Tim Hijlkema is a professional animator. The talented Dutch artist has worked on campaigns for car manufacturers, Alienware, Vodafone and more, but in his spare time, he likes to make his own short films. He also seems to be a serious video gamer.
Uniting two of his loves, Hijlkema has created a 4-minute short film that recreates famous locations from 15 popular video games of the last few years. It's unknown if he created it as a résumé of sorts, or if he just did it for fun. But it sure is pretty. Each location appears for just a few seconds, but they're photorealistic and three-dimensional. At times, you may think you're looking at film taken in real-world locations. Watch closely, and you might spot a few famous video game characters.
Even more impressive, all 15 locations look as if they could inhabit the same world, without losing any of the style that makes them identifiable. Hijlkema has great taste in games, too; his short film references locations from the games of Valve, Naughty Dog, Rockstar, Bethesda, Telltale, Remedy and other developers.
Can you name them all? (The complete list is below the video.) Also, don't miss the last one. It's the only one that's not actually a location. But you'll have to watch to see what I mean.
Pretty amazing, huh? Sure makes me want to go back and experience some of those worlds again.
In the order they appear, they are:
1. Hidden Pines Corral Ranch from The Last of Us
2. Michael's safehouse from Grand Theft Auto V
3. Salieri's Bar from Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
4. Tenpenny's Tower in Vault 101 from Fallout 3
5. Kleiner's Lab in City 17 from Half-Life 2
6. Cauldron Lake Lodge from Alan Wake
7. Towns of Windhelm and Riverwood from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
8. City canals from Mirror's Edge
9. Meeting Room (Museum Ending) from The Stanley Parable
10. Clementine's house from The Walking Dead, Season 1
11. Dunwall Tower from Dishonored
12. Chermarus from DayZ
13. Suburbs ("A New Life" mission) from Hitman: Blood Money
14. Whispering Oaks from Left 4 Dead 2
15. Colossus #15 from Shadow of the Colossus
If you enjoyed Hijlkema's short film, you should also watch his "Video Game Planets" video. It's a much more whimsical, stylized look at 20 fictional worlds from popular video games. And don't forget to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
