The Allan McKay Podcast

Oscar-winning Visual Effects Specialist Ben Grossmann has been paving the way for the new immersive web for nearly 20 years. As a Co-Founder of Magnopus, he's long had a vision of bringing physical and digital worlds together through connected spaces. His passion for immersive technologies has made him a prominent voice on the subject. Over the years, Ben has used his experience in films to lead a...

Sally Slade worked for eight years in the VFX Industry, supporting visionary creators at Oscar award-winning studios, before pivoting to the XR Industry in 2016.  Sally was nominated as "Reality Mixer of the Year" by Microsoft for her HoloLens product, Muralize, and further decorated by the AWE for her contributions to back-to-back Auggie award-winning XR experiences: Meow Wolf's The Navigator , a...

Orion Tait is a Director and Partner at Buck, leading its New York studio in creating commercials and content for major brands from all over the world. With a background in filmmaking, fine arts and graphic design, his varied body of work is rooted in visual storytelling and continues to push the boundaries of innovation and quality in the commercial realm.  A champion and steward of Buck's well r...

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...

Carlos Stevens is an Animation Director, Writer and Executive Producer. He's a former Student Academy Awards nominee for his animated short film Toumai . This achievement kick-started Carlos's career working on a variety of Cannes Gold Lion award-winning commercial campaigns, notably for Sprint and Sony. Additionally, he has directed and designed campaigns for X-Box, Netflix, Marvel, EA, Lexus, Sy...

Henrique Reginato is a VFX Supervisor and the Founder of NOX Visual Effects. After working in VFX for over 13 years, Henrique launched NOX Visual Effects during COVID-19 by purchasing the Nuke Indie license and working from home. Born in Brazil, Henrique first studied at Centro Universitario Senac, in Sao Paolo. He then pursued 3D Animation and VFX training from Vancouver Film School. He's worked...

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 Soci...

Fred Ruff is the founder of Refuge FX, a Portland based visual effects studio responsible for projects like For All Mankind, Helstrom, Queen of the South, Runaways, Grimm, Last Knight .  Fred has over two decades of experience in computer graphics, visual effects and software development. He's worked as a Lead Product Designer at Autodesk. He currently serves on the advisory board for Turbosquid,...

Bilali Mack is a VFX Supervisor Based in NYC. Born in Accra, Ghana and based in Brooklyn, Bilali has spent the better part of the last decade honing his craft at visual effects at studios such as Brickyard VFX, Smoke and Mirrors, MPC and Alkemy X. Bilali has supervised and executed on visual effects for commercials, tv and film for a number of high profile clients such as Adidas, Google, BMW, Star...

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...

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 J...

When Nate Black decided to start a YouTube channel, he had a significant advantage: As an actor, he'd been in thousands of live stage performances and knew how to play to an audience. After leaving the stage, he moved through various jobs until he found a passion for teaching.   When he launched Channel Makers, a YouTube Channel that tackles the question "How to succeed on YouTube", the number of...

Clinton Jones is a Director, Content Creator, VFX Artist and Photographer. He has worked at Rocket Jump and at Corridor Digital. On his YouTube Channel, where he is known as Pwnisher, he launches challenges for his community, as well as creates tutorials. His YouTube Channel has a massive following of over 557K subscribers, while his Instagram has 110K followers. Currently, Clinton is working on c...

Ian Spriggs is a 3D Digital Artist and a VFX Artist. He completed his first 3D portrait in 2014. His work has become widely known for being photorealistic because they seem to represent the subjects' inner selves.  As a Lead Character Modeler, he has worked for studios like Unity Technologies, Scanline VFX, ILM, Mr. X. His projects include The Mandalorian, Mulan, Bloodshot .  He is also the author...

Since 1975, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has set the standard for visual effects, creating some of the most stunning images in the history of film. At the forefront of the digital revolution, ILM continues to break new ground in the field not only in visual effects but now virtual reality, augmented reality, immersive entertainment, and virtual production. Founded by George Lucas, ILM is the lea...

Activision Blizzard's history goes back more than 40 years. Two incredible gaming brands Activision and Blizzard Entertainment merged, bringing together the best creative talent in gaming. The acquisition of King in 2016 further strengthened the company's vision to bring the world together through epic entertainment. T heir professional gaming properties include the Overwatch League™, the Call of...

When Oscar®-nominated, Emmy® award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay teams with some of cinema's most noted directors in the new HBO Max original docuseries One Perfect Shot , movie lovers will see dazzling, unprecedented views inside memorable shots from film history. The series provides a never-before-possible perspective on filmmaking, allowing directors to step into their favorite shots and take...

Mike Price is a Writers Guild Award and three-time Emmy Award-winning Writer and Producer. He is the Executive Producer and Showrunner of the acclaimed Netflix animated comedy series F is for Family , which he co-created with series star Bill Burr.  He is also a Writer and Co-Executive Producer on The Simpsons , having written over 20 episodes of the show – and served as a script consultant on The...

Kemer Stevenson is the Character Effects Supervisor at Blur Studio in Los Angeles, California. With more than 15 years of experience in feature film, marketing and communications, he has previously worked for DreamWorks Animation, Rhythm & Hues, Republic Studios. His credits include: Trolls, Penguins of Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon franchise ; Monsters vs. Aliens, The Incredible Hulk. In t...

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...

Perfection is our inability to balance out our priorities or see the big picture. We get so fixated on everything being perfect, we fall behind our responsibilities, eventually failing to deliver anything at all. This is a huge problem for a lot of junior artists who make this mistake which stops them from succeeding. Borrowing from what Allan McKay has learned as a VFX Supervisor, Producer in fil...

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...

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, Quantifco, The Blacklist, And Just Like That, Modern Love and many more. She is a self-taught artist and photographer. MAGGIE OH is currently a Sr. Technical Program Manager for Machine Learning and Computer Vision on Google...

JINKO GOTOH is an Animation Producer and Consultant whose credits include The Little Prince ; the Academy Award nominated The Illusionist ; the Academy Award winning Finding Nemo . Jinko also serves as Vice-President of Women in Animation dedicated to advancing women in the field of animation. NELL LLOYD-MALCOLM is the Founding CEO of Xydrobe, a new luxury NFT platform. Previously, Nell has worked...

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 Tha t. She is a self-taught artist and photographer. In this Podcast, Allan and Tehmina talk about balancing creative and technical skills,...