The Allan Mckay Podcast

Michael Janda is an executive level creative leader with more than 20 years of experience in both in-house creative departments and agencies working with some of the greatest brands in the world. In 2002, he founded the creative agency Riser, a nationally recognized agency creating high-profile work for clients including Disney, Google, ABC, Fox, Warner Bros., NBC, TV Guide and numerous other notable companies. The company’s 3 year growth rate of 235% in 2013 resulted in a ranking on Inc. 5000 (#1657). Riser’s work quality and successful business practices yielded some of the most coveted awards in the industry including Webbys, FWA, Awwwards, AIGA and Addys.   After selling Riser in 2015 and becoming its Chief Creative Officer, Michael orchestrated a rebrand of the agency as EKR. In collaboration with the other partners, he successfully migrated Riser’s clients and acquired new notable clients including Google, National Geographic, ABC, Intel and Netflix. In addition to his robust experience managing creativ

Glenn Stearns was born to alcoholic parents, diagnosed dyslexic, and failed 4th grade. He fathered a child at the age of 14 and graduated high school in the bottom ten-percent of his class. While some of his friends lost their lives to drugs and alcohol, and others spent time in prison, Glenn's path intersected with mentors who gave him motivating examples of how to not meet the fate of his friends and instead take control of his destiny. He took that life-changing encouragement and ran with it. Glenn became the first person in his family to attend college and graduated with a degree in economics from Towson University. Inspired by stories of people who took risks and achieved their grandest ambitions, he then moved to California where he slept on the kitchen floor of a one-bedroom apartment that he shared with five other recent grads. While waiting tables, Glenn continued to search for new opportunities to rise above his humble beginnings.  At 25, after working as a loan officer for 10 months, Glenn formed h

When it comes to VFX Work, Bryan Hirota has seen a lot in his career, from his first VFX job at Visual Image to currently being a VFX Supervisor at Scanline VFX. He’s worked at studios like Pixomondo, Prime Focus VFX, CIS Hollywood, Blue Sky - VIFX. His projects include The Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Godzilla vs Kong, The Suicide Squad, Aquaman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Green Lantern, Tree of Life, Watchmen, Tropic Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men, Armageddon, The Relic and many more. In this Podcast, Allan interviews Bryan about his experience working with Zack Snyder on Justice League, reworking the film for the 2021 Cut for HBO Max, Scanline’s shots on Godzilla vs Kong, as well as Bryan’s advice for VFX Artists and Supervisors. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/298/.

Platige Image S.A. is a Polish VFX company that specializes in computer graphics, 3D animation and digital special effects. It was founded in Warsaw in 1997, by Jarosław Sawko and Piotr Sikora. The studio employs a staff of over 150 artists, including directors, art directors, graphic designers and producers.  Over its 20-year history, Platige has built an impressive portfolio of short animations, cinematics, commercials and feature films with titles like Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots and The Witcher; Wonderwoman; Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and Melancholia; Cathedral, Fallen Art and many others. Their work has garnered numerous prestigious awards and distinctions, such as a BAFTA, an EFA, a Goya Award and SIGGRAPH Awards, as well as nominations for an Oscar, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In this Podcast, Allan interviews Platige’s VFX Supervisor Matt Tokarz and VFX Producer Krzysztof Krok about their experience working on The Witcher for Netflix

We have these barriers that we put on ourselves because we set our reality to be around these limitations. We tell ourselves we can’t do something. Or that art doesn’t pay. Or that the industry sucks. These are the constraints -- or excuses -- we put on ourselves to dismiss the possibility of what could be real. That becomes our reality. So how many things like this are you telling yourself?  Most of you don’t want to step out of your comfort zone. But if you do get triggered, it might be good to lean into those uncomfortable spaces and pains. When you dismiss ideas, chances are you just don’t want to put in the work.  It all starts with asking the right questions and setting the right goals: What if it were possible? What would it look like? And what would I need to do to get those results? In this Podcast, Allan talks about examining your limiting thoughts and resistance, setting higher goals, building winning habits -- and overcoming those barriers that once seemed impossible. For more show notes, visit 

In this Podcast, Allan McKay talks about the key takeaways from his interview with Hugo Martin, the Creative Director of DOOM and DOOM Eternal, about the benefit of getting out of your comfort zone, how to be a creative leader, and how to rise above the chaos -- and to succeed. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/295/.

Lotta (aka Charlotta) Forssman is a VFX supervisor based out of NYC. For nearly a decade, she has been part of Molecule VFX and has worked on shows like Ballers (HBO), The Good Cop, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None (Netflix). She has been a Supervisor for Apple TV’s Dickinson since Season 1. In this Podcast, Allan and Lotta talk about the path to becoming a VFX Supervisor, how to communicate with other creatives about visual effects; her experience as a woman artist in the industry and some of her projects, including DICKINSON for Apple TV+. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/294/.

The Unreal Fellowship is a 30-day intensive blended learning experience designed to help experienced industry professionals in film, animation, and VFX learn Unreal Engine, develop a strong command of state-of-the-art virtual production tools, and foster the next generation of teams in the emerging field of real-time production.  During the program, Fellows learn Unreal Engine fundamentals, model ingestion, animation and mocap integration, lookdev, lighting setups, and cinematic storytelling. Brian Pohl is a Technical Program Manager at Epic Games. He helps artists and clients get the training they need to integrate the Unreal Engine into their creative pipelines. Pohl also acts as the academic Dean for the Unreal Engine Fellowship Program. In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Brian about virtual productions and the tool Unreal Engine provides, as well as the Unreal Fellowship, a training program that teaches artists the fundamentals. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/293/.

Marty Neumeier is a best-selling author and speaker who writes on topics of brand and design. Today Marty spends most of his time lecturing all over the globe about the role of creativity and innovation in the creation of relevant and meaningful brand experiences.  Marty has written several best-selling books including The Brand Gap which outlines how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design; ZAG which introduces “onliness” as the true test of a brand strategy; and The Designful Company which offers leaders a blueprint for building a culture of innovation through design thinking. ZAG was named one the “100 Best Business Books of All Time.” In 2013, Marty published Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic Age, a deep dive into the future of workplace creativity. He then wrote The 46 Rules of Genius as a “quickstart guide” to “Metaskills.” His latest book The Brand Flip is the long-awaited sequel to The Brand Gap. It offers a simple formula for addressing the changes brought by social media a

Rhett Dashwood (aka Mankind) is an award winning Creative Director with experience in a broad range of creative media, including digital, animation, branding, print, film making and concept art. He has worked with the following studios and agencies during his 15+ years in the industry: Emery / Frost, Tribal, AKQA, Exit Films, DDB and many more. He is currently Creative Director of Dashwood.  As a Digital Artist, Rhett creates work under the name of Mankind. On his Instagram page (@Mankind), Rhett publishes his own art and curates the art of other digital artists. His YouTube channel is dedicated to everything art, including his expertise on crypto art and NFT’s. In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Rhett Dashwood (aka Mankind) about the hot topic of crypto art and NFT’s, the history behind it and the post-COVID-19 surge; how to start selling your digital art -- and why the cliche of a “starving artist” is on its way out. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/291/.

Doug Roble is the Senior Director of Software R&D at Digital Domain and leads a world-class team of software developers. An original member of Digital Domain, Doug has been writing software and conducting research to advance the artistry and technology for feature films since the studio’s inception. Doug was awarded two Academy Sci-Tech Awards: one for “Track”, an integrated software program that extracts critical 2D and 3D information about a scene and the camera used to film it; and the second for his work on the fluid simulation system at Digital Domain which incorporates innovative algorithms and refined adaptations of published methods to achieve large-scale water effects. He has participated in SIGGRAPH nearly continuously, in one form or another, for 25 years, including leading multiple courses, papers and presentations. An accomplished orator and advocate of technological advancement, Doug speaks regularly at premier conferences and events including TED 2019, and keynotes at the Symposium on Compu

JangaFX was founded in 2016 by Nick Seavert, an entrepreneur who is well versed in both startups and real-time VFX. JangaFX 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 JangaFX 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 Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Nick Seavert about his starting JangaFX and the challenges he experienced, the multiple applications of EmberGen and the company’s collaboration with Otoy. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/289/.  

Lux Machina Consulting is a design, management and technical consulting firm focused on complex, large scale live shows, film production and installations. Lux Machina uses innovative techniques and technologies from various markets to connect artists with their audiences like never before. The company prides itself on the balance between technical and artistic decisions, and works to maximize their clients’ resources to build their visions effectively and efficiently. Since its inception, Lux Machina has collaborated on such groundbreaking projects as The Mandalorian, The Irishman, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Rogue One; as well as consulted for clients that include Lucasfilm, Epic Games, ARRI Camera and many others. In this Podcast, Allan interviews the team at Lux Machina -- Co-CEO Phil Galler and CTO Kris Murray -- about the company’s history, its most groundbreaking projects, as well as the biggest challenges and the future of virtual production. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/288/.

A lot of us quit doing what we love for the wrong reasons, because other people poison our minds by telling us we have to go get “a real career”. When we aren’t getting that traction in the beginning (which is normal in our career), we start feeding off these doubts instilled in our minds and we give up too soon.  But we are all on our own journey. If others are projecting their fears or failures onto us, -- instead of supporting us -- why would we want that around? You’re the average of five people with whom you spend the most time with. So always be surrounded by people who are better than you, those who inspire and encourage you to do better, to do more. And when you have such a support system -- then the sky's the limit! In this Podcast, Allan McKay discusses the importance of having a support system that makes you average up, not down; how and where to find it and how to overcome the inner critic that holds you back. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/287/.

If you aren’t willing to do the work -- and be anything else than an artist -- then you are going to fail. And that’s the brutal truth! That is because you aren’t just an artist. Being an artist is just your skill or your trade. You still need to do the other stuff.  The reason so many people give up on their career is because they give up the minute it gets tough. You need to learn to manage yourself to be able to step up and look at what is working and what isn’t. Make no mistake: You are a business, you have a reputation. You are a brand.  In this Podcast, Allan McKay confronts the excuses with which artists sabotage their careers and gives advice on how to make a choice to confront those excuses -- and to actually succeed!  For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/286/.

Beeple is Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer from Charleston, SC, USA who does a variety of digital artwork including short films, Creative Commons VJ loops, everydays and VR / AR work.   After he began releasing a set of widely used Creative Commons VJ loops he has worked on concert visuals for Justin Bieber, One Direction, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Zedd, deadmau5 and many more.    One of the originators of the current "everyday" movement in 3D graphics, he has been creating a picture everyday from start to finish and posting it online for over ten years without missing a single day. Mike has also created several short films which have screened at a variety of festivals. Allan McKay interviews Beeple about finding inspiration for his daily art, the importance of discipline, building an audience and the myth of perfection.   For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/285/.

There is an example in marketing: If you have a migraine and you head to a pharmacy, you’ll see one medicine that says, “Cures All Aches and Pains” and another that says, “Cures All Migraines”. They both do the same thing and they’re made by the same company. But their marketers know that the medicine that’s the most specific -- is the one that will stand out. Meanwhile, a lot of artists have this gut reaction that specializing is bad and that it’s better to generalize as much as you can. The truth is that you can specialize in multiple things but what you’re really trying to do is to stand out. By specializing, you aren’t eliminating opportunity -- you’re eliminating competition. Sometimes to be exceptional, you need to get specific. And there are different ways to stand out in your industry or how people remember you. It’s about getting your client confident that you’ll get the job done on time. Your messaging can change with every single client. When it comes to having a conversation, you can find out what

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 McK

Most of us initially set small goals that we find socially acceptable. We’re too afraid to set bigger goals, or we don’t have them anymore because we find them to be impossible. The goals that we do say outloud are the ones that we find socially acceptable, without being laughed at. And that sucks! We’re afraid to dream big or to dream what we aspire to be.  And it’s not because we decided that we weren’t good enough. It’s because others decided that we weren’t good enough.  What if we stopped others from pushing their fears and insecurities, their limited mindsets onto our hopes and dreams? And what if we decided that dreams are also as good as the strategy we put in place and its execution?  In this Podcast, Allan McKay shares his expertise about how to set your Someday Goals and how to stay focused and actually achieve them. For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/282/.  

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