Ian Ruhfass, a lead 3D Artist at A52/Elastic, popped over to Reddit to share the fact that he’s worked on the Emmy-winning title sequence, and that he’s been working on the title sequence for season 2. He’s coy with details, but yes, there’ll be some new locations featured in the title this season… and one of them sure sounds like it’ll be Harrenhal, which is to be expected.

He goes on to discuss his work more generally, and offers some good advice for budding 3D artists. Well worth checking out.

Thanks to HBO getting the Art Direction video up on Youtube the day after it was released on HBO.com, we have screenshots of notable bits, with commentary on details.

Featuring the most extensive glimpses we’ve had of Qarth and Harrenhal to date, the screenshots begin here, with what’s also the most spoilery image in the whole thing. Tread carefully!

Another day, another guild award nomination! This time, according to Deadline Hollywood, the Costumer Designers Guild has announced its nominees, and Game of Thrones‘s Michele Clapton is included in the Outstanding Period/Fantasy Television category. We suspect there’ll be stiff competition from Showtime’s The Borgias (costumes by Gabriella Pescucci) and fellow HBO show Boardwalk Empire (John A. Dunn, Lisa Padovani), to say the least.

HBO’s gone ahead and released another video, first via the HBO app for iOS and Android, and that so shortly after the Croatia video hit the air. This one, focused on art direction, gives us some of our best looks at sets such as Harrenhal, Qarth, and Craster’s Keep. There’s a couple of seconds of kind of spoilerish material, as well, so if you haven’t read A Clash of Kings, you may not want to watch.

Screencaps and the usual commentary when the video hits the official Game of Thrones channel and we can get a hold of 720p images.

Some new photos from the filming in Iceland in November and December have turned up, courtesy of the Location Guide—a site specializing in covering and promoting foreign locations for film and television purposes—and Pegaus Productions, the local production company that faciliated the filming.

Among the notable production details: 200 crew and 15 horses, minimal need for building anything, and snowfall was needed to minimize costs (a lack of snow would have meant they’d have to film on the glacier itself, which would take longer and be more expensive, and would also have revealed ash from a recent volcanic eruption).

We should note that at least one of the images is potentially a spoiler if you’ve not read A Clash of Kings, so if you don’t want to be spoiled… well, don’t look!

Yesterday, we shared a (very spoilery) interview with actor Tom Wlaschiha, a new addition to the series who’ll be playing the role of the mysterious Jaqen H’ghar. Well… he’s supposed to be mysterious, but Wlaschiha really does reveal quite a lot about the character, so if you’re unfamiliar with A Clash of Kings, don’t read it!

Next up, Nonso Anozie—the actor cast in the role of Xaro Xhoan Daxos, who plays a central role in Daenerys’s season 2 storyline—is caught at the red carpet for his latest film, The Grey, and speaks about his role a bit in a rather less spoilery way.

According to Ireland’s RTE, the Irish Film & Television Awards nominees have been announced, and HBO’s Game of Thrones—predominantly shot in Northern Ireland last year—has scored five nominations. The awards are given to Irish-born, Irish citizens, or full-time Irish residents. Here’s the list:

• Best Drama: Game of Thrones (Mark Huffam & Generator Entertainment)
• Director, Television Drama: Brian Kirk (directed “Lord Snow”, “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”, and “The Wolf and the Lion”)
• Actress in a Lead Television Role : Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark)
• Actor in a Supporting Television Role: Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger; Gillen is also nominated in a lead role for Love/Hate)
• Sound: Ronan Hill & Sound Post Production Team (Generator Entertainment)

The awards will be presented on February 12 in Dublin.

After our reporting on the Visual Effects Society nominations for Game of Thrones, we were reminded of the fact that BlueBolt were not going to be lead VFX vendors for the show this season, per our interview with Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor. So, who had stepped up to do the job?

Some Googling reveals that the information has been out there, but it seems none of the fan sites noticed: Pixomondo, “an international visual effects company with a global network of studios in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Beijing and most recently Toronto,” has landed the job.

The list of awards shows that have placed HBO’s Game of Thrones on their short list is as long as my arm at this point. But here’s one more: the Visual Effects Society announced the nominees for their awards, and in the broadcast categories the show did quite well, pulling in three nominations; the leading show was sibling Boardwalk Empire, with four.

Here’s the categories in which it’s nominated:

Just as with the early look at Loras Tyrell’s armor last season, this video has to be one of my favorite’s so far, focusing as it does on Simon Brindle’s armor design for HBO’s Game of Thrones. Here’s the video:

Today, two columnists for the UK’s The Guardian newspaper have named HBO’s A Game of Thrones among 2011’s best dramas (as well they should)... but it was a third article referencing A Game of Thrones that caught our attention.

Irish correspondent Henry McDonald writes that the Northern Irish film industry is “booming”, and that it’s fuelled predominantly by HBO’s series choosing to film there. It’s an interesting look at the industry side of things, and some impressive numbers are thrown around.

And then, at the end, this:

This past Saturday, HBO snuck out a brand new behind the scenes video that, so far, has been exclusive to HBO and HBO On Demand. However, it’s wormed its way out there to the Internet, and we thought we’d share it with fans. Lots of neat bits—including our most extensive glimpses of Brienne of Tarth, Melisandre of Asshai, and Stannis Baratheon, three of the primary characters added to this season (don’t worry, there’s a bit of Davos as well!)

We’ve already captured key images for our Behind the Scenes gallery, starting here with this image of Audley’s Castle which serves as the location of Robb Stark’s war camp. As usual, we identify characters and locations, and discuss various details that may be of interest.

We should note that, technically, some of these shots might be considered spoilers—so if you really don’t want to know anything about what’s going to be happening next season, best skip it.

Ahead of tonight’s Game of Thrones teaser, the Making Game of Thrones official production site has a new interview with a member of the crew. This time, it’s on-set VFX co-ordinator Niall McEvoy, who worked on the first season of the show as well as this second season (which is due to wrap filming today—the last footage is being shot in Iceland at this very moment).

The latest Making Game of Thrones update is out, and it’s a good one, as we see stunt supervisor Paul Herbert discuss the fight scene coordination for this season. Some great shots… including a glimpse of Brienne of Tarth in action! See below for the video:

Thanks to IngvarSk68, fans have been turned on to the fact that Icelandic television station Rúv has a long piece  featuring Game of Thrones (roughly 9 minutes long), and it’s a treasure trove of little details. But the one most fans will go crazy for? The fact that Rose Leslie is seen in costume in the role of Ygritte at the 7:10 mark or so (UPDATE: The video has been put back online… but with the closest shots of Leslie removed, which makes us think that HBO didn’t like that being aired at requested RUV edit it out)! For those who’ve not read the novels, the glimpse may be slightly spoliersh, so beware.

The quality is not of the best, alas, but it gives a sense of things, in any case.