REALTIMERS: Lukasz Kyc, In-Engine Generalist
If there’s one thing we love more than VFX, it’s our team. In our new series, REALTIMERS, we are showcasing the people behind the pixels to see what makes them tick.
Lukasz is our In-Engine Generalist, who joined REALTIME fresh out of university and dreams of one day collaborating with id Software on a new DOOM game.
Name & job title
Lukasz Kyc, In-Engine Generalist.
Where do you fit in?
I get to do a little bit of everything inside the engines we use, I most frequently use Unreal Engine and recently picked up the Frostbite engine for our EA projects. Being a generalist means I rarely do the same thing day to day which I really enjoy! One day I might be setting up cameras and blocking out an environment for a shot and the next day I could be lighting or fixing a technical issue we may be having – it never gets boring.
How did you get your start in the industry?
I got an internship here at REALTIME right out of doing a games design course at university, and after a few months got a full-time position here.
Your superpower?
Learning new skills – I find that I pick up things really quickly and love learning new skills inside and outside of work.
What inspires you on the day-to-day?
I think just the fact that I get to work in an industry that I’m really passionate about, and where I’m excited to go to work every day.
My desert island TV show?
Either South Park or Hells Kitchen, I already watch both of those shows multiple times a year
Your soundtrack whilst working:
I usually like to listen to something that is related to the project that I’m working on, as a recent example whilst working on the NFS Unbound trailer, I listened to a lot of rap which fit the type of game that I was working on. I also frequently listen to a lot of video game and film soundtracks and sometimes switch up to some metal such as Metallica and Slipknot. I get bored quickly so I like to switch it up.
If you could work with anyone who?
I would love to work with Feng Zhu, I always found his work super inspiring and he’s the one that got me interested in this industry in the first place.
If not this, then what?
I’ve always loved the DOOM games and I really like the direction they have taken the game with the recent releases, so getting to work with the id Software team on a new DOOM game would be a dream job for me.
Why REALTIME?
I like the variety of projects, the different styles and genres keep the job very interesting and the fact that we get to work in smaller teams means that we get to work very closely together, and can all make a big impact on the projects we work on.
People would be surprised that…
I’m Polish, I don’t have an accent so people always assume that I’m English, until they see my name.
Advice you’d give yourself if you were just starting out?
To do more research into Universities / Art schools before applying, as I personally just applied to the closest one I could find and found that they were teaching some very outdated workflows, and if I just did a bit more research I could have gotten a lot more out of it than I did.