The Allan McKay Podcast

About The Allan McKay Podcast

Allan McKay is an award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Technical Director in Hollywood - join Allan as he interviews many of the leading experts in Hollywood about their careers, pitfalls and what they took to succeed, while also gaining a lot of core knowledge to help build your career, money and success and skills to make the biggest impact in your career AND in your life!

Publisher

Emmy Award Winner | Speaker | Mentor | Visual Effects Expert

Category

business · tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

30 Oct 2014

Latest episode

30 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

2 of 470 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   30 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT

   468 - ComfyUI in VFX Production with Doug Hogan

   Allan McKay interviews VFX Supervisor Doug Hogan about integrating ComfyUI into production pipelines and navigating AI's evolving role in visual effects.

2. 

   15 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT

   467 - Spider-Noir - VFX Supervisor + VFX Producer

   Allan McKay interviews VFX Supervisor Hnedel Maximore and VFX Producer Brooke Noska about the creative and technical challenges of bringing the visually distinctive Spider-Noir to life.

3. 

   21 Jul 2025

   466 - Alex Wang, VFX Supervisor - The Last of Us - Season 2

   In this episode, Allan McKay sits down with Alex Wang, the Visual Effects Supervisor for the acclaimed HBO series The Last of Us, to break down the monumental VFX work behind the show's highly anticipated second season. Alex pulls back the curtain on the incredible challenges and creative triumphs of bringing the post-apocalyptic world to life, from the massive scale of the infected horde to the intricate details of hero creatures like the Bloater. He discusses the crucial balance between practical and digital effects, the importance of building trust with showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, and the seamless collaboration with world-class VFX houses like Weta, DNEG, and ILP. This conversation delves deep into the specific hurdles of Season 2, including a massive battle sequence Alex likens to "Helm's Deep," the complexities of a dramatic stormy water episode, and the creative pipeline from concept art to final shot. Alex shares how the team learned from Season 1 to push the boundaries of world-building and create environments that are both epic in scope and grounded in reality. This is a must-listen for any fan of The Last of Us and for visual effects artists and supervisors interested in the high-level strategy and creative problem-solving required to execute VFX on one of television's biggest shows. Topics Covered: The VFX of The Last of Us Season 2 Alex Wang's Role as VFX Supervisor Creating the Infected Horde and the Challenges of Crowd Simulation A Deep Dive into Season 2's Massive Battle Sequence Asset Creation for the Bloater and Other Infected Balancing Practical Effects with Digital Enhancements (Pyro, Weather, etc.) World-Building and Large-Scale Environment Extensions The Complexities of Creating the Stormy Water Sequence Collaboration with Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann Managing Multiple VFX Vendors (Weta, DNEG, ILP, Rise) The Creative Process from Concept Art to Final Shot Quotes: On the massive battle sequence: "I thought to myself, 'Craig, this is your Helm's Deep.'" On designing the infected horde: "These are civilians that became infected... their own story. So repetition is not something that we want." Resources: The Last of Us on HBO Weta FX DNEG Rise VFX Important Looking Pirates (ILP) Naughty Dog

Inside a recent episode

468 - ComfyUI in VFX Production with Doug Hogan

Published 30 Jul 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And you can get this like, I mean, crazy. This would have taken like hours per frame. Like going back to like Pixar, that took them on average for Toy Story, three hours per frame to do that. And then like, as they kept going further, the next movie, the, you know, computers got a little more powerful, but it was always about three hours per frame. Cause they kept pushing the look. Right. Now we're getting to the place where it's minutes, you know, for 30 seconds. And, and it's entirely is because of this kind of paradigm shift of how these models work. Um, But if you take that knowledge of where we came as a VFX community, if you kind of bone up on the history of everything, you can see that this stuff has been happening. […]

Who has been a guest on The Allan McKay Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Doug Hogan
• Hnedel Maximore
• Brooke Noska

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

53,803,998

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

139 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

22 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 83 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

90

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

97

Contact The Allan McKay Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about The Allan McKay Podcast