Siggraph starts fully today Monday in LA. Avatar dominates the production sessions, but Siggraph delivered as usual with a stunning array of technical papers and creative sessions. In addition to the Avatar highlights, the Computational Photography session provided a timely insight into the cutting edge of photography. The parties also hit with the huge Foundry User party, the Mental Images User group, and will continue into the night.

For The Last Airbender, director M. Night Shyamalan turned to Industrial Light & Magic to create dynamic fighting scenes featuring elemental manipulation, as well as complex creatures and environments for the film. VFX supe Pablo Helman and associate VFX supervisor Craig Hammack take us through some of ILM’s main technical challenges.

America: The Story of Us is one of the History Channel’s most popular series, telling the story of how the United States was invented. To help showcase many years of history in only a 12 part series, Jellyfish Pictures realised several sweeping ‘transition’ shots to link stories together. We talk to Jellyfish creative director Phil Dobree and visual effects supervisor Hasraf Dulull.

Director Joe Carnahan’s re-imagining of the popular 1980s TV series The A-Team sees the renegade soldiers taking on a more modern mission. Overall visual effects supervisor James E. Price looked to both practical and digital means to achieve the characteristically crazy and high action stunts made famous by the series. We drill down on some of the major FX sequences from the film.

For a sneak peak of the not-yet-released Lexus CT 200h, director James Brown created an interactive adventure called ‘Dark Ride’. With the help of visual effects from Speedshape, users take on the role of the accomplice to Lexus driver Tony and must get the secret car – unscathed – from the Nevada desert to Los Angeles. We talk to Speedshape vfx supe Connor Meechan about his studio’s CG car work.

Director Tom Dey called on several FX shops for Marmaduke, the story of a loveable Great Dane who moves to Orange County with his unsuspecting family. Under overall VFX supe Craig Lyn, artists brought to life several talking animals mostly via CG face replacements, although some key scenes featured an all-digital title character. We take a look at the work by Cinesite, CIS Vancouver and Rhythm & Hues.

fxguide spoke to Franck Lambertz, Visual Effects Supervisor and Lead Flame artist at MPC LA, about their work on Washington’s Lottery spot. The Mini Market Musical final piece is both theatrical and engaging and literally turns the world upside down.

In ‘Secret Training Camp’, a commercial for Australian telco Optus released to coincide with the 2010 World Cup, the nation’s soccer team takes on a group of African animals under the cover of darkness. Paranoid US Director Thierry Poiraud turned to Paris studio BUF to combine real players with real (and sometimes CG) animals for the spot.

In ‘Write the Future’, a World Cup themed 3-minute long Nike spot, director Alejandro González Iñárritu called on The Mill to produce 236 VFX shots featuring a CG stadium, Massive crowds and other effects, as a bunch of famous football and sporting stars do their thing. We talk to The Mill’s 3D lead Tom Bussell.

For Breaking Bad, the TV series currently airing on AMC, Entity FX was tasked with some crucial VFX shots to help tell the story of high school teacher Walter White as he slowly descends into a suburban drug culture. We talk to VFX supe Mat Beck about the creation of a digital fly which torments Walter in one of the episodes.

Montreal-based Oblique FX completed 140 visual effects shots for the two-part miniseries Ben Hur, featuring a naval sea battle, matte paintings of Jerusalem and other set extensions. We talk to Oblique visual effects supervisor Pierre-Simon Lebrun-Chaput about the work.

The ever-mysterious television series Lost recently came to an end after six seasons. For the show’s last season, LOOK Effects was brought on to complete more than 1000 shots over 18 episodes, 350 of them in the finale. We talk to visual effects supervisor Adam Avitabile about some of the key sequences.

To coincide with the release of Assassin’s Creed II, Ubisoft called on Hybride to create 3 short films as a preamble to the game. In the films, assassin Giovanni Auditore is tasked with investigating the murder of the Duke of Milan in 1476, a role that takes him to Florence, Milan, Venice and the Vatican. We speak to Hybride president Pierre Raymond about completing 750 vfx shots for the films.

Director Sylvain White’s comic adaptation of The Losers tells the story of a vigilante CIA black ops team hell-bent on uncovering a double-crossing plot against them. Under the overall vfx sup. of Richard Yuricich, Image Engine completed 147 shots for the film featuring no less than planes, buses, bullets & explosions. We talk to Image Engine visual effects supervisor Simon Hughes & visual effects producer Steve Garrad.