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The Scene OK. Since many people asked me what these "parties" where I spend quite a few days each are, here is a short explanation. Energy At the beginning of each thing there is energy that wants to be used. We can put our energy into things that others want to be made. This is called work. But there are other things that we need. We need to express ourselves - without guidance. This is called art. Some of us release this energy by drawing little pictures on their notes. Or by painting their car - with pink-green patterns. And some of us just explode. A Scener But how do you express creativity if you are a geek, nerd, freak ? You only can do it with your computer. You need it. After all you are addicted. The most obvious way is to create (digital) pictures. (We call them "pixlers" or "gfx-er" or "painter".) Or to compose music.(Usually called "sounder" or "musicians".) But what is the equivalent to a mechanic, who works on his cars the whole night ? Tuning and cutting and bolting ? Hmmm ... tuning = improving ? cutting = removing unneccessary cruft ? bolting = putting together things that "weren't planned" to be together ? This is the heart of every (bigger) production. The "coder". There are others, e.g. "designers" or "directors", but they usually fullfill one or more of the other tasks. And then there are the masses. The scene needs them. They watch the results of our work. They spread it. They rise the price money. There are others that promote the scene or setup the locations. Or organize bustrips to the parties. Demos Demos are "the big thing". A demo is a compilation of FX, Artwork and Sound. A demo is non-interactive. It wants to be watched. A demo is a free expression of its producers. Everything is cool, as long as it pleases the authors. No demo is crap. There are some that are (much) better than others, but everything is worth a look. Intros Intros are basically size restricted demos. Common restrictions are 64K and 4K, but that is platform dependent. Just to give you a small comparison. this document is 10K so far. Intros need to create as much data as possible on the fly. One of the major milestones today is "the.product" by farbrausch. A 64K Intro featuring really good music and animations that could fill a CD ... without any problem. Compos Compos are competitions were productions (demos, intros, pictures and sound) compete against each other. After all - we all want to know how we compare. And even if you don't win, it's a great feeling to see your animation on the big-screen. Some compos are held online, but real compos are held at parties ... Parties A few times a year sceners from the whol country/continent/world are gathering at one place. Here you can talk to others. Exchange knowledge. Improve your social ranking. Short: Have as much fun as possible. Sleep ? No sleep till broklyn ... aehm ... home.