I've been a VFX artist for few years, so I'm still a newbe in the business. My name is Arek Stefaniak, I live and work in Warsaw, Poland. I am a Compositing Artist and Motion Designer for a post production studio named Packshot. We mostly work on commercials and broadcast designs.

The dream of being a VFX artist came to my mind a couple of times when I was a kid. As a teenager, I used to film my friends riding bikes and then I would fool around with the footage. Usually, I ended up designing and animating titles or trying some visual tricks.

I made my final decision when I was in college. I studied Computer Graphics and Multimedia so I could have a taste for quite a few fields but VFX tricks and messing with motion pictures became my final choice. My professor was a little bit worried about me because he saw future for me in web design and internet. But here I am, still doing VFX for a living and for fun.

I have worked with Fusion for about four years now, so it would be from around the Fusion 5 release. I did some work in Fusion 4 too.

I started working with Fusion in the post production studio, Packshot, in Warsaw. I went there as an After Effects enthusiast and learning Fusion was one of the challenges to get the job. It was the main motive and made me realize that there is no punk rock in layer based apps. I got to like the feeling of the flow and putting nodes together. You can put nodes in military order or you can make your scene look like total chaos but it still works. It all depends on my mood or the project's specifications. I just feel free doing my stuff.

When it comes to shows, I usually find inspiration in stuff that I call 'positive vibe fantasy'. I should definitely mention the artwork of Spike Jonze, Terry Gilliam, and the father of Studio, Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki. I love the way they see the world: as an amazing, mysterious place with more in it than meets the eye.

For everyone there is a must see list of titles, I am no exception. Apart from mainstream movies, I grew up watching a lot of bmx and skate videos. A great motivation came from videos such as Yeah Right! and Glennpatrick Peter Milligan's Digital Interface. That's when I started playing with motion graphics. I discovered other amazing artists:  Jose Gomez, Co-Founder of Shilo, and Pawel Piotr Przybyl.

Today, there is an avalanche of inspiring links. I find them everyday when I'm checking out the internet.

Nothing big yet. A lot of commercial stuff, broadcast designs, and some music video clips. I feel it's all ahead of me in the VFX industry. For years, I was committed to filming bmx sports and compositing played a small role in the whole process. It grew on me so much that I realized it was time to move forward. From video magazines, my attention moved to visual effects with Fusion as a great tool.

Hard to say. In general Fusion is one of my favorite tools. I'm trying not to get attached to specific nodes. Usually, you get the best results by mixing tools. Maybe I should mention Particles as my favorite tool because I sometimes fool around with it in my spare time for fun, it's just like a stress reducer.

Where do I see myself in ten years? On holidays! I need it so badly that it comes to my mind every time I try to think about the future.

But back to your question. With such fast growth in technology, it's hard to predict what it would be like in two years...

Of course there are some obvious trends nobody can deny, such as more 3D possibilities for compositing apps, more node based trends not only in compositing apps, and projects becoming global. Seems like it's all gonna work just fine.

Here are some links, on Vimeo, to commercial projects that I have contributed to:

vimeo.com/12232813
vimeo.com/12109691
vimeo.com/12105841
vimeo.com/12104598
vimeo.com/12103892
vimeo.com/12076183

Visit the Vimeo eyeon Fusion Group here.