This is amazeing i was talking to a friend yestsday about looking to prep and start looking to do a reel and what to add and not add in it and then you made this video 😇 Although i am worried i may not have the correct professional software to produce the work in it though. Amazeing info and knowledge thank you
@@AllanMcKay Thank you for replying to me back there, I had people telling me i had to use Nuke before even applying or sending stuff, and they work for DNG so i was worried. Yeah your right, I always feel creative imagination is power and software is just a tool at the end of the day. I was curious though to ask this. Yet in this day and age "cvoid era" do you think or know that a lot of studios do remote workflows or still have there workers travel all over to help with Post on features/shorts etc, and do you think it will stay like that for while?
Hi Allan, In a few weeks I start at ILM. I’ll be in Sydney’s Paint and Roto department. I want to thank you for your videos, podcasts and articles. They have all helped me build my career so far, and I know they will continue to do so. Cheers!
That's so great Jordan congratulations! That's really great man and it shows all the hard work you've put in so far all paying off! Keep it up brother, and let me know what projects you end up working on so I can keep an eye out for your work!
@@AllanMcKay hopefully i can make it to DNEG my first dream and studio job,i am going to follow exactly what you said 🙂😄🙏🏾 hopefully something great turns out of this life
Thankyou for this information. I recently came across your channel and also it will really help me as I just started learning VFX. Also, Happy New Year to you. Looking forward to more amazing and informative videos.
Nice work Allen.. Yeah I don't need a job. But your info is really good and passed it on to my Son and a friend of mine who would like to have the skillset that I have.. I say " look at this guy Allan!" Take his advice! Do what he says and you will have a shot! hope they will. I've been doing my own stuff for a long time and now working on the 'physical/3d' break. I build physical things that interact with the 3D video. So.. I'm busy.. DMAX
Why didn't i thought about this 10 years ago 🤔.... Thanks a lot Allan for your time and this knowledge 🙏🏻 This is so much helpful & you have always inspired me to achieve my goals. 😄
Thanks Aniket, it's such a simple concept but honestly we all forget these things a lot of the time. If you focus on the person on the other side of the table in almost every aspect of business or service based industry you'll always get what you want. So focusing on aligning with their needs makes your resonate more. Thanks for sharing Aniket!
@@AllanMcKay Yes. Right. In past 10 years i was just collecting my best works & making show-reels every year. Now everything will change. I will give my time for show-reel to be on the point. Do some research & get the best job i wanted since a long time 😃
Hi Allan, the problem with demoreel is that you imply that we have a huge bank of personal projects to choose from and we should only pinpoint select the ones that fit the best our target studio, but at least for me, I do my FX for demoreel and in my case I only have few projects (it takes time to have something good to show). And by the time I finish the project the job position is not even longer required. So the turnaround time to adapt (make a dedicated project) your demoreel is longer than the time the job offer is online. I hope my comment is understandable... Thanks
Hi Andriy, thanks for the comment. Actually I'm implying quite the opposite. Although if you do have a big bank of projects, you can easily pick and choose the ones that resonate. But as I mentioned at the start how some people spend up to a year making their reel, if you have a target studio in mind and you're making work for your reel you should design the work to align most with your dream job, rather than random work you throw on. So it's more about designing shots to go on your reel that resonate with your dream studio. Whether you have already made them or you and working on shots for a new reel through creating personal work. I hope that helps thanks Andriy
So Allan I got a offered my first job at a VFX studio out of the blue and I am freaking out! hahah! When you first started your first VFX job did you ever feel like you weren't 100% ready for it?
Congrats man! And sure! I think what drives me nuts is when juniors come in way too over confident that they can do the work. Since there's so much to learn in the beginning. And it's normal to feel that when starting out and that's not to say it won't creep up from time to time. If anything use that as a strength to pressure yourself to be over prepared for it and humble going in to make sure you do the best job you can. Again congratulations that's really great news! Keep me in the loop with how it all goes! amckay@allanmckay.com
@@AllanMcKay Allan scale of one to ten, how screwed am I? I was working on a test to get hired to work for that company, I worked on the model in another program and labeled the project a really stupid name (my eyes only) named it "Don't know shit_835pm_altered_v3.blend" and then I exported that model into max and did some work there and exported the model with a proper title and sent it off... Turns out that original project in the first program labeled the material "Don't know shit_835pm_altered_v3" and that carried over into Max and I sent that off. I am so embarrassed yet dying laughing at how horribly dumb that really was. Lesson learned but crap man I feel like I f'd up big league.
@@VincentG991 I have so many stories of this happening. I don't think I've personally done this but I've definitely had emails where I wrote some info into it that the person forgot to remove before forwarding etc. My take is to defuse it before it's ever an issue, so if you are uncomfortable about it simply email them and to say by the way if there's any weird naming of any of the objects that's one thing I need to work on is naming conventions because I'll typically write my frustrations with the model out of context or something silly and I just realized in this case I did the same so if you want to laugh then you can pay attention to the names of the files.. at least this way you're giving context that it's not about them necessarily it's something that you wrote about yourself or something? At least that's one way to address it or just ignore it, there are times that I have seen this completely backfire where accidentally naming things wrong or saying something an email can cost the job so I think when it's out of your hands there's not much you can do but learn from your mistakes. But like I said we all make them from time to time, at least you're laughing about it. But like I said if you think it's an issue and one you can address then I'd address it just that way this context so that way they're not thinking it's about them, whether it was or wasn't. Either way good luck and man that sucks! Haha
I'm at breakfast with the wife she just told me a story when I read your message out (because she HAS been in this situation). She actually did a job for 50 cent once and called the file cardi B (the female rapper) by accident and sent it off. Because she was doing something for her at the same time. So we've all been there haha
Hi Allan, thank you so much for this inspiring video! I am currently looking for a junior lighting artist position and your tips really helps me to know what to focus when job hunting. I tried to download your book from your website, but seems like I don't receive anything in my email after clicking the download link.
Let's say that my no. 1 passion is creature/animal sculpting/concept. What if I'm also good at hair grooming and rigging/animating said creatures? Should I leave out works that involve animation and grooming just because I'm applying for a modeler /sculptor position? I get that studios are looking for very specialized people, but I'm not sure this trend of the industry is a good one or a self defeating one in the long run. I say this because for example I see lots of commercials and big budget movies where animal animation and realism is ruined because apparently the modeler had no grooming experience and modeled the animal in such a way that it looked goofy when fur was added, even though it might have looked good in the sculpting stage.
You are a reference for me in vfx, with valuable information as always, Did you migrate to houdini, or continue with 3ds Max? OBS: In your free time, prepare a tyFLOW course :)
Thanks Lady! I use all Max Maya houdini Beyond that I don't really have any interest in learning c4D or blender but those three are what most of my client work is done in I'm working on a new houdini live action course at the moment but I've been really excited to do a lot of tyflow content soon. I just feel like anyone putting out a course on tyflow right now is a bit pointless since it's all changing still since it's beta so I'm waiting for it to get to v1.0 So the information is still applicable
You don't have to - I think it's good to have a general understanding of all of these things first so you can grow. If you just go right into doing FX, and you just do FX, it's harder for you later to evolve beyond FX as a discipline. So I firmly believe in anything, to learn the foundations first. Both, so you have a better idea of where you want to move into - having seen the big picture. But also so you can leverage all of these other things to help you do what you do day to day. And also help you evolve to a CG supervisor or VFX supervisor, or run your own studio or whatever it is you want to do further down the line. I see all of this like an hour glass, start broad, narrow/niche down and then go wide as you move into bigger roles down the line such as management or directing. Finally - if you still want to skip all of that, you can perfectly move into FX first. But I recommend learning the 3 areas that closely tie into FX as well down the line. Such as lighting, comp, scripting etc. (eg. comping, lighting will make your FX look better, and require less help from others) Hope that helps!
Thanks Allan, that's very interesting. I heard about what you said, and I'm completely agree with you at 200%. I'm an animator. I've already a showreel, but not the one aiming for FVX studios, matter of fact I'm working after work to a new one tailored for that, which lead me to a question, I know which studios I'm aiming for as a first chose (few ones, that you named ;) ) . But isn't it risky "to put all your eggs in the same baskets" (sort off speaking) If they say no ? As you aiming for a "niche", then what will you do ? I would love to have you opinion on that. PS: "if", you have the time, just to show you what kind of animation I did in this way, if you go on my TH-cam channel, there is one I did, call "MONSTER" to give you an idea.
It'll gonna help me a lot thank you for this, i got a music video project to lead the cgi shots i have never worked in a studios. i'm just curious n excited for the project i'm working on and i can end up getting my on footages to work on for the reel :)
hey allan .. if i am willing to learn destruction and fluid simulation which software should i use houdini and get an extra step by learning vex ... or Stick to 3ds max and its plugins ??
Hi Adham, well same thing with cutting a reel - what's your target studio you want to work at? What do they use? Usually it's best to align with who you want to work with, rather than what you hear is the best software. Since you might choose the popular trending software and then alienate the studio you want to work for by not aligning with their requirements. So that's typically the best metric to go by. As for VEX - if you are diving into Houdini, don't feel that you have to learn VEX or scripting or any technical areas necessarily. It really comes down to being able to do great work - so if I were to choose an area to focus on, it would be on making great effects (if FX is your focus) and really nail the timing, realism and the look of your work. If VEX or anything else helps you do that, GREAT but otherwise focus on what matters. I know plenty of great FX artists and supervisors who don't touch VEX at all. So it's easy to get sucked into all these really complicated areas right at the start, that slow you down rather than let you focus on what matters. Hope that helps, thanks Adham! -Allan
Sir i am a big fan of yours and thank you for this amazing informative videos that you make and also i am pursued vfx course from an institute and i want to become an fx artist so, could you give me some information about getting a job as a junior fx artist ? and what is the most important things need to do?
Hey Allan, thank you for this video I found it very informative. I have a quick question I am a 3D Environmental Artist. Does the make what they make still apply OR is it how many types of environments can i make? thank you for time I look forward to you response.
Definitely! If you're hitting up studios that do lots of sci fi then sci fi environments etc. Focus on what aligns the best with their work since that's what they get hired for. Let me know if you have any other questions around this I'm happy to go deeper, thanks Dan!
@@AllanMcKay looking at my portfolio the most consistent thing i have going is the programs I use and the art style (realism). I have a Forest Scene, Bar scene and a living room scene. Those all fit what Rockstar. Before this video I just started working on a Fantasy House with my realistic style. Now, should i scrap it and make maybe a city street scene? OR is making that fantasy scene open up my options? especially since ill be applying to smaller studios. thank you very much for your time!
is anyone else having trouble with downloading the demo reel guide. i go to the link , it asks my email for download and as soon as I put in the mail id and submit it takes me to a website called UpViral. I checked my mail too nothins in it :/
Hi Zombie, upviral was if you want to get the masterclass for it as well (it's free). You're right, I'm in the middle of switching over to a new website so that portion of it is down (the masterclass and audiobook). But the demo reel guide you should just get an email instantly with the guide Shoot me an email amckay@allanmckay.com and let me know the email you used - I'll look into it. But I just checked and everything works fine on my end. Thanks mate!
This is amazeing i was talking to a friend yestsday about looking to prep and start looking to do a reel and what to add and not add in it and then you made this video 😇 Although i am worried i may not have the correct professional software to produce the work in it though.
Amazeing info and knowledge thank you
Awesome man! And don't let the software get in the way, focus on talent over software. All of that is transferable. Thanks Gareth!
@@AllanMcKay Thank you for replying to me back there, I had people telling me i had to use Nuke before even applying or sending stuff, and they work for DNG so i was worried. Yeah your right, I always feel creative imagination is power and software is just a tool at the end of the day.
I was curious though to ask this. Yet in this day and age "cvoid era" do you think or know that a lot of studios do remote workflows or still have there workers travel all over to help with Post on features/shorts etc, and do you think it will stay like that for while?
Hi Allan,
In a few weeks I start at ILM. I’ll be in Sydney’s Paint and Roto department.
I want to thank you for your videos, podcasts and articles. They have all helped me build my career so far, and I know they will continue to do so.
Cheers!
That's so great Jordan congratulations! That's really great man and it shows all the hard work you've put in so far all paying off! Keep it up brother, and let me know what projects you end up working on so I can keep an eye out for your work!
OMG ALLAN THANK YOU🙏🏾🙀
You're welcome buddy
@@AllanMcKay hopefully i can make it to DNEG my first dream and studio job,i am going to follow exactly what you said 🙂😄🙏🏾 hopefully something great turns out of this life
Very helpful guide, thanks !
Thanks Paul!
Thankyou for this information. I recently came across your channel and also it will really help me as I just started learning VFX. Also, Happy New Year to you. Looking forward to more amazing and informative videos.
Thanks so much Mridula, I hope you have a fantastic 2021!
Woooohhh 🔥🔥 great video. Very targeted point. I am just starting to work on my showreel and I saw your video. 🔥🔥
That's awesome man can't wait to see it!
Nice work Allen.. Yeah I don't need a job. But your info is really good and passed it on to my Son and a friend of mine who would like to have the skillset that I have.. I say " look at this guy Allan!" Take his advice! Do what he says and you will have a shot! hope they will. I've been doing my own stuff for a long time and now working on the 'physical/3d' break. I build physical things that interact with the 3D video. So.. I'm busy.. DMAX
Thanks so much for sharing D Max, it means a lot!
@@AllanMcKay Thanks my friend! Your Awesome!
Thanks a lot Allan, Fine useful impact
Allan you are GOD, you always help me stay positive and stay motivated on my journey for getting job at VFX Industry.
I'm honored Jayesh thank you and whatever I can do to help 🙏👊
Allan we are all patiently waiting for your tutorials, please upload some videos if you can!
Thanks notcapo plenty coming soon
Had a lot of projects trying to wrap then going to start posting regularly again very soon
Hang tight
Why didn't i thought about this 10 years ago 🤔.... Thanks a lot Allan for your time and this knowledge 🙏🏻 This is so much helpful & you have always inspired me to achieve my goals. 😄
Thanks Aniket, it's such a simple concept but honestly we all forget these things a lot of the time. If you focus on the person on the other side of the table in almost every aspect of business or service based industry you'll always get what you want. So focusing on aligning with their needs makes your resonate more.
Thanks for sharing Aniket!
@@AllanMcKay Yes. Right. In past 10 years i was just collecting my best works & making show-reels every year. Now everything will change. I will give my time for show-reel to be on the point. Do some research & get the best job i wanted since a long time 😃
Hi Allan, the problem with demoreel is that you imply that we have a huge bank of personal projects to choose from and we should only pinpoint select the ones that fit the best our target studio, but at least for me, I do my FX for demoreel and in my case I only have few projects (it takes time to have something good to show). And by the time I finish the project the job position is not even longer required. So the turnaround time to adapt (make a dedicated project) your demoreel is longer than the time the job offer is online. I hope my comment is understandable...
Thanks
Hi Andriy, thanks for the comment. Actually I'm implying quite the opposite. Although if you do have a big bank of projects, you can easily pick and choose the ones that resonate. But as I mentioned at the start how some people spend up to a year making their reel, if you have a target studio in mind and you're making work for your reel you should design the work to align most with your dream job, rather than random work you throw on. So it's more about designing shots to go on your reel that resonate with your dream studio. Whether you have already made them or you and working on shots for a new reel through creating personal work. I hope that helps thanks Andriy
So Allan I got a offered my first job at a VFX studio out of the blue and I am freaking out! hahah! When you first started your first VFX job did you ever feel like you weren't 100% ready for it?
Congrats man! And sure! I think what drives me nuts is when juniors come in way too over confident that they can do the work. Since there's so much to learn in the beginning.
And it's normal to feel that when starting out and that's not to say it won't creep up from time to time.
If anything use that as a strength to pressure yourself to be over prepared for it and humble going in to make sure you do the best job you can.
Again congratulations that's really great news!
Keep me in the loop with how it all goes! amckay@allanmckay.com
@@AllanMcKay I will Allan, thank you so much for your videos to get me more prepared for what is expected.
@@AllanMcKay Allan scale of one to ten, how screwed am I? I was working on a test to get hired to work for that company, I worked on the model in another program and labeled the project a really stupid name (my eyes only) named it "Don't know shit_835pm_altered_v3.blend" and then I exported that model into max and did some work there and exported the model with a proper title and sent it off... Turns out that original project in the first program labeled the material "Don't know shit_835pm_altered_v3" and that carried over into Max and I sent that off. I am so embarrassed yet dying laughing at how horribly dumb that really was. Lesson learned but crap man I feel like I f'd up big league.
@@VincentG991 I have so many stories of this happening. I don't think I've personally done this but I've definitely had emails where I wrote some info into it that the person forgot to remove before forwarding etc.
My take is to defuse it before it's ever an issue, so if you are uncomfortable about it simply email them and to say by the way if there's any weird naming of any of the objects that's one thing I need to work on is naming conventions because I'll typically write my frustrations with the model out of context or something silly and I just realized in this case I did the same so if you want to laugh then you can pay attention to the names of the files.. at least this way you're giving context that it's not about them necessarily it's something that you wrote about yourself or something? At least that's one way to address it or just ignore it, there are times that I have seen this completely backfire where accidentally naming things wrong or saying something an email can cost the job so I think when it's out of your hands there's not much you can do but learn from your mistakes. But like I said we all make them from time to time, at least you're laughing about it.
But like I said if you think it's an issue and one you can address then I'd address it just that way this context so that way they're not thinking it's about them, whether it was or wasn't. Either way good luck and man that sucks! Haha
I'm at breakfast with the wife she just told me a story when I read your message out (because she HAS been in this situation). She actually did a job for 50 cent once and called the file cardi B (the female rapper) by accident and sent it off. Because she was doing something for her at the same time. So we've all been there haha
Thank you for the as always great video!! Wish you all the best and a Happy New and Very Prosperous Year!! All the best!!
Likewise Nikolaos, happy New Year my friend 🙏
Thanks sir❤️ for giving this much information about Demo real. I'll follow all the important points for making mine one
Excellent my friend thank you for sharing
Just what i needed at the moment. Thanks Man
You're welcome Ali
Ok thank you this good information
You're welcome JP 🙏👊
I want to work at the mill
Hi Allan, thank you so much for this inspiring video! I am currently looking for a junior lighting artist position and your tips really helps me to know what to focus when job hunting. I tried to download your book from your website, but seems like I don't receive anything in my email after clicking the download link.
Let's say that my no. 1 passion is creature/animal sculpting/concept. What if I'm also good at hair grooming and rigging/animating said creatures? Should I leave out works that involve animation and grooming just because I'm applying for a modeler /sculptor position?
I get that studios are looking for very specialized people, but I'm not sure this trend of the industry is a good one or a self defeating one in the long run. I say this because for example I see lots of commercials and big budget movies where animal animation and realism is ruined because apparently the modeler had no grooming experience and modeled the animal in such a way that it looked goofy when fur was added, even though it might have looked good in the sculpting stage.
You are a reference for me in vfx, with valuable information as always,
Did you migrate to houdini, or continue with 3ds Max?
OBS: In your free time, prepare a tyFLOW course :)
Thanks Lady!
I use all Max Maya houdini
Beyond that I don't really have any interest in learning c4D or blender but those three are what most of my client work is done in
I'm working on a new houdini live action course at the moment but I've been really excited to do a lot of tyflow content soon. I just feel like anyone putting out a course on tyflow right now is a bit pointless since it's all changing still since it's beta so I'm waiting for it to get to v1.0
So the information is still applicable
@@AllanMcKay thanks lady :)
@@kaduzo26 haha I'm so sorry Kadu, my auto-correct changed your name to lady (and tried to again just now). Haha really sorry mate :) 😬
@@AllanMcKay hehehehe, rlx now owes me a 0800 course or be free :)
Is it very important to learn modeling and stuff in 3ds max for a VFX artist
You don't have to - I think it's good to have a general understanding of all of these things first so you can grow.
If you just go right into doing FX, and you just do FX, it's harder for you later to evolve beyond FX as a discipline.
So I firmly believe in anything, to learn the foundations first. Both, so you have a better idea of where you want to move into - having seen the big picture.
But also so you can leverage all of these other things to help you do what you do day to day.
And also help you evolve to a CG supervisor or VFX supervisor, or run your own studio or whatever it is you want to do further down the line.
I see all of this like an hour glass, start broad, narrow/niche down and then go wide as you move into bigger roles down the line such as management or directing.
Finally - if you still want to skip all of that, you can perfectly move into FX first. But I recommend learning the 3 areas that closely tie into FX as well down the line. Such as lighting, comp, scripting etc. (eg. comping, lighting will make your FX look better, and require less help from others)
Hope that helps!
Thanks Allan, that's very interesting.
I heard about what you said, and I'm completely agree with you at 200%.
I'm an animator.
I've already a showreel, but not the one aiming for FVX studios, matter of fact I'm working after work to a new one tailored for that, which lead me to a question, I know which studios I'm aiming for as a first chose (few ones, that you named ;) ) .
But isn't it risky "to put all your eggs in the same baskets" (sort off speaking) If they say no ?
As you aiming for a "niche", then what will you do ?
I would love to have you opinion on that.
PS: "if", you have the time, just to show you what kind of animation I did in this way, if you go on my TH-cam channel, there is one I did, call "MONSTER" to give you an idea.
It'll gonna help me a lot thank you for this, i got a music video project to lead the cgi shots i have never worked in a studios. i'm just curious n excited for the project i'm working on and i can end up getting my on footages to work on for the reel :)
Excellent brother! Thanks for sharing :)
@@AllanMcKay It's been an always pleasure to learn new things and i'll keep on learning :)
hello sir i want to learns vfx. where in i need to learn 3d modelling and compositing can u suggest best place. any online tutorials ? plz help me
hey allan .. if i am willing to learn destruction and fluid simulation which software should i use houdini and get an extra step by learning vex ... or Stick to 3ds max and its plugins ??
Hi Adham, well same thing with cutting a reel - what's your target studio you want to work at? What do they use? Usually it's best to align with who you want to work with, rather than what you hear is the best software. Since you might choose the popular trending software and then alienate the studio you want to work for by not aligning with their requirements.
So that's typically the best metric to go by.
As for VEX - if you are diving into Houdini, don't feel that you have to learn VEX or scripting or any technical areas necessarily. It really comes down to being able to do great work - so if I were to choose an area to focus on, it would be on making great effects (if FX is your focus) and really nail the timing, realism and the look of your work. If VEX or anything else helps you do that, GREAT but otherwise focus on what matters.
I know plenty of great FX artists and supervisors who don't touch VEX at all. So it's easy to get sucked into all these really complicated areas right at the start, that slow you down rather than let you focus on what matters.
Hope that helps, thanks Adham!
-Allan
Sir i am a big fan of yours and thank you for this amazing informative videos that you make and also i am pursued vfx course from an institute and i want to become an fx artist so, could you give me some information about getting a job as a junior fx artist ? and what is the most important things need to do?
The first 1000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/allanmckayvfxbranding12201
Hey Allan, thank you for this video I found it very informative. I have a quick question I am a 3D Environmental Artist. Does the make what they make still apply OR is it how many types of environments can i make? thank you for time I look forward to you response.
Definitely! If you're hitting up studios that do lots of sci fi then sci fi environments etc. Focus on what aligns the best with their work since that's what they get hired for. Let me know if you have any other questions around this I'm happy to go deeper, thanks Dan!
@@AllanMcKay looking at my portfolio the most consistent thing i have going is the programs I use and the art style (realism). I have a Forest Scene, Bar scene and a living room scene. Those all fit what Rockstar. Before this video I just started working on a Fantasy House with my realistic style. Now, should i scrap it and make maybe a city street scene? OR is making that fantasy scene open up my options? especially since ill be applying to smaller studios. thank you very much for your time!
is anyone else having trouble with downloading the demo reel guide. i go to the link , it asks my email for download and as soon as I put in the mail id and submit it takes me to a website called UpViral. I checked my mail too nothins in it :/
Hi Zombie, upviral was if you want to get the masterclass for it as well (it's free). You're right, I'm in the middle of switching over to a new website so that portion of it is down (the masterclass and audiobook).
But the demo reel guide you should just get an email instantly with the guide
Shoot me an email amckay@allanmckay.com and let me know the email you used - I'll look into it. But I just checked and everything works fine on my end.
Thanks mate!
Amazing tutorial! Really appreciate it! I have filmmaking related tutorials also. Any support would be awesome! Thanks again
Yup same concept applies to the advertisement world.
1000% agree