In this episode of our CG Talks Podcast we are honored to interview Matihas Zamęcki, a high-end visuals creator for the gaming and animation industry. Mathias has worked for numerous well established brands including Blizzard, Digital Domain, Riot Games, Blur Studio, CD Project Red and many more. Despite his young age (Mathias has just entered his thirties) he has gathered massive experience in the CGI industry. Being a self taught artist this required a lot of drive, passion and perseverance.
Like many adolescent guys of this millennium, Mathias was deep into MMORPG computer games. The world of internet forums (can you recall those ancient times !?) introduced an idea of an on-line avatar, a small icon image that represented a player/persona in the virtual space. This spurred Mathias’ interest in photoshop as he wanted to make those images for himself. It was the era of early YouTube, and stumbling upon a digital drawing/painting tutorial was another breakthrough moment in the young man’s journey to art.
He got himself a small Wacom tablet and started his digital artist’s career. With a lot of ups and downs along the way Mathias jumped straight to working for a game development company. This experience proved to be the best academy for the artist, required pushing the skills in all aspects of digital creation. The company was small so Mathias had to be a real generalist and go boldly into many tasks.
The common denominator throughout Mathias’ career is learning. Constantly trying to challenge and improve his art, through paid work as well as personal studies and projects. Mathias is also eagerly sharing his knowledge and discoveries online, and we discuss the benefits of teaching others for your own artistic awareness and growth.
How did Mathias get to do jobs for AAA games companies ? What can help you receive job offers from animation studios ? Why is it important not to get stuck with your ideas but turn them into actionable projects ?
You might find answers to these kind of questions in this episode. Mathias’ approach to CGI has proven to work extremely well and it would not be wise to ignore such valuable insights. So take your time, listen, enjoy and keep learning!
Mathias is very active on a lot of social media platforms so make sure you follow him to see what he’s up to (there’s always something inspiring going on) and to get valuable resources and tips that can help you on your digital artist’s journey:
