Digital Matte Painter Mathieu Raynault, who has worked at ILM, Imageworks, ESC, The Orphanage and Weta Digital on such projects as the Lord of the Rings and Matrix sequels, Star Wars Episode II, Gangs of New York, The Day After Tomorrow and Stuart Little 2, recently launched his website to showcase some of his work.

Anthony Shafer, a TD at ILM whose credits include Hulk and the Star Wars prequels, sponsored the University of the Pacific's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) project for the Boeing Team Tech Competition. The winning project, called pan2mime, is a movie pre-viz tool.

Maverix Studios, a group of diverese and talented artists, continue to organize online auctions to help the Tsunami relief effort. Currently up for auction are pieces by ILM concept artists and directors Aaron McBride, Alex Jaeger and Erik Dillinger.

VFXBlog conducted an interview with Marc Ostroff, founder, President and Lead Consultant of Chasm VFX Consulting. He worked as production accountant at ILM during the production of Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones. He discusses his stint at ILM and what his job as VFX consultant entails.

The Hollywood Reporter has posted articles about the VFX work in Fran Miller's Sin City, which includes comments from former ILM member and The Orphanage (which handled a third of the shots) Stu Maschwitz.

Actor and performer Gerald Home recently opened his personal website. He worked on Return of the Jedi playing the role of Jabba henchman "Squid Head" and a Mon Calamari officer.

Ballistic Publishing has just announced two new entries in its D'artiste series of books, one which will focus on Matte Paintings. One of the authors will be Chris Stoski, who worked at ILM on Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith, along with Dylan Cole and Alp Altiner.

Recently the Gnomon Workshop released a set of 4 tutorial DVDs by concept artist Iain McCaig about visual storytelling techniques. Iain McCaig is a lead concept artist at ILM and JAK Films and has worked on such projects as the Star Wars prequels.

VFXBlog recently conducted an interview with Jonathan Rothbart, cofounder of The Orphanage, on their work on The Day After Tomorrow. Before forming The Orphanage he worked on the Rebel Unit at ILM on such projects as Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace.

VFXWorld recently had an article about the late Robert Abel, who was recently recognized at the VES Awards because of his contributions to the field of Computer Graphics and VFX, including the pioneering work on Tron. Many of his alumni went on to establish the modern VFX industry including ILM (current and former) members Richard Edlund, Scott Farrar and Kevin Rafferty, Bill Kovacs cofounder of Wavefront, John Hughes, Keith Goldfarb and Pauline T'So cofounders of Rhythm and Hues, Richard Hollander cofounder of VIFX, John Nelson, Tim McGovern and many more.

VFXWorld is reporting that Jim Morris, who was president of Lucas Digital until December 2004, has just joined Pixar where he will serve as producer for an upcoming animated film.

VFXBlog.com has posted an interview with former ILM matte painter, currently at Tippett Studio, Kent Matheson. He has worked on such projects as Men In Black II, The Mummy Returns, Star Wars Episode II, The Matrix Revolutions, and the soon to be released Son of the Mask.

CGChannel is running an interview with Doug Chiang, Production Designer, and Alberto Menache, Digital Effects Supervisor, on their work on the Polar Express.

The National Review Online interviewed Craig Good, one of the founders of Pixar. In it he discusses how Pixar makes films, the Lucasfilm CG Group days and The Incredibles.

Animation World Magazine has an interview with stop motion master Henry Selick. In it he discusses working with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and mentions the work done at the ILM stages.

VFXBlog.com conducted an interview with Eric Chauvin, former ILM matte painter and founder of BlackPool Studios, on his work on Blade: Trinity.

The Freedom-of-Teach website recently made available an instructional DVD titled Organic Modeling I: Human Anatomy Male, by digital modeler Tareq Mirza who has worked at ILM and ESC.

KongisKing.net has posted a brand new production diary on Peter Jackson upcoming remake. This installment deal with the recreation of old New York City via sets and digital means. Former ILM artists Chris White explains how the CG version is being accomplished.

VFXBlog.com has an interview with digital modeler and painter Bradford deCaussin of Tippett Studio, who also worked at ILM and Weta Digital on such projects as Van Helsing, The Lord of the Rings sequels, and is working on the upcoming Son of the Mask.

VFXWorld is reporting that Debbie Denise has been promoted as Executive VP of Production Infrastructure and Executive Producer at Imageworks. Previously she was a VFX Producer at ILM, where she worked on such projects as Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump, and joined Imageworks in 1995 along with Ken Ralston.