As the host of over 160 tutorials and creator of title sequences for tv's Fringe and the film Star Trek, Andrew Kramer has participated in many forms of production: from visual effects artist, to directing commercials and promos. His website Video Copilot has been a progressive force in the visual effects industry, with his upbeat training style and innovative plug-ins.

As a freelance artist and web designer at age 20, Andrew began to work on the Video Copilot website from his apartment in Southern California. The website started with a single product and a handful of short After Effects tutorials that were featured on the Creative Cow community. His unusual training style and off-beat humor intrigued viewers by showing them powerful techniques for visual effects that were detailed and also entertaining. The site’s online presence has also led to collaborations for Andrew to work with major companies and even the unique opportunity to work with Director J.J. Abrams on film & tv Projects.

Video Copilot has since published over 40 hours of training and has over a dozen professional products and plug-ins used by creative professionals around the world. Andrew continues to work in the film industry in addition to publishing new, exciting products and tutorials for the growing motion graphics and visual effects community.

In this Podcast, Andrew talks about what inspired him to launch Video Copilot, his experience working with J.J. Abrams, as well as gives advice on the most important skills when starting out as a VFX artist.

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/29/.

Christopher Nichols has an impressive resume of working for many of the leading studios, from The Day After Tomorrow, I, Robot, Stealth, Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Maleficent and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo to photo real cars and photo real humans.

Chris works with Chaos Group - the developers of V-Ray as one of the main people behind Chaos Group Labs, an experimental outpost based in Los Angeles. Where Chris has been involved with many high profile projects and pushing tech in new directions, being involved in projects ranging from the upcoming 'Construct' short film to photoreal human projects - there's such a wide range of subjects covered in this episode from getting a job in the industry to what it takes to make things photoreal, to more the backstory of so many really 'really' cool projects - check it out!

http://www.allanmckay.com/28/

CG Garage Podcast: https://labs.chaosgroup.com/index.php/category/cg-garage-podcast/

Chaos Group Labs: https://labs.chaosgroup.com

Pixel Perfect Article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/28/pixel-perfect-2

Construct Teaser: https://vimeo.com/90509568

Christopher Nichols website: http://www.redeyetales.com/

V-Ray in Real Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9rgG2vPAvQ

Zerply is an amazing new platform for artists to promote themselves and network with other industry followers. This is an amazing and exclusive platform to get connected with other studiso and artists and find work easily and frequently. I'm blown away by this platform and what it can do, it's exactly, and I mean 'exactly' what this industry needs.

I sit down with James Bennett one of the founders of Zerply to chat about this amazing platform, as well as James' career, and his really solid advice for others to both utilize Zerply, and utilize their career for high success! LOADED with really great advice!

Show notes @ http://www.allanmckay.com/27/

This episode is a unique solo episode packed to the brim with a lot of workflow hacks and core advice to manage yourself better and get a lot more done inside of your standard work day. This is vital methods I apply to my work every day of every week and have developed many of these techniques over the span of the past 20 years of my career.

Show links

Time Doctor

Rescue Time

Focus @ Will

Polder Buzz'n'Beep Digital Timer

Parkinson's Law

Power of automationg with Scripting

Google Docs - for Spreadsheets

More information about FLOW

Overtime Vs Productivity

Part 2 of the really great and insightful interview with Sol Rogers! Covering a lot of really great industry advice and career advise based on his lengthy experience in the industry as well as lecturing at London universities. Lots of great stuff - this was our chat prior to diving into our discussions on Virtual Reality. Check it out!

Rewind FX

Oculus Rift

Microsoft Hololens

Career Opportunities @ Rewind FX!

Red Bull Air Race

Canon London Fashion Week Experience

Lexus NX Experience

Allan McKay speaking at It's ART Master Class in Paris March 14

For more information, as well as to check out the job opportunities at RewindFX check out the show notes at http://www.allanmckay.com/25/