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.

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.

Avatar won Best single visual effect of the year at the VES for the Neytiri “leaf drinking shot” – central to that was the new Naiad fluid tool. Exotic Matter’s Naiad is an extremely powerful fluid tool that is about to go into Beta following extensive development from its use on Avatar.

Cinesite visual effects supervisor Matt Johnson takes us through the invisible effects of Anand Tucker’s Leap Year, a film in which Amy Adams plans to propose to her boyfriend in Dublin on leap day – Feburary 29th.

For Orphan, overall visual effects supervisor Richard Yuricich called on Image Engine to realise several sequences in the film, including a burning children’s tree house set alight by a seemingly evil girl with her adopted brother still inside. Image Engine visual effects supervisor Robin Hackl and visual effects producer Steve Garrad discuss their work with fxguide.