Allan McKay is an award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Director, originating from the Gold Coast of Australia, now living in California in the United States, working for Hollywood studios including Warner Bro’s, Prime Focus Company – Frantic Films, Emmy award winning Digital Dimension and Oscar nominated Blur Studio, as well as George Lucas’ Emmy award winning company Industrial Light and Magic.
Working primarily on Hollywood films, some of his more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns, Blade Trinity, Exorcist: The Beginning, Paycheck, Scooby Doo 2, Inspector Gadget and dozens of other feature films. Allan has also consulted as a specialist on projects such as Hellboy, Day After Tomorrow, Destroy All Humans 2 and Def Jam 3.
Allan has also worked on a lot of big name projects such as the opening ceremony for 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, various concept cars for Toyota, Key speaker at many master classes at Siggraph, as well as speaking all over the world. Allan has close involvement with the development of a lot of today’s industry standard software as well as a very close relationship with Autodesk.
Currently Allan works both as a director for various big game cinematic and visual effects orientated projects, as well as consulting as a visual effects specialist around the world, helping other studios and facilities with their workflow, pipeline and raising the standards on what people can expect from CG. Allan has worked on the feature film thriller, Asylum, as well as Halo Wars and Bioshock and Warhammer Cinematics from Blur Studio.
Keeping busy, Allan’s day to day changes, speaking all over the world at events and University and conference Master Classes – as well as writing on industry topics, but also for various popular lifestyle web sites and magazines. Allan is also the owner of visual effects studio, Catastrophic FX. While also expanding his ultra-successful product line on Hollywood film training, primarily aimed at advanced audiences and senior studio staff to grasp many of the latest methods and techniques, utilized throughout dozens of studios including Blizzard Cinematics, Ubisoft, Blur Studio and Nintendo..As well, in more recent years directing several large profile game cinematics, commercials and music videos in New York and Sydney.
Allan has personally been awarded and recognized as an Autodesk Master, receiving his Autodesk Masters award at SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego 2007, as well as working major film projects including Superman Returns, Day Breakers, Warhammer: Dawn of war, Super bowl XXXIX and hundreds of others, many of which have been nominated or won various awards including Oscar and Emmy awards.
Award winning VFX Supervisor and Technical Director Allan McKay, takes us into the world of Fluid Dynamics, utilizing Fluid Dynamics software Real Flow to cover many of the concepts of simulating fluids such as water and lava, including more jellow and latex type of textures. Participating students will gain a true understanding of Real Flow, how it works and how to push Real Flow beyond its limits. By using industry techniques and approaches to create actual visual effects shots students will learn how to optimize, speed up their simulations and utilize the simulated information later in their 3D package of choice.
Real flow has been used on many high profile films, such as Benjamin Button, 2012, GI Joe, Ice Age 3, Watchmen, Avatar, Lord of the Rings and many more! It is the industry standard for simulating fluids for film, game cinematics and many other special projects. And an essential skill to master for any industry established FX TD’s, or up and coming FX animators.
This workshop is aimed at both experienced FX artists wanting to get a better handle of Real Flow, as well as enthusiastic FX artists wanting to get hands on experience.
Allan McKay has worked for many of the leading visual effects and games houses, including Blur Studio, Frantic Films, Industrial Light and Magic, and awarded as an Autodesk Master.
Real Flow Basics - Introduction from Allan McKay.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and the upcoming ‘Day Breakers’ , just to name a few.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, VFX Student
Hollywood VFX for Live Action Integration
with Allan McKay
Course starts 13 July 2009.
Registration: Closed
In this CGWorkshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will take you through visual effects from a production standpoint, and follow the process from the initial pre-production stages through to the integration of your special effect into a scene. You will be mastering all areas of FX and putting them to practice and applying it to a simulated production pipeline. Rather than following the practice of just creating FX examples, we are going to be working on real shots, from pre production to setting the shot up, creating all of the FX, dynamics sims and fluid simulations, and then looking at rendering techniques, after which we go through and actually composite our CGI over live action footage or still image plates. This workshop is designed to take things to the next level and prepare artists for real world pipelines and big studios. You’ll be using FumeFX and Afterburn to create amazing effects and then use Fusion to composite your effects into your chosen scene.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student
Hollywood VFX for Live Action Integration
with Allan McKay
Course starts 06 April 2009.
Registration: Closed
In this CGWorkshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will take you through visual effects from a production standpoint, and follow the process from the initial pre-production stages through to the integration of your special effect into a scene. You will be mastering all areas of FX and putting them to practice and applying it to a simulated production pipeline. Rather than following the practice of just creating FX examples, we are going to be working on real shots, from pre production to setting the shot up, creating all of the FX, dynamics sims and fluid simulations, and then looking at rendering techniques, after which we go through and actually composite our CGI over live action footage or still image plates. This workshop is designed to take things to the next level and prepare artists for real world pipelines and big studios. You’ll be using FumeFX and Afterburn to create amazing effects and then use Fusion to composite your effects into your chosen scene.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student
Hollywood VFX for Live Action Integration
with Allan McKay
Course starts 19 January 2009.
Registration: Closed
In this new CGWorkshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will take you through visual effects from a production standpoint, and follow the process from the initial pre-production stages through to the integration of your special effect into a scene. You will be mastering all areas of FX and putting them to practice and applying it to a simulated production pipeline. Rather than following the practice of just creating FX examples, we are going to be working on real shots, from pre production to setting the shot up, creating all of the FX, dynamics sims and fluid simulations, and then looking at rendering techniques, after which we go through and actually composite our CGI over live action footage or still image plates. This workshop is designed to take things to the next level and prepare artists for real world pipelines and big studios. You’ll be using FumeFX and Afterburn to create amazing effects and then use Fusion to composite your effects into your chosen scene.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student
Fume FX - Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics
with Allan McKay
Course starts 13 October 2008.
Registration: Closed
Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay is back to take students through the world of Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics using FumeFX. With the new implementation of fluids into 3D Studio Max in the form of the plugin FumeFX – visual effects has never been so fun! However, tackling a subject like fluids to most can be quite tricky to grasp, let alone master as the learning curve can sometimes be quite steep. In this class, Allan will take the bull by the horns and jump right into creating high end visual effects and mentoring students in their creations of digital fire, explosions and other cool content.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’, just to name a few.
” I had a great time in the course because the instructor is someone that I have high respect for and wanted to learn all I could from.” Michael Russell, Student, FumeFX April 2008
” I learned a great deal of information about this particular plugin and more on Dynamics and particle systems.” Eric Ennis, Student, FumeFX April 2008
In this fantastic workshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay is back to showcase the 3ds Max plug-ins AfterBurn and PFlow tools and demonstrate their full power in creating amazing visual effects. Allan will illustrate the techniques for producing incredible animation such as procedural tornados and making believable explosions, ground fog, clouds and more. Starting with simple examples, Allan works up to more complex effects that need to be seen to be believed.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
Throughout this workshop, students will be jumping into both introductory subjects as well as more exciting and ambitious topics, such as explosions, twisters, and creature effects. Previous 3ds Max experience is required for this class, however, if students have some shader and particle background and have little or no experience with particle flow, they are still welcome to participate.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student
Fume FX - Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics
with Allan McKay
Course starts 09 June 2008.
Registration: Closed
In this exciting workshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will take students through the world of Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics using FumeFX. With the new implementation of fluids into 3D Studio Max in the form of the plugin FumeFX – visual effects has never been so fun! However, tackling a subject like fluids to most can be quite tricky to grasp, let alone master as the learning curve can sometimes be quite steep. In this class, Allan will take the bull by the horns and jump right into creating high end visual effects and mentoring students in their creations of digital fire, explosions and other cool content.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’, just to name a few.
” I had a great time in the course because the instructor is someone that I have high respect for and wanted to learn all I could from.” Michael Russell, Student, FumeFX April 2008
” I learned a great deal of information about this particular plugin and more on Dynamics and particle systems.” Eric Ennis, Student, FumeFX April 2008
In this fantastic workshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will be at hand to guide and mentor students in the use of 3ds Max plug-ins AfterBurn and PFlow tools to showcase their full power in creating amazing visual effects. Allan will illustrate the techniques for producing incredible animation such as procedural tornados and making believable explosions, ground fog, clouds and more. Starting with simple examples, Allan works up to more complex effects that need to be seen to be believed.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
Throughout this workshop, students will be jumping into both introductory subjects as well as more exciting and ambitious topics, such as explosions, twisters, and creature effects. Previous 3ds Max experience is required for this class, however, if students have some shader and particle background and have little or no experience with particle flow, they are still welcome to participate.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student
Fume FX - Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics
with Allan McKay
Course starts 28 January 2008.
Registration: Closed
In this exciting new workshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will take students through the world of Hollywood Digital Pyrotechnics using FumeFX. With the new implementation of fluids into 3D Studio Max in the form of the plugin FumeFX – visual effects has never been so fun! However, tackling a subject like fluids to most can be quite tricky to grasp, let alone master as the learning curve can sometimes be quite steep. In this class, Allan will take the bull by the horns and jump right into creating high end visual effects and mentoring students in their creations of digital fire, explosions and other cool content.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’, just to name a few.
Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay is repeating his fantastic VFX workshop with VFX for Film II. In this class, Allan will guide and mentor students in the use of 3ds Max plug-ins AfterBurn and PFlow tools to illustrate their full power in creating amazing visual effects. Allan will illustrate the techniques for producing incredible animation such as procedural tornados and making believable explosions, ground fog, clouds and more. Starting with simple examples, Allan works up to more complex effects that need to be seen to be believed.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
Throughout this workshop, students will be jumping into both introductory subjects as well as more exciting and ambitious topics, such as explosions, twisters, and creature effects. Previous 3ds Max experience is required for this class, however, if students have some shader and particle background and have little or no experience with particle flow, they are still welcome to participate.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
“The complete and through introduction to VFX. Was great to have a industry expert sharing both great tutorials with practical industry tips and tricks.". Chad Naeger, Student, Visual Effects for Film I
In this fantastic new workshop, Hollywood Technical Director & Visual Effects Specialist Allan McKay will guide and mentor students in the use of 3ds Max plug-ins AfterBurn and PFlow tools to illustrate their full power in creating amazing visual effects. Allan will illustrate the techniques for producing incredible animation such as procedural tornados and making believable explosions, ground fog, clouds and more. Starting with simple examples, Allan works up to more complex effects that need to be seen to be believed.
Some of Allans more recent effects sequences have been for Superman Returns’, ‘Blade Trinity’, ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Paycheck’, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ and ‘Inspector Gadget’ , just to name a few.
Throughout this workshop, students will be jumping into both introductory subjects as well as more exciting and ambitious topics, such as explosions, twisters, and creature effects. Previous 3ds Max experience is required for this class, however, if students have some shader and particle background and have little or no experience with particle flow, they are still welcome to participate.
By workshop end, students should be very comfortable with effects, having developed a very good insight into the creation of some of todays’ bigger budget FX films.
