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Master The Art & Science Of Being An FX Technical Director And Take Your Career To The Next Level
1 YEAR MENTORSHIP

LIVE REVIEWS

750+ HOURS OF VISUAL FX TRAINING

EXCLUSIVE PRIVATE FORUMS, CHAT GROUP AND MORE

LIFETIME ACCESS

16 EPIC MODULES

FX TD CERTIFICATION

... AND BONUS CONTENT
Allan McKay - Emmy Award Winning Visual Effects Supervisor
Allan is an Emmy award winning Visual Effects Supervisor working in Hollywood. He has worked on films including Star Trek 2, The Last Equalizer, The Last Airbender, Looper, Transformers Dark Side of The Moon, Flight, Superman, Blade Trinity, Metallica, 2012, Game of Thrones and many more. 

Allan also has worked for many leading games studios on titles like Call of Duty, Destiny, Halo, Half-Life, Bioshock, Evil Within 2. As well as award winning game cinematics such as Bioshock, Warhammer, Evil Within and Oscar nominated short film In The Rough. 

As well as speaking at many events world wide, regularly at Autodesk University, SIGGRAPH as well as holding private classes for Ubisoft, Prime Focus, Remedy Games and Industrial Light + Magic. Sharing the stage with speakers like Facebook & id Software's John Carmack, Apple Founder Steve Wozniak, Pixar's Neil Blevins and more.

Awarded as an Autodesk Master and Emmy award winner, and Promax award winner alongside working on dozens of projects that have been nominated or won both Oscars and VES awards.

Allan's Podcast is ranked in the top 200 in the Business/Careers section of iTunes - which focuses entirely on teaching artists and creatives alike to build a successful career and stand out. interviewing many inspiring artists such as Ben Snow (Senior VFX Supervisor for ILM), Andrew Kramer (Video Copilot, JJ Abram's Bad Robot), Jeff Okun (VFX Supervisor & Chair for the Visual Effects Society) and hundreds of other outstanding industry experts!


Allan McKay
FX Technical Director
Mentorship Program
As a Visual Effects Supervisor..  Allan hires and supervises FX TD's by the dozen, on many demanding projects.

Allan designed this course to encapsulate not only what you need to know to be a successful FXTD but all of the critical skills that will set you on a path to success

To have the right knowledge and tools to set yourself aside from the competition in your industry and be a valuable asset to every visual effects studio.

This course is built on results.

"This isn't fluffy fun tutorials" learn and be personally guided by Allan - to have the exact skills to not only be an ideal candidate for any upcoming FX project, but have the skills and knowledge to be able to sit down in a chair and have the confidence to DO THE WORK and the momentum to never look back.

Have an irresistible demo reel, core scripting and technical knowledge, compositing skills, and most importantly understand every single aspect of what's needed to tackle any visual effects shot or sequence. 

Most importantly, have all the skills and capability and confidence to attract studios to you. By investing in yourself and in the program, Allan will provide you with the necessary skills to set up your career up for life.


"Work with Allan for an entire year on building up your skills, knowledge and career - as he shares his knowledge and experience to push YOU to your full potential"
HOW I GOT THE ADVANTAGE OVER THE OTHERS
My career was going 'good' but it wasn't until I started to invest in myself, and pinpoint the really critical skills I needed that everything changed.

I was fortunate enough to get work, but I felt like I had a bigger calling, and I felt like my 'calling' was being wasted by not doing what I really wanted to do. But, I wasn't getting callbacks from the big studios, I didn't have a reel that could WOW people. I felt like I was always a step behind where I should be.

After learning to really understand all the daunting areas of visual effects, pipelines, both technical and creative challenges, everything changed. I went from someone that was always worried about the "what ifs" - What if I lose my job, What if I can't get work, What if someone better than me comes along.

And started to see everything naturally fall in place. I got a promotion at my job, I started getting recognition around my workplace and I started becoming seen as the 'go to guy' at the studio. I cut a new reel, and when I sent that reel out - I got callbacks, my work got recognition online, that was the year I made the change, and started working on Feature Films, and for many of my dream studios, and I never looked back.

That was 15 years ago, and I still think about that moment, that I decided rather than having my career on cruise control, I decided to take action, and start to lean in to the pains that I typically avoided. I started to look at what I honestly need to do, whether I was excited to, or not - to know, a year from now my life, my career, my finances, my skills, my ability, MY SANITY would all have completely changed. 

Finding the right people to support me, mentor me and push me when I lose focus, and be brutally honest with me about where I'm at and where I needed to go was vital. It meant I could download their decades of experience, and fast track my career to where I wanted to be.

I wanted to fully immerse myself in a group of like-minded people who all have similar goals, so we can all move forward together and have that support system so learning and growing can become easy.

I needed a path laid out in front of me, that was proven, that I could commit to and measure my success, my confidence and my abilities grow consistently, the more I committed to it.

More importantly, I needed to make a decision, a year from now - I am going to be one year older.. Where do I want to be with my career?

Take Action and Sign Up to Level Up Your Skills and Transform Your Career With Allan
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HERE's What's Waiting For You
Inside The FXTD Mentorship Community
  • 16 modules of intense FX training - learning FX from the inside out
  •  Real production shots, rather than strictly developing code - we focus entirely on both FX and shot creation but also developing code and controlling our effects for more control and power! 
  •  Particle scripting! We not only develop tools but also dive into scripting particles in popular software such as Particle Flow, Thinking Particles and Realflow! 
  •  Learn Python scripting for compositing inside The Foundary's Nuke to build comps and heavy duty production tools! 
  •  Also dive right into Python scripting for particles within Realflow to manipulate and control and coreograph your fluid and particle simulations! 
  •  New platform, new forum, new video delivery, live classes, weekly interactions on the forums and private Facebook group. All the things you've been asking for! 
  •  Become an absolute Bad-Ass at your studio, by acquiring unique skills that put you in your own category. The skills you will learn in this course will train you up to qualify for FX lead positions, as you will be able to develop tools for shots both for yourself in production as well as for other FX teams and generalists! 
  •  Become faster, powerful and more skilled. This course will bridge high-end production FX with Coding and Automation, and complete power to customize and create your own FX tools for shot development! 
  •  Work on REAL SHOTS, REAL EFFECTS! Learn to create realistic fracture effects, fire and explosions and then dial them into powerful tools to use again and again to create shots faster and more easily, this is a whole other way of working! 
  • ​This is the LATEST, HIGHEST LEVEL, HIGHEST QUALITY FX TRAINING CONTENT! And specifically designed to be scripted and coded and built into tools for REAL PRODUCTION! 
  • WE DO THIS COURSE - TOGETHER! This course we work together as a group, and we will progress together each week as well as with your mentor Allan McKay working side by side. The major difference between the original Technical Director Transformation, is this course will be designed to all work together rather than it be a week by week update of material, we will be completely interacting with each other and the Allan.

    Besides assigned homework and live webinar classes, and set goals, we will have a robust forum where you will be assisted with your work and given advice. This is a chance to do something epic and you won't be alone throughout this experience!
BECOME AN FX LEAD
'Some' of what you'll get, once you're in..
  • The natural progression for FX Technical Directors is to move into an FX Lead position. Typically this means developing tools to work faster and better, and for other artists to use.
  •  FX TD Transformation will show you everything you need to create amazing FX tools, as well as specifically write code for even specific shots! If there is ever a wall you run into in production, you will know how to build OVER it.  
  •  Create our own tools to create proprietary naming conventions and file structures, auto construct shots, automatically create folders and paths for point caches, particle caches, FumeFX, and renders, automatically configure renders with elements pathed automatically when we version up our files. 
  •  This course is aimed 100% at FX. Learn to make scripts and tools for for PRODUCTION, by working on REAL PRODUCTION SHOTS. Each lesson is hands on focusing just as much on how to create the FX as how to create the code. 

JUST SOME OF THE STUDENT WORK FROM THE COURSE
Are You Ready To Invest Back In Yourself?
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Become faster, more skilled, more confident - this course will bridge high-end production FX with Coding and Automation and complete power to customize and create your own FX tools for shot development. To move you up, and transform you into an Effects Technical Director
The Basics
Here's a small glimpse at just some of the things we focus on in the FX TD Mentorship
  • Real Film Lighting & Shader Techniques using industry standard software
  • Photo-real Rendering and Integration
  • Regular live reviews (with new improved review platform which has webcam support and other features)
  • An overview of studio pipelines, workflow and studio terminology
  • Learning how to code and create production tools, from the ground up, in-depth and moving step by step through to becoming confident artists who can code and script
  • Advanced industry compositing techniques and compositing workflow
  • Render, Lighting and Shading techniques for feature film and game cinematic production
  • Everything possible to know about effects, from character driven effects, atmospheric large and small scale effects, vehicle effects, fx rigging, and more
  • Studio pipeline development for automation and ways to work more effectively, faster and more efficiently
  • Understanding the anatomy of what makes a shoot go from good to GREAT and all the critical knowledge needed to raise the quality of your work and bring the quality level high enough to get final approval from the director

  • Brand new membership platform
  • Maxscript & Python in 3DS Max 2018
  • Advanced vehicle rigging lessons for car crash effects
  • Career mentoring
  • Certification
  • Killer feature film sequences aimed at photoreal delivery - taking shots start to finish through the entire feature film visual effects pipeline all the way through to completion at the highest quality
  • Private Facebook Group, Forum, Chat, all the things we love about FXTD
  • Brand new forum!
  • All production assets provided
  • Bonus software deals not available anywhere else
  • FREE BONUS training from Allan McKay
  • A crash course into grading shots for feature film
  • And a heck of a lot more!!
This is what we don't learn until YEARS INTO OUR CAREER, but we should all be learning RIGHT now
  • Even if you're just starting out
  • Even if you're not specifically an FX TD, Lighter or Compositor
  • Even if you're stretched thin with a million to-dos
Course Features
  • A 360 learning environment - fully immersive
  • Access to private brand-new members only forum, Private Facebook Group, Group Only Chat, Private FX Wiki
  • Live Reviews, every two weeks - Live with Allan McKay and all members of the course as we review our work together as a team
  • Global Meet-Ups twice a year. All alumni of FX TD Mentorship and Live Action Series are invited to meet up in Los Angeles and Paris in 2018 and 2019 at events organized later in the year.
  • Live Career Intensives as well as Case Studies. Where Allan will break down film projects and how to approach them using both his own past projects, discussing many of the techniques and experiences on those projects, as well as students voting on other film projects to discuss and deconstruct.
  • Lifetime Access to the FX TD Mentorship. Upon signing up, all videos, forums and membership will be lifetime access
  • Access to all live reviews archived in the video vault - access each weeks reviews later, in case you missed them or want to go through much of the critical advice and information given in these sessions, as well as if you're just curious about previous sessions.
  • All video shot on RED Dragon 6k, RED Weapon or Blackmagic URSA cameras - 2k footage supplied to all students for use in the course
  • Additional assets such as roto mattes, HDRI, Camera Tracks, 3D assets and other resources supplied also
  • Much more inside!
  • Real Film Lighting & Shader techniques using industry standard software
  • Photo-real rendering and integration
This completely immersive experience is how you're able to accelerate your learning, by having total access and total immersion to the information and others motivating you as you move through the course. This is by now means a distraction, by having things like the Facebook group and chat room, it just becomes part of day to day life rather than needing to take time out to dedicate to all of this, no longer is it a distraction but instead it becomes fun!
All of this rather than being scattered around is all tied into the main FXTD Members Area, for easy access. In addition to a news blog with need-to-know updates, a regularly updated calendar of upcoming events so we know what's coming up. And links to all of the latest reviews to sign up for, and an archive of all of the previous reviews in case you wish to re-watch previous reviews to see what advice Allan had given in the last one or see what other artists have been working on, there is a wealth of information in these!
Not to mention the Career Intensives, Reel Reviews, Case Studies and other great information coming up!

(Student Inside The Mentorship)
Zsolt Poczos
CG Supervisor
FuseFX - Hollywood, CA
Long story short, do yourself a favor guys and sign up!

..Consider this: the FXTDT course is a never seen before, fully comprehensive training course delivered by possibly the best professional in the field and one of the very best in the VFX industry.

As a lighter and CG supervisor I never looked into FX, let alone scripting before. In fact I considered both as a form of dark art. 

That said, I'm a big fan of optimization, finding efficiency and improving workflow in general. Also as a sup the more you understand about the various parts of post-production, the better position your are in to oversee and lead it with credibility.

I thought the FXTDT course was going to be a great next step and I'm happy to report that signing up was one of the best decisions I made in a long time.

If you pay close attention to the video lessons, follow the online discussion and take part in the live reviews you will be amazed by what you will be able to achieve and create. Even with no related previous experience.

All I can say is, if you have the slightest interest in this field, then you will not find a better way to get a thorough insight into it. Chances are, Allan's FXTDT course will be a career changing experience for you at a rather affordable price. I can only recommend it.

Zsolt is a CG Supervisor in LA, and currently part of the mentorship and just recently finished on the upcoming sequel - Independence Day 2, and working at FuseFX on many high profile projects such as Supergirl.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
Want Lifetime Access? Join The FXTD Mentorship and Take Action
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WHY OTHER COURSES DON'T WORK

The problem with most courses out there is they typically have the mentality of 'just a tutorial'. They're 6 weeks long, each video about an hour in length and never really get all that in-depth. The instructors are just looking to make a 'quick buck' doing something on the side and because of that they are happy to show the basics but they don't want to give away any of their real tricks or valuable ways of working, and hand the mindset of what they're giving is 'good enough' or 'tutorial quality'.
Rarely do you see lessons that take you all the way through from start to finish, rather they cover a small piece, and the output, the final image or end result of the lesson is never at the level of quality that you would see a real production. So you're learning to do 'tutorial quality' work and never anything that you can do in the real world.

The thing is - it's that last 10% or 20% that you don't ever get to see, which makes up for most of the result. The little tweaks, subtlety's or getting your work approved are what are so critical and seems to without-fail be overlooked in every single course or lesson you ever see.

Fabio M Silva  - Senior FX TD
Naughty Dog, Epic Games, Crytek

"This course series is phenomenal.
Just by watching some hours in I was able to start writing my own scripts (with completely different content from the stuff shown in the videos) that I am definitely going to use in production and are going to be a huge time saver. 
Allan was able to teach me(someone who never had scripting experience) how to think, actually script and look for scripting info on my own. The videos are amazing, can’t wait to watch the full course and become an fx/technical director."

Ruben Mayor  - Senior Technical Director
Weta Digital

"Learning to script was one of the key decisions I made in my career. Being able to write a few lines of code and to save hours or even days of works allows me to focus on my shots instead of spending time setting up imports, exports, renders, etc.. This is exactly what this course will allow you to do. By the end of this course you will be able to write your own tools increase your productivity."

Niall Horn - FX Artist
Scanline VFX

Allan Mckay has been a key part to my VFX training, as an FX Artist from an early age.

Allan was always one of the leading names in the industry, with his offering of training from the basics all the way to the advanced that FX Artists/TD's like me need. From Max, to Maya and Fume to Thinking Particles, Allan's training has helped me succeed in my personal projects and RnD, build up an FX heavy showreel, and start getting job offers from big name studios.

I would highly recommend taking Allan's Training, he's an awesome guy, with amazing knowledge on FX and our industry as whole!  

Wirginia Romanowska - FX Lead
id Software, Ubisoft

As VFX artist I'm always looking for efficient and more interesting ways to learn. Starting from first FumeFX DVD series, through Real Flow and Destruction Dynamics classes at CG Society Allan has been best professor I have ever had.

What I like about this training most is the practical, production approach, techniques I can apply at work. This is what makes me a better VFX artist.

Massimo Cipollina - FX TechnicalDirector
MPC, Double Negative, Lightcut

Amazing stuff !!!
Very detailed course, scripting oriented like no others.
Allan gives you the right tools to became a great FX TD. All the videos are absolutely amazing, useful to start building a solid production pipeline.
The most professional fx course ever seen on 3DS Max.

Ricardo Ribeiro - Lead Shading Artist
Rainmaker Entertainment

I am loving this! Even tho i am a Texture artist, i was able to use a lot of the ideas i learned here to create tools for my team and without a doubt we increased the overall performance quite a bit because of it! And now the entire studio is asking for it, they wanna make the tool a permanent shelf tool, that was quite unexpected and it felt awesome! =)

Tom Lear - Technical Director
Wolf Media

This is far and away the best VFX training you will find on the internet right now. I've taken Gnomon, Lynda, CMIvfx, DT, CGSociety and course with several other major trainers - McKay blows them all out of the water. Be prepared to work HARD and learn a lot in this class - you may end up losing a month's sleep and being 15 pounds lighter, but this time, it's a sacrifice worth undertaking.

Christian Hein - Effects TD / Onset VFX Supervisor
Digital Images

I want to say thank you for this phenomenal course.

I'm working as a FX Artist for 7 years now and literally grew up with max.
So i was worried about the level of skill we will get here. But so far I'm really impressed from every module we had. I've learned a lot not just on the technical side but on the automating and building assets all round. And beside Allan's teachings skills (which are incredible by the way) the members Forum is awesome as well. So much amazing and different talents.

So I'm gaining new input from them as well beside the course.
Its nice moving forward knowing there are others doing the class all with you, having similar problems or questions. luckily there are all helpful to each other. So the learning process is quite fast.  

I think this makes this course such an awesome chance for everyone who wants to learn how to work in the VFX industry.
FX TD's are in HIGH DEMAND & LOW SUPPLY
The fact is that as artists working in 3D, whether it's in animation, modeling, rigging, lighting or even FX - we all can benefit drastically from ability to write our own 3D tools and automate a lot of the tasks that we do day to day!
Even simple things like having 3DS Max automatically update where it's saving out it's renders to, and render elements every time you save a new Max file, or automatically convert your renders to quicktime .mov files and upload to your dailies folder for review once your renders are complete. Building asset publishing systems, automatically light your shots, scale scenes or even launch photoshop or other tools from inside of Max! There are so many cool things we can do with 3DS Max, utilizing Maxscript that pretty much any artist is going to benefit from taking the plunge and learning these unique skills, that instantly set you aside from every other artist in your studio!
Typical courses like this you are expected to pay something in the price range of $4,500 per term. The course, going for over 40+ weeks, with every module containing in-depth high-end lessons on subject matter not available anywhere else, online or anywhere. Completely unique material built from the latest film productions - the type of stuff built under the need to deploy for directors such as Michael Bay! I'll be honest, this course is insane! Every module receiving access to new videos, new content and mentoring from Allan McKay and even additional print-outs and other bonus gifts along the way! This course is by far the most robust course I've ever taught, whether it be online, or even private classes that I've taught at ILM, Ubisoft, Prime Focus, Autodesk, Activision, SIGGRAPH, or many other events. NOTHING IS LIKE THIS!
Isn't that awesome! After reading that I got so excited, I wanted to see behind the scenes on EVERY page, what Russell had done...

So, I went to the website, and started to buy the product, so I could see all of the pages in his funnel...

But the problem, was depending on what I purchased, I saw different things. I got a glimpse of what he was doing, but I wasn't able to see the whole thing. 

So I asked Russell if he's be willing to show me behind the scenes of his funnel, and show me EVERY page, what they did, why he did them in that order, what he had tested that worked... and what he did that didn't work. 

Knowing that Russell charges $3,500 for a 1 hour consult on the phone, I didn't think I was going to hear back...

But what happened next shocked me. 

I got an email back from Russell, and the subject line said:
The FX TD Mentorship
Course Outline
Module 1 - Mega Fundamentals Module
  • The very first week is all about getting up to speed FAST! Covering all of the material that we are going to be doing over the coming MONTHS! There is so much to do that this entire module is about getting your feet wet in many different areas and making you comfortable NO MATTER what your SKILL LEVEL and EXPERIENCE is!
  • Foreword from your Mentor, Allan McKay
  • Scripting 101: Scripting can be intimidating for those not familiar. And all of the training out there is made from programmers, FOR programmers. Here we learn the ins and outs of scripting, as ARTISTS. We approach it how we would any other task in 3D, this unique approach is what has taught hundreds of Allan's students who never dreamed they would even understand the basics, how to script and automate many of the tasks they now do, day to day. We will go through from the ground up, hand in hand through the fundamentals of scripting in a low pressure environment to fully grasp the fundamentals of scripting step by step.
  • Particle Scripting 101: Taking what have learned, we now apply it to particles. Learning to create advanced tasks through scripting particles, to give us total freedom in every shape and form.
  • Building an FX asset library similarly based on studios like ILM and Blur Studio with interactive view previews, extended interface options and publishing system to automatically drop effects into shots with ease.
Module 2 - Essential System Tools for our Productions
  • Render-Pass Generation: We create our own tool that will automatically create all of our render passes for us based on profiles we set up. This allows us to easily be able to set up renders to go out automatically with zero manual set up, and later can be used for much more advanced and ambitious tools we develop.
  • Auto scene set up tools: Automatically setting up our scenes and doing the grunt work, more importantly setting things up right to minimize human error down the line. These are tools we 'fire and forget' once we've set them up, we never have to worry about setting up a scene ever again!
  • Interactive Fire pass generation for automated lighting of shots based on fire and explosions. Why light your shots, when you can have your fire and effects create all the lighting for us? We demonstrate this in the 'Fireball' training, but here it becomes a one click render pass, never have to manually set this process up ever again, have a one click checkbox and have it automatically create all fire for our shots.
  • Scripting with Thinkbox Deadline - in-depth (Industry standard tool for advanced render management and automation). Understanding how to submit jobs to the render farm is critical, especially when it comes to automating our jobs. Not only can we submit renders, but then automatically submit the interactive lighting pass (mentioned above) as well as custom jobs. Want to submit your FumeFX to simulate, and then Wavelet, and Post-Process? What about have your jobs render, after they simulate, and then get automatically composited inside of Nuke or After Effects once they're done? Learning and understanding how to use a render farm or render management tool to your complete advantage is a MUST so you can set up many advanced tasks later on, including dynamic shot creation and other ways to work without you needing to lift a finger.
Module 3 - Advanced Caching Tools
  • Advanced Auto-Cache tool: Krakatoa (deadline): We develop critical tools such as being able to remotely cache particles through Deadline, allowing us to batch complex particle set ups such as with Krakatoa and other tools without us having to manually set them up. Now this will become a one click button we do whenever we want to cache our particles out.
  • Advanced Auto-Cache tool: Particle Flow (deadline): Like above, we develop critical tools such as being able to remotely cache particles through Deadline, allowing us to batch complex particle set ups such as with Particle Flow caching and other tools without us having to manually set them up. Now this will become a one click button we do whenever we want to cache our particles out.
  • Advanced Auto-Cache tool: FumeFX (deadline): Creating an auto submission tool for all of our FumeFX needs, to remotely cache as many grids through deadline as we want. Simply select all of our grids and hit GO!
  • Advanced Auto-Cache tool: Thinking Particles (deadline): Thinking Particles remote caching
  • Advanced Auto-Cache tool: X-Mesh (deadline): X-Mesh geometry caching tool to quickly turn anything into a fast loading, easy to use geometry cache to work with
  • Advanced render submission and caching submission tools with callbacks: Getting into more advanced subjects, allowing for literally anything to be done when jobs are loaded to render on the farm, we are able to perform advanced render tasks to create literally any kind of task.

    >> All of these tools in the end, will free us up hundreds of hours of our time, protect us from making mistakes, and make us look like rockstars when we are able to create tools like this for others to use at our studios!
Module 4 - Environmental FX
  • Static FX vs Dynamic FX Environment Tools overview: Learning environment effects is one thing, but creating tools to automate the roll out of them is another. Here we dig heavily into creating realistic atmospheric and environment effects, but also then taking it a step further and building them into assets, that we can roll out into shots easily. This gives 'legs' to our work, as we learn to never need to create the same effect twice. This is the beginning of building our own effects assets, both static effects and dynamic effects, that can adapt to any shot.
  • High-Storm dust simulations over desert asset creation: Creating a large scale dust storm, we go through understanding how to create effects at this scale and a lot of more advanced techniques for controlling the motion and having total control over the look and feel of our simulations.
  • Sand terrain simulations of sweeping sand and rocks dynamically over terrain. Creating effects used heavily in almost ANY effects project, we create the effects as well as rolling it all into a tool to easily apply to any environment - to create sand sweeping across terrain, both atmospherics and fluids, but also particulate matter that hugs the terrain and interacts with the environment. These are the subtle effects that typically take a lot of work to do, but we approach everything learning to automate the painful parts of the process and free up time to focus more on the look and feel of our effects.
  • Particle and scripted operations with Krakatoa
  • Developing Environmental FX scripted tools and exposing controls to art direct effects from within our GUI
Module 5 - Pyrotechnics
  • Explosion styles, creating explosive effects. This module focuses entirely on explosions! There are many types and here we focus on the key techniques to develop amazing explosive effects! Both fuel based explosions as well as more heavy duty larger styles as well as mortar blasts that impact creating dirt, smoke and dust. We cover many styles and wrap these into tools to make for a one click pyro-technic suite! (Michael bay would be proud!)
  • Explosion styles and how to create realistic explosive pyrotechnics! Looking at new ways to create realistic explosions, we dig deep into the art and science of digital pyro, and understand completely how to create realistic jaw dropping explosions
  • Full blown mortar blast and impact system, dirt, debris, dust and realistic effects. Another commonly needed effect yet also one that can be done terribly at times. We go through from the ground up, creating realistic earthy dirt explosions and mortar blasts, and really focusing on the weight, feel and timing of the shots. Although this is aimed at creating the mortar blast effect, it's also one to focus on really controlling the scale of your effects, and the timing, really understanding the critical aspects of all of this, which will affect all the future effects we do.
  • Pyro Tool development to create completely customizable and dynamic explosions of all types from a click of a button! Both static and dynamic types! Whether you always want to start from the ground up, or sometimes you want to knock out shots fast, here we develop a tool to quickly generate explosions at a click of a button, imagine what else we could do with it?
Module 6 - Fire and Dispersions
  • Dispersion and Randomonium tools. Creating effects wrapped in a tool for easily controlling characters and items dispersing into millions of particles at a click of a button. Advanced lessons on this include effects similar to Weta's amazing nano-bots cloud effects for consuming matter. Going over several exercises we learn to create amazing visual effects and wrap them into tools for complete control and easy to roll out into dozens of shots with ease!
  • FumeFX Instant Fire. Using the latest techniques for creating ultra-realistic fire, we develop several styles of fire and develop a tool to instantly generate dynamic fire onto many objects in multiple shots with ease. Here we are able to make the task of fire as easy as a few clicks to create, and then submit to Deadline. We focus on the style and control and really learn what it takes to create realistic high-quality feature film fire!
Module 7 - Pipeline Series
  • Sparks and embers, discussing the different types and the typical 'epic fails' most artists tend to do when working on these types of effects. How these sorts of effects typically sound straight forward but there is a lot of subtlety that comes into creating stunning effects
  • Spark generation impact tool - learning to create realistic spark effects, but now taking it a step further and generating production ready tools to generate sparks whenever we need them, so we can focus entirely on creating effects of the highest quality, FAST!
  • Flying embers tool - Learning to create realistic ember effects, but now taking it a step further and generating production ready tools to generate embers whenever we need them, so we can focus entirely on creating effects of the highest quality, FAST!
  • Fire tool updated to also generate embers. Much like a lot of what we do, we look at ways to do things better. Here we are able to plug embers directly into our fire simulations to automatically create embers from our fire simulations.
  • Cloaking effects design and tool developed for easy controls to make characters or objects cloak and to generate all of the render passes easily for mass distribution through many shots and sequences
Module 8 - Character Driven Effects
  • Create an actual vampire burning shot 'sequence' start to finish all the way through compositing!
  • Based around various feature films Allan has worked on, we go through creating a realistic effects shot of a character breaking apart into ash. We go through the entire workflow, from start to finish. Understanding how to create realistic fragments, dynamics, secondary effects, fluids and pyro, embers, sparks, smoke, shaders, lighting, rendering, render passes, compositing.
  • We focus on how to set up a shot, how to work on the timing and plan everything we do ahead of time, focusing on creating a realistic workflow and process to what we are setting out to accomplish.
  • Going through many of the advanced stages of rendering and compositing the effects, and really focusing on the timing, look and feel of our character collapsing and breaking apart into ash right in front of us!
  • Taking the latest and greatest concepts for burning characters and creating an entire creature 'ashing' or 'creature death' effect and creating it from the ground up. Designing an entire application around this to not only create the effects from scratch but completely create the entire process and art direct it with dozens of controls to take the entire effect through from initial design to simulation and submitting all creature render passes. The end result is a canned open ended powerful application to create effects for one or dozens of creatures specifically tailored around our design for use in high-end production! This is a core concept that will allow you to literally take anything and build it into your own custom software solution!
Module 9 - Scene Submission Scripts & Preview Tools
  • Rain/Drip/Splash tool - creatively constructing an effects shot involving rain, to allow for rain splashes to auomatically happen in any given shot very easily. After which we move further into developing extensions to the script to automatically cache and retrieve particle and geometry assets of the rain back into the shot after they are submitted from the GUI for remote generation.
  • Snow FX - we devel a robust multi-purpose tool to do everything from footprints in the snow to snow flakes and massive blizzards, snow procedurally generated on top of surfaces, mist and atmospheric effects and procedural shader effects as well. This is a great example where we develop a suite of tools built within the system for ease and ultimate control!
Module 10 - Car Crash Dynamics
  • This is a brand new high-end visual effects module fully focused on creating realistic car dynamics and a car crash sequence
  • Set up over multiple shots, we start from the ground up with a photorealistic car model, crashing at high speed and interacting with it's environment as it rolls and rips apart
  • Aimed at total photorealism, the shot will go through the entire process from start to finish, including photorealistic lighting and rendering and compositing back into it's environment.
  • Procedural vehicle deformations, vehicle dynamics, fluids, particles, rigid bodies, everything needed to take this shot to the highest level!
Module 11 - FX Automation
  • Probably the most ambitious module. We take what we accomplished in module 8 (taking a full character shot and having the character break down into ash and fall apart). And automate the entire process. Creating our own script to allow us to easily select a character and dial in the look and feel we want, and then let it automatically create the entire effects process for us, including simulating, rendering and compositing. This is a very advanced process, but one that has allowed Allan to work on multiple feature films at any given time, rather than focusing entirely just on one. By freeing up time through automating a lot of the heavily lifting. VERY POWERFUL and a massive game changer!
  • Introducing Python scripting in Nuke
  • Creating an auto comp tool to automatically build comps of all of our elements automatically, combing spec, ambience occlusion, diffuse, reflections and everything else together automatically and assembling shots with ease, correctly naming and pathing nodes and developing a workflow which we will use moving on, and you definitely will begin to use in your day to day productions!
  • Further Nuke tool development and automation through Python
Module 12 - Fracture & Destruction Tools
  • Destruction 101 - learning the in's and out's of destruction. Here we go through the system of developing a robusy fragmentation and dynamics pipeline for breaking surfaces dynamically based on many differnt conditions. Utilizing Thinking Particles and other tools. We then take the concept and completely expose it through scripting to be completely dynamic and customizable to almost any situation. This lesson allows us to develop very robust and powerful tools for using in almost any given situation for destruction very easily. The end result is a powerful tool that will smash objects or cause building collapses or many other things very easily with as little as a few clicks to set up the entire event. Lastly with added network support we can submit our simulations to bake and then even mesh via Deadline to return a published asset to bring back into our shot! For a completely robust and powerful destruction application!
Module 13 - Interfaces, Distribution & Databases
  • Taking a look at soft body's and cloth we develop a completely customizable tearable material system for creating paint peal (or skin or many other ways this can be applied) to allow for a very popular subject seen a lot these days (however not necessarily always done right) to build a powerful scripted tool to allow to easily peal paint or other effects off of an object. You will expose many controls to allow for easily choosing where the peal will begin and for how long as well as many properties of the peal itself. This is something that once created is so customizable you'll be able to use it for many different effects very easily! 
Module 14 - Python Script with Realflow & Scripting Fluids!
  • This module is exceptionally powerful, as we dive into both learning many production tactics for creating realistic fluid dynamic simulations of liquids but also how to develop robust Python scripts to control a lot of the conditions of our fluids. We will go through multiple exercises in this mega-module to showcase the real power of scriptable fluids!
Module 15 - Cloud Sculpting & Environments
  • This module we dive into the development of cloud assets, and sculpting photorealistic CG clouds both built for daylight and nighttime shots. This massive lesson goes through the initial creation and developing a workflow to eventually build our own library of 'cloud types' and then developing software around it to be able to easily roll our epic cloud shots completely intuitively designed for making large cloud scapes and cloud fly through sequences for the masses! Using many of the concepts behind movies such as 'Flight' for creating photorealistic clouds on the go, we take it much further, creating photorealistic clouds are very frequently in high-demand, yet there are not that many sure-fire solutions for creating them within 3DS Max, more-so developing large cloud shots typically take weeks, here we develop a tool that will give you complete power and flexibility, and SPEED!
Module 16 - Total Destruction, Dynamics, Pyro and more
  • Using everything we've learned - we set out to create an entire visual effects shot of a cabin being destroyed by a spaceship from above. Going through from start to finish through creating the initial concept, blocking out the effects, timing, and creating all of the destruction effects, rigid body simulations, fluid and digital pyro and more. Covering rendering, lighting, compositing and all tools and production advice as we give this shot EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!
  • Advanced Compositing and Render techniques
  • Massive explosions, Fire, Dynamics, Destruction, Particle and Vehicle FX, Atmospheric effects, Shaders and more!
Over 50 hours of BONUS CONTENT FREE
CERTIFICATION UPON COMPLETION
LIFETIME ACCESS
THE COURSE LAUNCHES - JULY 2nd
JUST SOME OF THE BONUSES WHEN YOU SIGN UP
BONUSES
In addition to the mentorship, live reviews, archives, career intensives, reel reviews, global meet-ups and all of the other additional features of the course. There are also loads of bonuses. Here are some of the the additional products you receive after you sign up. These are here as additional pillars to help those who want to seek more information specific to a subject, or for those easing into the learning experience and want more information and training.

Remember, you have lifetime access to everything. Including future products that are included with the mentorship.
Valued at $149 - Over 40 hours of training
The most in-depth FumeFX training that dives deep into every feature of FumeFX, every scenario and everything you need to know to understand inside out fluid simulations for feature film.
Valued at $197- Over 13 hours of training
Recently re-mastered and rereleased as a commercial course. This course digs into creating realistic destruction and pyrotechnics for live action. Using real footage, we go through the entire production process start to finish.
Valued at $159 - Over 11 hours of training
Learn to master Thinking Particles and destruction as we go through the process of destroying a bridge, creating all of the pyrotechnics and all other elements.
Valued at $97- Over 7 hours of training
Want to learn FumeFX for Maya? This training explores inside out how to create stunning visual effects with FumeFX for Maya.
Valued at $197- Over 8 hours of training
Another re-mastered course now released commercially. This creates a live action character effect creating decaying effects, blood, shaders, and everything else to create a realistic human actor's face bubbling and melting. Using 3DS Max 2018's new fluid solver, FumeFX and many other tools to create a one of a kind visual effects shot.
Valued at $197- Over 12 hours of training
Re-mastered and recently recently released as a full-blown course. Fireball goes through creating a massively epic destruction and pyro shot of a plane being destroyed from the inside out. Learn to create a massive 'fireball' that forcefully consumes and rips apart the interior or an airliner, simulating detailed explosive fire simulations as well as destruction and all elements to create a finished epic shot!
Valued at $197- Over 10 hours of training
Learn and understand FumeFX and Thinking Particles utilized for the creation of an epic destructive shot. Learn advanced fragmentation set ups, joints, fluids and more as we create an entire destructive visual effects shot.

Total Value of $1,193 of additional bonuses (FREE)

And other bonuses that can't be disclosed publicly.
The FXTD 'Vault' is a massive and continuously updated of additional courses, material and other benefits inside of the mentorship.
THE COURSE LAUNCHES - JULY 2nd
FX Term 3 - Creature Effects Sequence
Stepping away from destruction we focus on a sequence of shots of following a solo person through a deserted desert landscape. This sequence is short and to the point, as over multiple shots the environment comes to life, ground ripping open and sand and earth begins to form shapes and attack the hero.

The way that this plays out is we have unique challenges with every shot as the shape of the creature formed from rock and earth moves around and manipulates the terrain, and not only do we have to worry about creating the effects of the creature but also its surroundings. The environment as it's disturbed and destroyed around the creature. We also deal with matchmove of our hero as he interacts with the CG elements (matchmove elements are supplied, but we can discuss the process involved).

This term will be a whole lot of fun, as well as unique challenges that come up, lots of comp work, lots of particle and shader work. Integration and fast cuts, loads of challenges and the outcome will be amazing!
Q&A About This Course
FAQ
Question
Answer

Question
Answer

courses can be subject to change.
"Depending on the traffic source, we average about $80 to acquire a customer."
Boom - I'm pretty sure he was going to be impressed. 

Then question #2 came out:

Second) What's your average cart value? 

Huh...? Cart Value? What's that mean? Why aren't you asking me about my conversion rates?

I had never heard of that metric before. 
"It's how much money you make on average, in the cart (including your upsells, downsales, etc...), when someone buys your product." he said...
Now, that was a metric in our funnel I had never looked at before.   

So I went back to the drawing board, started crunching our numbers, and figured out that our average cart value was ONLY about $32. 

"Well, that's your problem - you're conversions might be awesome, but your cart value sucks. Get that up, and you're back in the game."

Hmmm... I had never thought about cart value before. How could I increase that? 
  • Adding more upsells...
  • Adding a downsale...
  • Adding exit pops...
  • And more...
Where else could I add in things to increase my revenue? 

As you can guess, that put us on a new mission. 

At the time, we only had 1 upsell, and while it converted great, the dollar amount didn't get us even close to break even, let alone a profit. 

So, we changed the first upsell, and did a bundle pack that sold 6 bottles. 

We created another product for a second upsell, and then a third.  

After we had everything in place, we turned the traffic back on. 

We already knew it was going to take us about $80 to acquire a customer... but how much now would we make immediately, in the cart, from each person who bought? 

Within hours, we knew we had a winner. We were averaging about $163 cart value on day #1 (before any follow ups went out!!!)

Do you know what that means? 

$80 to acquire, and we immediately, point of sale (in the cart) make $163 back out!

$1 in... $2 back out!

That's the formula for a winner!

Now all we had to do, was add more traffic, and watch how fast we could scale this offer.  

And the results were awesome. 

Within a month, we passed $100k in sales. 

Within 2 months, over $300k. 

And by month #3, less than 90 days after making those changes, we had passed the $500k a month mark!

So, next time you start to build a funnel (or you're trying to fix a dead funnel) - remember these two metrics:

1st - what does it cost to acquire a customer?
2nd - what is your average cart value...

If you can get those 2 numbers right, everything else will take care of itself.

Russell Brunson
CEO www.DotComSecrets.com 
SOFTWARE - WHAT SOFTWARE DO I NEED?
This course focuses primarily on your CORE INDUSTRY STANDARD TOOLS - 3DS Max (free), Nuke (free) and Thinking Particles and FumeFX, and V-Ray (optional, you can use Scanline or Mental Ray). 

We do have an amazing deal for FumeFX which is a non-commercial license for half price and some other great stuff going on. So as I always say "if you buy a Photoshop course, you don't expect a free copy of Photoshop to come with it" but I am working on some amazing gifts and other goodies - talking with RED, Blackmagic and also many software companies too - so more will be unveiled soon but for now nothing I can talk about.

Thinking Particles Update
Most of the amazing deals and things we will have in 'LAS' will be announced later. But Cebas has gracious enough to offer us a special deal on their Thinking Particles 6 EDU (not for commercial use) - where as part of the FXTD Mentorship we can get a TP6 EDU license for $99 for 3 years (provided we sign up at the beginning of the course). This will be arranged once signed up, Cebas and myself will validate everyone after the course commences. Awesome!


This sounds like a lot! What kind of hardware will I need to run this?!
One of the core areas I want to focus on is really building an efficient way to work, so if you saw the free training videos I sent out we focused an entire 3 hour lesson on creating a 'hyper-efficient' destruction pipeline, that literally only uses what it actually needs to in a simulation and constantly grows and shrinks based on this. Way before we even do any destruction, we build a system that (minus the glass) takes about 30 minutes to calculate and cache. Because we put in the time to plan ahead and put our effort where it's most needed.

Same goes for every area of this course, I want us to plan our shots and learn where to put attention and where not to waste time or render power that isn't going to get noticed. So optimization is a big part of this course, having solid workplace practices. Because of this I think hardware isn't going to be as bigger deal as it might sound. Yes I suggest a minimum of 16gb of ram (we have people already signed up with 8gb, you can do it, but if you want your work to really look amazing, don't cheat yourself out of RAM. Memory is cheap - even my laptop has 32GB these days.

But RAM is probably the area I think that is most critical. Video card isn't really all that important as we're doing simulations on the CPU most of the time and CPU - as with anything, the faster you have the better, but RAM is the only thing that is going to be something I suggest getting at least 16gb of RAM if you don't have enough yet.
If you're looking for buying a computer or upgrading specifically for this course - shoot me an email and I'll suggest some specs.

What's the deal with live review sessions?
Those of us coming from the the Live Action Series will be familiar with live reviews, where every two weeks we join a live members only webinar event where we all interact, and show our work in progress work. Allan reviews each person one at a time and gives feedback and advice on how to improve the shot or critical things to work on. This comes from the film industry where we typically do 'dailies' where the Director or the CG or VFX supervisor will review everyone's shots and request changes. This has always been such a valuable and influential experience, as getting direct feedback from an experienced artist has always been the most impactful time to shape our skills and improve our work. Not only that, but this is a chance to ask questions or show problems you might be running into and get help fixing these issues.

The best part is - we go through this as a team, which means we all get to see each others work, and cheer each other on and encourage others as we go forward, or help answer questions or share information, links and other resources, it really is the most valuable part of the course, having this camaraderie as we conquer every step of the FXTD Mentorship Series together.


I live outside of the USA - what time are these live review sessions held?
Typically once you sign up, we all submit times that work best for us, and we are able to work out timezones that fit best with everyone. Seeing that there is an international crowd of people in this course, on the day of the reviews, we have two sessions, one early morning and one late at night. This way no matter what timezone you're in, there will be a session that fits within your schedule. And some people, who are really ambitious and love participating sometimes hang out at both!


Do I need to speak in these live reviews? or what if I don't have anything to show?
Another important aspect is if you're not too confident in this area and don't want to speak out loud, you're more than welcome to use our chat room which is part of our reviews, so some people who maybe aren't confident about their English or simply don't want to talk, or they're at work so they can't speak - simply use the chat feature to type their questions or post their work. Whereas we also have the ability to use webcam too, for those who are the opposite! But either way there is plenty of options here to fit all of us and make it easiest for us to participate.

Lastly - if you don't have anything to show, feel free to log in and listen. There are plenty of people who show up just to watch and see what everyone else is doing if they don't have anything to show at that particular review. This is totally fine and encouraged, it's better for you to be there than to miss out, and it's very inspiring seeing a lot of the other artists work, as well as a lot of great knowledge and information shared at every session.


How much time do I need to make the most of the the FX TD Mentorship?

The reason this course is spaced over a large amount of time is so we can comfortably keep on top of everything without fail.

I have been part of courses in the past where we try to do '8 week courses' or similar, and I feel like just as we get to the good stuff, it's the end of the course. What I wanted to build is a course where we can grow over time and improve but also keep up, rather than feeling overwhelmed. So this course each term is spaced out very carefully so things aren't too overwhelming and we can put in the needed amount of time to really make our work look great. As well as do live reviews and see how we can improve our work and go back and make those changes. This has been a very critical part of the design of the course - to ensure we do have time, even with family, work and life commitments.

What I really love about this is a fully immersive training environment. In other words we not only have dozens of videos and additional training that we can go to, to keep up - but we also have live chat room, private Facebook group, private members only forums, as well as live webinars and other events where we are all able to interact with each other. The great part of this is being a part of it all isn't difficult, by having a fully immersive training environment, we don't need to be logged in watching videos to be a part of the experience and learn or ask others - we're making friends, networking and being a part of the experience with minimal work, which to me is the best way to learn fast and grow.

If you can spare at least 2 hours a week, you'll be able to make the most of this course. The more time you put in, the better, but a minimum of 2 hours every week is important. If you can't spare 2 hours each week, then I suggest maybe this course isn't right for you, or at least right now until you're able to free up a bit more time.

One thing I find is sometimes life happens, we all get there, and so we can fall back behind a little, but it's fairly easy to catch up again when our time frees up, so never feel stressed that you are behind if that is the case, just put in a bit of extra time and get back up to speed, we're all here to help each other, and that makes this environment really great for keeping on track is that we are all going at our own pace but we're all helping and motivating each other.


Live Action Series students - "I'm still going through LAS and wonder if I should do the FXTD Mentorship as well?"
So I have said to a lot of people that if you feel comfortable with where you're at with the course, go right ahead. I honestly believe a lot of what we cover in LAS we can also apply to FXTD too. so while we work on live action FX shots, we can introduce a lot of what we are doing inside of FXTDT.

However, if you are struggling to keep up with LAS currently, my suggestion is to wait out the mentorship, and just focus on LAS for now. I would rather you stay on top of the course, than take on too many things and then not get anywhere. So completing the LAS is much more important for now, before you move onto other things. However if you feel you're up for the challenge, I think this will be a powerful combination!

That being said, all of the technical areas of tool development, and the diversity of the course material inside of FXTD definitely will benefit you intensely.


What would you suggest is the best advice for doing the FXTD Mentorship course?
My best advice is to have an end goal. Whether it's to break into the industry, or to step up to supervisor level, or move into a different area of CG, break into freelance, secure a full-time job, set up your own studio or make your own film. Whatever your goal is - have a clear goal before you start so you know where you want to go with the course, and also I know what your goals are so I can help you the best with moving forward.
By having a goal and knowing where you are now, you can measure your success as you move forward and also know what direction or where to focus to really get there. Whether it's getting a new reel, or focusing on core areas you need to work on and better yourself, whatever these are - setting these goals now not only will make it clear to you and guide you throughout the course, but you, and all of us can look back afterwards at how much we've grown throughout this time and where we are at a year from now.

Think forward a year, do you want to be where you are right now, or where do you WANT to be?

Set a clear measurable and actionable goal, and let's get started.

If you are struggling to really come to terms with exactly where you want and need guidance. Talk to me, that's what I'm here for.


Will this course work for me if I'm not yet in the industry/still a student
I love that we do have a diverse group of people in the FXTDT Mentorship as well as in the Live Action Series - Some artists have worked for Blur, Atomic Fiction, DIGIC, Weta, I could go on and on. So we have a good seasoned team of artists and technical directors in the course, but there are also others who are just starting out. and the most common thing I LOVE hearing, is "I look back at where I was 3 months ago and how much I've grown even in that small amount of time" and "at the beginning it was exciting, and what makes me excited now is I really feel like 'i get it' I can see where you're heading as you talk through the lessons and it really clicks". This is why I feel by making such an immersive course, that is very ambitious and very advanced, but explained thoroughly enough, with such a supportive enthusiastic group as those already signed up for LAS, it's going to be straight forward for you to follow, even if you aren't yet in the industry, this is the course that will get you IN to the industry.

But in addition, this is why I offer a 15-day guarantee. Try the entire course, and if you don't love it, send an email, show me you've done the exercises, and get 100% refund. No catch, no tricks.


I'm looking for a new job will this help me?
Yes, by even half of the way through the FXTD Mentorship you will have an entire sequence of FX shots shot professionally shot on industry film equipment straight from any Hollywood film. Your shots will reflect completing a real sequence of visual effects shots using all of the latest techniques and approaches, demonstrating not only you can work on a visual effects shot, but you can take multiple shots through to final at the highest quality, as well as lighting and comping your shots and demonstrating many other skills.
You won't be just showing you can do FX, you'll literally be demonstrating every single step of what an entire VFX team does every single day in production.
"This course is for everyone fascinated with Visual FX!!!!
I am an architect by trade and I guess that's where I began with 3D modeling. I've done accident reconstruction visuals for civil lawsuits which is where I first learned about Allan. (trying to recreate a vehicle explosion) But now I'm an aspiring filmmaker who would like to add production value to my independent projects. There is no better way to do this, than to be able to add Visual FX.
If this course can teach a novice like myself how to script, learn particle simulation, as well as to create tools that will speed up your work 10x fold, then it can teach it to anyone determined to learn and with some basic knowledge of the modeling software (3DS max).
In essence, Allan clues you in on some of his magic settings and efficient workflows that will have you creating Visual FX in no time. All this while teaching you how to customize 3DS Max so that it behaves as if it was specifically programmed for your individual tasks.
Mind blowing, and amazing!!! It would take years and years to gather this knowledge all by yourself!!!
The best course I have ever taken and one that will position me ahead of 95% of the curve!"
Luis Sinbaldi
Legacy Entertainment
CERTIFICATION
Upon completion of this course you will receive a Certificate of Completion, representing that you have gone through the entire 12 months of training and what subjects were covered. This is something not all of us need, but can be important to some of us to have. Simply request the certificate at the end of the course for it to be sent out to you.
Reference Letters & 'The Whitelist'
During the mentorship, because of spending an entire 12 months working directly with Allan, it's not been uncommon for students to reach out and request a reference letter from Allan to attach to any job applications or positions students were applying for. Provided you HAVE been participating in the mentorship and showing up for reviews, Allan was always happy to write up an honest assessment of his experience with that particular student on his studios letterhead to pass on.
The same applies in the FXTD Mentorship 2018, provided you are participating and showing your work, communicating (ie. Allan knows who you are from showing up to reviews) Allan is more than happy to continue with this, and offer a letter of recommendation to students who request it.
More so, Allan has created a 'Whitelist' for students who do exceptionally well. These are the rockstars of the course who are demonstrating hard work and growth within the course. These students Allan will personally reach out to studios and recommend them, as he builds up his Whitelist of students of exceptional capability. When Allan is offered work he is too busy to do, this is the list he wants to be able to turn to to recommend artists directly to these studios.
Lifetime Access
When you sign up to the FXTD Mentorship, you gain access to the membership area FOR LIFE. That means that you'll always have access, nothing will ever expire. You'll be able to participate in the Forums, Private Facebook Group, have access to all of the videos and everything else FOREVER. Live Webinars may be a different story as there are limited seats when signing up for the course, and it would be unfair for people next year to sign up and not get enough attention because the same people have been going to the webinars exponentially for the past 5 years! :) But just keep in mind that you'll always have a home inside of the course, and one of the things I'm most proud of is the fact that there are so many of you that are students for life, that have been doing this training for the past 5-10 years as I put it out, and continue coming back time and time again. I love the dedication, and I love seeing all of your skill-sets grow each time.
I want it to be easy for you to get started
That’s why I’ve created a no-fee payment plan, in addition to my unbeatable money back guarantee.
The FXTD Mentorship normally costs $1497, and given your alternatives I think that’s a steal. But you don’t have to pay that to get started today.
Not only will you have twelve full months to complete the entire course — but you can get started for just $157. Then you’ll pay just $157 a month until completion (12 total payments).
And frankly, any one of the lessons could make you 10 times that before your second payment is due.
So you’ve got a decision to make. Are you going to go it alone, or worse, hand over thousands of dollars and the future of your career to a complete stranger? Or are you going to give yourself every advantage with a proven training experience that has helped tens of thousands of artists reach their dream career, salary and goals.
Let me know.
Just remember, FXTD Mentorship closes to new members soon. If you’re interested, you need to act now.
Over a 40+ week course! You will be mentored every week by Allan McKay on many advanced subjects, initially learning the ins and outs of MaxScript and how it can benefit you and your studio, but also how to think like an artist but view everything you do with this question "Can I automate it? Can I build a tool or make a pipeline around this process, to make my life easier, and how can I save time doing this by building a couple of tools to build around these typical tasks I need to do to give me total control?"


There is nothing else out there like this, you are welcome to look!
What makes this course so good is that you are being mentored by an 'Autodesk Max Master', Oscar nominated VFX Supervisor, who has been involved with movies such as Transformers 3, The Last Airbender, 2012, Superman Returns, Flight, Blade Trinity and upcoming Warcraft the movie and The Equalizer.
Sign up "TODAY" to secure your spot. TD Transformation sold out in under 2 weeks, and this time around there less than half the seats available as this is a much more hands on and interactive course designed to interact on a more personal level with all students! Seats will fill up fast, so get in before the course acceptance closes!
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
FINALLY! This course has a 30-Day money back guarantee. That means that anytime during the first 30 days of signing up, if you don't feel it's right for you, no problem. Shoot me an email and you'll be fully refunded. I take all the risk, so that you don't have to.

Quick note about the course
Here's the deal. I've been listening to what everyone has been asking for, And what I've learned from holding courses for over the past 10 years - what this course is - is a chance to have interactive sessions with myself, and work with other FX students who want to substantially ramp up their career and skills as well. Become accountable and push yourself further, gain a new ability you can use to better your career and gain both stability as well as position yourself in a way that you no doubt will have the upper-hand when applying for work at studios, as well as literally give you the keys to go out there and set new goals without any limitations you might have had before.

More so,this course is designed to do actual shots, one of the killer road blocks people experience is "must have feature film experience". Firstly, that's B.S. if you're good you're good, one of my closest friends is the director of animation at Weta, didn't have more than a year of feature film experience going there, if you're good you're good. But the reason that filter exists is because they ARE concerned if you can actually sit down and start knocking shots out.

By even a 3rd of the way through this course you'll have transformed the work you've done so far, and have completed feature film quality shots that you can put in the face of any hiring manager or supervisor and say "I can do this, here is proof" - I've discussed this with other supervisors recently which we all agreed if you can even show a single finished shot that shows you can do the work, without a doubt we would hire you. By being able to show consistently you've managed to do sequences of shots, at the highest level, and you not only did the FX but rendered, lit and comped it all BY YOURSELF, I'd be more concerned you're gunning for my job.

The course launches July 2nd, When you sign up for the course you will be supplied with a course schedule, which contains dates of each module's release, and our online get together live classes, and other upcoming events. Keep this with you, as in addition to all of the typical interactions, homework and reviews we will do, these will be the big fun sessions where we all get to hangout live and go over what we have done, Allan will answer questions and show you many cool ways to improve on your effects! This content is priceless!

With the July 2nd starting date.. this is your opportunity to secure your spot before anybody else,It's more than likely it will sell out before July 2nd, so seats are first come first served.

I look forward to seeing you in the class, and I look forward to frequent reviews with all of you as I push your work,your skills and really journey with you through the next 52+ weeks!

-Allan 
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For course questions, email Allan directly at amckay@allanmckay.com

For bulk signups (studios and schools), please contact amckay@allanmckay.com
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This course is really loaded with amazing stuff that been carefully chosen by my beloved mentor Allan who dedicated alot of his time to bring us this material. I learned some cool stuff and we are still just at the beginning so I'm expecting more to come.

The thing I like about his way of teaching is the blocking stage and how you plan your tool and breaking it up into steps and then you start scripting, once you are happy with the result you finish by building the interface. He teaches you how to think so you will build your own version of the tool.

I can't wait to see what will be next in this course.
MHD Alaa Alnahlawi
Technical Director
VFX Arabia

Kevin McCulough - CG Generalist
Freelance

After 11 years in the industry I decided to take a break and had a year off.
After deciding to get back into the industry I though what better way but to up skill and do some training. I've done a couple smaller course by Allan which I really enjoyed so this new FXTD course has super exceeded my expectations, I'm learning heaps, I've jumped into scripting which previously I have never done before and I also get to blow S%#t up, how cool is that!
I'm not even half way through the course but I have learn so much. Can't wait for the next module.

Mahmoud Hisham, Technical Director + Pipeline TD
Aroma Designs

Allan McKay is literally a great mentor, I am graduated from his Technical Director Transformation course and It was a BIG FAT PUSH in my career,
Now I am in his FX TD course and It's just amazing!

Paul Moolenaar - Senior VFX Animator + Compositor
ABC - Sydney

FXTD is quite simply the step you need to take in order to step up your game and become a valuable member of a production pipeline. It's important not just because you learn FX techniques like explosions, destruction, and so forth, but because you learn to work more efficiently through scripting. Ultimately your job will become much easier to do, and you will have more time to yourself -- or more time to do more work and earn more money, if you prefer.
Allan guides you through everything with tutorial videos that are easy to follow and filled with mind-blowing content. Even if you consider yourself a pro at this stuff, you will learn things with every module that render you speechless. And the live webinar sessions, in which the students get to speak to Allan while he reviews their work is invaluable in having a direct connection to figure out how best to improve your work. Plus, he falls over himself to be helpful wherever he can.

Tiago Castro, Senior VFX Artist
Pixmix

What a ride! Not only did I learned how to make the most real and photoreal visual effects, but also how to turn them into time efficient tools that I can use over and over to boost my productivity to the limit.

Now I know that becoming a FXTD is not just about creating stunning visual effects. You need the skills that will allow you to be productive and keep meeting expectations and deadline (and surpassing them), and with this course I get both the creative and the technical sides of visual effects.

A must have for anyone that (has Allan says) loves "blowing stuff up".

Isaac Turier - Director

"This course is hands down the best thing I have ever spent money on.
In the first two modules alone Allan clarified so much about maxscript and programming that I was easily able to write my own tools.
So much amazing content its insane. 
Thanks Allan EPIC COURSE"

Teemu Jyrkinen - Tech Artist
Joensuu Games

FX TDT course is AWESOME. I have never before done like this. In three months I can write my own scripts andboost up our pipeline in 3d /Fx production. I have applied course tips for Game industry and our team love it! I'm currently a Tech Artist in our company! Thanks Allan! 

Paul Moolenaar - Senior 3D Artist
Gray Puksand

Allan, I feel like I've learned more in 1 year from you than I have in the past 5 through everything else available combined. I am so grateful for receiving your time, instruction and patience through the courses, emails and podcasts and am working damn hard to apply the knowledge. Hope we can cross paths one day, grab that beer and have some fun.

Albert Alomar - TD Tools & FX
Blue Dream Studios Spain

There is no other course like this one. Here I'm learning not only how to make stunning FX but also how to design and configure them to be production firendly, making (coding!) specific tools that let you push the time/quality rate to maximum.

Mark Tanner - Manager, Art Lead
Motion Mogul, Progressive Gaming International

I have been working with 3DS Max for about 20 years, and I have tried to learn more about maxscript on several occasions with no success. This class has helped me get into maxscript and learn more about was is under the hood of Max. It is definitely a level up in my career.
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Allan McKay @ 2018 - The FXTD Mentorship