Q: Tell us about yourself..

 A: Man . . I could take all day, but something tells me that would get real boring, real fast, so I won't torture you . . too much^^  I'm 20, live in Northern Virginia, USA, and am an English major with an affinity for satire a'la Catch 22, Kurt Vonnegut, etc.  I got into computer graphics four or five years ago after giving up on learning Japanese (damn Kanji!!) and needing another course to take . . since then, I've moved into 3d and video/compositing, with a little digital photography on the side.  As an English major, I do write quite a bit, poems, essays, and what not . . and my third love is music, both listening & composing.  Oh yes, did I mention I love games?  My early years with the SMS got me addicted, and I've owned lots of systems since then.  It's never quite the same though, ya know? 

Anyhow, got into emulation back in . . I think '96, when a lot of sites were starting up that are big today . . I drifted a bit, but REALLY got back into the scene when NeoRageX came out (Last Blade owns you). I *do* get outside and *do* have real-life friends, but honestly I spend a lot of time in front of a computer or a synthesizer or a blank piece of paper, and don't see too much wrong with that . . it's my thing, it's what I do. Oh yeah, I do freelance web design and work at a public library to pay the bills, and some adjectives I'd use to describe myself are: pensive, prolific, intraverted, cynical, optimistic, and of course bleem . . .

Q: What was your original inspiration (for OverClocked as a whole and Green and Pretzel in particular)?

A: Originally, I sat down with 3d studio MAX 3 (the 3d program used to create OC) and just designed some characters . . previous to that, I had done mostly spaceships, architecture, or abstract art (see http://iterations.net/gallery/) so I wanted to "broaden my horizons" . . after creating Pretzel, I was staring at the monitor, when I thought "wouldn't it be great to do a comic strip with this character . . "  . . but about what??  The sites I visit most often all have to do with emulation, and I consider myself "into" the scene, so I figured why not give an emu-comic a try . . . Atila of Retrogames got me off the ground, for which I am indebted, with that historic first post . . . .

Green was created AFTER I came up with the concept . . their designs were basically random, but I did want a sort of abstract, yet very distinct look . . no arms, weird hair . . I think I accomplished that ^^

As for the title - it's not really emu-related, but it sounds cool, and has many different permutations i.e. "OverRocked" "OverHacked" . . . . "Overcooked" :)

Q: Were the characters of Green and Pretzel based on people you knew either in the emulation scene or in real life?

A: Mmmm . . no, not directly . . They both have parts of me . . Pretzel tends more towards the die-hard retrogaming techie type, with Green being more sarcastic, and also into the "shadier" areas of the scene like next-gen emus, ROMZ, what not . .

Q: What tools/software/hardware is used in the creation of OverClocked?

A: Primarily, 3d studio MAX 3 and Photoshop 5.5 . . sometimes I use illustrate!, a cartoon shader for MAX, other times I do not . . Also used on occasion are Bryce, Poser, and various PS plugs like Kai's and Genesis VFX . . good stuff :) OverClocked is created entirely under Windows 2000 (knock it all you want - it's brilliant for graphics apps) on a Dual Pentium III-500mhz with 256mb RAM . . . html is done a different computer, using Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 and also straight HTML coding . . . (when DW screws up)

Q: How does an episode go from being an idea floating in your head to your webpage? Describe the process.

A: I have strange blackouts . . when I wake up, I find myself on the bathroom floor . . and magically, somehow, a new episode of OC is on my hard drive ^^ . . honestly, not ALL the ideas are from my head . . several contributors have given me fairly solid ideas or more often general concepts, and I owe a lot to them . .

Basically, I have a good notion on what the episode will be about, but the text/dialogue only comes when I've got the first frame rendered and get a "feel" for it . . from there, it's a question of how many frames, what to say, what not to say, which is all trial and error work . . often, I have episodes where the last frame isn't all that "funny" in the traditional sense, for which a few people have criticized . . but I don't always WANT it to be funny in the traditional sense . . sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes serious, sometimes completely stupid . . I vary it a bit.