![]() The original film was around 70-75% computer generated but for this sequel that percentage is said to be 90%. Using performance-capture stages in Los Angeles, in September 2017, Cameron began directing his actors before any live-action scenes were shot, capturing as many as 23 members of the cast simultaneously for particular sequences. We were very focused on creating an actor-director-centric process." It was those two working together to create more captivating characters on the screen. "That was an approach that involved a lot of people. "We wanted to capture more nuanced, high-fidelity performances, to realise them in even greater photo-reality than we did on the first movie," says Landau. By putting the actors in performance-capture suits featuring reflective markers, as well as attaching a head camera rig to them, the VFX artists were able to intricately track how muscle, hair and skin moves in real time so that they could be mapped on to their virtual characters.įor Avatar: The Way of Water, major advancements – such as the use of more facial cameras to capture the actors' expressions and an increased number of polygons for the method of texture mapping on to a computer-generated shape – allowed for even more infinitesimal details of the actors' performances to come through in their digital avatars in close-ups, both on land and in the water. For Avatar, Wētā used their FACET system to capture distinct details of the actors' faces – from Zoe Saldaña as native Na'vi warrior Neytiri to Sam Worthington's marine Jake Sully and Sigourney Weaver's xenobotanist Grace – when in their Na'vi avatars (genetically engineered Na'vi bodies that human consciousness can inhabit, in order to interact with Pandorans and survive the atmosphere). "In 2010, after the movie came out, we held a retreat where we brought in our department heads, and said, 'If we're crazy enough to want to make a sequel or sequels, what are the things that we need to improve upon in our process that allows us to create an even better, immersive cinematic experience for audiences?'" Landau tells BBC Culture.įirst on the agenda was the facial performances. ![]() ![]() And, according to Jon Landau, Cameron's producing partner on the Avatar franchise – as well as on Titanic and Alita: Battle Angel – the course of this instalment was charted shortly after the original film's release. It's once again a photorealistic game changer, with awe-inspiring CGI feats to put the superhero movie industrial complex to shame. Thirteen years later, Cameron, his production company Lightstorm Entertainment and Wētā have returned audiences to the world of Pandora with Avatar: The Way of Water, the first of four planned sequels in the franchise. ![]() "Cameron had set his sights on taking the technology of film where no one had gone before. "Avatar is a joyous celebration of story craft and the visual possibilities of cinema," Anne Thompson wrote in a review for IndieWire. But visually, critics and audiences across the globe lauded the innovative world-building of jungle-covered moon Pandora and the new VFX realms Cameron and WētāFX (the digital effects company founded by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson) took cinema goers to. Narratively, the story might best be described as a rehash of the 1992 Australian animated feature FernGully: The Last Rainforest a white male saviour similarly teams up with the indigenous inhabitants of a lush ecosystem of flora and fauna to fight back against colonial industrialisation. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time thanks to a re-release in 20 to push its cumulative box-office total to $2.85 billion. "James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is… James Cameron."Ģ009's Avatar was considered the pinnacle of his filmmaking prowess. "James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron," a fictionalised, cartoon version of the director says after completing a deep-sea mission that sees him literally raise the bar for society. An industry behemoth, the Canadian filmmaker has been celebrated so much for raising the bar for cinematic endeavours – as with The Terminator, The Abyss and Titanic – that South Park parodied him in a 2012 episode. James Cameron has long been considered a pioneer of cinema.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |