Realtime VFX Artist
I grew up playing Road Rash, Mario, and Prince of Persia off floppy disks, installing everything myself through Norton Commander before I knew what a developer was. Through high school it was Age of Empires, Counter-Strike, DotA, Lineage 2. I eventually dropped out of university — games had already won.
I started in the industry as a game tester, moved through community and marketing, then one day nobody at the studio could edit video. I taught myself After Effects, drifted into 3D, and landed my first real VFX role building destruction effects for Age of Empires Definitive Edition. Everything since has been self-taught through YouTube, documentation, and online courses.
What keeps me in this field isn't just the visuals — it's the constraint. Every effect has to connect the player to the game and run efficiently on the hardware. That tension between impact and performance is what I find genuinely interesting, and it keeps pushing me to find simpler, smarter solutions.