He’s been part of the FR community through several incarnation and changes. Originally appearing under Antmannext, Tomato found himself growing and maturing with the community as he took up one skill after another. Today, we shine the spotlight on a real ripe fruit (or vegetable…or nut) as we try to determine whether or not his murderous nature is a sign of insanity or just his natural state.

FREEDOM FORCE

Considering the amount of time you have been in the community, what exactly got you interested in Freedom Force in the first place?

I think that I was looking for something like Freedom Force well before it was announced, if that makes any sense at all. I had been following Wizard magazine for awhile, and every once in a blue moon they’d include an article about how to get superheroes into this or that game… wrestling games a few times, one of which I actually bought.

Later on, however, they put up an article on The Sims and the Skindex. In my zeal for tight-clad renditions of gaming, I joined the Skindex community (though I wasn’t exactly well liked… I was rather young, and a notorious kittbasher) and started producing my own work.

Eventually however, Irrational started putting out the Generic_Hero meshes to build up hype for the “Freedom Force” game. Darkjared started moving the Skindex into doing comic skins for Freedom Force, with a good junk of the community following suit. In my case, Freedom Force had been what I’d been looking for all that time I was sitting around doing Sims skins only to have my heroic creations lead boring lives in-game.

Did your career as a content provider begin as a mesher or a skinner? Which do you find more enjoyable?

Skinning, but my mindset hasn’t really been to separate the two until very recently. You have to remember, when doing stuff for The Sims, all that was really required to mesh was a $15 program called Milkshape 3D. If your skin required that you had, saaaay… a Cyclops Visor, you made one and moved on with the skinning process. I don’t think it really dawned on me early on that Freedom Force was a different animal in that respect… There wasn’t a Cyclops mesh, so I used Milkshape and the pieces Beyonder had exported to make a Cyclops. The fact that the process of exporting then importing completely removed the biped and bone structure meaning Beyonder had to go back behind me and fix everything didn’t even occur to me. In the same way, most of what could be considered my first “meshes,” such as Tomato, Red Ant, and the like, were never meshes to me. If a piece could not be skoped from a Tommyboy mesh or something, I’d make it.

As far as which is more enjoyable now… probably Meshing, interestingly. The reason my skins seem to drag ooooon the way they do (and why I make so many previews) is that I have a very hard time focusing on them… very often I’ll do a portion of the face one day, finish it the next, and then 3 days later work myself up to starting the body. Meshes, on the other hand, are very easy for me, and as a result I can finish them rather quickly.

You have created your own line of heroes that revolve around your avatar, which is aptly enough a tomato. What is the backstory behind your avatar and Influx?

I’ve told the story of my name and avatar design a few times before, but just to sum up: I was part of a Kingdom Hearts RPG (Kingdom Hearts Elite, which is still going if anyone is interested) and the members would get on chats and do nonsensical things. My big nonsensical thing was having magical tomatoes that brought you back to life, earning me the nickname, “Tomato.”

The creation of “Tomato’s” design, however, was wrapped up in the creation of what is now called Influx. At one point in my RPG’s history, there was this fad of having your RPG characters discuss topics in the “Out of Character” forum, each with their own personality. However, since both my characters weren’t exactly me (one was cartoonishly childish, one was sarcastic and slightly goth) I took it a step further, and used my nickname of Tomato to give my own opinion.

I must admit, begrudgingly, that I owe the further development of “Tomato” and “Influx” both in characterization and membership solely to the influence of Kirk Sigmon aka Helios. We met in RL, during a bowling trip for our home-school group, and became friends. He showed me his website, which revolved around this MMO called “Graal” (think the snes Zelda game). It also featured what was intended to be scripts for humorous animations with each of the four main characters being denoted by a head from the Graal game. Kirk’s “Helios Vs.” opened the door for me to create my own silly little “Tomato Vs.” with my own characters (Peter and Darek, also known as Kid Rocket and Chnybe, respectfully).

However, the fourth presented a problem… Helios had used a stereotypical female as his fourth voice, but I wasn’t comfortable with creating a female persona. However, at the time, I had an interesting friendship with one of my female RP buddies, so I incorporated a merged version of her characters into my “Vs.” strips, and used her online nickname, Mahty. Having my four characters in place, I set out to make the heads for the strip… and put a face on a Tomato for his head. That design was essentially finalized soon after when I began to actually play Graal, because after some indecision, I eventually ended up settling on black-and-red sprited armor for his body, as I couldn’t quite get green to look right in his outfit. The only thing I’ve added to that design since is the flame logo, which I blame Billdamn for.

Originally, the four were called the “Tomato Vs. Crew” or T.V.C., and I later tried using that acronym when I made the whole thing into a serious fanfic. But no matter how you sliced it, the name was dumb, so after I got over my stubbornness, I rechristened them “Influx.”

You have recently returned to the community with the offerings of new meshes and skins. What brought you back and got you re-interested in meshing?

It was never so much that I ever lost interest in meshing: I’m taking classes to get into that field professionally, as 3D work has been a personal passion of mine since the Sims days. I just wasn’t so much into FF, or FR in general… I’d hit something of a wall in terms of being able to animate, and it damaged my creativity for a long while.

What brought me back, however, was (ironically enough) the IPS debacle. Active or not, I’ve been a part of this community for a long time, and the thought of it being damaged like that was quite painful to me. I started to get active again, and it wasn’t long before I was dusting off some old projects and starting a few new ones.

Before the FR boards were archived, you showed off several meshes that were never released. Will those meshes ever see a release date or are they lost in time?

I think it all depends on which one we’re discussing. My Lina Inverse and Kid Rocket skins will probably be released at some point, as will Gourry Gabriev, but unfortunately the same won’t be said of the previewed Fighter and Two-Face meshes. I exported beta versions of both, but I’ve since lost the original max file. I don’t feel right doing a Fighter mesh without Sword Chucks or a Two-Face without a Coin flip, and having the max file is sort of an essential part of that. So no, you will not be seeing those specific meshes. New versions of them, however… only time will tell.

You used to be AntmanAnext, correct? What brought on the name change?

Well, as I stated above, I was something of a notorious kittbasher for a long time. I’d started to get better about it, and had even at one time joined Electric Freedom… but at some point along the way, I began to slack off and do things the lazy way. While making a skin for Red Arrow (from the Kingdom Come graphic novel), I kittbashed the arm bands from another skinner’s Green Arrow because I decided they were too complicated to bother with myself. I got into some trouble with Volt for doing that, and left the community “never to return.”

When I came back a year or two later, there was a new playground at Freedom Reborn. Rather than have the stink of my previous time in the community, I decided to use the nickname I had gained from KHE to get a fresh start.

Before your current slew of meshes which you have previewed, you were taking on a definite anime-esque style. What inspired that choice?

I don’t think there ever was a definitive choice on my part, so much as it is that anime influences my personal drawing style a great deal. I learned to draw with DBZ artwork, then later tempered that steroid-induced style with the Elfquest and Timm styles of art.

Has anyone in the community motivated you in any way, shape, or form?

I think most members in the meshing and skinning community have, but the greatest motivator among them has probably been C6. There were a few times, his first Thunderbird stands out, where I would look at a C6 skin and get frustrated by this or that and think I could do better. I couldn’t really, but I thought I could.

You have taken it upon yourself to redesign several avatars in the past. What is your process for redesigning someone else’s original creation?

Basically what I ended up using as my process is to sketch out a version of the character first, adding and erasing details until I’m relatively happy with it. Usually a design only would take one sketch (the eraser was my friend) but Syn’s took me three separate sketches because I kept drawing him like Magneto. Anyway, I’d then post the colored version of that sketch to FR for any general feedback other members might have, such as altering boots here or reshaping the mask there. It’s only after I’ve got a relatively concrete idea in place that I begin ‘skoping and meshing the necessary bits to begin skinning the character.

To date, I believe you are the only person to skin ultimate Spider-man. Why did you choose to skin him outside of the various other version of the character?

Actually, it’s because no one else had skinned that version that I initially set out to make Ultimate Spidey, and later redid him because my first was so bad. At the time, I think there were a few people who were saying that if you wanted Ultimate Spidey you should just hex Jik’s Spider-Man mesh down and that was Ultimate Spider-man, no need for an additional skin. But in my mind, Bagley’s interpretation of the character is so distinctive that I felt he deserved his own skin, large eyes and all.

At one point, you were helping to make a FR mod which featured several avatars in one central location. What happened to this project and why did you decide to take it on?

The Freedom Reborn mod, initially started by Unko Man, became something I was (and still am, to an extent) passionate about. I’m a big fan of avatar characters, and for me the idea of having all these heroes together in one mod made me feel like those kids back in the early days of comics who got to have all their favorite heroes in the Justice Society book. It kind of fell apart, however, because there were too many people who had avatars but didn’t have any enthusiasm for it, or who were interested, but either didn’t have a hero file or an avatar skin. If enough people want me to, however, I might try restarting it.

At the moment, you are still only modeling or remodeling character meshes. Do you have any plans to take this further such as learning how to animate or perhaps dipping into the fx/object meshing field?

I definitely want to learn how to animate my meshes (and I’m hoping to learn some of that this year), but I’m not as much interested in FX or general objects.

Are there any projects in the FF community that interest you at the moment?

I think I’m among the general FR community in following Tommyboy’s “Watchmen” meshes and the whole Champions thing, but I’m most excited about all the stuff HQ and Vertex are cooking up, what with the resurgence of NPI and all that.

What is one mesh or skin you would like to see produced either by yourself or some other content provider?

Well, normally if I want something badly enough I make it myself, but I suppose I’d love to see C6 skins of… well, everyone, really. However, I’d especially like to see more X-men skins, with some avatar skins sprinkled in as well. I’m a big-time X-men nerd, and having his Second Genesis pack makes me very happy.

MISC.

You have recently begun to update your Deviant Art page more frequently. What are some of the works one can expect to find there?

I consider Deviant Art to be a general mish-mash of my artwork. It has almost all of my “professional” drawings (mostly the ones that aren’t design sketches), some of my better sprite work, the bead things, a few of my better skins, etc. It usually just acts as a repository for anything I’m not posting on FR or another website.

As a lover of Sonic the Hedgehog, how do you feel about his current progression in the gaming field?

I think that he was getting pretty bad games for awhile (Heroes, Secret Rings), but some of the latest Sonic stuff has impressed me. I just recently bought Unleashed for the PS2, and despite the storyline being absolutely inane (Werehog?), the gameplay itself is pretty fun, and it’s not nearly as clunky as Heroes was.

On your dev page, you have a series of bead graphics that you have done of the sonic universe. How long do these take you to make and what got you into creating them??

Each one take a couple hours, usually stretched across a few days because I work on them before bed when I’m at home. I’ve been doing them for ages. I started doing them as a kid as one of the many crafts I had and I just kept up with it. Originally I only did superheroes, but recently began the Sonic stuff using the style from the GBA games.

You have also taken up making avatars in a flash based hero creator known as “fabrica de herois“. Do you find this to be fun and what inspired your decision to make forum based avs?

Well, I wouldn’t have started doing them if I wasn’t having fun. The fact is, I’m a big time fan of avatar characters, just as a general preference. Mostly I feel like Mainstream characters get done a lot, and Originals, while they often have interesting designs, the design is all they are to me… because I don’t have the personal connection that their creator does. It’s the same with my own originals, I’m always surprised anyone bothers with them because there’s no way to get that personal connection. Avatars though… I know Afghant Ant, TUE and all them, so it isn’t just a design.

What are some of the other art based designs you enjoy doing and why?

I think my personal big one was something I started doing that I call “Carded” sprites. During the Kingdom Hearts series, there was mid-point between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 called KH: Chain of Memories. It wasn’t exactly a stellar game, but the graphics were pretty. Anyway, every time people would talk, they’d have these head-shots of the character speaking like a zillion other games. But as I stated above, I was in a KH forum RPG, and I thought, “Hey, these would make awesome avatars.” But since only silly people play as mainstream characters in RPGs, I decided to find a way to make my own.

Long story short, I turned out to be right… they do make absolutely awesome avatars.

You consider yourself an anime freak, no? What are some of your favorite animes??

I generally enjoy stuff like Dragonball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Naruto, and the like, but my big show right now is Slayers Evolution-R. I’ve also been getting into a few abridged anime… I won’t watch Yu-gi-oh, but the abridged version is hilarious.

Some love it, some hate it…what’s your thoughts on Watchmen: the movie?

You know, I think I’m one of the few people who got more out of the movie then the Graphic Novel. Me, I read the comic, and I see characters like Rorschach and the Comedian and I write them off, because they’re crazy or an a-hole, and just keep them in that little box the entire read. Watching the movie on the other hand… you can’t do that. The movie forces you to delve, head-first, into the deepest, darkest places of these characters’ personalities, and to accept them as human beings.

They say TV can be bad for you, but who cares what “they” think. What are some of your favorite programs to watch??

Aside from the basic geek shows (WatX, Spectacular, Heroes) some of my favorite programs are NCIS, Chuck, Monk, Psych, and especially Burn Notice.

With so many anticipated movies coming out over the next few years, what are some you are looking forward to??

I’m looking forward to most of the upcoming Marvel Studios stuff I guess, but right now the only movie I’m looking forward too at all is the Harry Potter one… Wolverine Origins could be good, but I’m kinda iffy on it, partly because of the Deadpool thing. Still, I have some hope for it, which is more than I can say for Dragonball.

Emma, Jean, She-hulk, Vixen…what’s your favorite female hero in comics? ?

Probably She-hulk, though it depends on the writer. Many writers still have a tendency to make women dependent on men, even in Modern comic books, and I prefer my heroines with some backbone.

And finally, there’s an old saying that goes, “you are what you read”–or did I make it up? Regardless, what are some books you would recommend to others??

Aside from the school books I’m reading that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, I invite anyone to read the “Belgariad” by David Eddings. I’m a big Eddings fan, and even though his “Elder Gods” series left much to be desired, the “Belgariad” stands out as one of the best fantasy series in print.

Also, for anime fans, you might want to pick up the “Slayers Light” novels by Hajime Kanzaka. They’re a relatively simple read, but the stories are fairly solid. The only problem with them is that only the first of two overall arcs has been translated, but hopefully we’ll see a renewed interest later this year when Funimation starts putting out the Revolution stuff.

So what did we learn about Tomato? He’s a mesher that wants to do 3d work professionally, he loves the avatars of the community and is a big fan of them in general, he’s skinned, and he has a certain love for Japanese animation. If you want to check out some of his work that is still available until he re-situates himself, you can go to his yahoo group. You can also check out his fabrica work if that sort of thing fancies you.