Think of any memorable scene from your favorite video game. Be it the fiery chaos of a battlefield, or just a subtle glitter of the river, chances are a VFX artist had a role to play in creating the magical experience you’ve had.
And the full-service visual effects team at Beyond-FX does exactly that – creating immersive and interactive visual effects for your favorite games and media. Having contributed their expertise to games such as Valorant and Mortal Kombat 1, you can imagine our excitement when the studio joined Virtuos in March 2024. This provided us a unique opportunity to learn from industry-leading experts, while growing our capabilities in the specialized field of real-time VFX.
A few months into this exciting chapter, we caught up with Keith Guerrette, General Manager, and Becka McIntosh, Deputy General Manager, to learn more about their journeys in the video game industry, the Beyond-FX team, and their plans for the studio moving forward.
Hi Keith and Becka, please introduce yourself and share your favorite video game with us!
Keith: I’m the General Manager of Beyond-FX; this title still feels weird as I’ve never felt like a manager or an executive. I’m a VFX artist by trade, and founded Beyond-FX in 2016 as an experiment to see if it is possible to be a passionate VFX artist who shares expertise and knowledge as a direct part of multiple productions across the industry. Almost nine years and 100 projects later, it’s still an ongoing experiment with unique challenges at every step.
My heart has always been in mentorship and education, which is also the core of Beyond-FX. In the same period that Beyond-FX was founded, I also started the online community realtimevfx.com, and helped launch the Realtime VFX Bootcamp at the Game Developer Conference (GDC), which we have converted into an official summit this year.
Keith Guerrette, General Manager of Beyond-FX
My favorite video game… that’s a tough one. Time is not something I have to spare, so I often don’t get to sink hours in games the way I used to. But the game that had the largest impact on my life? That would be Half- Life. Seeing the potential of interactive narrative hinted at in that game set my imagination and soul on fire with the idea of this medium being the greatest storytelling technique of humankind.
Becka: I’m the Deputy General Manager of Beyond-FX. While new to Virtuos, as we have only just joined, I’ve been with Beyond-FX for four years. I’ve spent over a decade tackling all sorts of challenges in the video game industry, from revitalizing Marvel Games to overseeing projects in marketing, events, voice casting, and more.
Becka McIntosh, Deputy General Manager of Beyond-FX
My favorite video game currently is Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m having a thoroughly good time playing with my studio teammates (we have a small squad) or my family. However, my favorite game of all time is a tie between World of Warcraft and Dragon Age II.
Tell us about your journey – what attracted you to the games industry, and what keeps you going?
Becka: I’ve always been a gamer. From playing Duck Hunt against my family for the top score to spending too many hours on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and The Simpsons’ arcade cabinets, I’ve loved what it feels like to get lost in a video game. I always wanted to combine work and the things I love, so when I had the chance to start working in the games industry, I took it!
Having experienced our industry from so many aspects and roles, I can confidently say that the best part is definitely the people. I love being able to support and continue to build a world-class team of passionate game developers. There is nothing like them in any other industry, and they are what keeps me going!
Keith: I grew up wanting to tell stories. I studied 3D arts in college and fell in love with the puzzle aspect of VFX compositing and film effects. Then while teaching at a university, a student asked me how game effects were made. I didn’t know then, but I wanted to. So I went home, opened Quake II and Unreal Tournament 2004, and started recreating every effect I saw in their tools.
I fell in love with the interactivity, how changes in the effects changed the way the game felt, problem solving, and the potential of good visual effects within a game.
My career eventually led me to lead the VFX department at Naughty Dog. There, I was surrounded by team members trying to use the game medium for something bigger – to evoke emotions, create experiences, and tell meaningful stories. I absolutely fell in love with these ideas.
As Beyond-FX continues to expand, I’ve grown further and further from those direct touch points. But every time I sit in a sales call and hear a pitch for a game from a passionate developer I believe in – that passionate artist deep in my heart resurfaces.
Keith, you had years of experience as a VFX artist before founding Beyond-FX. What was one thing you wanted to do differently when you set up the studio in 2016?
Keith: For almost a decade leading the VFX department at Naughty Dog, I was constantly struck by the thought that there has to be a better way to make these games, or at least, to exist as an artist and still be able to pursue work that we’re proud of.
When I stepped away, I had the opportunity to consult with and join many of my other dream studios – Santa Monica Studios, EA’s Visceral Games, Sony’s Bend Studio, Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment – and countless indie studios that I was inspired by. What struck me was the studios I’d really want to work for are the indie teams. Big studios offered stability, but I would be far removed from the core issues that I wanted to tackle. But while indie studios provided me that opportunity to do so, they couldn’t afford to keep me on staff.
I spent a bit of time finding direction while freelancing, and quickly found that I could have an incredible career doing so – learning from and supporting multiple inspiring projects, joining clients’ teams directly and supporting them with strong leadership and expertise in real-time VFX and fully integrated production. That realization led to the idea of setting up a team.
I wondered if it was actually possible to run a business based on that? One that could provide a good quality of life for artists, while keeping them away from the drama within individual development teams? And if so, can we also create a great mentorship cycle within it, whereby VFX artists can learn, explore, and grow? With that, Beyond-FX was born with mentorship and growth at its heart.
Becka, you joined Beyond-FX in 2020 as a Studio Manager. What attracted you to join the team?
Becka: Previously, I had been more on the IP-focused, brand/marketing side of the games industry. I wanted to spend more time supporting the making of games, rather than just marketing them, and hence joined Beyond-FX. The team is just amazing. Not only are they all ridiculously talented and fun, but we all work together to foster a healthy and positive environment for people to thrive and craft games in.
The team at Beyond-FX
Tell us one fun fact about Beyond-FX!
Keith: When I founded the studio, my puppy Holly was sick, so I brought her into the office with me every day to help care for her. She had great energy and would greet everyone each day with a happy smile. Very quickly, she became a teammate to all of us including our guests, friends, and clients. Eventually, she was given the honorary title of “Happiness Specialist” here at Beyond-FX and even has a picture up on our website’s team profiles.
Holly, Beyond-FX’s Happiness Specialist, and Lettie, Keith’s other puppy pictured together
Becka: Our team spans over 11 countries and 13 nationalities. Despite the challenges presented by being so spread out and in different time zones, we maintain a close-knit team where we’re all in constant contact on everything from art to music, to sharing cute pet pictures, family photos, and more!
The VFX community is tight knit. What are some initiatives by the studio to connect with the larger VFX community and aspiring VFX artists?
Keith: The heart of our studio is mentorship and growth. It is my personal goal that every team member in Beyond-FX is supported in achieving their individual growth goals, even if it means directly helping them grow into positions outside of our studio.
We surround ourselves with education in mind at all times. For our team members, we create internal initiatives to challenge them for mutual growth and support, as well as specific days away from our client work to focus on education For example, our team collaborates on an internal “VFX” jam project each year to give them an opportunity to step away from their routines and encourage teamwork. Beyond this, we also host various educational events throughout the year, including lunch and learns, sketch exercises, tutorials on groundbreaking techniques and new tips and tricks. These initiatives help drive conversations on the growth and professional development of each team member, to enhance their technical skills, confidence, and artistic flexibility.
Externally, I still run realtimevfx.com, and make sure that we are actively supporting the industry at every opportunity. This includes knowledge sharing and lectures at universities and conferences, sponsoring mixers and industry events, and frequently inviting external guest speakers to share their insights with our team.
Becka: At Beyond-FX, we are huge on giving back to the broader VFX community. To do that, we generate a lot of educational content that we release as soon as it’s done, no strings attached, to empower and educate other (and future!) VFX artists. Other than sponsoring industry events as Keith mentioned, we also host our small but mighty end-of-year real-time VFX Awards to support and cheer our community.
Beyond-FX’s VFX Awards
Beyond-FX joined Virtuos in March 2024. How did you feel then, and what do you envision for the studio moving forward?
Keith: We spent a long year trying to decide if joining Virtuos was the right way forward for us. The truth is, we were growing past my confidence to lead – I’m a VFX artist, not an international businessman. However, we were playing at a scale that would require me to grow a business development team, HR team, finance team, and more. This was pulling me further and further away from the actual development work that I love.
Virtuos was an opportunity for us to partner with experts who were already succeeding in those areas. I’m excited to able to turn all my attention to all the opportunities in front of us for VFX development, mentorship, client value, and more. Here we are, four months later – that hopeful vision is still true, though as with most things, it will take some time to get there 😉
Becka: I am really excited for our studio to work with the wider, global Virtuos team to expand what we’re capable of in all fronts from education to internal artist growth and in client engagement.
There is something really exciting about seeing the wider network of Virtuos artists and teammates who can help us widen and expand our dreams on a level we wouldn’t be able to reach as an independent studio.
And we’re excited about being able to learn from and exchange insights with a team of talented VFX artists too! Thank you, Keith and Becka, for taking the time to share your insights. We look forward to collaborating and continuing to push the boundaries of visual effects to make better games.
