caught on.
Probably because of that, I used to call my cat Mrmotarius, because he was fluffy and chubby and very calm most of the time so he kinda reminded me of a marmot. He was also acting all high and noble most of the time, so he needed a nickname that reflected that- faux Latin suited him nicely :)
It was the first name that came to mind when I was creating an account at pixeljoint, and I kinda like it- even though it can be a bit hard to pronounce for everyone except local languages speakers :)

HAP: I would have no clue how to pronounce Mrmo, and had assumed it was some kind of abbreviation!
More importantly, who is the person behind this name? And I heard you studied Computer Graphics Design?

MRMO:  A guy with glasses and a goatee :)
Yeah, I’ve studied CG&D, they pretty much the best years of my life so far!
I’m currently working as a graphic designer and IT support guy :)
I dabble in photography, and I love chocolate. Oh, and I also have a cat!

HAP: I am glad you did enjoy your study! I myself have been in design school for a year and it made me never want to study again…
Back to all seriousness, with 2 jobs how do you find the time to pixel so much? Your gallery is growing as if you have found the key to productivity!

MRMO: First of all, I love my job, as it is quite interesting and challenging (in the positive sense!) most of the time, but still not so exhausting as to not allow me some free time for my hobbies :)
For me, the ‘key to productivity’ -as you’ve put it – was actually a combination of some very nice things:
-Grafx2, the splendid pixelart-oriented software I’ve only recently discovered,
-PixelJoint weekly challenges! An amazing way to provide me with much-needed motivation and that great feeling of friendly competition, while setting various restrictions that force me to improvise and think creative :D
and, of course, the endless inspiration coming from all the talented artists featured on PJ :)

HAP: I tried Grafx2 for a few minutes 2 years ago, and started to use it actually again today! If it really makes life that easy, I can’t wait to soon see weekly new pieces from everyone!
Lets get some more artwork specific. One thing that stands out in most of your pieces are the strong straight lines. Not just the big constructions but also the smaller sprites contain these lines. Yet never it feels like you are restricting yourself from organic shapes.
How do you do this? Do you design your characters with the lines in mind or do you just happen to see and then exaggerate them along the way?

MRMO: I’m not actually thinking about the line formation while I’m drawing- I suppose you can call it my ‘style’, if there is indeed such a thing. It just comes naturally during the process when, while I refine the initial sketch, I see shapes and forms that make sense and need accentuating.
I tend to use horizontal, vertical and 45 degree lines a lot because, in a pixel-based medium, they look pure and clean on their own, without any additional polishing.

HAP: So you think in shapes and forms? I agree that the perfect lines work great in PA. Watch out, you are infecting your other arts with these ideas as well!
Aside from the lines, another thing that reflects your ‘style’ are the highlights. They have been in your work since the first thing you uploaded on PJ, and are very obvious in a piece like the Masked Mantis
Is there a reason why every edge should become highlighted?
Or does it only work with dark backgrounds?
How and when do you choose to do this?
When did you discover the power of the highlight?
Wow that is quite a lot of questions at once :p.

MRMO: Well, it has been something of a running joke lately, that I have to draw everything in squares and blocks :)
That is not really far from truth, as I like working with rectangular forms. They make ideal building elements- something akin to LEGO bricks I loved when I was a kid (and I still love ‘m! I have like, a bunch, and I’m currently playing with Lego Digital Designer!)
As for the highlights, I feel that they really help point out the edges’ sharpness and help define the block volume. If I pay attention, those highlights might even conform to an actual light source :)
And yeah, every edge has to be highlighted! That is rule #1 :)

HAP: What is rule #2?

MRMO: Rule #2: If in doubt, use tilesets!
I love using tilesets. What I said about LEGO? Playing with tiles is pretty much that :)
If I can do ANYTHING using a tileset, I will. I’ve used tilesets for both conventional platform-building, and strange organic stuff (the piece with the armies of space squidfish and spaceships is an example of that). And yeah, when it comes to filling an empty space quickly and efficiently, tilesets are just the right thing :)

HAP: Whoa, the squidfish Crusade is made of tiles? I would have never noticed if you had not told me!
Now that I am ‘into the secret’ it is fun to spot the same eyes, the same wings, the same textures and the same miniature monsters all over the place!
Do you use a special tile editor for moving around the tiles you make?

MRMO:  Actually, I manage tiles using Grafx2′s basic grid snap and “grab brush” tools. Very easy to do, 2 simple keyboard shortcuts :)

HAP: You seem to be fond of making works with a single color ramp. Why? Does this happen consciously? How does the process of making a set of colors look?

MRMO: I’m still experimenting with colors- I guess the single-ramp approach is a relic from my first days of pixelling, back when I was still using a monochrome monitor. I’m fond of making hue shifts, too- still a single ramp, but with plenty of contrast in both hue and luminosity :)
In most cases, I draw stuff using temporary, placeholder colors, which I tweak (or even change completely), color by color, during the later phases of work (or after I finish drawing completely). I also like using the premade, general all-purpose 16 color palettes made by Arne and DawnBringer, because there is actual science behind those two (and they just look and feel really good) :)

HAP: For the placeholder colors, is there any example you have of a WIP image still in its placeholder colors that are very different from the final ones?

MRMO: Here’s an example of a near-grayscale piece I’ve overhauled late in the pixelling process.

HAP: Does your pixel skill influences your non pixel artworks? Such as photography, graphic design or vector illustration…

MRMO: Pixelart is very specific in terms of organizing a number of ‘pieces’ into a complete ‘puzzle’, dealing with composition and relations between said pieces, and managing and arranging only a handful of colors. By making pixelart, I’ve started learning to think using clean shapes, matching and contrasting colors, and to actually try to use composition in other things I make.

That influence thing works both ways seemingly. I’ve made some pixel pieces lately that could be easily reproduced using vector graphics, for instance.

HAP: Let’s finish this up. Who are your favorite artists, and what is your favorite computer game?

MRMO:  That was actually a rather hard question to answer :)

As for the favorite artists, I’d go with Paul Klee, and probably Salvador Dali.

Favorite computer game? Very hard for me to answer. I’ve been an avid gamer for many years, and there are many, many games that I love, both old cult classics and new, innovative stuff.
For example, I’ve always enjoyed the shoutout-ridden post-apocalyptic world of the Fallout series, beautiful and intricate stories of Baldur’s Gate 2 and Planescape: Torment (yeah, I kinda like Black Isle’s works), high-adrenaline action of Unreal Tournament and oldschool strategy style of the Command & Conquer series.
I also love everything Valve makes nowadays. I have a bunch of stuff on Steam- it kinda makes organising and managing my game collection easy :)

Also, I wholeheartedly support the ingenious and innovative indie games- stuff like Braid, World of Goo, Cortex Command, Minecraft, Revenge of the Titans and things Team Meat makes.

Daniel & Stefan, September & October 2011.
Check out Stefans website and his pixeljoint portfolio!