Andrey Lebrov is a CG and VFX Director, as well as a Co-Founder of Out of Nothing, Ltd.

Andrey was born in Ukraine, raised in Liepaja, Latvia. He began working as a freelancer at the age of 15 as a Photoshop Artist. He eventually immigrated to the U.K. to pursue better opportunities in visual effects. Andrey is a self-taught CG Artist. He launched his YouTube Channel to share what he’s learned in CG and cinematography.

In this Podcast, Andrey shares his journey of learning, perseverance and success as a CG and VFX Artist.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/269/.

This is a Live Stream I did a while back. I walked about what I would do differently if I were to start my career again now.

I started my career 25 years ago. I’ve been doing 3D for a bit longer than that. I look at what it took to get my career to where it is: It was a lot of hard work, a lot of persistence, a lot of failure too. But it would be different if I were to start today. Back in the day, there were fewer studios and less competition. In 2019, it would be a different journey. So I want to talk about how I would fast track my career these days.

In this Podcast, I talk about the two levers you need to launch your career, give advice on how to learn, how to build your first reel, how to network -- and what it takes to eventually get your Dream Job.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/195/.

David Vickery is a VFX Supervisor at ILM, well known for his work on films such as Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2, Fast & Furious 6 and Jupiter Ascending. His work has been recognized with an Academy Award® nomination and the 2012 BAFTA Award for Special Visual Effects for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in addition to numerous Visual Effects Society Award nominations and wins.

Vickery joined ILM having spent the past 13 years at London effects house Double Negative where he worked his way up from CG Artist to Lead 3D artist then CG Supervisor on such films as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum, Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.

Having strong ties to the visual effects community in London, Vickery formerly sat as Co-Chair on the UK board of the Visual Effects Society and is a member of BAFTA. After completing a Degree in Industrial Design at De-Montfort University, Vickery went on to receive an MA in Digital Moving Image from London Metropolitan University.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews ILM’s VFX Supervisor David Vickery about his journey from a VFX Artist to supervising on set, dealing with rejection, working at ILM, working on projects like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Cloverfield, Die Another Day; communicating with creatives and the importance of mentoring younger artists.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/361.

An overview of the process to safely switch careers down the road. Some of us are in careers that we aren't 100% satisfied and want to make the change over to a creative industry. However there is so much risk that we face that it's almost a gamble this late in our career. This episode we delve into the process and thoughts behind how to build a plan around switching successfully from your current career path to your dream job!

Check out the shownotes at http://www.allanmckay.com/67/

This episode is a look back at my year and what I accomplished, as well as a lot of very valuable lessons I've learned along the way, including areas I failed and what I have taken from that. A lot of valuable information I've taken from this experience and how I can apply this to 2015.

The most valuable piece is a overview of the 3-6-3 mindset which is how I personally have owed a lot of my success as well as how I have defined a lot of my goals and lifestyle around. Really great and valuable information that will ensure you hit your goals in 2015 but also your BIGGER goals further down the road to position yourself in the career and lifestyle that you've always dreamed of!

HAPPY 2015!!!

Freddie Wong is a Director, CEO and a Co-Founder of RocketJump Studios, a YouTube channel that has gained nearly 8 million subscribers since its inception in April 2010. Named as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars by Forbes magazine, Freddie is the most subscribed video director on YouTube.

The channel’s flagship series Video Game High School now has over 50 million views. In 2013, the series was named the #1 Web Series by Variety magazine. Freddie has also successfully launched RocketJump Film School whose mission is to give a new generation of filmmakers the tools to share their stories.

In this interview, Freddie Wong talks about the history of RocketJump, the inception of Video Game High School, and shares his insight on great storytelling, low budgets and the most useful technology.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/92/. 

Because of the change that’s happening due to COVID-19 and quarantine, a lot of us had to shift to working from home. The day that the quarantine happened, everyone started to shut down. It got scary for a minute. But it’s really interesting how every studio was able to pivot and adapt to what was going on. And this is not just visual effects. This is worldwide! It’s reflecting on everything. The entire world had to learn to roll with the punches. 

The advantages are that you’re no longer stuck in a city where you have to work. That means you don’t have to live in an expensive city. You can move to cheaper cities or countries. That also means that those of you that didn’t have an opportunity to work for ILM before, you now have a chance to do that. You don’t need a work visa. Bit by bit, things are becoming global.

In this Podcast, Allan takes a look at the consequences of having to work from home post COVID-19, breaks down different ways VFX artists can make it happen and the positive outcomes of transitioning into a truly global industry.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/263/.

A native Californian, David Tanaka attended the University of California at Berkeley where in 1989 he earned his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Film Theory. Upon graduating, he worked for post-production facilities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, quickly gaining experience through corporate advertising and industrial documentary assignments.

In 1990, he joined Industrial Light & Magic, Lucas Digital Ltd., and served as a Senior Visual Effects Editor for fifteen years. His credits include Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and Star Wars. In 2005, he accepted a Staff Post-Production Editor position for Pixar Animation Studios, handling trailer, international and marketing post-production pipeline matters on Cars, Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Brave.

In 2007, David was elected to the board of the Visual Effects Society's Northern California Section. In 2011 he was elected as Sectional Chairman and sincerely looks forward to the social and professional opportunities the Visual Effects Society provides for his fellow colleagues in the entertainment industry.

Father of two (Mitchell, age 13, and Benjamin, age 10), he loves sharing the craft of film production, editing and visual effects with his family in the form of personal video projects and online challenges. Over the past few years, they have won international acclaim for internet competitions sponsored by Dreamworks Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and the Pepsi Corporation. All in the name of fun, David enjoys exposing his sons to not only the rewards, but also the hard work associated with his craft, while they together explore the ever-evolving frontier of multimedia.

In addition to the Visual Effects Society, David is also an honorary member of Swords to Plowshares: A Veterans' Rights Organization for his psa producing contributions.

In this Podcast, Allan interviews David about his career, his experience working for both ILM and Pixar; as well as the importance of building a personal brand and relationships as a VFX artist and / or freelancer.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/281/.

This Podcast is in response to someone’s message, “How do I get things done? And how do I stay motivated?” You have to start thinking like a producer. You have to ask yourself the questions, “Where can my time go so I get more bang for my buck? Where can I make the most amount?” It’s about making decisions on where the core of your time goes and what’s your Return On Investment (ROI) is.

The more you question these things, the more creative you get. There are different ways you can leverage things to your advantage. You’ll start to look at your habits and realize where you’re leaking time -- and coming up with solutions.

In this Podcast, Allan answers the crucial question of, “How do I stay motivated?” by tackling the bigger question of what your bigger purpose is -- your WHY -- and also gives a few hacks to get a lot more done in your day.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/254/.

Evercast combines video conferencing and HD live streaming in one web-based platform allowing for a secure, real-time collaboration — whether your team is across town or around the world.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks to Brad Thomas and Roger Barton, two of the Founders of Evercast, about the inception of the company, its journey through challenges -- to becoming today’s groundbreaking technology for creatives working remotely.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/280/.

COVID-19 created havoc in people’s lives and for a while, we thought it would shut down the VFX industry. But it turned out to have the opposite effect. As productions shut down, the studios sent artists home and their equipment to their homes, allowing for artists to work from home. That also means that studios could now hire from artists from anywhere, turning the industry into a truly global one. Which also meant incredible opportunities for artists anywhere.

In addition, VFX has become a booming industry. That gives opportunities for smaller studios to compete. There is so much work out there – and not enough artists to do that work. Which means that artists are in demand. The technological innovations, like virtual production, got sped up. For the studios, their overhead has gone down.

For artists, VFX has become a healthier culture. Because artists work from home, they can spend time with their families and no longer need to commit long commutes to work. Because artists now have stations at home, they can also become freelancers. Of course, this should inspire artists to learn new skills (i.e. Unreal Engine) and grow; or to even launch their own studios. 

If you’ve always dreamed of being a VFX artist, now is the time for you! In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about the positive outcomes of COVID-19 on the VFX industry – from both an artist’s and a studio’s perspective – and why now is the perfect time to learn, innovate and leverage the career you’ve always wanted!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/380.

This episode we dive right into what it takes to launch your own studio. Such a big subject and so much to cover - if you want to know more go to http://www.allanmckay.com/35/ leave a comment #Iwanttoknowmore! and I will gladly put together a step by step episode series on the business strategy and steps necessary involved in launching a visual effects studio!

Richard Edlund is a four-time Academy Award visual effects winner for Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. He is VFX Supervisor, Producer and Cinematographer. Richard was also nominated for Poltergeist, 2010, Ghostbusters, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Die Hard and Alien 3. He’s won three Academy Technical Awards, the British Academy Award for Poltergeist and Return of the Jedi. He earned an Emmy for creating the visual effects for the original television miniseries Battlestar Galactica and another nomination for Mike Nichols’ Angels in America. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him with their John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation in recognition of his contributions to the Academy. And the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) presented him with their esteemed Presidents Award in 2008. He has also received top accolades from the Visual Effects Society, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and numerous other organizations.

In 1975, Richard was one of the first visual effects artists to join fellow VFX enthusiast, John Dykstra for a startup he called Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). This team of filmmakers began their work on a movie called Star Wars. When the new technology and Star Wars franchise clicked, Richard moved to Marin County to supervise visual effects for the next two episodes of Star Wars, as well as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist. 

In 1984, he took over the equipment amassed by Doug Trumbull’s Entertainment Effects Group and retooled the 65mm visual effects company, renaming it Boss Film Studios. Boss Films became a star in the visual effects world, when company simultaneously produced the comedic visual effects for Ghostbusters, created a hybrid technology integrating NASA’s digital images of Jupiter into a key sequence in 2010. Boss’s pioneering VFX technology went on to create stunning imagery for over 40 features, including Die Hard, Ghost, Poltergeist 2, Alien3, Species, Multiplicity, Air Force One. Masters of the Universe, Cliffhanger, Batman Returns, The Last Action Hero, Waterworld, Heat, Starship Troopers and a slew of other high profile projects, including pioneering Bud Light Superbowl spots. The company achieved ten Academy Award nominations over a fourteen-year period.

Richard is a twenty-two year Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, founding member of the AMPAS visual effects branch and is chair of the Branch Executive Committee, also chairman of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. He also serves as a board member of the VES and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Cinematographers. 

Richard is a frequent lecturer at industry organizations and universities across the world including USC and Chapman film schools. His 1977 Oscar for Star Wars is currently on display at the newly opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

In this Episode, legendary Oscar-winning VFX Supervisor, Producer and Cinematographer Richard Edlund talks about his work on some of the most influential films and their groundbreaking VFX sequences: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters and Die Hard.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/335/.

It is so critical to know when you are reaching out to people who are extremely busy. If you put yourself in the other person’s shoes when you communicate with them -- and understand how they’re going to react -- that’s worth its weight in gold. And it helps you communicate better with them, knowing what their needs and problems are.

It’s something you have to be strategic about:

- How do you get their attention?
- How do you get them to read your message?
- And most importantly, how do you get them to respond?

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about the subject of how to contact hard-to-reach people -- Heads of studios, HR Managers -- and gives tips on how to get them to respond.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/250/.

In the latest episode, I'm excited to spotlight David Wahlberg, an esteemed 2D Pipeline Supervisor and Comp Supervisor at Important Looking Pirates VFX in Stockholm, Sweden. With an expansive career of over 17 years, David has traversed the globe, contributing his vast skills to studios in Stockholm, Oslo, London, Sydney and Wellington. His work encompasses roles as a comp supervisor, senior compositor, and a pioneer in developing tools and plugins for Nuke, leveraging his programming expertise in C++ and Python to advance the VFX industry.

David's portfolio boasts participation in major productions such as "The Book of Boba Fett", "The Mandalorian", "Star Wars" sequels, "The Hobbit" series, and more. He is also the founder of Pixelmania, a company at the forefront of AI-powered VFX tools, showcasing his passion for merging technology with visual effects. For insights into David's influential work and Pixelmania's innovative tools, visit www.pixelmania.se.

Join us as we dive into the world of visual effects with David Wahlberg, exploring the blend of art and technology that defines his career and contributions to some of the most iconic visuals in film and television.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1996338/

https://pixelmania.se/

https://www.ilpvfx.com/

Kathleen Ruffalo is the Crew Manager for Framestore. She is in charge of recruitment, management and team development at both the Los Angeles and Chicago offices. 

After years of production experience, Kathleen joined Framestore in 2012. Since then, she has become an integral part of growing the creativity and culture within Framestore. She casts a wide array of skill sets that match the industry’s ever-changing and evolving technologies.

In this Episode, Kathleen talks about becoming an artist in demand -- the importance of both technical and artistic, hard and soft skills -- and gives valuable tips on reels and getting started in Visual Effects.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/146/.

Catherine Mullan is an Animation Supervisor at MPC. Over the course of her career, she has worked for studios like Framestore, Animal Logic, MPC. Her credits include big budget films like Guardians of the Gallaxy, The Hunger Games, Maleficent, X-Men: First Class, Clash of the Titans, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter -- and many more.

Right after graduating from Bournemouth University’s Computer Animation Course in London, U.K., Catherine joined Framestore as a junior animator. She has been working in visual effects for over a decade. Her work has earned a 2005 Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects (for The Last Dragon) and a nomination from VES (for Outstanding Animated Character in The Chronicles of Narnia), in 2011.

In this Podcast, Catherine talks about her career -- from joining Framestore as a Junior Animator, through her current position as an Animation Sup at MPC -- the most hirable skills for VFX artists and the importance of your demo reel.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/140/.

A lot of us wait until a job is over and we dust off our reel and start applying for jobs again. A good metaphor here is: You want to build your well before you’re thirsty. Don’t wait until the desperate moment when you need a job. You can be the greatest artist in the world. But if no one knows you, why does that matter? It’s important to build and nurture authentic relationships in the business.

What if you had the ability to pull up anyone’s email address? Any studio head, any supervisor or department lead? What if you could pinpoint every one of those in your area? You can start building relationships -- NOW! You can then start sharing your work organically.

In this Episode, Allan McKay goes over the tools and tactics on how to get anyone’s email address -- from Department Leads to Studio Heads -- and how to start building your social capital.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/150/.

Andrea Goh is a San Francisco based Technical Director and Layout Artist. Her curiosity has driven her to acquire multiple sets of skills: rigging, scripting, sculpting, pipeline, assembly and layout. After studying at an art college in her native country of Malaysia, she pursued an additional degree at the San Francisco Academy of Art. After graduating, her first job was as Layout Artist in the Camera and Staging Department at Pixar Animation Studios.

Andrea has rigged in many films including Exit, Unmasked and VR games like Lilypad. As a layout artist, she has contributed to films like Cars 3, Coco and Incredibles 2. She is also the Technical Supervisor of Sonder, a short film that uses a unique Maya and Unity pipeline. 

In this Episode, Andrea talks about her journey as an artist, setting high goals -- and actually getting them accomplished -- and then setting new ones!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/168/.

Episode 22 is epic! Check it out! Everything from discussing careers, hiring artists, scheduling and budgets through to more heavier into the production side of film and design projects. We cover everything from Coldplay music videos to The girl with the dragon tatoo and beyond! 

Zacharias “Zach” Reinhardt is a 3D Artist, as well as Founder and Lead Instructor at CG Boost. CG Boost provides Blender tutorials and resources for 3D artists, in order to make creating passionate 3D projects achievable for anyone.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews the Founder of CG Boost Zach Reinhardt about starting his YouTube Channel and gaining traction, the inspiration behind launching his company, alternative packages to study Blender, which area of the industry uses Blender the most – as well as how to make a living as a 3D artist!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/430.

Probably one of the more controversial episodes put out - as is anything to do with money. But this episode dives into understanding the logistics of what you charge as a freelancer and how to re-think it all to get what you are worth, but also do it in a way that your clients get exactly what they want as well.

Show notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/63/

How do you land your dream job at your dream studio? You start by having a killer reel. The more you look at the history of the studio, the more you can understand who they’re looking to hire. If you look at what this studio does a lot of, that’s going to dictate what their needs may be. Your reel needs to reflect that.

Be the one person that’s 100% aligned with the type of work that your dream studio does, so you can stand out. When you put yourself in the shoes of the person hiring, you make yourself memorable. So research the place you want to work for. If this is your dream job -- you have to align your work with them 100%.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay breaks down the science behind a great reel that can land you your dream job, at your dream studio.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/301/.

William Faucher is a 3D Artist, Unreal Engine Educator, CG Spectrum Mentor and a successful YouTuber. He is a deaf 3D Generalist who’s been working in the entertainment industry for the past 14 years. Some of his titles include VFX / CGI shots in Marvel's Black Panther and HBO's Watchmen. 

He created his YouTube Channel over 2 years ago and it currently has over 165K subscribers. 

In this Podcast, 3D Artist, YouTuber and Unreal Engine Educator William Faucher talks about his journey of in VFX and Unreal, as well as gives advice to artists about the importance of being a generalist, learning new skills, embracing one’s soft skills, and knowing how to take criticism.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/399.

Tehmina Beg is a New-York based VFX Supervisor currently working at Molecule VFX. She has previously worked at Zoic Studios, The Mill, MPC. Tehmina’s credits include Homeland, Quantico, The Defenders, The Blacklist, Modern Love and most recently And Just Like That. She is a self-taught artist and photographer.

In this Podcast, Allan and Tehmina talk about balancing creative and technical skills, courage to learn and ask questions, benefits of gaining experience as a generalist and a freelancer – and why 2022 is the best time to be a VFX artist!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/343/.

Goro Fujita is an Art Director, illustrator and visual development artist based in the Bay Area. He started his career working as a freelance character animator and visual development artist for various companies in Germany.

In 2008, Goro joined DreamWorks Animation as a visual development artist and worked on Merry Madagascar, Megamind, Madagascar 3, Penguins of Madagascar and Boss Baby. He left DreamWorks in 2015 and joined Oculus Story Studio in San Francisco where he art directed the Emmy Award winning VR experience Henry. Goro is also known for pioneering art in VR using tools like Quill and Medium. 

In 2017 he joined Facebook Social VR to continue the development on Quill and to introduce the world to art in VR.

In this Podcast, Goro talks about his daily practice of speed painting, creating his own opportunities by working on short films, getting a job at DreamWorks and the importance of getting outside your comfort zone. 

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/180/.

Scott Stokdyk is an Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor. During his two decades of experience in visual effects, he has worked for big studios like Digital Domain and Sony Pictures ImageWorks. Some of the groundbreaking films on his resume are: Titanic, Contact, Starship Troopers, Hollow Man, Fifth Element and three of the Spider-Man movies. Scott’s work on Spider-Man 2 won him and his team an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.

Most recently, Scott worked as a Visual Effect Supervisor on Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

In this Episode, Allan interviews Scott about his experience working for big studios, on blockbuster films; what makes a successful artist or a dynamic VFX Supervisor -- and other lessons he’s learned along the way!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/89/. 

Tony Giglio is a writer, director and producer. He worked his way up from a production assistant to become one of Hollywood's most versatile multi-hyphenates. Universal's 1440 has tapped Tony to write and direct a reboot of Doom: Annihilation. Previously, Tony directed feature films S.W.A.T.: Under Siege, 2nd Unit on Resident Evil, Timber Falls. In 2005, Giglio wrote and directed his best known work, the action-thriller Chaos, starring Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe and Wesley Snipes. He also wrote, produced and directed Sony Crackle's first ever made for new media feature Extraction; and co-wrote and directed the WWII drama In Enemy Hands, starring William H. Macy.

Nina Bergman is an actress, singer, songwriter and model. She was born in Denmark and is the granddaughter of Russian actor Pavel Kadochnikov (Ivan The Terrible). Nina spent her early childhood traveling around Europe with her Russian Gypsy grandparents. At 14, she received a scholarship to the musical theater school Urdang Academy in London. A year later she found herself in Moscow attending the Bolshoi Theater. From there she went to the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her credits include The Car: Road to Revenge, Lost ‘n’ Found and many others.

In this Episode, Allan McKay interviews Tony and Nina about their experience on the feature film Doom: Annihilation that premiered in October 2019.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/220/.

Bay Raitt is a designer, sculptor, character lead, animator, animation director and graphic novel creator. He was one of the first 30 employees hired at Weta Digital. As a Creature Facial Lead, he was responsible for building the facial system for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. In 2003, Bay received a VES Award for Best Character Animation in a Live Action Motion Picture, for his work on Gollum.

Bay began his career working for Steve Oliff doing color separations for Image Comics. He has also worked for Protozoa, Nichimen Graphics, Weta Workshop and Valve Corporation. His current project is Nanite Fulcrum, a first of its kind, fully immersive Virtual Reality comic, based on the screenplay by Bay. 

In this Episode, Allan McKay and Bay Raitt discuss the history of CG animation, its future platforms (including VR) -- and how to get your dream job!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/102/

Stability AI is the company behind Stable Diffusion, a powerful, free and open-source text-to-image generator that launched in August 2022. Since launching, Stable Diffusion has been downloaded and licensed by more than 200,000 developers globally. Stability AI's consumer-facing product DreamStudio quickly grew to well over a million registered users from more than 50 countries who collectively have created more than 170 million images.

Headquartered in London with developers distributed across the globe, Stability AI was founded by Emad Mostaque as the first open-source, artificial intelligence (AI) company developing breakthrough technologies for the benefit of humanity and the world. 

In this Podcast, Creative Director for Stability AI Bill Cusick talks about the creative vision behind Stable Diffusion and its potential application in art and filmmaking, the meaning of AI in the history of humanity; and why artists should get excited about the existence of AI art (instead of viewing it as competition)!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/390.*

*This interview was recorded in November 2022.

David Baylis is a 3D Artist living in Vancouver B.C Canada who specializes in automotive real-time rendering using Unreal Engine. He is originally from Lille, France. David works at Epic Games as a Consultant who produces demos, tutorials and webinars.

Having always been a car enthusiast, David loves exploring new ways to deliver photorealistic renderings. There is a lot of history behind each car, and that is what he tries to portray in his artworks.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews 3D Artist David Baylis about innovations in ray tracing and AI, the future of VFX careers in the era of machine learning, NVIDIA and Chat GPT, DLSS technology, how to get started in Unreal and why learning 3D is a lifelong occupation.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/418.

In the beginning of our career, we just want traction: those quick wins that will validate us. When we get to that elite level, there are tidbits of advice from everyone else that sound stupid. But most of the things we think are stupid -- at the elite level -- are the biggest breakthrough of all. At the beginning of a VFX career, we all get technical. Instead, we should put our attention on that one thing that’s getting traction. Everything else is a distraction.

Technical skills can only get you so far. We will be picking all kinds of new software when we go to work at different studios anyway. Most of us are missing out on the metrics. We need to look at the problem that the studio we want to work for is trying to solve: Is it explosions? Is it character rigging? The more micro we get into that problem solving, the more we’re going to stand out because our message will be more laser focused.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay addresses the different advice artists need to hear at certain parts of their career, and compares technical skills to skills that give you a bird’s-eye view of your career -- and propel it upward.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/313/.

We all have doubts if we’re on the right path. Being an artist requires a lot of patience, perseverance and skill. In addition, we have to continue learning and innovating. 

There is this inner voice that asks, “Am I investing my time into something that’s going to pay off?” It weighs on you. It doesn’t help when we have people around us, telling us to give up. There is so much negativity on the internet – and on social media – as well, and it’s hard to weed out that noise. Everyone is opinionated and not everyone knows what they’re talking about. It makes us double guess our path and sometimes even give up!

It’s tough to keep going when you’re alone. The best thing is to find our circle: A group of people excited about our one thing. If you’re an artist, you need to have people who support you and lift you up. You have to find your community. There is a concept of something called “monk mode”: It’s about eliminating the noise and getting focused. Get focused and surround yourself with people who help you rise up.

When it comes to VFX, there is no shortage of work out there – especially right now! But the negative people are the loudest. Before we lived in a permission based economy. Now, we are all connected and there is so much opportunity to do what we want to do! 

If there is something you want to do – go after it. There is no excuse to not get paid to be an artist. Art and design is everywhere. Everywhere we look, there is a need for artists. It’s just about lining up your skills with the right job. How do you do that? Through your portfolio / reel and your brand. That’s where social media is a great space: It allows you to show your work. 

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about the need for a community that supports and uplifts you as an artist; why it’s important to shut out the negativity of the internet and social media – and instead use it to promote your brand and gain exposure; and why right now – is the BEST TIME to be an artist!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/385.

Chris LeDoux is the Co-Founder of Crafty Apes, a VFX Supervisor and an Entrepreneur. 

Born and bred in Alaska, Chris earned Bachelor’s degree in both psychology and sociology, but his fascination with filmmaking led him to the world of visual effects. He began his career in VFX as a compositor at The Orphanage in 2004. He worked at numerous studios such as Uncharted Territory, Cafe FX and Scanline.

Now a veteran of the film industry, his impressive resume includes compositing and VFX supervision on multiple titles, including 12 Years a Slave, Doctor Strange, Better Call Saul, among others. He has also directed music videos and led visual effects teams for U2, Chris Cornell, New Kids on the Block, Paramore, just to name a few.

Crafty Apes is a full service, boutique VFX company based in Culver City, CA & Atlanta, GA. The company was launched in July of 2011 by three visual effects veterans Jason Sanford, Chris LeDoux and Tim LeDoux. Believing that strong 2D compositing is the backbone behind quality visual effects, Crafty Apes was formed to primarily offer high-end compositing services for feature films and television clients. 

Crafty Apes specializes in compositing effects and visual effects supervision. By paying extra attention to the detail and integration that 2D work requires and by working with the best technology available spread among a select group of artists, Crafty Apes can deliver a superior product to higher end clients in a shorter time period.

Their recent credits include: The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Lovecraft Country, Doctor Strange, Hidden Figures, Lalaland, Fist Fight, Pete's Dragon, Captain America: Civil War, Killing Reagan, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Dirty Grandpa, Allegiant, Insurgent, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Mass, The 33, Foxcatcher, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, The Monkey King, White House Down, Single Mom's Club, The Last Stand, A Madea's Christmas and many more.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay and the Co-Founder of Crafty Apes, VFX Supervisor and an Entrepreneur Chris LeDoux do a deep dive into the paradigm shift of Artificial Intelligence: Its effect on the future of VFX, a productive outlook at AI as a way to optimized things, how to train it to your advantage and Chris’s own investments into AI entrepreneurship.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/434.

The intense drama and riveting action in the newest primetime CBS hit series FIRE COUNTRY is accompanied by spectacular firestorms: The work of visual effects leaders CBS VFX which was selected by producers to create the namesake infernos and deliver other critical visual effects for the most watched new network series of the season. Led by VFX Supervisor Colin Strause, whose career includes such big-screen blockbusters as RAMPAGE, SAN ANDREAS and THE AVENGERS, CBS VFX brings together a visual effects crew of more than 100 people to deliver as many as 135 effects shots in every episode of the series from Jerry Bruckheimer Productions and CBS Studios.

To make fire into a palpable antagonist in the series and to showcase the many different and terrifying forms that fire can take, the work from CBS VFX incorporates multiple elements, sometimes including actual pyrotechnics that were filmed on set in highly controlled circumstances. Although the series is set in Northern California, it is shot in British Columbia where extremely dry conditions mostly prevent the large-scale use of physical fire.

FIRE COUNTRY is the largest in an impressive range of recent projects for CBS VFX, which have also included the acclaimed series ONE PERFECT SHOT for HBO Max and ARRAY Filmworks; and innovative virtual production solution to COVID-relateds challenges for THE DREW BARRYMORE SHOW; and special productions for the 2021 MTV Movie Awards and NCAA Final Four. 

CBS VFX has developed groundbreaking technology and created visual effects for multiple series across many networks, including Apple TV’s ROAR, THE OFFER for Paramount +, THIS IS US on NBC, Netflix’s DEAD TO ME, and BIG SHOT on Disney +.

Brothers Colin and Greg Strause have charted a meteoric rise from self-taught artists working on local cable commercials in the suburbs of Chicago, to renowned visual effects gurus. Their careers began on the original run of THE X-FILES television show before working their way onto early CG-driven features, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, VOLCANO, and the iceberg sequence of James Cameron's TITANIC. Founding their own VFX house, Hydraulx in 2002, the brothers have worked on visionary sequences for over ninety feature films including AVATAR, THE AVENGERS, SKYFALL, 300, CAPTAIN AMERICA, 2012, IRON MAN 2, BATTLE: LOS ANGELES and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. Their work on the latter brought Greg a BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews the VFX Supervisor, Director and Producer Colin Strause about his start in VFX – from launching his own company Hydraulx to directing feature films – his learning on the job and working on the challenging fire sequences on FIRE COUNTRY on CBS.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/401.

Rise FX was founded in 2007 by Sven Pannicke, Robert Pinnow, Markus Degen and Florian Gellinger in Berlin. Today, this award-winning company -- with offices in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne -- has roughly 100 permanent staff members in addition to 100 freelance artists, which makes it one of the biggest VFX studios in Central Europe.

Rise FX acts as collaborator for episodic series, as well as television and feature film, from early concept to mastering, concept art and previs, every day on set, during effects production and animation, as an advisor for the Digital Intermediate process. Rise FX has partnered with directors like Tom Tykwer (Babylon Berlin, A Hologram for the King, Cloud Atlas), Guy Ritchie (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Gore Verbinski (A Cure for Wellness), studios like Marvel (Captain America 1-3, Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy), Netflix (Dark), Sony Pictures (The Dark Tower), Europacorp (Renegades). It also produces more and more animated features (Richard the Stork, Dragon Rider). Its sister production company Rise Pictures develops its own original content and co-produces films and series for an international audience.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Rise FX’s Supervisors Andreas Giesen and Korbinian Hopfner about the secret to a great reel, the importance of starting out as a generalist, the soft and hard skills crucial for a successful VFX Artist, and much more.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/259/.

Brendan Kane is the Bestselling Author of ONE MILLION FOLLOWERS: HOW I BUILD A MASSIVE SOCIAL AUDIENCE IN 30 DAYS and HOOK POINT: HOW TO STAND OUT IN A 3-SECOND WORLD, as well as the Founder and Managing Director of Hook Point.

Since 2005, Brendan has helped the largest brands and celebrities in the world to reverse engineer how to make content go viral. He has worked with major corporations MTV, Viacom, Vice Magazine, Paramount Pictures, IKEA and Sketchers shoes on their digital strategy, as well as celebrities like Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Adriana Lima. In addition, he developed the first ever influencer campaign on YouTube in 2007; oversaw $200 million in marketing spend and generated $1 billion in revenue.

In this Podcast, Bestselling Author of ONE MILLION FOLLOWERS Brendan Kane talks about how-to’s of creating content that serves your viewers – and the algorithm, maximizing your followers’ engagement, content vs context, chaos as part of the creative process and so much more!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/386.

Cinefex is a bimonthly magazine devoted to motion picture visual effects. Since its 1980 launch by its Founder Don Shay, it’s been the bible for effects professionals and enthusiasts, covering the field like no other publication. Profusely illustrated in color, with in-depth articles and interviews, Cinefex offers a captivating look at the technologies and techniques behind many of our most popular and enduring movies.

The next issue of Cinefex No. 162 is out in mid-December 2018: http://www.cinefex.com/next_issue.htm. The Issue will cover feature films Alita: Battle Angel, Welcome to Marwen, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Aquaman. It will also include a story by Don Shay that covers the behind-the-scenes of the 1953 classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in an interview with Director Richard Fleischer. 

In this Podcast, Cinefex Editor in Chief Jody Duncan and Senior Staff Writer Graham Edwards discuss the publishing process, the legacy of the magazine and the influence of technology on the publication.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/171/.

An FX Technical Director is the coolest job in the world. You get to create some really cool shots! It’s a position that’s challenging to do, is fulfilling and fun and it’s not going to get extinct -- so it has legs to it! You’ll have more options and opportunities in your career as a TD.

The more you embrace what this role is, the more you’ll become irreplaceable. But it’s a job that demands problem solving skills. It’s all about exploring and constant learning. The more you play around -- the more you deal with challenges -- the more likely you will become an FX TD.

In this Podcast, Allan explains the job and the skill sets of an FX Technical Director, explains how to stay relevant and in demand -- and why this is the coolest job in the world!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/211/.

In this episode we explore the many different ways we can make money online as well as even automate our income to give us more freedom and a bit of a 'buffer' to go after out dreams without hurting our savings.

In our journey to go after our goals and find our dream job - one of the biggest roadblocks is risk. What if we fail, what if we spend our savings going after something unattainable? To eliviate this and to learn to be independent and take back control, this episode is focused on understanding many of the ways to make a side income. How to make money on the side to create more comfort financially for us, to take those risks without the mindset that our 9-5 day job is the only thing keeping us afloat.

This is more a birds eye view of the many ways we can make money, but it should open your eyes to how easy it can be and get your inner-entrepreneur engine running! 

Check out the show notes for more links at http://www.allanmckay.com/44/ and to download the PDF cheat-sheet with an in-depth overview of the many different ways to do this - go to http://www.allanmckay.com/passive/

This episode is very focused on more our core habits, how to build a 'ritual' to start out your day so you wake up productive and know exactly what you need to get done and go about doing it by batching your tasks intelligently and adding time constraints to all of your tasks so that you're able to track your succes, eliminate bad habits and be more aware where your time is actually going.

We all want more time in our day to get more done, typically a task takes 30 days of doing daily to form a habit. The more habits we have the more auto-pilot we are to waking up, doing those things and getting them done with minimal effort, and using our goals from Episode 10 (http://www.allanmckay.com/10/) you'll be able to create 2-3 additional days a week to focus on those bigger long-form tasks!

Leave a comment I'd love to know your thoughts, and I triple dare you to try an ice bath, 20 minutes submerged, can you do it?!

Show notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/13/

Todd Sheridan Perry works in the film industry as a freelance VFX Supervisor / CG Supervisor as well as digital artist, screenwriter, editor and director. He is a classically trained artist, as well as both a traditional and digital animator. His diverse background in video games, film and television has led him to play key roles in projects ranging from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers to Final Destination 5, The Immortals, Men In Black 3, Total Recall, Resident Evil 5 and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Todd has also worked as a CG Supervisor on Marvel’s Doctor Strange – a project nominated for a Best Visual Effects Oscar.

Todd has been animating since he was 8 years old, inspired by Star Wars, but his professional career began when he moved to Los Angeles in 1995. A couple years later, riding the wave as visual effects migrated from optical to digital, he started the visual effects house Max Ink Cafe with multi-award winning producer Jennifer Champagne. Todd has been awarded an Emmy for his work on the mini-series The Triangle, while working with award-winning supervisors Volker Engel and Marc Weigert. He was also nominated for a VES Award for The Kite Runner with CafeFX. While at CafeFX, he also acted as Lighting Supervisor on Frank Darabont’s take on the Stephen King short story The Mist.

Todd has contributed articles to Animation Magazine for the past 15 years. With over 500 article reviews on both software and hardware used in the visual effects industry, he’s been able to keep abreast of the developing technologies that contribute to visual effects. Todd is working on numerous personal short films and animation projects through his visual effects company, TeaspoonVFX, and has been consulting on screenplays and development for multiple features.

In this Podcast, VFX Supervisors Todd Sheridan Perry and Allan McKay discuss the industry-wide impact of Covid-19 and its consequences; and how working remotely has proven itself to be effective for both artists and studios, during the transition and going forward.

For more information, visit www.allanmckay.com/247/.

I want to talk about the topic I get asked about all the time: The state of the industry in 2019 and is the industry stable? I want to dive into this subject because it’s pretty serious, at least for me. I want to answer this question and talk about all the scares we’ve had in the industry.

Some of you may take this Episode the wrong way. I’m okay with that! This is my outlook and my opinions. I will dive into the reasons why I started this Podcast in the first place, as well as some of the results that have happened when people have applied what I talk about -- to become successful. And I couldn’t be more proud of that! To me, this is a giant pay-off, so I’m going to continue giving back!

In this Podcast, I want to talk about the common and unnecessary fears about the state of the industry and how to bypass them by focusing on constant learning and evolving both as an artist and a business.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/192/.

Zsolt Poczos is a CG supervisor from Hungary that has worked around the world on my high profile projects - originating from architecture and moving to creating photorealistic car commercials through to now being part of the core team on the upcoming VFX heavy film 'Independence Day 2'.

This episode dives into Zsolt's inspiring story as well as seeing first hand how similar to many of the subjects we discuss on this podcast, how you can be bold and take chances that are high risk but high reward.

for more show notes visit http://www.allanmckay.com/40/

For the latest episodes visit http://www.allanmckay.com

Allan McKay is a visual effects supervisor and technical director and high profile mentor in Hollywood working in 3D, both in video-games, feature films and tv commercials. Allan works with many of the leading visual effects and 3D animation studios and speaks at Autodesk University, SIGGRAPH and various conferences worldwide!

This is an episode of Artist Insight Series I never published, which gave great insight into Ansi's career starting out and his recent successes. This is a fun interview giving a lot of insight into Ansi and his background. Ansi is a talented FX artist from Germany living in the US working for many leading studios such as Blur, Pixomondo and Prime Focus! 

Established in 1987, Spin VFX is a creative and technically dedicated visual effects studio producing captivating imagery for feature film and television. Over its 30 years of business, Spin VFX has evolved into an internationally recognized studio working with respected Directors, VFX Supervisors and Producers.

Its film credits include Suicide Squad, John Wick and John Wick 2, the Academy Award winning biopic Spotlight and many more. Spin VFX's television credits include the Emmy award-winning series Game of Thrones (HBO), the thrice-nominated show The Borgias (Showtime) and the Netflix original series The Umbrella Academy and the SYFY show The Nightflyers (available on Netflix), based on the 1980 novella by George R. R. Martin.

In this Round Table with Allan McKay, the Supervisors and Artists at Spin VFX talk about the company’s history, some of its most memorable projects and its new technological frontiers, as well as the skills they look for in new artists.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/196/.

AI is exploding everywhere. There are so many technological innovations that use AI in visual effects. You might be already following the massive growth of AI. For VFX artists, the question is:

• Is AI taking over the art world?
• Will art be replaced by AI?
• Are artists’ careers over?

In 2010, deep learning changed everything. AI became the revolutionary thing we can utilize. But the big part of preventing AI growth was processing power and storage. With technological innovations, we’re beginning to experience AI for the first time. How exciting it is to be alive right now! 

Machine learning is feeding machine information. With machine learning, the more AI gets corrected, the more it can learn on its own. The disadvantage is that it does take some hand holding to teach AI, in the beginning. There is different machine learning based on neural networks. It thinks similarly to the human brain, it analyzes every little detail. With deep learning, we tell what we want it to do – and the AI figures out how to get there on its own.

With AI, there is no emotion attached. It is able to fail at a quicker rate. For humans, it takes 10,000 to learn something. AI fails 15,000 times and tries again. It learns through trial and error. (Humans should welcome failure at a similar rate!) The gap happens when humans don’t understand how the neural network learns on its own. 

AI like DALL-E and Midjourney imitates the style of artists. Ethical AI is becoming a big topic of conversation. AI solutions learn through generative adversarial networks (GAN’s): In a way, it’s two AI’s learning against each other, giving each other feedback and evolving. But essentially, GAN’s create images from scratch. 

Right now, AI is able to replicate, but it’s not able to create on its own. It’s still more of a tool. VFX is driven by technology. There is a lot of fear that AI is going to take over. VFX artists are operators. The tools have simply become more intuitive. AI can be seen as something that breaks the barriers of resistance. It’s here to allow artists to do more, to be artists.

We are no longer talking about hypothetical applications. We cannot predict where AI is headed or where we’ll be in 10 years. The big question to ask is: WILL AI TAKE OUR JOBS? It is easy to react by being scared of AI. Or, you can choose to be inspired and evolve with it. Anyone who doesn’t embrace innovation becomes outdated. AI is just another tool, albeit a different tool from the tools in the past.

AI will replace some jobs, it’s true. But it will also create new jobs. The jobs that will be most affected are the beginning of a pipeline (ray tracing, camera tracking, etc). Our jobs, as artists, will change. We’ll just have more powerful tools to do more, while we can be artists. It’s up to you to learn the new technology and be at the forefront. It’s time to change our mindset from fearful to inspired!

With his 20+ years of experience as a VFX Supervisor, Allan McKay talks about the history, evolution and application of AI, gives an explanation of machine learning and deep learning, which jobs in the VFX pipeline will be replaced by AI – and why embracing and learning this powerful technology will serve you as a VFX artist.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/383.

Seth C. Polansky, a contracts, intellectual property and start-up specialist founded his professional firm in 2005. Seth Polansky LLC is a small law firm specializing in art, contracts, corporate, and general personal affairs. Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, Seth Polansky LLC accepts clients from around the world regarding contract, art and IP issues.

As an adviser and counselor to business, Seth has repeatedly negotiated successful outcomes with domestic and international entities – including the US government, UK government and multiple state agencies. He has counseled small businesses and artists in securing copyright, trademark and other intellectual property protection, and aided them in navigating contracts. He has helped countless families by securing their peace of mind through wills, trusts and prenuptial agreements, and has offered assistance with disputes.

His professional highlights include being a General Counsel for Cellcrypt, a multinational conglomerate and leading provider of voice encryption technology; working as a Director of Contracts for one of the world’s largest tech companies CSC; and serving as a Deputy General Counsel for The GAVI Fund, a nonprofit funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Seth is a LinkedIn Learning author. He teaches a Contracting for Creatives Course on Lynda.com. He is also an Executive Producer of documentary Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons.

In this Podcast, Seth talks about the most common mistakes artists make in negotiating contracts, explains what makes a valid contract -- and gives resources for one; breaks down the rules of fair use, covers some of the IP laws and many other topics.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/235/.

Crafty Apes is a full service, boutique VFX company based in Culver City, CA & Atlanta, GA. The company was launched in July of 2011 by three visual effects veterans Jason Sanford, Chris LeDoux and Tim LeDoux. Believing that strong 2D compositing is the backbone behind quality visual effects, Crafty Apes was formed to primarily offer high-end compositing services for feature films and television clients. 

Crafty Apes specializes in compositing effects and visual effects supervision. By paying extra attention to the detail and integration that 2D work requires and by working with the best technology available spread among a select group of artists, Crafty Apes can deliver a superior product to higher end clients in a shorter time period.

Their recent credits include: The Babysitter: Killer Queen, Lovecraft Country, Doctor Strange, Hidden Figures, Lalaland, Fist Fight, Pete's Dragon, Captain America: Civil War, Killing Reagan, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Dirty Grandpa, Allegiant, Insurgent, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Mass, The 33, Foxcatcher, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, The Monkey King, White House Down, Single Mom's Club, The Last Stand, A Madea's Christmas and many more.

In this Podcast, VFX Supervisor Marc Smith and VFX Comp Supervisor Tanner Bartlett discuss their work on Mark Mylod’s THE MENU, the way their studio Crafty Apes approaches a new project, as well as give advice to artists on why it’s important to admit your shortcomings and the skills that make you most hireable. 

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/408.

Nicolas Prothais is a Senior CG Animator who has worked for studios like Disney, Double Negative, Illumination Mac Guff and Ilion. Self taught, he began his career as a generalist and learned most aspects of the pipeline. He later switched his focus to 3D and 2D animation. 

The list of Nicolas’ projects includes features like Moana, Despicable Me, Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia, Frozen and many more.

In this Episode, Allan McKay and Nicolas Prothais talk about working abroad, the discipline for bettering your skills and learning to balance between the director’s vision and your own talent.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/98/.

André Luis is the Co-Founder, CEO and creative force behind Trojan Horse was a Unicorn (THU), one of the world's leading transformative experiences for digital artists and creative professionals. 

In 2013, he came up with the idea to create THU as a result of wanting to do things differently, be useful to society, and have an impact on people's lives. With a background in Industrial Design and Marketing Management, André's career was paved through the worlds of design, marketing, web development, and computer graphics. Nowadays, he is fully dedicated to empowering creators through THU, a global organization with several projects around the world that support the creative community while leaving a mark in the digital entertainment industry.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews the Co-Founder, CEO and creative force behind Trojan Horse was a Unicorn André Luis about the history of THU and its impact, the event being a home for introverts, the crucial role of networking in your career, as well how to succeed in the creative industry WITHOUT the creative industry.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/415.

With the announcement of Gears of War 4 last week from Microsoft, this episode focuses on the talented character team behind the development of GOW4. Probably the most spectular features of Gears of War is the amazing creature and character designs and attention to detail in all of the characters within the game. In this episode we interview Dan Roarty, Daniel Bohrer Do Nascimento, Heber Alvarado on their process, techniques and methodology that goes into making some of the mind blowing-ly real characters for Gears of War. Discussing the tools, the process and the time involved to turn out a realistic hero character. As well as their backgrounds and insights into both the video game industry, technology as well as creative processes. This episode is a must see!

For more information and show notes, as well as to enter the competition this month go to http://www.allanmckay.com/41/

For many of us, we want to make massive changes. We want the success we see others have. But it’s hard to connect the dots that what works for others, could work for us. Or that in a creative industries such as Visual Effects, Games, Design or TV -- that the money, lifestyle, or even the tools others use might even apply.

This series of Podcasts -- and the accompanying Guide -- is your path to setting yourself up for big changes NOW and making massive impact in your career, life -- and getting you on track for getting the success that you want!

Download the videos, exercises, and video tutorials as well as other resources INSTANTLY by going to www.allanmckay.com/bestyearyet/. Trust in the system, do the work, double down on the results that work for you and most importantly START NOW -- not tomorrow!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/116/.

Zoic Studios is a VFX company of accomplished artists and producers with a deep understanding of story, process and relationships. With offices in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver, the company has prided itself in partnership, integrity and enthusiasm as the key founding principles. Their projects are born in think tanks, where every idea has value and potential. Dynamic ideas are fleshed out, and a plan for crafting a visual representation of the idea is set early in the creative process. 

Since 2002, Zoic’s team has a proven track record of success. They are masters in their fields of 3D, Compositing and Production Management. Their reputations, in turn, attract additional talent and foster a strong work ethic.

They built a robust digital infrastructure, which is flexible and strong to support the staff. It is a “liquid” pipeline, designed by their team for rapid expansion and contraction. This custom pipeline is resolution-independent and changeable based on project needs. Leading visual technology firms provide additional support and insight to the latest methods. 

Zoic has worked on a variety of high-end productions, both in film and television: Many Saints of New York, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mother!, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Legends of Tomorrow, Breaking Bad, Homeland, See, The Underground Railroad, The Boys, Fargo, and multiple more.

In this Podcast, Andrew Orloff, Executive Creative Director / Co-Founder of Zoic Studios, talks about the change in the industry with introduction of streaming content and virtual production, how Zoic has incorporated Unreal Engine into their pipeline – as well as gives tips to up-and-coming artists and VFX supervisors alike!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/340/.

The Harmon Brothers is a marketing firm based in Provo, Utah, that has a history of making viral advertising videos. Founded by brothers Daniel, Neil, Jeffrey and Theron Harmon and CEO Benton Crane, the company creates marketing campaigns that are usually the length of an infomercial — but with a distinct sense of humor. Their campaigns for Squatty Potty and the Purple have more than 100 million views. They have also created campaigns for Poo-Pourri, FiberFix, Camp Chef and several others.

Since then, the company launched the Harmon Brothers University where through online courses, Daniel Harmon and Lead Writer Dave Vance share their insight on how to create successful marketing videos. With writer Chris Jones, they also co-wrote the book From Poop to Gold: The Marketing Magic of Harmon Brothers that “reveals the behind-the-scenes magic including their innovative business model [and] one of the biggest secrets behind their success”.

In this Podcast, Daniel Harmon the CCO of Harmon Brothers and CEO Benton Crane talk about their company’s creative process, pipeline, how to meet and relate to clients, the impact of COVID-19 on businesses; and the content they teach at Harmon University.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/321/.

The title of this Podcast is based on the story of Roger Bannister, the runner that broke the 4-minute mile. Prior to the 1952 Olympics, we all believed that that was impossible to do. Yet when he stepped onto the track that day and broke that barrier, it broke the World Record. It also changed the concept of limitation in many people’s minds. Until then, no one was able to break through this barrier. This was the rule we set in our minds: This was impossible! So why did it take only two months after Bannister’s victory for the next person to break that record?

Here is the reality: Most of us fail before we even begin because we fool ourselves into believing the opposite of the truth. Before anyone had success, they were exactly where we are now. The only difference was: They just got started. It’s as simple as that. They -- got started! More than likely, the ones that succeeded stuck it out. They didn’t give into the negative mindsets or their inner critic! The simple fact is this: If they can make it -- so can you!

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about the strong mindset that can help you with getting started and staying persistent with your career and achieve your success.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/218/.

Hugo Guerra is a Portuguese born award-winning Director and VFX Supervisor. After finishing his Fine Arts degree, he worked in Portugal and Sweden before moving to the UK where he was a freelancer for several years. 

He joined The Mill in 2010 as a VFX Supervisor and as Head of the Nuke Department. Over that time, Hugo was a Lead Artist and Onset Supervisor for several productions, including Codemaster's Bodycount, Ubisoft's Rainbow Six, the VES awarded Audi “Hummingbird”, Activision's Call of Duty, and BBC Music God Only Knows among others.

In 2014, Hugo joined Fire Without Smoke as a Director and Visual Effects Supervisor, working on trailers for CCP, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Square Enix, Sony, Warhammer and many others.

Most recently Hugo worked as a VFX Supervisor for Sony Playstation San Diego and is currently working as a Film Director for Rebellion Games. 

He is also a Visual Effects Society Jury member and created Hugo's Desk, the largest YouTube channel about Nuke compositing.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay and Hugo Guerra tackle the subjects of having a business mentality as an artist, learning to negotiate and the importance of knowing your worth.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/283/.

In this episode, Allan McKay sits down with Feng Zhu, renowned concept designer and educator, to explore the world of concept design in the film and video game industries.

They discuss Feng's impressive career journey, his work on numerous high-profile projects, and the unique challenges of creating compelling concept designs. Feng shares insights into the current state of the design industry, its challenges and opportunities, and the potential impact of emerging technologies like AI.

The conversation also covers the importance of problem-solving skills in design, effective portfolio development strategies, and the business aspects of running a successful design studio. Feng offers valuable advice for aspiring designers and discusses the evolution of the industry over his 27-year career.

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in concept design, the creative process behind blockbuster films and games, and the future of the design industry in an increasingly digital world.

Topics Covered

• Feng Zhu's background and career in the design industry
• The importance of problem-solving and thinking skills over technical skills
• Portfolio development and job application strategies
• The business side of the design industry
• Studio management and working with clients
• The impact of AI on the design industry
• The evolution of technology and its impact on design
• The difference between illustration and design
• The challenges of game development and studio closures
• Social media and its role in the industry

Highlights

• "We're actually business people. We're selling products. Some people forget that even though we're drawing, we're not artists, we're product sellers."
• "I'd rather have someone that has really good thought process than someone who renders really well, but has no ideas in their head."
• "If you're doing social media stuff, but your content is just for social media, but not for actual industry, then yeah, that's not that relevant in my opinion."
• "To get to that level [of AI replacing human designers], you have to cover new technology, something completely alien to us right now, to reach human level stuff."
• "What we need really is in here, the brain, the human brain, and that's something AI cannot replace."

Resources

• FCD School of Design (Feng Zhu's school)
• Design Cinema (YouTube channel - search for "FCD")
• CalArts
• ArtCenter College of Design
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)
• Lucasfilm
• Duke Nukem Forever (game)
• Luc Besson (film director)
• Hugo Martin (Doom game director)

Over the past decade of doing my Mentorship and publishing free training, it’s changed my perspective on how I do things, as well as how to help people get results. I’m not out there teaching you how to understand a tool or how to create some crappy explosion. What I am trying to teach is: What tools do I need to give you to get you the end results that you want?

Getting on YouTube has been interesting! I just hit 25K Subscriptions. What’s been fascinating is seeing firsthand all the negativity that comes up. In my courses, we weed that out and we get more personable with people. But on YouTube and social media, it’s a different thing. If someone’s tearing everything apart, it allows them to use that as an excuse and sit back and not be successful! They never get the results that they want and hope they no one else does either. What they don’t realize is that there are no shortcuts to success!

I had this realization recently: We need to call these trolls out, to point out why they aren’t succeeding. It’s not just your skills that are important. You need to be on top of other aspects. So here is a challenge for you: When you see others out there have that negative behavior, don’t ignore it. Help them out!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/210/.

Tim Miller is a Film Director, Animator, Creative Director and VFX Artist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the work on his short film Gopher Broke. He made his directing debut with Deadpool. He is also known for creating opening sequences for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Thor: The Dark World.

In 1995, Tim co-founded Blur Studio with David Stinnett and Cat Chapman. Blur is where animators and artists can collaborate and be in control of their creative destinities. Since then, the Studio has evolved into an award-winning production company with work spanning the realms of game cinematics, commercials, feature films and more. Committed to their clients, artists and to the telling of great stories, Blur continues to grow not only as a high-end animation studio, but also as original content creators, having recently helmed Netflix’s first animated anthology Love Death + Robots.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Tim Miller, Film Director, Animator, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Blur Studio, about the history of launching Blur, its legacy; his ongoing collaboration with David Fincher, directing Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate – and creating Love Death + Robots.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/358.

Redshift is the world’s first fully GPU-accelerated biased renderer. It is built to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production rendering. It provides the most features and flexibility among all GPU renderers. 

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks with Nicolas Burtnyk, Co-Founder and CEO, as well as Rob Slater, Co-Founder and VP of Engineering. They discuss the benefits of GPU vs CPU rendering, the software Redshift currently supports and the renderer's future direction.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/106/.

DNEG (www.dneg.com) is one of the world’s leading visual effects (VFX) and animation studios for the creation of feature film, television and multiplatform content. DNEG employs nearly 7,000 people with worldwide offices and studios across North America (Los Angeles, Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver), Europe (London) and Asia (Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Mumbai).

DNEG’s critically acclaimed work has earned the company six Academy Awards® for Best Visual Effects and numerous BAFTA and Primetime EMMY® Awards for its high-quality VFX work. Upcoming DNEG projects on behalf of its Hollywood and global studio and production company partners include Dune (October 2021), No Time To Die (October 2021), Ron’s Gone Wrong (October 2021), Last Night In Soho (October 2021), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (November 2021), The Matrix 4 (December 2021), Uncharted (2022), Borderlands (2022), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2022), The Flash (2022), and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023).

Dan Glass is an acclaimed VFX Supervisor with numerous accolades over the course of his 25-year career, including a BAFTA nomination and two Visual Effects Society awards. He is a long-time collaborator of the Wachowskis and Terrence Malick, and production VFX Supervisor on films such as Jupiter Ascending, Cloud Atlas, Tree of Life, Batman Begins, The Matrix sequels, Deadpool 2, and many more.

In addition to his impressive list of film credits, Dan also served as VFX Supervisor on two seasons of Netflix’s sci-fi cult hit Sense8, while directing two episodes himself; and previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer for Method Studios.

In this Podcast, the acclaimed VFX Supervisor for The Matrix: Resurrections Dan Glass talks about the underlying message of the film, shares some behind-the-scenes, and discusses technological innovations throughout the franchise’s history.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/342/.

In this episode, Allan McKay sits down with Xavier Bernasconi, VFX Supervisor at DNEG, to dive deep into the world of virtual production.

They discuss Xavier's fascinating career journey, his recent work on the highly anticipated Masters of the Air, and the decision to utilize virtual production for the project. Xavier shares insights into the current state of virtual production technology, its challenges and limitations, and the exciting future potential as the tech continues to evolve.

The conversation also covers the impacts of virtual production on actor performances and the shifts in collaboration it brings to VFX workflows. This is a must-listen for anyone curious about the cutting-edge of filmmaking innovation.

Table of Contents

Introduction (00:00:00)

• Introducing Xavier Bernasconi (00:00:03)

Xavier's Background and Journey (00:00:46)

• From Proskier to Visual Effects (00:00:46)
• Developing Compositing Software (00:02:05)
• Becoming a VFX Supervisor (00:03:40)

Masters of the Air Project (00:04:17)

• Overview and Initial Thoughts (00:04:25)
• Complexity and Challenges (00:05:27)

Virtual Production Decision (00:05:46)

• Logistical and Creative Reasons (00:06:11)
• Comparison to Traditional Green Screen (00:06:57)

Challenges and Limitations of Virtual Production (00:09:18)

• Technological Advancements and Limitations (00:09:55)
• Limitations with Unreal Engine (00:12:03)

Preparation and Pressure on Set (00:13:35)

• Workflow and Collaboration (00:14:09)
• Pressure on VFX Team (00:16:48)

Current State and Future of Virtual Production (00:22:02)

• Infancy and Potential for Growth (00:22:09)
• Advantages and Limitations (00:22:36)

Virtual Production and Final Pixel (00:26:59)

• Misconceptions and Post-Production Work (00:27:33)
• Developing an End-to-End Pipeline (00:28:29)

Virtual Production in Episodic vs. Feature Films (00:31:48)

• Prevalence in Episodic Content (00:31:53)
• Blurring Lines Between Episodic and Feature Budgets (00:33:30)

Proprietary vs. Out-of-the-Box Tools (00:34:53)

• Use of Unreal Engine and Cost of Setup (00:35:43)

Virtual Production for Previs and Pitching (00:36:27)

• Quick and Cheap Iteration (00:37:10)
• Benefits for Certain Types of Directors (00:38:14)

Collaboration in Virtual Production vs. Traditional Post (00:38:36)

• Real-Time Collaboration and Creativity (00:39:15)
• Challenges of Remote Work (00:39:21)

Actor Reactions to Virtual Production (00:42:48)

• Immersion and Performance Benefits (00:43:31)

Conclusion (00:44:41)

• Appreciation and Wrap-Up (00:44:41)

Memorable Quotes

"I love telling stories. I felt that I was drawn more to the end of the pipeline, more to the beginning of the pipeline, so I was more drawn into lighting and compositing."

Virtual production was the most logical choice for Masters of the Air due to logistical, budgetary and creative reasons.

Virtual production is still in its infancy with lots of room for technological development. Extraction of foreground elements from LED screens is an important area of research.

Virtual production fosters real-time collaboration and creativity compared to traditional segmented workflows. However, on-set experience and mentorship is still crucial.

Actors appreciate virtual production as it helps their performances by providing interactive environments rather than pure green screen.

Xavier Bernasconi Bio

Xavier Bernasconi is a VFX Supervisor at DNEG. Originally from Italy, he now lives in Canada. His recent projects include Masters of the Air, Mad Max Furiosa and Godzilla x Kong.

After a small hiatus, Allan McKay returns with a new episode 'Creative Negotiation'.
Learning to step away from the black and white form of trade that we're typically used to, and instead prioritize what your real current career goals and needs are,
and proceed to negotiate actual needs that benefit you more.

While also acknowledging the other party's needs to align the discussion with what they want, to get what you really want.

Show-notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/64/

Having the hunger, the passion -- the fire under your butt -- is a driving force that’s essential for success!

In this Episode, Allan McKay talks about change as the catalyst for new levels of growth in your career, artistry and finances; as well as how to welcome and create change -- while making sure you have a failsafe environment for success.

After listening to this Episode, you will learn to:

- Identify the way you measure progress. 

- Make sure you aren’t overwhelmed by grandiose goals. 

- Eliminate excess.

- Force yourself to have massive changes. 

- Create new environments and friendships.

- Grow and achieve new levels of success!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/103/

When it comes to job interviews, the number one thing to think about is putting yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. The more you can think like them – the pain points they may have, their wants and needs – the more you are in tune with what they’re thinking. It’s all about understanding their needs and alignment. By understanding what they want, you’re able to be the best fit.

Going for an interview is a chance to stand out, beyond your reel. A great interview is when you’re moving into the rates and start dates. It’s a chance for you to excel above everyone else. The interviewer will have a preconceived idea of who you are. They will look at your social media as well. So you can use this as an opportunity to put out more pictures of yourself at work.

One of the things that artists mishandle is asking good questions. If you blend in, you become forgettable. Figure out a way to be yourself but also how to stand out. What is your angle? What do you want to be remembered for? Also, think about speaking to them like their equal. Ask about the project or the client they’re working on. This way, you’re sounding like someone working with them. By asking questions, you can extract information that’s laser focused. 

Take the initiative to lead the conversation. That takes knowing exactly what you want. And if you know what you want – you can negotiate that naturally and in your favor. The more you’re clear about what you want, the more you’re able to express that naturally. It’s part of being a successful negotiator. So get clear about what you want: 

• Do you want more cool stuff for your reel? 

• Do you want a good salary? 

• Do you want to work with great people?

The key to getting what you want – is to give them what they want first. Negotiating is about both people making sacrifices. But it all comes back to asking the right questions.

In the interview, try to move the conversation along beyond the interview. When you start discussing the problems on a project, you’re starting to think as part of their team. You’re signaling that you’re working together. Another tactic is treating your interviewer as an equal. If you treat them as a friend rather than your boss, you may feel more relaxed during the interview. 

In this Podcast, Allan talks about how to stand out in a job interview, how to ask productive questions, how to be an active listener, how to communicate with the interviewer as an equal – the crucial skill of putting yourself into your interviewer’s shoes – and how to negotiate in your favor.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/397.

The Academy Award®-winning cineSync is the world’s most trusted remote review and approval system. Used by film and television productions worldwide, cineSync guarantees that everyone sees exactly the same frame at the same time.

cineSync integrates with industry-leading tools such as Shotgun, Ftrack and Aspera, ensuring a fast, synchronized and streamlined remote collaboration experience.

In this Podcast, Cospective’s CEO Rory McGregor talks about cineSync, the platform that’s a backbone of how Directors, VFX Artists and Supervisors in the film and game industry are able to communicate in real time.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/167/.

Christopher Zammit is a VFX Supervisor and Art Director. He’s worked on many films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Tomorrowland, Ghostbusters, and of course films in the Transformers franchise Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Transformers: The Last Knight. 

In this Podcast, VFX Supervisor and Art Director Christopher Zammit about his work on TOP GUN: MAVERICK, THE BOYS, GHOSTBUSTERS, THE THING, GODZILLA; as well as how to make production constraints work in your favor as a VFX Artist.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/394.

We all know that the most important thing is our demo reel or our portfolio. It’s proof of our skill and ability. But what’s more important than all of these things combined?

What has more clout than your reel -- are your RELATIONSHIPS. In this Episode, Allan talks about building long-lasting professional relationships -- in an effective way -- and more importantly, how to do it all the time. 

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/156/.

Szymon Biernacki is a Freelance Visual Development and Concept Artist based in Poland. He is currently an Art Director at Spa Studios. His credits include being a Production Designer on the movie Klaus.

In this Podcast, Szymon shares his insight on becoming a full-time artist, switching careers; the challenges of being a freelancer and working remotely; the hard and soft skills of being a Production Manager; as well as his experience of working on Oscar-nominated animated feature.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/239/.

Sergio Paez is a Director and Story Designer who got his start working at companies such as Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Sony. He is also a founding member of Storyboard Art, an online visual story community, with both a content creation and educational focus to further techniques in visual storytelling. In 2012, Sergio authored the book Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb which has become the go-to reference for story artists looking to enter the entertainment business.

Mitch Bowler is the Founder of Pencil Kings and Evolve, an online community that provides world class art education for artists, whether they’re trying to get back into art or are working professionals. Founded in 2010, Pencil Kings has established a library of courses on illustration, comics, digital media, entertainment art.

In this Podcast, Allan, Sergio and Mitch do a live stream about the mindset of successful artists and give tips on how to overcome challenges and resistances in your learning and evolution. 

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/215/.

One of the key things, as we go through our careers -- is having the right mindset.  It’s the mindset that allows you to pick up a new skill. If you’re present with what you’re doing, if you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty -- all of that plays into how successfully you’re going to learn.

But you have to put in the work, in the trenches. Getting there is not the same as climbing it! That’s when people fall off. It’s about the experience that you go on, along the way.

In this Episode, Allan talks about having the right mindset for creating a change in your life and career -- and how to handle your challenges and failures along the way.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/161/.

MAGGIE OH is currently a Sr. Technical Program Manager for Machine Learning and Computer Vision on Google's Project Starline. Her previous roles include TL, Lighting TD, Lead Technical Artist, and programmer on projects such as Stadia, Mandalorian, #LiveCGX (AR Fashion Show at London Fashion Week 2018), Hololens, Halo 4, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Cars. She holds a Masters from Harvard and a BSci from MIT.

ERIN RAMOS is Head of Effects Animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios. As an award-winning VFX Supervisor she’s also worked for Weta, Rhythm & Hues. Her credits include Moana, Frozen II, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Hobbit and many more.

CONNIE SIU is a Virtual Production Manager at Eyeline Studio (Scanline VFX / Netflix). Her credits include How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Rise of the Guardians.  She is also a Writer and Director of short film Jeffrey which was shot using virtual production in 2020 (www.allanmckay.com/277). 

In this Podcast, Women Leaders and VFX Artists discuss the importance of representation, business mindset in artists, give advice on how to find mentors and provide resources to women starting out in visual effects.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/345/.

The mission of Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) is to deliver feature-film quality visual effects on television timelines by harnessing GPU clusters, game engine technology, AI and senior industry talent. Leveraging these pillars allows us to consistently execute with both speed and quality for our premium television projects.

Lon Molnar is the Co-President of MARZ. With more than 20 years of experience, Lon has contributed a vast amount of visual effects to film and television as an Artist, VFX Supervisor, and former CEO of the award winning VFX company Intelligent Creatures. Inspired by the magic of TOY STORY, Lon attended the Vancouver Film School with the single goal of opening up his own VFX studio. As he built his resume, he became dissatisfied with working on VFX for tv, and set his sights on feature films. He became a VFX generalist, working in animation, lighting, compositing and modelling, while using a vast array of software. 

After serving as the CG Supervisor on the groundbreaking films CHICAGO and THE CELL, he fulfilled his earlier dream and opened up Intelligent Creatures in 2002. Working with talented creators like Mark Forster, Darren Aronofsky, Alejandro González Iñárritu, David Tattersall, Oliver Stone and others, Lon quickly built the Toronto-based VFX house into an award-winning studio.

Intelligent Creatures lent its creativity to dozens of projects such as MR AND MRS SMITH, THE WITCH, and BABEL. They built robust pipelines to tackle critically-acclaimed projects, such as the WATCHMEN's famous Rorschach mask of moving inkblots. Some of their later work, such as the award-winning series ORPHAN BLACK and the Emmy-nominated CURIOSITY: BATTLEFIELD CELL pushed the boundaries of visual effects on TV.

Fifteen years after the formation of Intelligent Creatures, Lon recognized that unlike when he had started in the industry, TV was no longer the "lesser" medium for VFX. When he spoke to Jonathan Bronfman, the two found themselves sharing symbiotic ideas. They saw a gap that others didn't. What if, they asked, we can build a company that focuses on serving only one market, and defines the standard of excellence in that market? That was the beginning of MARZ.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Co-President of MARZ Lon Molnar about the company’s history and leveraging its technology innovations; the invisible visual effects and the development of the de-aging technology; positive outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of VFX an so much more!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/391.

The WHAT IF? Scenario: It’s an addictive concept for all of us. What if you give up on a career before you ever got started? Fear is just your mind trying to prevent you from change because change is unknown. It doesn’t want you to risk safety for something new. But the big growths and breakthroughs are on the other side of that fear. 

If you aren’t willing to put in the extra work and see what it would lead to next, if you weren’t willing to leverage one experience to the next, none of that would be easy. We always get tested! It’s easier to take the lesser path. But we get to choose that Sliding Doors moment -- or we get to choose to have it all.

In this Podcast, Allan reflects on the choices he’s made throughout his career that lead him to face his fears, take huge risks and to have his dream job (which would eventually lead to his night at the Oscars).

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/371.

Chris Ume is a visual effects expert with many years of experience in entertainment and corporate projects. In 2020, he began experimenting with deepfake technology, sourcing AI models from obscure Russian websites, and experimenting with new techniques. That led to a collaboration with an American actor known for Tom Cruise parody videos and Deep Tom Cruise was born.

Since then, Chris has worked on titles like South Park and Sassy Justice.  Following the viral success of those deepfake videos and others, Ume co-founded Metaphysic.ai in 2021. The company recently closed a $7.5 million funding round.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews VFX and Deepfake Expert Chris Ume about the process, challenges and the future applications of Deepfakes, his experience working on SOUTH PARK, as well as the ethics of this revolutionary technology.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/375.

Freelance is such a big topic in visual effects! For those of you starting in the industry, you’re probably wondering how to get your foot in the door. Ultimately, 2024 will be a very busy year. That means that those of you who are good should be ready to turn down work. 

The first thing you need to think about is how you’re positioning yourself in the business: What are the special skills that you have that allow you to stand out from others? We are in a problem solving business. Positioning means that you know how to sell yourself – by providing solutions to the potential employer – as well as understand your worth. You need to be aware of what you bring to the table and how to sell yourself. (That also means that you’re aware of what you’re not good at, which gives you room for improvement.)

You also need to understand the needs of your employer. You show that understanding by providing a reel that sums up your best work – and is very heavily catered to the specific task that the employer is looking to fill. In addition, your cover letter must mention the position you’re applying for and your understanding of what the position entails. That allows you to position yourself as the go-to person for this role.

In this Episode, you’ll learn about:

• How to create a winning reel that guarantees a chance for a job interview;

• Where to find available work – and how to apply for those jobs;

• How to do successful outreach to potential employers or human resources departments;

• How to identify the most in-demand skills and innovate in new technology.

One of the advantages of 2024 is widely available remote job opportunities. That means that you can live anywhere. By living in a cheaper area, you’re able to lower your overhead and actually enjoy your lifestyle. That also means that nowadays you can work for any studio you want. Remember: It’s not just about being skilled as a VFX Artist – it’s about the right artist for the right job, at the right time.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay gives critical insight into how to find remote work and freelance work in 2024, how to be successful at outreach to potential employers, how to create a winning reel that guarantees employment, how to work for a dream studio remotely – and so much more!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/436.

This episode is a unique solo episode packed to the brim with a lot of workflow hacks and core advice to manage yourself better and get a lot more done inside of your standard work day. This is vital methods I apply to my work every day of every week and have developed many of these techniques over the span of the past 20 years of my career.

Show links

Time Doctor

Rescue Time

Focus @ Will

Polder Buzz'n'Beep Digital Timer

Parkinson's Law

Power of automationg with Scripting

Google Docs - for Spreadsheets

More information about FLOW

Overtime Vs Productivity

Cameron Smith is an award-nominated visual effects artist who is also a Lead Compositor at Weta. He first studied computer science at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia before transitioning into programing and visual effects. He first began doing visual effects for tv commercials and short films.

Over the course of his over a decade-long career, Cameron has worked for studios like Cutting Edge VFX, Fuel VFX, ILM and Weta, serving as a Compositing Lead, Supervisor and a Lighting Technical Director. Some of his projects include The Hobbit, Battleship, Furious 7, Man of Steel, Iron Man, King Kong, Avatar (for which he was nominated for a VES Award) and many more.

In this Episode, Cameron talks about his over a decade-long career as a visual effects artist, the benefits of programing, constantly learning new skills and the latest technology.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/165/.

A lot of the time, artists feel like clients do them a favor by hiring them. The more you understand the ecosystem, the more you start seeing this as a service-based industry: You’re delivering value to your client, they’re delivering value to theirs -- and it goes up the latter. Each step in that latter is a much bigger profit margin. They need their problems solved. They need you as much as you need them. 

It’s not just about raising your rates. It’s also about what it is that you’re doing that’s aligning with the client’s needs. How do you give them value? That’s always the trick to communicate. You need to be self-aware about what services you provide.

This is the big thing we need to get over: the money friction.  A lot of us get resistance in the beginning. We’re afraid that if we raise our prices too high, we’ll lose our clients. “Raise your rates and scare away your clients” is an absurd idea. Instead, you can raise your rates and if the clients get alienated, they’ve identified themselves as cheap. It’s okay for them to go! 

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about how to raise your value, both as a brand and a business, and how to communicate it to those premium clients that will meet your worth.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/322/.

Sam Wickert is a director and VFX supervisor who has worked closely with many clients such as Epic Games, Google Daydream, AMD, BlackMagic Design, Universal Orlando Resorts, Redbull, and Discover. 

The most exciting projects he has enjoyed working on is the content featured on his YouTube Channel, SOKRISPYMEDIA, which has accumulated over 1.6 Million subscribers and 400+ million views - most notably recognized from its web series, Chalk Warfare.

In this Episode, Allan interviews Sam about his creative process for the Chalk Warfare franchise, the innovations he uses on the most recent installment and the challenges of making his own content.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/310/.

This Podcast is Allan McKay’s first ever AMA (Ask Me Anything) session.

A while back, Allan has posted -- on his social media -- to ask any burning questions that you want to have answered about learning or pursuing a career in visual effects. Out of hundreds of questions, he selected about ten that would benefit most listeners and artists. 

In this AMA Podcast, Allan covers the subjects like:

• Creating your some-day goals -- and attacking them with URGENCY!
• Questions to ask a client before taking on a new job;
• Choosing the right training AND the importance of creating your own material.
• Getting your foot in the door as a VFX artist and the importance of communication.
• And a several other important questions!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/138/.

Mitch is the founder of Pencil Kings an online training site that teaches illustration and drawing techniques - his background comes from working in film and games for various big name clients in Canada and the United States and China.

At a turning point in Mitches life, he decided to risk everything and take action, creating his own business and designing his own lifestyle that would allow him total freedom to travel the world and live the life that he wanted to live, while also running his own business completely virtual - online, giving artists the tools and knowledge to build their career and follow their passions in traditional art and drawing.

Mitch's story is both inspirational, as well as instructional, as an amazing case study on how you can take the initiative and get out of your comfort zone, take some calculated risks and build the lifestyle that YOU want to live, doing both the things you love but also having total freedom in how you do it!

Check out the show notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/46/

Allan McKay interviews Mike Blum, an Emmy-nominated director who has won awards as a director, writer and producer. Prior to opening his boutique animation studio Pipsqueak Films, Mike worked as an executive and a supervisor at Walt Disney Feature Animation for over a decade. His Disney animation credits include Chicken Little, Lilo & Stitch, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and many more.

Mike’s current studio Pipsqueak Films has completed animation projects for clients like Comedy Central, Netflix, DreamWorks TV, MTV and others. Mike is currently in development on his original series Enko the Eskimo which he sold to Cartoon Network. At the same time, he is directing and Executive Producing the animated series Super Slackers with David Silverman (The Simpsons). He also runs a live-action production company, Blumayan Films and as well as Our Next 4 Years, a volunteer organization staffed by over 250 animation professionals that create animated PSA’s countering the regressive policies of the current administration.

In this Episode, Allan and Mike talk about artistic paths, pitfalls and challenges in the industry, as well as what it takes to be a successful artist.

Mike Blum’s IMDb Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0089692/

Pipsqueak Films: http://www.pipsqueakfilms.com

Our Next 4 Years: www.ournext4years.org

Check out the full show notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/72/

Chris Bailey is a Productivity Expert and the bestselling Author of two books about productivity: The Productivity Project and Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction. Chris writes about productivity at www.alifeofproductivity.com and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive, without hating the process.

Chris was born in Red Deer, Alberta and raised in Ontario, Canada. He first became interested in productivity in high school after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done. He graduated from the Sprott Business School of Business in 2013. After college, he started researching productivity and conducting experiments, while documenting his experiences on this blog A Year of Productivity. Insights and strategies learned from these experiments were compiled into his 2016 book The Productivity Project. His second book Hyperfocus was released in August 2018.

In this Podcast, Allan and Chris discuss the neurological research behind productivity and the subjects of focus and scatter focus, taming distractions, mind resting breaks, flow state, multitasking and bio hacks.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/157/.

American author, game designer, graphic novelist and screenwriter Jordan Mechner is best known as a pioneer of cinematic storytelling in the video game industry and as the creator of Prince of Persia, one of the most successful and enduring video game franchises of all time. His other games include Karateka, The Last Express, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Karateka was published by Broderbund in 1984 and became a #1 bestseller. One of the first games to combine arcade action with realistic animation and cinematic storytelling, it created a new template that other early fighting games would follow. Inspired by the 1,001 Nights tales he had known as a child, Mechner completed Prince of Persia for the Apple II in 1989. Published by Broderbund and subsequently adapted onto nearly every computer and console platform of the 1990s, Prince of Persia is recognized as a major influence in the development of the action-adventure video game genre.

In 2001, Mechner joined forces with Ubisoft to reinvent his decade-old, best-known classic for a new generation of console gamers. Developed at Ubisoft's Montreal studio with Mechner as game designer, writer, and creative consultant, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a breakout hit of 2003, winning two Game Developers Choice awards and sweeping the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards (DICE) with 12 nominations and 8 awards. Its success relaunched Prince of Persia as a global franchise including toys, graphic novels, LEGO sets, and over 20 million games sold to date.

In 2010, Mechner became the first game creator to successfully adapt his own work as a feature film screenwriter with Disney’s Prince of Persia. Mechner received screen story and executive producer credit. With box-office receipts of $335 million worldwide, Prince of Persia set the record for the world's highest-grossing video game film adaptation until 2016.

In this Podcast, Allan deconstructs his previous Podcast with Jordan Mechner, the Creator of Prince of Persia -- and the actionable steps you can apply to your creative career.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/264/.

Ryan Connolly is a filmmaker. He is also a founder and host at Film Riot, an online resource and community for filmmakers. Ryan is also the owner of production company Triune Films where he produces weekly online content and films like Tell, Losses, PROXiMITY, and several others.

Ryan began studying storytelling on his own before pursuing his formal training at Full Sail University in Florida. After graduating, he started working at a PC game company Alienware. He eventually left that job to start Film Riot. By now, Film Riot has over half a million followers and it continues to build its audience and community.

In this Podcast, Ryan talks about clocking in your 10,000 artist hours, using failures as opportunities to learn -- and gives advice and resources to aspiring filmmakers and storytellers.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/133/.

Delcio originally from Brazil has worked on projects like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator Genisys, Thor: The Dark World, Oblivion and many others as both a modeler and cg generalist. 

This is a really great episode giving a lot of insight into Delcio's background as well as a lot of really great solid advice to advance your career, as well as insights into many of the production's he's worked on. Really great stuff, check it out!

For show notes and links go to http://www.allanmckay.com/38/

Ivo Klaus is a VFX Supervisor who has been working at Scanline VFX in Munich, Germany for over 13 years. He has worked on and supervised such large budget feature films like Tomb Raider, Transformers: The Last Knight, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Snowpiercer, Looper, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, 300 -- and many, many more.

In this portion of his interview with Allan McKay, Ivo talks about the importance of having a generalist background, scripting experience, problem solving and other skills essential for a successful VFX Artist.

To listen to the other Episode with Ivo, please visit www.allanmckay.com/136/.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/143/.

There's such a shortage of visual effects people right now. It's insane how many projects have been greenlit. And even for a 3D artist, there's so much stuff out there – and that's a good thing! Visual effects in general is such a healthy industry, but it's also about where there’s room to grow. There's always going to be new territory to cover. 

It's about training your brain to know what you want and then to see the opportunities to connect the dots. So, look for your opportunities! And when you start to pick up on it, you start to see that there are opportunities everywhere. It might simply be someone you meet and they mention that they're doing a certain thing. But if you were just to mention what you do and what you're interested in – or ask more questions about what they're doing – that could be your next gig. That could be your next way to break into the industry. 

You never know what opportunities are around the corner, but you've got to be aware that they exist. And the best way to do that – is to start figuring out what you want. Be more observant in identifying those opportunities, those omens that are hiding just around the corner.

In this Podcast, Allan shares his personal experience of looking for a recent staff position, how to determine what lifestyle you want and how to train your mind to look for opportunities that are meant for you.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/337/.

Tim Simmons is an experienced media producer with a demonstrated history of creating short and long form video to create engaging content.Tech Savvy, people savvy, and self motivated creator with a successful track record of building a brand from scratch, Tim is passionate about sharing his knowledge with others – and exploring the intersection of creative content and AI.

In 2022, Tim created Theoretically Media, a channel focusing on creative AI imagery. The Channel dives into filmmaking, music, writing, and art, all enhanced by AI latest tools. Believing in technology's power to elevate independent artists' work, Tim explores the cusp of AI and art. The YouTube Channel currently has over 46K Subscribers.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Tim Simmons, the Creator of Theoretically Media, a YouTube Channel focused on creative AI imagery. Allan and Tim dive into the topic of AI: the rapid growth of AI and the reaction of the artistic community to this technology, the dual Hollywood strike and the issue of copyright, limitations and inspiration of artificial intelligence; as well the launch of his Channel and how to monetize on YouTube.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/429.

David Allen is a New York Times bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, the first edition of which was published in 2001. He is also the godfather of productivity. He has been a management consultant and a productivity expert. In addition to founding his multimillion dollar company based on the GTD methodology, he has founded Actioneer, a 1994 start-up specializing in productivity tools.  

In this Episode, David Allen discusses how the Getting Things Done (GTD) System got started, the five GTD Elements and other methodology, and the GTD Global Summit that will take place in Amsterdam in June 2019. 

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/182/.

Victor Navone is a Supervising Animator at Pixar Animation Studios. Since 2000, he has worked on such high budget animated features as Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars 2 & 3, WALL-E, Brave, Inside Out and many more. 

After graduating from the University of California, Irvine, Victor began working as a 3D artist at Presto Studios, a video game company. He continued to study 3D character animation in his spare time. In 1999, Victor’s first animated short Alien Song, which was a result of some animation and lip sync tests, went viral. When it caught the attention of Edwin Catmull, the President of Pixar Animation Studios, Victor was invited for an interview. He joined the company in 2000.

For his work on WALL-E, Victor has won an award from the Visual Effects Society. He has taught at Animation Mentor and Animation Collaborative. 

In this Episode, Victor talks about his career -- with its victories and detours -- tools of a successful artist and insider tips for a demo reel that’s guaranteed to get you noticed!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/104/

Nerdstrong Gym, located in North Hollywood, CA, combines physical fitness with passion for games, movies and storytelling. To attract its membership, Nerdstrong’s Founder Andrew Deutsch created an environment with a nerdy theme and gamified fun. Starting out with Dungeons and Dragons inspired workouts for a friend, in his own garage, Andrew established a strong following and opened the doors to Nerdstrong in 2013. 

All the classes are group workouts based on a favorite film, game or franchise. "Our nerdiness / geekiness comes from the heart of the gym: its members." Andrew says. "We are nerds. We are geeks. We love scifi, comics, math, science, cosplay, books, movies, TV, pop-culture, RPGs, computers, video games, board games."

Some of the workout themes and challenges are inspired by Harry Potter, Space Invaders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Star Trek, War Craft, Wonder Woman, Dungeons and Dragons.

In this Episode, Allan McKay and Andrew Deutsch talk about the original inspiration for Nerdstrong Gym, some of its unique workout themes and its outstanding philosophy.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/97/. 

Janga FX was founded in 2016 by Nick Seavert, an entrepreneur who is well versed in both startups and real-time VFX. Janga FX was initially bootstrapped with credit cards, software sales, and many thousands of man hours instead of outside investments. The company’s core motive is to provide real-time VFX tools to artists and designers who work in video game or film industries. 

The first tool by Jang FX called VectorayGen was released in 2017. EmberGen is a standalone real-time volumetric fluid simulation tool built for generating flipbooks, image sequences, and VDB files.

In this Part 2 of Allan McKay’s interview with Nick Seavert, the Founder of Janga FX, Nick talks about his first job in the industry, the beginnings of Janga FX, its first software VectorayGen and the launch of Ember Gen.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/357.

Dottie Starling is a Visual Effects Supervisor, CGI artist and digital modeler. Through both her freelance VFX career and her work with production houses such as Cinesite, Asylum, and Wildfire VFX, Dottie has worked on countless blockbuster motion pictures including Titanic, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 007's Die Another Day, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Ocean’s Thirteen and Tropic Thunder.

Dottie has also worked with digital effects on the Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave, Oldboy, Selma, and the New Orleans-filmed television series Scream Queens. She has recently finished supervising Amazon’s original series Underground Railroad directed by Barry Jenkins.

In this Episode, Allan McKay interviews VFX Supervisor Dottie Starling about the path to becoming a Supervisor, the most crucial skill for the job, the challenge of creating visual effects that support the story (and the director’s vision), as well as her experience supervising Amazon’s original series Underground Railroad directed by Barry Jenkins.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/railroad/

Dan Katcher is a renowned Los Angeles-based creature designer for television, video games, and film. He is best known for his design of the dragons on HBO’s hit, Game of Thrones, which earned him Emmy recognition for three straight seasons. In addition to Game of Thrones, Dan is currently at work on creatures for a number of DC Comic productions, including The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.

Dan’s previous work includes the dinosaurs on Fox’s Terra Nova, alien designs for the Green Lantern film, creature designs for MTV’s Shannara Chronicles, and sculpts of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” for Sideshow Collectibles, as well as many other works. He got his start creating collectibles in wax for Todd McFarlane Toys in New York. 

Dan was trained at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he majored in Animation; and at the Art Students League, where he learned clay figurative sculpture from experts in the field. Dan credits his traditional art background for the depth of understanding of anatomy that sets his work apart. His ability to capture a character’s full range of human emotions gives his creations a signature, unmatched vitality.

In this Podcast, Allan interviews Dan about his career -- with all of its ups and downs -- the challenges of being an artist, the lessons he’s learned along the way, as well as his experience as the Father of Dragons on Game of Thrones.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/216/.

ActionVFX creates the world's largest library of visual effects stock footage elements for professional VFX Compositors. From Fire, Smoke, and Explosions, to People and Crowds. ActionVFX's mission is to provide artists with the best VFX assets in the world.

ActionVFX’s footage has been used in films like: Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Jumanji: The Next Level; television shows like Watchmen, Flash, Fear of the Walking Dead, Legends of Tomorrow, How to Get Away with Murder, Narcos, Series of Unfortunate Events; as well as in video games, music videos and the live Lady Gaga performance at this year’s Grammys. 

Most recently, ActionVFX footage was used in The Last of Us: They Will Come and Marauder: The End is Near.

In this Episode, ActionVFX CEO Rodolphe Pierre-Louis and COO / Co-Owner Luke Thompson talk about launching the company, the lessons they learned along the way, upcoming technology and the importance of consistent learning, willingness to fail fast, leadership advice and so much more!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/382.

So one subject commonly coming up is all about hardware!

Inside of the FX TD Mentorship, Troy Buckley who's part of my team, helps out a lot of people building hardware specs and figuring out what hardware they should buy depending on if they need generalist work done, or simuatlions etc. So you have the ultimate bang for your buck.

Troy's originally a student of mine IN the FXTD Mentorship, but he's shown so much passion and care, and shared so much knowledge in there (like a lot of people) that bit by bit he's organically evolved into being someone I work with closely on a lot of ideas for extra things we can do inside of the course etc. and Helps me out a lot.

This episode dives into everything you need to know about hardware.

Missed something? Got something to add? Leave a comment

Show notes are at http://www.allanmckay.com/80/

Martin Hall is a VFX Supervisor with 30+ years of experience in visual effects. Trained in the traditional fine arts, he found visual effects to be the perfect synthesis of art, technology, and business, while being the most collaborative of all creative endeavors. Among his numerous film and television credits include, LOVE DEATH & ROBOTS, VENOM, GAME OF THRONES, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY, PERRY MASON, ALL THE OLD KNIVES, ENCOUNTER, and many others.

Based in Los Angeles, Hall is CEO at Epic Entertainment Enterprises / Epic-FX and VFX Supervisor at Paramount Pictures. In addition, he serves on the VES Board of Directors, Los Angeles section, and is an educator at Gnomon.

Martin’s most recent project as a VFX Supervisor is the CBS-VFX television project RABBIT HOLE on Paramount +, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a corporate spy who is framed for murder by powerful forces who have the ability to influence and control populations. Each episode of RABBIT HOLE contains as many as 200 visual effects shots. The majority of the shots are designed to be "invisible" to viewers. These include creating digital set extensions, designing and building digital environments, and augmenting backgrounds, in addition to the more noticeable effects. 

RABBIT HOLE is set in New York City but filmed in Toronto, which is just the beginning of the creative challenges for the visual effects team. They needed to create numerous digital 3D New York streets filled with computer-generated cars and buildings and make sure they were seamlessly blended into the action. 

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews VFX Supervisor Martin Hall about his work with CBS-VFX on RABBIT HOLE for Paramount +, as well as the importance of staying on top of new technology, the creative power of empathy; and the soft skills and tools of VFX Supervisor.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/416.