Interview No. 91

Interview By: @Sketchy

Today's interview is with a person with a passion for flashin'. Not only is his artwork astounding, but his programming too is starting to show a silver lining. Today's talented artist is the one and only @Tarienn!

Q: How did you find Newgrounds, and what encouraged you to join?

A: But yeah it's mostly because of my interest in Flash. The community on Newgrounds was uh... Special haha. But yeah it's mostly because of my interest in Flash.

Q: Since when did you start animating and how old were you?

A: Well, I was about 15, I think. I played around with Flash the same year I found Newgrounds. I wasn't all that good at traditional "animating", so I just did abstract stuff instead.

I actually just spent most of my time seeing what kind of effects I could make. I never really made anything worth posting on my own back then.

Q: How long have you been programming for?

A: Actually, I've only been programming for about a year and a half now. I never thought I'd learn to program at first as it really intimidated me. I started off by learning PHP back in 2010.

I started learning ActionScript though about 8 months ago I think, and I've just recently started learning C#.

Q: Is programming something you'd consider staying with?

A: Oh yes, I don't think I've ever done anything better in my life. Since I've started learning I've learned 4 different programming languages and planning to learn about 5 more. I can just sit there coding all night, it's really something that changed my life. Literally.

If I never took the dive into programming, I'd probably still be stuck in my dead end job and not be going anywhere. It really gave me confidence and motivation to try to create more. And even if my own projects don't work out, I have the skills I need to get a job that require programming skills.

Q: Do you make all of the art for your games?

A: No, that would actually be my girlfriend, who I actually met on Newgrounds.

When I started AuraCore, she joined up around the time we started BitterSweet Symphony. She's always been the best animator in the group. I've always been mesmerized by her animation and art skills. I also never thought we'd become a couple, but skip a few years into the future and we're living together and working on starting out careers as indie game developers. She's the one who inspired me to learn programming, it just really worked out that way.

Without her (Jeinu), I probably would have left Newgrounds and Flash behind years ago.

Q: So Tarienn, do you have any favourite flash artists?

A: Well, it really has to be Celarent and Proxicide, both of them have pushed Flash to its limits and I really can't ever hope to compare to either of them. Celarent has done 3D effects with Flash BEFORE it had its 3D tools. When I first saw his "Future" music video, it just made my head explode. I've been trying to emulate his work without 3D tools but I just can't do it. But I even had him join AuraCore for a few collaborations.

Proxicide on the other hand, his flashes are just so over the top with beautiful lighting effects and backgrounds. It's so ridiculous how much he can fit in one flash! I can't really say I look up to him, because his work is so ludicrously good that I just fume with jealousy. Even if I could do as good a job as him, there's no way I could find the time or patience to do that type of work.

Both of them have really made an impact on my graphic style, and even my thoughts on what Flash's limits are. They really make me believe that Flash will go as far as you can push it, and further.

Now I'm going to sound like an Adobe advertiser, but I really think Flash is the only medium that could present the work they do.

Q: How did your company "AuraCore" start out?

A: Funny story actually. I was lurking on Newgrounds one day, and I ran into a Flash that had a really nice tune in it. I checked out the Musician that made the tune, his screen name was Winterwind at the time.

Now at the time, I had an idea that I wanted to start up a collaboration group, but it was just a plan at this point. But I thought I'd send him a message anyway. And all it said was "I may have something for you to work on soon", or something close to that.

Well, he replied within minutes.

He said he was really interested and would prefer to know what it was immediately. Now see, he put me on the spot, I didn't really have anything for him yet, I just wanted to start contacting him to see what he was like before I actually started anything.

That's when I created a group called "Aura Media". Right then, I made it up right there. And I told him he was invited to join, but I couldn't tell him that he was the first member, so I had to run around asking people to join!

So I found a handful of people and invited them all to join at once, and in the confusion, no one really found out who the first member was.

It was all coincidence after coincidence from then on, stuff just happened, and we all started talking and became really good friends. In fact, they were some of the best friends I ever had. We'd all watch movies together, and share links. Those were some of the best days of my life. We all inspired each other, Winterwind made the music, I made really nice designs. And I mean INSPIRED, one of us would make something, like a techno song or something like that, then another one of us would get really pumped and make an animation to it or drew something to it. There are a lot of things we made that we never showed anybody.

The flashes with AuraCore's logo on it are really just a fraction of what we all made.

Q: "Operation: Graveyard" in my opinion is one of your best projects. Are you or AuraCore considering making sequels to this one of a kind flash?

A: Ah I actually was talking to Jeinu about that this morning haha. But yeah, we are considering entering Pico day this year. But I want to wait and see if we finish Salem before April to see if we have time.

Operation Graveyard took about 35 days of constant all nighters to finish in time. And it's not something I'd want to repeat. So if we start earlier, we'll probably finish it without needing to kill ourselves or rushing it.

But the story line for the next Operation is pretty much planned out to star Darnell. So hopefully we'll have time for that this year, if not, then there's always next year. It really is something I'd like to make though.

Q: Well Tarienn, what can we expect from you in the near future?

A: Oh my, that's a big question haha. Well, as I said earlier, we're starting out trying to be Indie game developers, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works out! I have at least 3 flash games, including Salem planned for this year. Next year I have several more.

Next year I also plan on entering the Steam, iOS and Android platforms. So I'll have games planned specifically for those systems. But I do believe that games that I develop for Flash, belong on Flash, and I don't think I'd ever port them.

Q: Well thank you for the interview Tarienn (Joshua Lambrose), on behalf of Newgrounds, we wish you and your company "AuraCore" the best of luck.

A: Yes! I hope I provided an interesting story! I'm flattered that anyone would find me worthy to interview, thank you much.

Like many others on Newgrounds, Tarienn has a talent in the arts. His works continue to improve and please the audience, in my opinion, Tarienn is capable of taking his career anywhere.