The Allan McKay Podcast

This is replay of a Live Stream I did recently on YouTube where I talked about the levers we need to pull to get ahead in our career and maximize our success. This is a subject that have talked about in the past. The reason behind that is that building our technical skills -- without doing the outreach or network building -- isn't enough. It's really important! I really want to reiterate this subj...

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 w...

In this Podcast, Allan is giving a peak into a Career Intensive Webinar. This is a session that Allan has done recently inside his FXTD Mentorship Course. Normally, these Webinars are private. This is a chance for you to be a fly on the wall -- and get some valuable information. Usually, it's a Q&A session, but this time, Allan had his students submit questions ahead of time. If you're interested...

Alessandro Ongaro is a CG Supervisor at Double Negative. With almost 20 years of experience, he is presently considered to be among the CG Industry's top professionals.  Alessandro was born in Switzerland and holds a dual Italian and Swiss citizenship. While studying design at the School of Design in Milan, Italy, Alessandro first began using computers to create photo-realistic 3D renderings for t...

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-...

Mariana Acuña Acosta is an entrepreneur who is driven by her passion for new and emerging technologies. Over the past four years, her focus has been in VR, MR and AR workflows, cross-pollination of products; the changing landscape of entertainment and the new ways of creating content. She is the Founder of Jolt VR and a CPO and Co-Founder of Glassbox Technologies (previously known as Opaque Studio...

Derek Spears is an award-winning VFX Supervisor. His career in Visual Effects started with the founding of Cinesite's 3D department where he was involved with the production of Kevin Costner's  Waterworld  and helped develop Cinesite's 3D tracking system. Over the years, Spears served as the Digital Effects Supervisor on  Face / Off ,  The X Files  movie, as well as the VFX Supervisor for  The Sum...

A lot of us find out that when we start to learn an new subject, we read up everything and get basic information, often without knowing how to apply it. By having a set goal, the learning becomes more intense and we have apply it all in a context. It allows us to connect the dots and come together in a context. And it also means you're going to start to see your progression as you go along -- and...

This is a personal essay on how to level up. I don't think this Podcast is going to be for everyone; and if doesn't resonate with you, it might not be the right time for you. I want to cut the bullshit and call it what it is: If you want to level up -- LEVEL UP! I get asked a lot the following questions: How do I get started? ( www.allanmckay.com/184/ ) How do I become successful? Why are other pe...

This is an Episode that has been a long time coming. This is easily the one question I get asked every day: How do I get started in visual effects? Where do I turn? I'm overwhelmed: Which software should I study? There are two ways to answer this question:  One: The generic way of "Just do it!" or "Go to school!" Instead, I want to dive deeper and give you the specific answer, as well tell you whi...

Going into a job interview as a creative means that they have seen your work and they like what they've seen. It isn't that they're coming in to consider you. It means that they're narrowing down to a couple people. They just want to know if you're a good fit for the company. This isn't an interrogation. It's more about finding out what kind of personality you have. That also means that you're com...

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 spec...

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...

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...

Aaron Sims, the visual creator behind some of this generation's most unforgettable cinema creatures, began his career over two decades ago as a special effects makeup artist. His pioneering techniques in the world of visual effects influenced the face of character and creature design in Film, Television, Games, Previs, and VFX early on in their application.  Aaron Sims Creative [ASC] was formed in...

The big question that gets asked a lot: Is there money in art? Or is the Starving Artist mentality valid? It's really important to understand that art is actually a career. In the beginning, you need to do whatever it takes to land that first job. But one day, eventually, you will be in a position where the studios will do whatever it takes -- to land YOU.  As with any career, it's important to se...

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 where he worked on Merry Madagascar, Megamind, Madagascar 3, Penguins of Madagascar and Boss Baby . He...

The biggest mistake people make when applying for jobs -- is not thinking about the person who is receiving your email: a Department Head, a VFX Sup, an HR Manager. How are you going to make someone stop whatever they're doing -- managing their team, supervising a job, dealing with their bosses, putting together bids, etc. -- to pay attention to your email? How do you position yourself to make the...

Noëlle Triaureau was the Production Designer on Sony Pictures Animation movie Smurfs . She joined Sony Pictures Animation in 2005. Since then, she worked as a Visual Development artist on Surf's Up and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs . She was Art Director on Hotel Transylvania . She is also a recipient of the Joule award, an honor recognizing outstanding Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictur...

2018 is officially over. It's time to set your goals for the New Year.  Setting your goals is important: If you don't have that compass -- you don't have a sense of direction. But what's just as important -- is being able to see those goals through by: Breaking the big goals into a roadmap of smaller goals; Attacking them with urgency; Leaning into the resistance and your pain points; Creating an...

Gini Cruz Santos is a Filipina animator at Pixar studios based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked on numerous Pixar animation films including Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, Up, Lifted and Brave . She was nominated in 2004 for an Annie Award for her animation on Finding Nemo  and was nominated by the Visual Effects Society...

Eran Dinur is VFX Supervisor, Composer and published author. His career in visual effects began with a fascination for creating 3D natural scenery. Through his early years, he became well known as a VUE expert and innovator. When he joined ILM Singapore, he created visual effects for films such as Iron Man, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crysta...

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 popula...

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 popula...

Mike Morris is a Filmmaker, Director, and Storyboard Artist of animation for broadcast and digital distribution. He's also a developer of animated IP's and content and a VR enthusiast. He's been a consultant for artistic software development and a creator of the Annual Wacom Cintiq Showdown at CTNX, as well as moderator for animation panels at various Comic Con Expos. Currently, Mike is a Storyboa...