Smoke & Mirrors New York (SMNY) moved into the animation realm with ‘Dinosaur’, a Denver Museum of Nature & Science spot featuring a playful brontosaurus skating around a frozen pond. fxguide talked to key SMNY artists Sean Broughton (Director/CD/Editor), Mike Donovan (Lead Sr. CG Artist), Steve Parish (Lead Sr. CG Artist/Lighting/Live Action Director) and Nic Seresin (Sr. Flame Artist) about the work.

Imageworks visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk gives Ian Failes a run down of his work for G-Force, a Hoyt Yeatman-directed feature about an elite troupe of guinea pigs who must save the world from an evil billionaire.

The new UK Shell Campaign uses a truly beautiful technical painterly technique. Key artists from Stardust Studios tell fxguide about the painterly ‘Get the most out of every drop’ spots created for Shell in conjunction with JWT London.

Day three – HDR Cine cameras, Renderman, GPU. Sphereon launched the hdrv camera at Siggraph. A new cine or video camera capable of filming HD footage with 20 stops of latitude making it the first serious HDR video camera. Also, Pixar had their Renderman User Group Meeting and Nvida proved that GPU capabilities are continuing to climb in creative and technical depth.

Day 2 meant the start of the exhibition and the job fair. Highlights included a killer ILM series of lectures showcasing their work on several major blockbuster films, anyone of which would have been enough for most studios. Siggraph is a great place to connect with the who’s who of the industry during the day and enjoy the parties each night – such as fxguide/fxphd’s gathering of the faithful at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar.

Day one: Siggraph got off to a good start in a city that is both extremely hot and welcoming. The trade show floor does not open until Tuesday, so the first day was all about the talks, with some brilliant presentations. Day One also saw a flood of press releases and the odd user group meeting.

fxguide talks to Rainmaker Entertainment’s Shea Wageman about the storytelling behind the cinematic game trailer for Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Life is hard, but it can work out in the end. That seems to be the basic theme behind ‘Caterpillar,’ a spot for Swedish pension company AMF featuring CG animation and visual effects by The Mill LA. fxguide looks at how The Mill enabled a hero caterpillar to meet his love, lose his love and then transform into a beautiful butterfly.

Duncan Jones’ Moon is the story of Sam Bell, the lone occupant of a lunar mining base who discovers not all is what it seems away from Earth. Cinesite contributed more than 270 visual effects shots to the film, incorporating miniatures into a lunar landscape, creating a CG service robot called Gerty and producing several split-screen composites for shots of Sam interacting with a clone of himself. Cinesite Visual Effects Supervisor Simon Stanley-C

In Land of the Lost, a Brad Silberling film starring Will Ferrell as an alternate world explorer, Rhythm & Hues created hundreds of visual effects shots to depict a universe populated by dinosaurs and other creatures. Ian Failes talks to visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer about the project.

For Imagine That, director Karey Kirkpatrick called on Hammerhead Productions to provide 140 invisible effects shots to help tell the story of a troubled financial executive (Eddie Murphy) who turns to his daughter’s imaginary world for some much needed guidance.

For “Pheasant Rodeo,” a commercial for Britvic’s Drench Spring Water, agency CHI tasked The Mill with saddling up a cowboy on a giant bird. Ian Failes gets the feathery details from Lead 3D artist Rob van den Bragt and Flame Op Jonathan Westley.

eyeon made the release candidate of long-awaited Fusion 6 available to their subscription customers this week. In this special guest column, fxphd prof Matt Leonard walks us through the major new features in the software which include some serious enhancements to its 3D capabilities. Leonard is a long time Fusion user and spent time on the software’s beta program.

Framestore NY combined live action, 3D characters and real soft drink for ‘Penguin,’ a Pepsi TVC for BBDO New York. Ian Failes talks with Andy Walker (VFX supervisor/CG lead), Murray Butler (VFX supervisor/Flame lead) and Seth Gollub (lead animator) about the spot.

We are hearing that one of the oldest companies in our business Pacific Title & Art Studio, formed in 1919, is heading to receivership. We share what we know so far and ask “what is the future of our industry?”.

Today GenArts signed an agreement with Lucasfilm covering Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation, and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore to have GenArts software as standard across all their compositing packages and to work together moving forward.

Rhythm & Hues visual effects supervisor Raymond Chen discusses his studio’s vast visual effects work for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (outside the USA: Night at the Museum 2), with fxguide’s Ian Failes.

The new “Where amazing happens” spots feature famous NBA playoff moments starring Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Dr. J, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal. Empty stadiums are gradually filled (and emptied) with players and spectators as the iconic moments play out, Ian Failes speaks to Brickyard VFX about the task of working with such iconic clips.

Fast & Furious (4), directed by Justin Lin, had the biggest box office opening of the year when it was released in early April (now eclipsed by Wolverine and Stark Trek). Double Negative’s effects team built three tunnels different tunnels for chases in the film. Ian Failes talks with them and also Rhythm & Hues’ Bob Mercier about R&H’s contribution and the opening exploding petrol tanker sequence.

Wolverine is the 4th of the X-Men films or the first of the spin off Origins series, depending on your point of view. We have a look behind the scenes of this film, talking to artists from Rising Sun Pictures, Luma Pictures and Hatch Productions as well as exclusive crew shots from on-set.

Ian Failes returns to fxguide and in this his first new interview he speaks with co-visual effects supervisors Chad Wiebe and Mike Shand of Frantic films about the lava lake and final battle sequences in the new Dragonball: Evolution.

The Red Dwarf: Back to Earth mini-series recently debuted on the UK Dave Channel to a record 2.6 million viewers, almost triple the channels previous highest ratings, placing it as the highest-rated commissioned show on a digital network ever. This week we speak to one of our own as John Montgomery interviews Mike Seymour on fxphd’s involvement with this classic and beloved Sci-fi comedy.