The Work That Made Me: Bartek Kik

Director and animation director Bartek Kik joined Platige Image in 2007, and since then has been involved in animation production for numerous commercial and artistic projects. He helped to bring the Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV film to life, took part in the production of the live-action short Ambition, promoting the European Space Agency, co-directed Culture, a short film produced for the Move Your Imagination campaign, promoting Poland at the ITB tourism trade fair in Berlin. Bartek has been involved in the production of cinematics for various video games (Hitman, Risen 3, For Honor, and Total War: Warhammer, Hyper Scape Series, Outriders). He is a graduate of the National Film School in Łódź, with a degree in Animation and Visual Effects. 

The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' is what wowed me when I was a kid. Apart from that probably any and all of Michel Gondry's trippy stuff.

The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

That's a hard one. Anime is what got me into animation, for sure (I’m a diehard Sailor Moon fan, and proud of it), but as I grew older and turned towards a slightly darker aesthetic, it was probably our very own Tomek Bagiński's 'Cathedral'.

The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…

For music that would be 'Random Access Memories' by Daft Punk, which is just a masterpiece, a true love letter to electronica. As for games, movies, and books – I rarely revisit all the story-driven stuff, because I don't like listening to the same tale all over again. Probably Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy is an exception as it holds its own as a spectacle (rather than a movie) even today.

My first professional project…

As an artist that would be 'The Animated History of Poland'. As a director – the cinematic for the MMO “Skyforge”.

The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

The way that Star Trek, my absolute favourite sci-fi franchise is being massacred right now – that's definitely something I would not want to do.

The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous… 

Anything by Lord and Miller, most notably 'The Lego Movie'. In the game cinematic world – the trailer for 'Diablo IV'.

The creative project that changed my career…

That would probably be my first gig as a director at Platige – so the aforementioned 'Skyforge' cinematic. Even with all its flaws I still look back at it fondly.

The work that I’m proudest of…

All the work I did for 'Fatima and the Secret Treasure'. Even though we had to cancel the production, it's by far the project that gave me the most joy. It was an immense challenge, and I learned a lot.

I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Maybe some of the earliest stuff, for old commercials. You know – simple phone packshots and such. But even that is not really cringy, just stuff that has not aged well.

The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

The work I did for Apex Legends ('Stories from the Outlands') was a blast because I got to work with insanely cool people in LA. Apart from that – all the work I did for Ubisoft's 'Hyperscape' - I had the opportunity to be involved from a very early stage of the game’s development, and it was great fun to see it evolve into what it is now.