Sally Slade worked for eight years in the VFX Industry, supporting visionary creators at Oscar award-winning studios, before pivoting to the XR Industry in 2016. 

Sally was nominated as “Reality Mixer of the Year” by Microsoft for her HoloLens product, Muralize, and further decorated by the AWE for her contributions to back-to-back Auggie award-winning XR experiences: Meow Wolf’s The Navigator, and the Virtual Production System used by Disney’s The Lion King. 

Most recently, Sally served as a Senior Technical Designer at Magnopus. She is currently the CTO at VOLTAKU. 

Her hobbies include illustration and VTubing. She has released a “virtual production for anime” app called Vodcasto.

In this Episode, Allan McKay talks to the CTO of VOLTAKU, AR/VR Developer Sally Slade about her work in VR, AR, MR, XR; launching VOLTAKU, developing her own app, upcoming technology and the importance of programming skills for artists.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/366.

Orion Tait is a Director and Partner at Buck, leading its New York studio in creating commercials and content for major brands from all over the world. With a background in filmmaking, fine arts and graphic design, his varied body of work is rooted in visual storytelling and continues to push the boundaries of innovation and quality in the commercial realm. 

A champion and steward of Buck’s well regarded culture of collaboration, Orion has led teams large and small, developing campaigns and directing work for Google, Nike, IBM, Mastercard, Umbro, Oreo, and Sherwin Williams. As a respected leader in his industry, Orion has lectured at numerous schools and festivals across the globe and served or chaired on several awards juries, including YCN, AICP and the Art Directors Club.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Orion Tait, Director and Partner at Buck, about making creative choices as a company, people and relationships as the most important asset, innovation and technological disruption, effects of COVID-10 of creative businesses – and collaborating with Tim Miller on Love Death + Robots Season 3.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/365.

Aaron Sims, the visual creator behind some of this generation’s most unforgettable cinema creatures, began his career over two decades ago as a special effects makeup artist. His pioneering techniques in the world of visual effects influenced the face of character and creature design in Film, Television, Games, Previs, and VFX early on in their application.

Aaron Sims Creative [ASC] was formed in order to bring together a wide range of the world’s most talented concept and visual effects artists and create memorable characters, creatures, VFX, costumes, and key scenes. Aaron’s unparalleled skill and dedication to consistently creating stunning content for all platforms of visual entertainment has made ASC a premiere entertainment studio. Since its founding, ASC has worked on feature films like It, Wonder Woman, Logan, Wrath and Clash of the Titans, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Amazing Spider-Manand many, many more.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Visual Creator and Director Aaron Sims about creating in Unreal Engine, his journey working on short film THE EYE: CALANTHEK; working against creative constraints, perfectionism and knowing when to let the project go.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/364.

Carlos Stevens is an Animation Director, Writer and Executive Producer. He’s a former Student Academy Awards nominee for his animated short film Toumai. This achievement kick-started Carlos's career working on a variety of Cannes Gold Lion award-winning commercial campaigns, notably for Sprint and Sony. Additionally, he has directed and designed campaigns for X-Box, Netflix, Marvel, EA, Lexus, SyFy, UFC, Target and many others.

His short film titled The Alchemist's Letter, narrated by John Hurt, received critical acclaim and festival recognition worldwide. Carlos previously held directorships at Laika Animation Studios, design powerhouse Elastic, and animation studios Logan and Superfad. He recently directed an episode for season 3 of the acclaimed series Love Death + Robots on Netflix. He also has films in development at Warner Animation Group and is currently EP / Showrunner on an animated series at Nickelodeon / Paramount +.

In this Podcast, Animation Director, Writer and Executive Producer Carlos Stevens talks about his experience directing Love Death + Robots, his earlier short films The Alchemist’s Letter and the Student Academy Award nominated Toumai; consequences of rejection, importance of relationships and other lessons he’s learned throughout his filmmaking career.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/363.

Born in Brazil, Henrique first studied at Centro Universitario Senac, in Sao Paolo. He then pursued 3D Animation and VFX training from Vancouver Film School. He’s worked at a number of studios, including Pixomondo. His credits include: Star Trek: Discovery, For All Mankind, The Orville, The OA, Gotham and so many more!

In this Episode, Henrique shares his journey as an artist, the benefits of working for smaller studios, how to become a VFX Supervisor and gain experience on set, how to start your own studio, the importance of relationships and gaining a business mindset for artists.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/362.