2010 Show Reel

Currently I am in the midst of compiling my work together from the 9-10 months I spent working on Singularity. I like to try and keep a record of the work and break it out like I did for Wolfenstein, but it takes some serious time to do this.

Visual Effects Artist Tim Elek Show Reel 2010 from Tim Elek on Vimeo.

I enjoy editing, and sometimes I wonder if I worry too much about the edit vs. what I am supposed to be showcasing. Either way I think a good VFX artist needs to have a sense of timing and a sensibility to context...I guess timing the shots to the music, and trying to contextualize the visual to what the music is doing is my justification for this reel.

Plus I try to put all of my energy into my work, and this song just happens to fit my current disposition.

As with any reel there are some effects in here that are the culmination of one or two peoples work, but each effect in this reel constitutes my work in the final form.

For example, some of the time wave effects were originally executed by another talented VFX artist who left Raven. Unfortunately the original version of this time wave was entirely too expensive bogging down the PS3 to 15-20 fps. We really liked the original intent the artist had, and it was my job to bring the particle FX into a reasonable budget while maintaining as much of the original vision as possible.

Being a lead VFX artist I do not believe that getting performance in line is the job of an intern or of a more junior person. I have heard many other technical/FX people talk like this, but I am of the opinion each member of the team is responsible for bringing their work in-line with technical limitations regardless of team hierarchy.

No one under my personal leadership/on our VFX team on Singularity had the luxury of making it shit-hot while leaving it up to someone else to get it to run.