Visual Effects Artist Allan McKay Makes Robots Fight for Your Enjoyment

Products of the Mind: A Conversation About the Intersection of Business + Creativity

Welcome to Episode 52 of Products of the Mind. On this episode, I speak with Allan McKay, founder of Catastrophic FX. Allan has done visual effects for loads of blockbuster movies, including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Star Trek Into Darkness, 2012, Superman Returns, and Looper (a personal favorite of mine.) We talk about how a visual effect goes from conception to the final product that you see on screen, how the creative process works, and why visual effects production is moving all over the world. The latter topic is addressed in this recent New York Times article (which I reference in the interview) – there’s a race to the bottom which is costing lots of VFX artists their jobs, so we spend quite a bit of time talking this through. Thanks for Checking Out Products of the Mind! If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the top and bottom of this page. Also, please consider taking the few seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes. They’re very helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and I read every one. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live. Here are instructions on how to subscribe, rate, and review the show in iTunes. The Credits Products of the Mind is produced by Mana Monzavi. The theme music for this episode was provided by Le Chateau. The track name is “Bury You.” Go buy it on Soundcloud! This episode and these show notes © 2017 David Lizerbram