Interview with Allan Mckay
Have you found that people in the industry commonly say…Max is for games and Maya is for movies. How much you think this is true. And if anyone is really good in max particles then that cant fit in the production house which uses only Maya?
Max and maya’s particles are verrry different. The initial concept of both were very linear, and a couple of years ago Maya’s particles had max’s beat hands down. Now with Particle Flow – and Particle Flow Tools, both which I’ve devoted as much time as I can to bettering them in whatever ways possible – they’ve really pushed max’s abilities, and it definitely makes Maya’s particles show their age. However of course Maya has a much more efficient and faster scripting language for building expressions for particles, and of course the intergration of Fluids – so both have their strengths. I believe Max can handle effects work much faster on it’s initial stages, however you’ll get much more complexity out of scripting in Maya if you are up to the workload.
Houdini on the other hand is probably a lot more similar to max’s way of thinking with particles, however is far more complex and powerful for this type of work. Either way with any application, getting to know the app isn’t too hard, and jumping between them isn’t unheard of.
 In a Demo Reel related to only FX, companies mostly ask “it’s the computer doing all the work, show me what you have done. “ Have you every faced this problem and what do you say to those recruiters?
To be honest, I guess I’ve been lucky to usually work with large studios like Blur, DD and others – so usually I’ll be a fairly intelligent supervisor to talk to during the first part of the meeting process – but I really haven’t ever come across anyone who does see it as being all the computer. I believe CGI is fairly well placed and understood in most competing industries these days, so aside from the odd disgruntled traditional animator I think most people have a fairly good understanding of what’s required and the pain endured in working in this industry!
However I do get some producers who during a tight deadline – can’t understand why someone’s helicopter is taking eight or nine seconds to render a frame, and some of my 2K res smoke or fire might be taking forty or more minutes – as apparently it’s all the same thing to them. But that’s another story.
 What are your hobbies and where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I’m still in my 20’s so pretending I live the rockstar life of drinking and partying 6-12 every night is always something I try to keep up, but to be honest there isn’t really enough time in the day/week/months/years to have many hobbies other than gym, friends/gf/family and the occasional chance to sleep. I guess I could say I do get fairly dedicated to my work, but I believe it’s important to establish good grounding right now – and catastrophic is my baby.
I’ve only really been getting people recently asking where I see myself in five years, and I haven’t the faintest clue. With Catastrophic exploding how it has, I hope that I can build it up to a fairly respected boutique effects place, for other post studios and agencies passing me work as they please. And to really expand on that realm, and just to work on more cool content. Outside of that just to make sure I maintain a balance of living life and work on a day to day basis. Owning my own island is always a pipe dream of course!
Would you like to give any message to CGArena readers?
 If you want to get your foot in the door in the 3D Industry or you have but want to push forward, it honestly does require a lot of work and dedication – however it’s all well worth it! At the same time don’t sell yourself cheap! I occasionally walk into studios where people have told their employers they’ll work for free initially to help talk their employers into hiring them, things like this really aren’t necessary. Get your skills up and get in there! Doing it all for free (working crazy hours with no remuneration) is really only ever going to benefit your employer and not you.
The hours in this industry can sometimes be very harsh, so really only do those hours when they’re absolutely necessary. Otherwise you’re just getting ‘the man’s’ wallet fat and an early heart attack for yourself. Work to live, not live to work. And try and be as humble as possible, it’s very easy to get a bit of an ego in this industry (geez I’ve worked with some crazy characters) and in the end everyone is working as a team. It’s much better to encourage everyone than to discourage them and talk yourself up. We’re all in it as a team.
Thanks a lot Allan for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule.
Thank you, always glad to help!
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