Demogroup
From Free net encyclopedia
Demogroups are groups of demosceners, who make demos, products of a computer audio-visual artform known as the demoscene.
Demogroups frequently consist of students, young computer enthusiasts who spend days coding their demos. They often have a pseudonym (called a "handle" or "nick"), their real name is seldom used. This is a tradition originating from the demoscene's roots, where small demos were distributed along with cracked software, usually computer games. They meet on IRC and in real life during the demoparties.
Demogroups often bear resemblances to corporate companies: demogroups incorporate wordmarks, logos, catchphrases and slogans for their promotion. It is very important for a demogroup to have a good PR, and major groups have dedicated group organisers who are responsible of "managing the group's human resources", i.e. nag the members who slack off. Some groups also treat the recruitment of new members with great care, often applying "trial times" when the new member has to prove himself to be worthy. It must be noted however, that these practices are often just intentional exaggeration (often tongue-in-cheek), to maintain an "elite" image of the group.
Contents |
Demography
The countries with the most active demogroups are currently Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden and Finland), Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Hungary, Spain, Poland and Switzerland. Some eastern countries (Russia, Lithuania) are present on the scene with some notable productions. Other European countries, Japan, Israel, Argentina and the United States provide a weak presence, but nevertheless capable of producing spectacular releases every now and then. Due to the community-like nature of the demoscene, multi-national demogroups are not an uncommon phenomenon.
Scener functions
Sceners specialize themselves into various categories to be able to take part of the demomaking process. A few people are able to cross over between multiple archetypes (e.g. coder-musician, musician-designer), but this is by no means a trend.
Coder
The coder is the demogroup's programmer who creates the demo's algorithmical background and is responsible for the actual realtime state of the demo. While some coders specialize on system-coding (such as providing wrappers and APIs for other coders to various system accesses), others code effects which are usually visual representations of mathematical formulas, such as fractals or metaballs. In the DOS era of demos, coders were entirely responsible for the demo's flow and arrangement, including the effect's synchronization to the music and sometimes even the design. With the introductions of the demotools, this area was mostly overtaken by the designers.
Graphic artist
Graphic artists (or graphicians in scene lingo) create the visual coherency behind a demo, which include still pictures, design elements, fonts, colors, 3D objects, textures and animation.
Musicians
Musicians are responsible for the composing, arranging, mixing and mastering (and in some cases, performing) the soundtracks and sound effects in the demo. In the older days, musicians worked with trackers, but after appearance the streaming, high-quality music formats, musicians gradually changed their tools to professional music sequencers.
Fake groups
Demosceners often form fake groups, which are essentially secret identities for making humorous or offending productions without scathing their original reputation - people in a fake group hide behind a pseudonym (which, considering their demoscene handles, usually becomes a pseudo-pseudonym). This type of masquarading is often just performed to confuse naïve newcomers to the scene; while some fake identities are never revealed for their time of activity, in most cases a large portion of unrelated people are aware of the real persons behind the spoof.
Famous fake groups include Elitegroup, ODD, FiRG!, Jumalauta, rECTUM cAUDA and Trepaan.
See also
- Category:Demo groups - list of demo groups featured on Wikipedia