Avatar is nominated for 4 Golden Globe (…so far). Avatar passed the  1 billion mark in worldwide gross in only 17 day. The Budget for Avatar was $280,000,000 (estimated). Quite a nice payback.

James Cameron’s Vision Featurette:

Samson Featurette: How it was developed and designed:

Concept Artist, Neville Page, discusses the design of the Banshee, one of Pandora’s fearsome creatures.

Ty Ruben Ellingson discusses his design concept for the AMP suit used in James Cameron’s epic new film, Avatar

A look at the world of Pandora, as portrayed in James Cameron’s epic new motion picture, Avatar:

Jon Landau, Producer of “Avatar” talks a bit about how Adobe software was used throughout the production of Avatar. Jon talks about PhotoShop, InDesign, Lightroom, After Effects (which was used on the set), Premiere Pro.

The Avatar Trailer if you did not see the movie yet:

Official Avatar Movie

Nocturne is a video shot using two pre-release Canon EOS 1D Mark IV DSLRs in Los Angeles. Nocturne is shot entirely in available ligh. To read Vincent Laforet’s comments on the making of Nocturne, please visit blog.vincentlaforet.com. Nocture is co-directored by Stu Maschwitz and David Nelson. Canon lenses used for the film Nocturne: EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II , EF 24-70mm f/2.8L , EF 24mm f/1.4L II , EF 50mm f/1.2L , EF 85mm f/1.2L II , EF 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro, EF 200mm f/2.0L IS, EF 300mm f/2.8L IS, EF 500mm f/4.0L IS

Click here to get more information or buy the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV at amazon.com.

Stargate Studios demo reel showing what you can do with Green Screen (or Chroma key). Stargate has studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver with over 150 artists, supervisors, and producers covering all areas of digital production and visual effects.  Stargate Studios provides a turnkey solution to high concept film and television production and is the only independent entity which blends all the available production technologies into one fully integrated, high tech production and editorial service.

See also:

• How to build a mobile green/blue screen
• Building a Chroma Key on a low budget (Google Knol)
• How Blue Screens Work

According to Andrew Kramer the Optical Flares videocopilot.net new lens flare plug-in will be available January 25 2010.

Optical Flares is according to videocopilot.net  capable of building amazing 3D lens flare presets with precise and realistic qualities. The lens flare   presets are supposed to be shared online?

Planned features of Optical Flares lens flare plug-in:

• Auto-position of lens flares
• Real-Time lens flare with with preview of the different lens flares
• Dynamic lens flares
• Possibility to manage lens flare attributes like dust, chromatic aberration and aspect ratios
• Share lens flares with others on videocopilot.net

Join Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes in a deep dive into the hidden gems of Photoshop CS4. He’ll also reveal many new technologies released since Photoshop CS4, including the Digital Negative (DNG) Profile Editor and more.