Variform

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The title screen of Variform

Variform is a demo by the demogroup Kewlers. It was released in 2002 at the Assembly demo party, and even though it only placed 3rd in the competition, it became one of the most widely acclaimed demos ever, winning three Scene.org Awards the following year.

1 Technical information
2 Synopsis
3 Trivia
4 Credits
5 Awards
6 External links

[edit] Technical information

Size: 8.5 megabytes
Running time: 6:17
Platform: Win32, later ported to Mac OS X and Linux
Minimum requirements: Pentium II class CPU, TNT2 class video card

[edit] Synopsis

VARIFORM is a spectacular trip into a futuristic world of abstract glowing objects in electric colors. The demo features a consistent and very dynamic flow which helps in delivering the viewer through all the effects, accompanied by a Kraftwerk-esque electro soundtrack. Reviewers hailed Variform as the perfect fusion of oldskool and newskool demostyles.

Variform was a trend-setter in many aspects: The robot-like voice-synthesis in the music (though it wasn't the first demo to apply it), and image postprocessing techniques (glow, or "square-filter") were later used in many other productions, and the opening phrase "WE ARE BACK!", became one of the most repeated phrases among demosceners.

[edit] Trivia

The music bears obvious resemblances to Finnish electro-formation Imatran Voima's single In/Out. The similarities were later confirmed by Little Bitchard.
The figure visible in the first half of the demo with the text "KAPTEENI AEAENI" written on it is a reference to Ääni (meaning "voice" in Finnish, given to him after his deep, sonorous voice), the security chief of Assembly. There is also a Finnish Reggae-collective called Kapteeni Ääni.
The whispered greetings are a reference to the Aphex Twin song "Respect List". The sentence "Mad bloke and his dogs next door", is a direct quote from the AFX single.
The panting in the first part of the soundtrack is a reference to the classic Kraftwerk song "Tour de France".
On November 25, 2005, Kewlers released a musicdisk called Variform Remixed, a compilation of 13 remixes of the Variform soundtrack and two bonus tracks (an instrumental and a beta version of the original). The compilation is available in a classic (executable) format and also in .NRG CD-image format (with CD-cover included).