The guy behind "Focal Flare" and "FCL_C0MPLEX"

TL;DR about me

N // Focal Flare, FCL_C0MPLEX, Focal, Flare, FCL, Tommy Wolfox (pseudonym), …

DOB // 7.23.02

NT // Afro-Irish Native American

SX // LGBTQ+ ally; Asexual

G // Male

PR // he/him (Or my name(s) and/or they/them if you're unsure.)

TS;NM about me

What is good y'all, itzzFocalFlare, aka FCL_C0MPLEX, Focal/FCL, Flare, Tommy Wolfox (pseudonym), or whatever the
FUCC
you want to call me.

I'm an Afro-Irish Native American SFW multimedia creator based in the US, born in Chicago and raised in Calumet City. I make almost all/any sort(s) of media under the broad SFW category in mediums such as videos, music, and art.

The random stuff I do

I have two ongoing series of media.

The PIX

For music, I’ve established a multi-genre EDM playlist network called The PIX where I showcase within playlists some of the electronic music that I liked. There are currently these few PIX series that I have made:

  • PIX All-time - The start of the collection from just Winter Mix and Summer Mix (neither of which had mixes made for them) in 2017 before they became part of the collection in 2022. This series does not follow any “schedule” as each episode is made sporadically.

  • Yearly PIX - The most-active series in the collection where I compile playlists of 25 tracks that I think were the best of each year before the next year comes around.

  • PIX Alliance - A collective series involving self-nominated and other-nominated electronic music. This series does not follow a yearly “schedule” as each episode is made sporadically.

  • Uprise of PIX - A milestone-based series celebrating the collection turning older every 7th year from 2017.

Random Clips I Took

For videos, I have a crap ton of gaming clips that I’ve taken within the past years and I’m putting them in multiple different compilation videos of several different clips within a series under the name “Random Clips I Took”. This series is actually split into the following:

  • Random Clips I Took - The main series with a basic-ass name—which is also big on activity—where I compile compilations of 99-100 clips. These clips are from oldest to newest per folder that I’ve put them in, and often have the most edits. Shortened down as an acronym to “RCIT”.

  • RCIT: Unedited Edition - A private series of compilations that houses any compilation involving edits for excluding parts of any clip, such as certain people talking, certain spoilers of things, or the like. This does not include copyright audio as they are always muted as a legal requirement of YouTube whenever they detect it.

  • RCIT: Shorthazard Edition - A series of compilations that are much shorter than the ones in RCIT. The name “Shorthazard” comes from each compilation usually being short in total length and random in the arrangement of videos. Edits are rare in this series.

  • RCIT: Top 10% - A series of “mega-compilations” containing the last 10 compilations of RCIT. A mega-compilation is made after every 10th compilation.

Please note that the series is on an indefinite halt on YouTube for reasons surrounding their AI age verification system. However, I’ve uploaded if not every RCIT compilation to Odysee prior to this change, so the series will continue from there.

I have two ongoing series of media.

The PIX

For music, I’ve established a multi-genre EDM playlist network called The PIX where I showcase within playlists some of the electronic music that I liked. There are currently these few PIX series that I have made:

  • PIX All-time - The start of the collection from just Winter Mix and Summer Mix (neither of which had mixes made for them) in 2017 before they became part of the collection in 2022. This series does not follow any “schedule” as each episode is made sporadically.

  • Yearly PIX - The most-active series in the collection where I compile playlists of 25 tracks that I think were the best of each year before the next year comes around.

  • PIX Alliance - A collective series involving self-nominated and other-nominated electronic music. This series does not follow a yearly “schedule” as each episode is made sporadically.

  • Uprise of PIX - A milestone-based series celebrating the collection turning older every 7th year from 2017.

Random Clips I Took

For videos, I have a crap ton of gaming clips that I’ve taken within the past years and I’m putting them in multiple different compilation videos of several different clips within a series under the name “Random Clips I Took”. This series is actually split into the following:

  • Random Clips I Took - The main series with a basic-ass name—which is also big on activity—where I compile compilations of 99-100 clips. These clips are from oldest to newest per folder that I’ve put them in, and often have the most edits. Shortened down as an acronym to “RCIT”.

  • RCIT: Unedited Edition - A private series of compilations that houses any compilation involving edits for excluding parts of any clip, such as certain people talking, certain spoilers of things, or the like. This does not include copyright audio as they are always muted as a legal requirement of YouTube whenever they detect it.

  • RCIT: Shorthazard Edition - A series of compilations that are much shorter than the ones in RCIT. The name “Shorthazard” comes from each compilation usually being short in total length and random in the arrangement of videos. Edits are rare in this series.

  • RCIT: Top 10% - A series of “mega-compilations” containing the last 10 compilations of RCIT. A mega-compilation is made after every 10th compilation.

Please note that the series is on an indefinite halt on YouTube for reasons surrounding their AI age verification system. However, I’ve uploaded if not every RCIT compilation to Odysee prior to this change, so the series will continue from there.

The random stuff about me

Time zone comparison [🔗↗️]

As I am based in the Midwest region of the world, I use central time (C(S/D)T), which is not to be confused with central European time (CE(S/D)T).

The starting day of a week in the US is every Sunday. The starting time of a day per week is 12:00a

Don’t snap at me if I’m “too early or too late” to something because it took place at a time different from mine, given my time zone. Assume that all times I provide are in CT unless mentioned otherwise.

Disclaimers

I am naive, so please go easy if I don't know or understand something that you may know or understand, and don't assume my knowledge otherwise. I am not autistic (nor am I diagnosed for it).

When it comes to both my knowledge and methods of following directions, please have some patience for both as…

  1. TL;DR: my knowledge of the subject matter will differ from yours as I follow through with what you’re saying or asking for.

    1. I’m not sensitive, but in a similar vein with someone else, there are times where I have trouble understanding something and my response to it is different from what that something is. So if you ask me anything that requires me to read up on something and I provide an answer that’s not close to what you may be asking for, or if I’m trying to follow a specific format you want me to use and it somewhat doesn’t fit what you want, then please don’t snap at me! I’m simply trying my best to follow through with it with both my current understanding and my little attention span for reading. I am also naive, so please refrain from coming up with extremely sorry excuses to gatekeep information away from me (such as “common sense”).

  2. TL;DR: …there’s no gray area for me between “too much words” or “too little detail”. Please tell me what you need to know and I’ll try to my best effort to put it short. Again, I’m naive with things, so I’d rather have you tell me what you specifically need instead of throwing everything at you.

    1. Sometimes I may even go in-depth with things I have some knowledge about as well. I am aware that those things may be too long for people to understand, but knowing how much it bites me back taking classes with assignments that require me to either answer questions in detail that my little knowledge for that question can’t do effectively or efficiently or write a 3-page or 7-page essay about something I have to write about that my little skill for that essay also can’t do effectively or efficiently, I feel like it will be just as vague if I were to shorten it down.

If it also helps, I am just as human as the person (most likely you) reading any of the text in this website!

Time zone comparison [🔗↗️]

As I am based in the Midwest region of the world, I use central time (C(S/D)T), which is not to be confused with central European time (CE(S/D)T).

The starting day of a week in the US is every Sunday. The starting time of a day per week is 12:00a

Don’t snap at me if I’m “too early or too late” to something because it took place at a time different from mine, given my time zone. Assume that all times I provide are in CT unless mentioned otherwise.

Disclaimers

I am naive, so please go easy if I don't know or understand something that you may know or understand, and don't assume my knowledge otherwise. I am not autistic (nor am I diagnosed for it).

When it comes to both my knowledge and methods of following directions, please have some patience for both as…

  1. TL;DR: my knowledge of the subject matter will differ from yours as I follow through with what you’re saying or asking for.

    1. I’m not sensitive, but in a similar vein with someone else, there are times where I have trouble understanding something and my response to it is different from what that something is. So if you ask me anything that requires me to read up on something and I provide an answer that’s not close to what you may be asking for, or if I’m trying to follow a specific format you want me to use and it somewhat doesn’t fit what you want, then please don’t snap at me! I’m simply trying my best to follow through with it with both my current understanding and my little attention span for reading. I am also naive, so please refrain from coming up with extremely sorry excuses to gatekeep information away from me (such as “common sense”).

  2. TL;DR: …there’s no gray area for me between “too much words” or “too little detail”. Please tell me what you need to know and I’ll try to my best effort to put it short. Again, I’m naive with things, so I’d rather have you tell me what you specifically need instead of throwing everything at you.

    1. Sometimes I may even go in-depth with things I have some knowledge about as well. I am aware that those things may be too long for people to understand, but knowing how much it bites me back taking classes with assignments that require me to either answer questions in detail that my little knowledge for that question can’t do effectively or efficiently or write a 3-page or 7-page essay about something I have to write about that my little skill for that essay also can’t do effectively or efficiently, I feel like it will be just as vague if I were to shorten it down.

If it also helps, I am just as human as the person (most likely you) reading any of the text in this website!

TS;NM about me as an artist

A lot of the things that I do are based on my erratic mind, and the process of creating artwork is not an exception from that. With this, I tend to make the art capture the erraticness of my mind, combining different ideas I go back and forth with together.

Even though other people may say otherwise, I never consider my art as "original", "out of this world", or "something nobody has ever done before", as I have a feeling that what I've done for my works are things that other artists before me have done already, leaving grounds for other artists after me to do things that I've done myself.

Catering my art to certain audiences, no matter the medium or the subject matter, is not new to me, but I would rather create art that I'll enjoy looking at as a viewer than to do it for the sake of pleasing everyone, or, worst-case scenario, doing it to chase trends. I'm all for scavenging new things on the internet that I might've not heard of and may want to take an interest in, but I also find doing my own thing with what I've found a lot more enjoyable than doing what someone else is already doing. (FOMO (fear of missing out) is a common psychological effect amongst people who are afraid of not joining in on new trends, but JOMO (joy of missing out) is honestly better than chasing after them.)

However, that's not to say that I should stay away from partially doing what artists before or after me are doing for their art.

Whenever I make art in any medium, I'm always itching for inspiration from other digital visual artists, such as (but not limited to) SoleVision, nuphory, Windmill (WMLGS), and Glasschains (fka Aabiasaw), as well as traditional visual artists like Jackson Pollock. These guys have been the ones to ever do it in the art scene.

My art may range from finally having originality to never being completely "original", but when I get that spark of inspiration, I use it as an opportunity to create art in hopes that it'll inspire others to create something similar, that or make art in general.

But even if the sporadic nature of "complete originality" and "something already done" may show in my art, what matters is the identity that is visually described about me. Just like how both my clothing and my hair shape my identity, my art also shapes it.

I love maximalist art that looks very complex and extremely busy, but I think there's also beauty in minimalist art. To tap into this minimalism, I always keep "less is more" in mind, because I think that while an image that's filled to the brim with elements looks dope, it can still look as dope while remaining clean without going over the top.

Said by others that I'm quiet and not so talkative, my identity mainly revolves around being louder than the noise by being quiet (considering that both loud and quiet are exact opposites of each other), so I want my art to visually match this "quiet against loud" vibe that I give off without doing the most.

Don't get me wrong, a very chaotic 3D metalheart render can look extremely cool, but something simpler than that, while keeping within the style, can help with giving the eyes a break!

Sometimes, less is always more. Simple is never "bland". Simple is beautiful without going over the top.

Minimalism is not an "excuse for laziness". Minimalism is controlling your viewers' eyes so that they don't dart across what would've been a very convoluted image.

Emptiness shows in everything if the negative space is not filled in, but too much positive space leads to the thing being messy.

Stuff I use(d) or currently have

In case you're wondering or were curious about what hardware and software I use, they are shown below.

Note that this list can and will change over time, so everything mentioned here is NOT definitive. Software names appended with a red upwards triangle emoji (🔺) indicate exclusive use in the specific area.

Hardware

Hardware

Laptop (HP EliteBook 840 G1)

  • OS: Windows 10

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-4300U (@ 1.90GHz)

  • RAM: 16GB DDR3

  • GPU('s): Intel HD Graphics Family (specific build unknown)

  • System type: 64-bit operating system (x64-based processor)

Desktop peripherals (custom-built)

The rating for this PC in the PCGameBenchmark link may be inaccurate because the scanner from them kept checking for my Radeon GPU instead of my RTX GPU, so I had to manually enter the information in myself.


  • OS: Windows 11

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (@ ???GHz)

  • RAM: 32GB DDR5

  • GPU('s): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060; AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics

  • System type: 64-bit

  • Display:

    • Monitor 1: Acer KB272 G0

    • Monitor 2: Acer KB242Y G0

Camera

  • Maker: Canon

  • Model: EOS Rebel T100

Laptop (HP EliteBook 840 G1)

  • OS: Windows 10

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-4300U (@ 1.90GHz)

  • RAM: 16GB DDR3

  • GPU('s): Intel HD Graphics Family (specific build unknown)

  • System type: 64-bit operating system (x64-based processor)

Desktop peripherals (custom-built)

The rating for this PC in the PCGameBenchmark link may be inaccurate because the scanner from them kept checking for my Radeon GPU instead of my RTX GPU, so I had to manually enter the information in myself.


  • OS: Windows 11

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (@ ???GHz)

  • RAM: 32GB DDR5

  • GPU('s): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060; AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics

  • System type: 64-bit

  • Display:

    • Monitor 1: Acer KB272 G0

    • Monitor 2: Acer KB242Y G0

Camera

  • Maker: Canon

  • Model: EOS Rebel T100

Software

Software

Art

  • Affinity🔺

  • paintdotnet

  • Photopea

  • Blender🔺

  • Vectorpea

  • Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign)

3D Modeling

  • SDF Modeler🔺

  • Plasticity

  • MagicaCSG

  • Blender

Video editing

  • DaVinci Resolve🔺

  • Olive Editor

  • Blender

Animation

  • Blender

  • DaVinci Resolve

  • After Effects

  • Pikimov

Art

  • Affinity🔺

  • paintdotnet

  • Photopea

  • Blender🔺

  • Vectorpea

  • Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign)

3D Modeling

  • SDF Modeler🔺

  • Plasticity

  • MagicaCSG

  • Blender

Video editing

  • DaVinci Resolve🔺

  • Olive Editor

  • Blender

Animation

  • Blender

  • DaVinci Resolve

  • After Effects

  • Pikimov

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