VFXPro recently ran an interview with Asylum's VFX Supervisor Nathan McGuinness about his work in the nominated Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He discusses the use of the miniature ships, the extensive use of real ocean elements and compositing work, the real sets and water tank, and a bit about ILM's involvement in the film.

The official Van Helsing movie site has also release a documentary on the making of the film. The featurette contains a vast array of new VFX shots and some concept art, and behind the scenes work including the stunt and wire work and even a bit of the bluescreen.

Millimeter magazine is running an article on the cinematography and finishing of Peter Pan. ILM VFX Supervisor Scott Farrar and CG Supervisors Kevin Barnhill and Steve Braggs discuss transforming Ludivine Sagnier into Tinkerbell, the clouds and the extensive matte painting work using Zenviro. The involvement of EFilm and R!ot is also discussed.

VFXWorld.com recently published an article detailing the VFX work on Peter Pan, including comments by VFX Supervisor Scott Farrar and the involvement of Digital Domain, Imageworks and R!ot.

The latest Cinefex is hitting newsstands with double coverage of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, one about the production and an interview with director Peter Jackson. The issue also covers 2 ILM projects, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Peter Pan. In addition Cinefex is preparing to launch a weekly online newsletter in late January, and a sample issue includes coverage of how Tinkebell on Peter Pan was accomplished by ILM.

Millimeter magazine recently ran an article detailing the concept art work for the Star Wars saga, from the first renderings by Ralph McQuarrie on the original Star Wars to the work in progress for Episode III. The article is based on the talk McQuarrie and Doug Chiang gave at the Academy of Art College after getting their honorary degrees and interviews with Ryan Church and Erik Tiemens.

VFXWorld.com is running an article on the VFX work of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. It includes comments on the different techniques and sequences by VFX Supervisors Nathan McGuinness (of Asylum) and Stefen Fangmeier (of ILM) and VFX Producer Brooke Breton.

VFXWorld.com is running an extensive article with Dan Gregoire, Previsualization Supervisor for the Star Wars prequels, about the history and process of the previz work on the two films. He also discusses how it relates to the subsequent work done at ILM.

The official Star Wars website posted a question to VFX Supervisor John Knoll as to where the shaak model was used in the asteroid field of Episode II.

VFXPro.com just posted an interview with ILM Animation Supervisor Hal Hickel about the VFX work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In it Hal Hickel discusses the design work, tight schedules, skin and cloth development, mocap and keyframe animation, Viewpainting and the miniature ships.

TheMovieBox.net has posted online the behind the scenes segment on Peter Pan that ran on Entertainment Tonight. In it you can see the extensive wire work and bluescreen work involved. The film, which opens December 25, 2003 and is directed by P.J. Hogan, has the VFX supervised by Scott Farrar while Jenn Emberly is in charge of the animation.

The August issue of Millimeter magazine contains two interesting articles. The first covers the VFX work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, with James Tooley, Cloth Simulation Supervisor, explaining how the clothing and flesh were simulated on the film using tools like Maya, Cari and Zeno. The second article describes how Universal assigns shows to different VFX facilities. In it Senior VP of Production Technology at the studio John Swallow explains the considerations for awarding the work, including giving ILM the Hulk and how he connected director Ang Lee with Senior VFX Supervisor Dennis Muren. Lucas Digital President Jim Morris also comments on the process, the Hulk and working with Swallow. Work on Bruce Almighty and 2 Fast 2 Furious by the like of Illusion Arts and Hammerhead is also discussed.

VFXPro.com is running an article on the making of the Hulk. CG Supervisor Chris Townsend himself narrates the lengthy piece which intricately details how the Berkeley lab destruction by the Hulk was done.

The July issue of Post magazine has their second article on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. This time the CG doubles and stuntwork are covered as well as the car chase involving the huge crane.

The August issue of American Cinematographer Magazine is covering the work on both Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. There is even extra online coverage of T3.

Issue 41 of 3D World magazine provides a lot of great info regarding the work on the Hulk and also includes articles on some of the top names in VFX and CG.

A few weeks ago, cable channel TechTV presented two behind the scenes programs on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. VFX Supervisor Pablo Helman, Associate VFX Supervisor Samir Hoon, Animation Director Dan Taylor, CG Supervisor David Meny and Chief Modelmaker Brian Gernard were featured in the T3 piece, while Animation Direcor Hal Hickel was interviewed on the ScreenSavers.

At the ILMfan.com forums we were lucky enough to get some insights into the making of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, with VFX supervised by John Knoll and animation supervised by Hal Hickel. Both the CG skeletons and the miniature boats are discussed.

Film and Video magazine has posted an article on the Hulk detailing how the climatic battle at Pear Lake was achieved. Associate VFX Supervisor Ed Hirsh, CG supervisor Gerald Gutschmidt, VFX DP Marty Rosenberg and match mover Mike Sanders explain how techniques like miniatures, photographic reference, US geological data and virtual environments, and software like Mental Ray, PRMan, Maya, Zeno, CompTime, Viewpaint, Retimer and Photoshop were used to achieve the sequence.

Millimeter magazine has posted an article on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines specifically describing how the shots of mimetic polyalloy skin of the T-X being pulled by a magnet were achieved. VFX Supervisor Pablo Helman and Associate VFX Supervisor Samir Hoon, describe how the effect was achieved with particle level sets, via a collaboration of ILM R&D department and the CG group at Stanford headed by Ron Fedkiw.