The world premiere of the third part of 'The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt', which is scheduled for the 19th of May, will be watched attentively by two Wroclaw inhabitants Mariusz Radomski and Łukasz Kubiński. Their company Dash Dot Creations co-operated in the preparation of part of the animation for this game. They prepared, among others, static cards and worked on gameplay animations.
‘It is a huge world production, on which many people and companies have to work. It was our pleasure to be invited to participate in this incredible undertaking by CD Projekt,’ says Mariusz Radomski.
The Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin) – an action role-playing video game created by the Polish studio CD Projekt RED – is probably the best known Polish export product. A copy of ‘The Witcher 2’ was granted to Barack Obama during his visit to Poland. Some say that ‘The Witcher’ can be as important for Poles as Nokia is for the Finnish. Some go even further and say that it is the Polish Apple or Windows.
‘The scale of this project is well reflected by finance on this market. The currently biggest game productions have budgets on the level of hundreds of millions of USD and are often more spectacular than film productions with popular actors. Sales profits are also counted in hundreds of millions of USD,’ says Mariusz Radomski, adding that 'The Witcher' is a historical science fiction game based on Slavic Polish roots. The game may increase interest in Poland to the same extent to which ‘The Lord of the Rings’ promoted New Zealand. To sum up, CD Projekt RED created a product that presents Poland as a country of people with a huge intellectual and creative potential. The same opinion was expressed by Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, who visited the office of CD Projekt RED on the day of the premiere of the game.
An economist and an artist set up a company
Dash Dot Creations was established by Mariusz Radomski, an economist, and Łukasz Kubiński, a computer graphic designer, in 2007. They knew that they wanted to create computer animations.
‘I was out of work, my wife was expecting a baby, and I looked for an idea for myself. I decided to try my luck in private business and set up an advertising agency. After I met Łukasz, who had experience in doing animations, we decided to act together,’ recollects Mariusz.
Eventually, instead of an advertising studio, they created a company engaged in animation and postproduction. The beginnings were not easy. They prepared their first projects on one computer and a modest laptop. In this field, without expensive specialist equipment and costly software, it is a backbreaking task. One workstation costs around 60 thousand PLN and must be modernised every year to avoid lagging behind competitors. Initially, Mariusz was responsible for the acquisition of orders and contacts with customers, and Łukasz prepared graphic designs.
‘The first money we earned was spent on equipment. It was not easy to break through to the domestic market, because most Polish companies specialising in animation are based in Warsaw,’ stresses Mariusz. Even though their company co-operates with producers of computer games, they do not play themselves: ‘I'm afraid that they would absorb me. Once I was an avid player and I could often play till late at night, but that's already a thing of the past.’
Today Dash Dot Creations collaborates with several persons and has completed many projects on the advertising (they worked on advertisements for mBank, BGŻ, etc.) and game markets. They took part in the biggest Polish productions: ‘The Witcher’ – CD Projekt RED, ‘Sniper: Ghost Warrior’ – CI Games (formerly City Interactive), ‘Dying Light’ - Techland. They create animations, teasers (short advertising videos) and many advertising materials for games.
