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.

In Legion, now out on DVD, the future of mankind rests with the Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) fighting against God’s angels of fury. Former effects artist turned director, Scott Stewart, looked to SPIN VFX to help realise 260 shots of digital angel wings, digi-doubles, set extensions and environments. We talk to SPIN visual effects supervisor Jeff Campbell about his work for the film.

For Robin Hood, director Ridley Scott’s take on the classic tale, MPC created hundreds of visual effects of medieval castles, an invading French armada, CG troops and many, many arrows. We talk to MPC visual effects supervisor Richard Stammers about his work for the film.

For Beneath Hill 60, the story of a secret group of Australian tunnelers recruited to Germany in the First World War, Cutting Edge completed 120 visual effects shots ranging from matte paintings, smoke and rain enhancements to fully digital explosions. We talk to visual effects supervisor Ron Roberts about the film.

For ‘Ashes to Ashes’, a trailer for Epic Games’ 2011 Xbox 360 release Gears of War 3, Digital Domain utilised Unreal Engine to give a cinematic glimpse of some of the game’s characters and plotlines. Director Vernon R. Wilbert Jr., also the trailer’s visual effects supervisor, talks to fxguide about how it was realised.

Giant scorpiochs, a winged horse, the evil Medusa, effervescent characters, digital cities and an enormous Kraken are just some of the visual effects realised in director Louis Leterrier’s remake of Clash of the Titans. We hone in one some of the main effects work by Cinesite, Framestore and MPC.

For Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, the sequel to 2005’s Nanny McPhee, director Susanna White brought Framestore on board as the sole visual effects provider. While completing a number of magical effects, the studio also delivered extensive character animation of pigs, an elephant and a jackdaw bird. In this interview we talk to Framestore visual effects supervisor Christian Manz about his work for the film.

Today Adobe unveiled CS5 – there are multiple applications in CS5, but for many Photoshop and After Effects are the most vital. In fxguidetv later this week we will profile the new AE, while in this article we take a critical look at Photoshop’s HDR and Content Aware functions. Plus we’ll explain and list the JDI fixes.