Hello everybody! My name is Jhonatan, but you can call me John. I would like to say that I feel honored to be invited to talk a little about myself alongside people whom I greatly admire and who have so much to teach us with their talent!

Well, my passion for capturing moments within games began subtly with the old and still existing Ragnarok Online from 2002, which I discovered in 2009 and started playing since then on the game's official servers in my country. There, I created the habit of recording memorable moments such as killing a boss (MVP), acquiring rare items, managing to reach the server's maximum level with a particular character, taking photos with friends to record and despite the graphics with characters in two-dimensional sprites and environments 3D: the landscape was sometimes surprising. It was around 2016 when I stopped playing Ragnarok Online, sold my items from years of gaming, and bought a GPU with the money acquired, upgrading to a better PC, which is when I bought my first Steam Game: The Witcher 3.

Screenarchery intensified in me from then on, where in Ragnarok Online, there was a seed that had been planted. Upon entering a world of games with more realistic graphics, I felt the natural need to share the beauty behind this art. The Witcher 3 is a game that certainly influenced not only myself but also many in screenarchery, and ironically, it was released without a photo mode (forcing many to use mods). Currently, that sin has already been forgiven; after all, the game now has such functionality. Thank you, Cd Projekt Red. I started recording some moments of the game and posting them to the community in an unpretentious way, and nothing too elaborate since perception and elaboration improve over time, and what we need at the beginning are doses of motivation and passion.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2575219769

The Witcher motivated me, but where I created the passion and authentic taste to spend hours often making a concept and situation in-game to record something that I found interesting to share was with the Souls series. In this series, I try to capture the essence behind a dark and obscure world, full of death and sadness, but that, despite the despite, harbours unparalleled beauty.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2268226721

I remember trying to influence my friends to play such games with me and my screenshots became a way of achieving this goal, showing that there were many scenarios worth visiting and much to be explored that went beyond that limiting factor that prevented them from wanting to embark on this journey: the much-feared difficulty (git gud feelings here). So, ironically, that's when I sought to attract more people into such a lonely world

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2278086086

I was able to show some that despite being lonely and obscure, this whole souls universe was also incredible and beautiful and that it was possible to advance and go beyond the difficulty, getting to know such scenarios and motivating themselves through: "what's behind that place in the image? How do I get there? Look what an interesting place."

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549032530

I didn't use shades, mods, or any sophisticated tool for that; I just used some basic Windows editors and posted, nothing too technical or like that.
The initial idea was to change a few of the colors, contrasts, and brightness to highlight something that was already beautiful in itself.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2284240810

Little by little, I migrated to other games and got to know some tools, starting from primary Windows editors to Nvidia Ansel with RDR2
Where I was able to increase the base resolution of the images and improve some aspects:

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893815718

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866503918

These moments I shaped this passion for screenshots and sharing until I reached the point where I am today, where I am still that person who seeks to influence others to try to challenge themselves in hostile environments. At the same time, I also challenge myself on these journeys. Environments that may seem like absolute hell to many, but if you look at them from the right angle, can become something like absolute heaven.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796639136

Elden Ring inspired me to create concepts within some of the images I post. For this one below, where I used tools like Photoshop to change the colour of the vegetation, giving it this reddish tone, because I wanted to convey the idea that ​​"blood must be spilled", the phrase said in the game. I also made the castle in the background grey and almost lifeless, and finally, I lightened Erdtree a little more. My concept for this image was to have three dimensions in one, such as heaven, earth and hell. Look above at the Erdtree and all its illumination, pouring a liquid over the grey part that could be like the blessings of the heavens that fall upon the kingdom of men that is so grey, neither black nor white, but grey, where everything It can tend towards a darker or lighter side (free will). In the foreground, closer to the viewer, where the red vegetation represents spilled blood, a dragon statue with its head cut off (like the defeat of the great tyrant of that place) and spectral images of the usual DLC tombs, which represent death itself, clearly, where so much bloodshed leads and which I also call: Hell.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3289660366

This concept was something I wanted to represent when I saw the Elden DLC announcement trailers. Over time, it became more apparent when playing it, as it gave me a more spiritual vibe of the game world, like the representation of its characters, the meaning of some names, places we passed, etc... This helped me create such a concept in my mind, and this is how the art within screenarchery is interpreted by me currently, based on concepts and stories behind the scenes that in the end materialize into something bigger.

Recording these moments, creating concepts and sharing them the way we imagine is something that, for me, is priceless. I still have a lot to learn, but if I can say that I tried to teach something in this "Meet the Author", it is that we should be acting out of passion and seeking to be motivated by the right things. Currently, the feedback from those who follow me has been a good motivator, and seeing that you enjoyed something that we spent hours creating, editing and working on with that passion from the beginning is priceless. I also stay motivated to be a potential influencer for some people to migrate to games they may be prejudiced against, so I try to show the beauty behind that. I have a friend who bought Elden Ring and told me that my screenshots made him buy it; that was amazing to hear.

I believe that when we do something in life for others more than for ourselves, it automatically has more value.

About tools: Currently, I use and explore accordingly some tools that I already used before, like Ansel, some shade, Otis_inf camera tools, Image Composite Editor ICE (thanks Yonaga), Gimp, Photoshop and mods, which led to a significant improvement with my screenarchery experience.

Finally, I am immensely grateful to everyone who has read this far. If you have missed reading about any of the other incredibly talented authors on this board, I highly recommend you go read about them. Each of them will teach you something, and I was very happy to learn from such talented people!

Thank you very much for the opportunity. May the Lord bless you all! J O H N