Allan McKay

Work History

• 

  FX

  Ntropic

  November 2015 - December 2015

  Santa Monica, CA

  Came on to work on an art installation project, creating almost 10 minutes of simulated fire for a London art exhibit.
• 

  VFX Sup

  Imaginary Forces

  August 2015 - September 2015

  I got credited VFX Supervisor on the project - but I was basically just creating FX for the project.
  I came on to work with their amazing team - creating all of the VFX elements for the 'Secrets' promo spot for Manhattan Season 2. The turnaround period was extremely fast considering the shots and the amount of work, but it was a blast to get to work with these guys again.
• 

  Freelance FX

  Blur Studio

  March 2014 - August 2014

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Just wrapped on a lot of the major VFX shots for the new Halo game, creating 65 minutes of CG in less than 6 months
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F7OgOCzph4
  
  Also helped out a little on Tom Clancy's The Division
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EreJszhLgRo
• 

  FX Lead

  Zero VFX

  October 2013 - February 2014

  Greater Boston Area

  Working on Denzel's new film.

  
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  Juniper Jones

  July 2013 - September 2013

  Los Angeles, CA

  Witches of East End Trailer - Created all of the visual effects for this piece, involving nearly 20 visual effects shots of photorealistic simulated fire. Initially also sup'ing on set however there was a schedule conflict.
  To keep all of the talent 'safe' the fire was all created digitally in Fume FX. Also using special software developed for this project which wouldn't have allowed the complexity of the fire to really be possible.
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Atomic Fiction

  July 2013 - August 2013

  Los Angeles, CA

  Need for Speed - Feature Film
  Currently in production - but created an extremely fast turnaround complicated shot in under 3 days for temps involving simulating digital fire at high velocity.

  

  

  
• 

  Effects Lead

  Imaginary Forces

  May 2013 - June 2013

  Los Angeles, CA

  Metallica - Through the Never
  Created the film logo for the production company involving photorealistic heavily directed simulated fire burning over a flag full screen film res stereo for this 30 second piece.
  Warcraft the movie - Comicon Teaser
  Created a tight turnaround teaser trailer for Comicon's announcement of the movie. Creating photorealistic CG fire and developing tools to handle the large amounts of simulations needed.

  
• 

  VFX Supervisor

  Prologue Films

  February 2013 - June 2013

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  VFX Supervisor managed a total of 5 FX artists, developed all of the pipelines and tools throughout the production. During that time our team was highly praised and delivered flawlessly throughout the production. As well as picking up additional work that had been originally given to other high profile studios to handle.
  I built many tools and plugins to help speed production up, as well as training some of the staff, dealing with directors and production and scheduling the project. Creating large amounts of water simulations, rain interaction, clouds, smoke, dust, sand storms and other effects.
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  Plastic Wax

  January 2013 - March 2013

  Los Angeles, CA

  Civilization 5 Cinematic - Created massive nuclear explosion for the recreation of the Manhattan project, for the high profile cinematic for the game's release.
  V.E.G.A Game Cinematic, managed one other VFX Artist and created pipelines, tools for rolling out massive quantities of visual effects in a manageable manor for the cinematic, primarily fire, expulsions, smoke, lasers, debris and other effects.
• 

  Atomic Fiction

  December 2012 - January 2013

  San Francisco, CA

  Star Trek 2 - Worked on all of the FX for a massive shot of a frozen moment in time, camera pulling through it for the high profile feature film. Creating over 100 FX elements involving smoke, fire debris and sparks. Managed one other artist for the project.
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  Imaginary Forces

  2013 - 2013

  Los Angeles, CA

  God of War: From Ashes Superbowl Spot - Brought on from conception for initial discussions with the director, art director and producer as well as involved on set during the shoot and handling all of the 3D ash shots for God of War piece.
  Managed one other artist and one additional generalist toward the end of production. I was responsible for creating all of the ash effects as well as in some shots texturing and animation. This involved record amounts of fracturing debris and heavy 5 day long rigid body simulations. I presented a talk at Autodesk University on this subject in Vegas discussing my involvement. Also dealt directly with client and director, and managing the production from our end (ie. buying machines, setting up office, software, and other overhead).
• 

  Vsual Effects Supervisor / Consultant

  Blind

  2013 - 2013

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Collaborated on a pitch for a vfx heavy tv commercial
  developed various videos and contributed to the treatment, creating backgrounds and other contributions
  participated in the presentation to client
• 

  Technical Director

  Encore VFX

  2013 - 2013

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Castle
  NCIS
• 

  freelance Visual Effects Supervisor & Consultant

  Catastrophic FX

  May 2005 - 2013

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  bid, produced and supervised projects and teams as well as supervised on set. Created pipeline and artist tools, worked on vfx shots as well as managed small and large teams for feature films and tv commercials.
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  Relevant VFX

  2012 - 2012

  Los Angeles, CA

  HESS TV Commercial - Supervising VFX, overseeing other artists and building pipeline solutions for the production
  The Wind - Worked on an internal pitch for Warner Bros for a feature film involving heavy amounts of groundbreaking effects using new technology and troubleshooting ways to efficiently be able to get simulations to work within the heavy technical demands required.
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Atomic Fiction

  2012 - 2012

  san francisco, ca
• 

  Technical Director

  Atomic Fiction

  2012 - 2012

  San Francisco Bay Area
• 

  Plastic Wax

  2012 - 2012

  Greater Los Angeles Area
• 

  Technical Director

  The Ant Farm

  2012 - 2012

  Los angeles

  Turtle Beach
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  567 vfx

  2012 - 2012

  Toronto, Canada Area

  White Doves - Young Empires (Music Video)
• 

  Effects Lead

  Pixomondo

  2012 - 2012

  Beautiful Creatures
  VFX Look dev Twister
  Lightning Impacts, Tool Dev

  
• 

  Professor at FXPHD

  FXPHD

  December 2010 - February 2011

  Fume FX Workshop at FXPHD
• 

  Technical Director

  Psyop

  2011 - 2011

  Greater New York City Area

  Minute Maid - Commercial
• 

  Atomic Fiction

  2011 - 2011

  San Francisco Bay Area
• 

  Lead Technical Director

  Relevant VFX

  2011 - 2011

  Managed all of the FX for various high profile projects and feature films
• 

  Technical Director

  Encore VFX

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  The River
• 

  Lead Technical Director

  Relevant VFX

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Similo (Short Film)
• 

  Lead Technical Director

  Relevant VFX

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor

  Catastrophic FX

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area
• 

  Technical Director

  Catastrophic FX

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Cadillac - TV Commercial
• 

  Consultant

  Psyop

  2011 - 2011

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Nescafe - TV Commercial
  Consultation on overall Psyop Studio Pipeline with IT department
• 

  CG Workshop Instructor

  CG Society

  2006 - 2011

  One of their key instructors
  Majority of my workshops would sell out within 72 hours
  I was the first to be able to increase cost and head count in the classes as well as help in improving ways to attract students
  Ran over 15, 8 week workshops on subjects such as Realflow, Fume FX, Particle Flow and various other subjects
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Spy Post

  April 2010 - June 2010

  working on Priest, making things go boom
• 

  Effects Lead

  Farmer Brown

  March 2010 - April 2010

  worked on game cinematic creating most of the FX
• 

  Technical Director

  Industrial Light & Magic

  October 2009 - March 2010

  San Francisco Bay Area

  The Last Airbender - Feature Film

  

  
• 

  Farmer Brown

  2010 - 2010

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Star Wars Battle Front II - Game Cinematic
• 

  Effects Lead

  Spy Post

  2010 - 2010

  San Francisco Bay Area

  Priest - Feature Film
• 

  Spy Post

  2010 - 2010

  I was FX Lead on Priest, managing the other FX artists, as well as creating many of the biggest shots on the project, primarily creating fire, and destruction/demolition. And creating various tools, and helped build their pipeline for the studio at least in regards to how 3ds max plugged

  
• 

  Effects Lead

  Psyop

  2010 - 2010

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Fable 3 - TV Commercial
  Airforce - TV Commercial

• Technical Director

  METAphrenie

  2010 - 2010

  Los Angeles

  Asia Games - Special Event

• Visual Effects Supervisor

  Artificial Army

  2010 - 2010

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Rev Theory - Music Video
• 

  Effects Lead

  Buck

  2010 - 2010

  Greater New York City Area

  grimbergen - TV Commercial
• 

  Effects Lead

  LUXX Studios

  2010 - 2010

  Hawx2 - Video Game Cinematic
• 

  Senior FX Technical Director

  Pixomondo

  2010 - 2010

  Berlin Area, Germany

  2012 - Feature Film
• 

  Senior Effects TD

  Pixomondo

  February 2009 - May 2009

  Beautiful Creatures - worked on creating a massive tornado primarily doing the look dev/R&D for the project
• 

  Special Effects Art Guru / Senior Effects Supervisor

  Radical Entertainment

  2008 - 2009

  Vancouver, Canada Area

  Protoype - Video Game

• Production Supervisor

  Popular Mechanics

  2006 - 2009

  Greater New York City Area

  Cover art for many issues of Popular Mechanics Magazine and feature articles
• 

  Master Class Speaker / Freelancer

  Autodesk

  January 1900 - December 2008

  Consistently speaking and doing demos for Autodesk, as well as one of their key speakers for most siggraph Master Classes and events around the world and hired for consulting with various studios in Australia.
  Awarded as Autodesk Master (apparently voted the highest out of all the Max Masters) in 2007 San Diego SIGGRAPH.
  Also responsible for creating all of the FX elements for 3D Studio Max 2010.
• 

  Senior FX Supervisor / Special FX GURU

  Radical Entertainment

  May 2008 - October 2008

  Working as part of the advaned visual group in building pipelines, overseeing and controlling the future FX pipelines for the studio and rolling out to all of their games.
• 

  Occasional freelance speaker and various services

  Autodesk

  March 2003 - October 2008

  Presented Autodesk products allover the world at major events, presenting as an expert of the product, holding master classes, keynotes, panels and demos.
  Hired by Autodesk for various projects including creating massive FX asset library that now ships with 3ds max. Also consulting with various clients of theirs including WETA.

• Owner

  Catastrophic

  September 2005 - May 2008

  film studio

• Owner / Director

  Catastrophic VFX

  June 2005 - May 2008

  film studio
• 

  On site training

  Frantic Films

  February 2008 - February 2008

  Intense 3 day training session training a majority of Frantic Films FX TD's and staff on many advanced FX based subjects, such as fluids, digital fire, particles, scripting, crowd, volumetrics and procedural animation and modeling.
• 

  Effects TD

  Tronic

  2008 - 2008

  FX Lead on a large tv commercial for Spec Ops creating lots of destruction, fluids, particles and other effects.
• 

  Effects Lead

  Tronic

  2008 - 2008

  Greater New York City Area

  Spec Ops - Game Cinematic
• 

  Sequence Supervisor + Effects Lead

  Catastrophic FX

  2008 - 2008

  Brisbane, Australia

  Daybreakers - Feature Film
  Catastrophic FX / Co-Production w/ Kanuka
• 

  Executive Producer

  THQ

  2008 - 2008

  Warhammer - Game Cinematic Pitch
• 

  Visual Effects Supervisor / Producer

  Catastrophic FX

  2008 - 2008

  McDonalds Game Cinematic
  Supervised team of 15 artists
• 

  Consultant & Supervisor

  Liquid Animation

  January 2006 - July 2007

  on multiple occasions came in to consult on upcoming projects and expansion of their pipelines, as well as a few 911 calls involving taking over supervision of one project to get back on track towards the end.

• Effects Technical Director

  MokMe Studio

  March 2007 - June 2007

  VFX for a Subaru commercial
• 

  Effects Supervisor

  eyeball

  February 2007 - May 2007

  Greater New York City Area

  Bioshock TV Commercial
  Interviewed artists for the project
  helped out with the script treatment
  R&D and Look dev
  trained artists

• Effects Lead

  Mok films

  2007 - 2007

  Greater New York City Area

  Subaru TV Commercial
• 

  Effects Lead

  Plastic Wax

  2007 - 2007

  Sydney, Australia

  Bioshock - Game Cinematics
• 

  Effects Lead

  RealtimeUK

  2007 - 2007

  Autorobotica - Game Cinematic
• 

  Effects Lead

  Frantic Films

  2007 - 2007

  Los Angeles

  Asylum - Feature Film
• 

  Freelance FX Technical Director

  Blur Studio

  June 2006 - November 2006

  Worked on several game cinematics and a couple of their short films, one which received an oscar nomination. Warhammer 40k: dawn of war, bioshock trailer, halo wars, in the rough, gopher broke, amongst many others.
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Iloura

  February 2006 - May 2006

  Nightmares and Dreamscapes - Stephen King episodic
  Citroen TV Commercial
  ferrero rocher Commercial
• 

  Speaker

  Ubisoft

  February 2006 - February 2006

  3 day intense training course teaching all of their senior staff and art directors/technical directors on subjects for visual effects for cinematics and realtime games.
• 

  Effects Lead

  SEGA

  2006 - 2006

  Medieval 2 - Game Cinematic
• 

  Plastic Wax

  2006 - 2006

  Sydney, Australia

  Pyro Cops - Game Cinematics
  Darkness - Game Cinematics
  Justice League - Game cinematics
• 

  Technical Director

  Twitch

  2006 - 2006

  Sydney, Australia

  Kung Fu - Cinematic
• 

  Technical Director

  Reel FX

  2006 - 2006

  Dallas/Fort Worth Area

  Boz The Bear - Animated Feature Film
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Reel FX

  2005 - 2006

  FX for Boz the bear and other projects
• 

  Senior Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  January 2005 - September 2005

  Helped form Frantic Films Australia and work on set for Superman Returns as a liaison between Frantic Films and the Director/Production team for Superman. Also working on a lot of the key sequences for Superman and helping develop the look for some of the key shots. Other than Superman working on IdleWild and various other feature films. As well as perviously Paycheck and Scooby Doo 2.
• 

  FX Technical Director

  Shadows in Darkness

  March 2005 - July 2005

  Developed all of the FX for multiple video game cinematics
• 

  Consultant

  Act3 Animation

  2005 - 2005

  Visual effects and FX pipeline development for Neverwinter nights cinematic

• Effects Technical Director

  ProMotion Studios

  2005 - 2005

  Created visual effects for various high profile projects, including large crowd simulation projects, water simulations and various other effects
• 

  Effects Technical Director

  Shadows in Darkness

  2005 - 2005

  Panzer Elite - Cinematics

• Visual Effects Artist Lead

  Studio Promotion

  2005 - 2005

  Sydney, Australia

  Go Talk - Cinematic
  Heavy Crowd Simulations

• Lead Visual Effects Artist

  Promotion Studio

  2005 - 2005

  Sydney, Australia

  Toyota DNA - Commercial

• Artificial Army

  2005 - 2005

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  The Suffering (Music Video)
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  2005 - 2005

  Slither - Feature Film (Pitch)
• 

  Senior FX TD

  Frantic Films

  2005 - 2005

  The Big Empty (Short Film)
• 

  Senior FX Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  2005 - 2005

  IdleWild - Feature Film
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  2005 - 2005
• 

  Senior Effects Technical Director

  Reel FX

  2004 - 2005
• 

  technical director

  Digital Dimension

  2003 - 2005

  Worked on notable shots for feature films such as Blade 3, Cinderella Story, Son of the Mask and various others
• 

  Senior FX Technical Director

  Blur Studio

  2004 - 2004

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Gopher Broke (Oscar Nominated)
  In The Rough
  Warhammer: Dawn of War (Cinematic)
  Call of Duty (Cinematic)
• 

  Senior FX TD

  Digital Dimension

  2004 - 2004

  Los Angeles

  Exorcist 2 - Pitch for Feature Film
  Superbowl (Received Emmy award)
  Son of the Mask - Feature Film
  Shady Acres - Production Co. Logo
  Blade Trinity - Feature Film

• Lead Effects Technical Director

  TigarHare

  2003 - 2003

  FX Lead, designed the look and pipeline and managed FX team under high pressure environment accommodating over 40 heavy VFX shots in just over 2 months for a high profile game cinematic.
• 

  Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  2003 - 2003
• 

  Effects Technical Director

  Digital Dimension

  2003 - 2003

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  Cinderella Story - Feature Film
• 

  Senior FX Technical Director

  Frantic Films

  2003 - 2003

  Greater Los Angeles Area

• Visual Effects Supervisor

  T Mation

  2003 - 2003

  Dark Age of Light - Feature Film
• 

  Effects Lead

  Tigar Hare Studios

  2003 - 2003

  Los angele

  Temple of Elemental Evil - Game Cinematic

• Technical Director

  Whoodoo Studios

  2003 - 2003

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  McGuyver - tv series

• Senior FX Technical Director

  Ambience

  2003 - 2003

  Sydney, Australia

  Toyota Scion - TV Commercial
• 

  Senior Technical Director (Staff Position)

  Cutting Edge

  2001 - 2003

  Lord of the rings - Pitch
  Inspector Gadget 2 - Feature Film
  George of the Jungle 2 - Feature Film
  Seconds to Spare - Feature Film
  Brains Trust - TV Commercial
  Discovery Channel - Pitch
  Silverchair The Greatest View - Music Video
  Ice Break TV Commercial
  Fruitloops Commercial
  30+ commercials and special projects
• 

  Senior Technical Director

  Cutting Edge

  2001 - 2003

  Pretty much 'was' the FX department there. Creating all of their visual effects, anything to do with dynamics, simulations, crowds, particles etc. I created lots of FX in maya and 3ds max,
• 

  Effects Technical Director

  Ambience Entertainment

  2000 - 2002

  Over 100 commercials, R&D and various other tasks
• 

  Effects Artist / Generalist

  Ambience Entertainment

  2000 - 2002

  Created FX for over 30 commercials
  Also worked as a generalist, modeling, animating, compositing, tracking and everything else, both in 3ds max and maya

• Ambience

  2000 - 2001

  Sydney

• Effects Artist

  Half Brick

  2000 - 2000

  Created original logo for video game company, as a favor

• Instructor

  Qantm College

  1999 - 2000

  Brisbane, Australia

  Instructor, as well as ran classes for beginner and advanced classes on video games
  helped create curriculum Bachelor of interactive entertainment
  taught diploma of IT games development, Womens Diploma of multimedia

• Visual Effects Artist

  Smarty Arts

  1999 - 1999

  The Novice - Short Film

• Jr 3D Artist

  Infogrames

  1999 - 1999

  Loony Tunes Space Race - Video Game

• 3D Artist

  Ozisoft

  1998 - 1998

  Brisbane, Australia

  Created all graphical interface and design ideas for their multimedia platform for HDTV, essentially similar to what we now have for ps3 and xbox for handling media, digital content etc. As we were designing ideas and building an operating system for future HDTV systems, in the late 90's before they were officially released
• 

  3D Artist

  Valve Corporation

  1997 - 1998

  Team Fortress 2 / Half Life (Video Game)