Avatar: The Game Changer
"This was a total revolution in that these environments of Pandora could speak to him in the moment and changed how he actually shot a scene, " boasts Rob Powers, who first served as animation TD before becoming virtual art department supervisor. "So final scenes in the movie were affected and changed because he was able to live and explore things as if he were really in the jungle. He could place characters where it was the best place to put them because it existed. It wasn't something where he would just shoot them bare and then, later on, Weta would create something from that. He was in the environment and those key creative decisions that previously would've been done by animators and visual effects houses at a later point --and who knows how many hands would've touched it at a later point -- were done by Jim Cameron himself. He didn't have to rely on other processes to complete the vision.
"The fascinating thing is, if that realtime environment had not been there for him to explore and shoot in, the film would have been immensely different because it was a process that is timeless -- it is the filmmaking process in its essence that he was able to tap into. This has not been the case ever before with these heavy visual effects films. And there's been no film like Avatar to this degree. It's definitely changed the art of digital filmmaking, and especially visual effects, which are increasingly part of our movies. It's never going to be the same because once people grasp what Avatar represents-- and the majority of the industry is still struggling with what this new paradigm shift is -- they'll understand how Jim's vision propelled the process and the hard work of everyone involved [executed it]."
Powers was part of the core group that started in 2005. He worked out concepts and problem solving for the creatures: The first time the Leonopteryx flew, it was through his animation; the first time a Direhorse galloped, he animated it; and the first time the Na'vi walked through a Pandoran jungle, he created the CG jungle and animated the Na'vi. But Powers' biggest contribution was to the environments of Avatar and the virtual moviemaking workflow used for the production.
"I was a strong believer that MotionBuilder could handle shadows and lighting cues and atmospherics that Jim required. I did a test of the log scene and populated it with ecosystems and tried to create a sense of what the artwork conveyed. The two-tier contribution that I was directly responsible for was bringing this level of art direction to what MotionBuilder could display for him in realtime and what the virtual production could see, introducing that in realtime so Jim could see that world and shoot in that world on Pandora. Also, coming up with techniques so he could do those in the moment changes like foliage layouts; and coming up with techniques for beautiful daytime plants to become bioluminescent at night with the flip of a switch.
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You certainly deserve a round of applause for your post and more specifically, your blog in general. Very high quality material
Yeah, I agree that this film is insipirational. I am a film director myself, and i've always made films without ANY visual effects, being completely against it. After watching Lord of the Rings - i started THINKING about VFX as a very powerful tool. Its very powerful. After watching Avatar, I was convinced that only films that involve VFX will be interesting because finally, a director has no limits to his imagination , and it is the imagination and limitless fantasy that is of interest to the audience. The only question is the price.
it's an fantastic articles, thanks Letteri for providing the in-depths into the making of this amazing film. Really wonderful!
WOW Wow...
Thanks for the great fantastic article.
James Cameron and everyone who worked on this incredible movie
Thank you very much for my biggest inspirations
Strangely, this is exactly why I have written an article on this subject (Virtual Cinematography). While no one would want to hear that what was done with those truck loads of equipment, can be done with a car load today... it actually can be done.
Avatar just re-coined terms like virtual cinematography to something fancier like "simul-cam" and Hybrid cam etc.
Trackable physical cam rigs were there since way before, here's some links in this article on the subject especially for indie film makers to investigate.
http://realvision.ae/blog/2010/02/virtual-cinematography-was-the-matrix-...
Hope it helps.
Only really rich people or high budget productions can pull things like this off. Even a really low quality 3d production takes ALOT of money because it requires a full motion capture studio. Not only do you need a few cameras, but if you're going to be running and doing long distance things the equipment will be way too much money for any indie film maker to even think about. You can argue that motion capture is becoming cheaper, but really its not going to be anywhere near what we can afford for a long time. So no, I don't think its a game changer because only top studios will be messing with this tech. I wish I could make a 3d show, but you cannot do that simply from your mac g5, maya, final cut pro, and after effects. You need millions =(
Yeah, I agree that this film is insipirational. I am a film director myself, and i've always made films without ANY visual effects, being completely against it. After watching Lord of the Rings - i started THINKING about VFX as a very powerful tool. Its very powerful. After watching Avatar, I was convinced that only films that involve VFX will be interesting because finally, a director has no limits to his imagination, and it is the imagination and limitless fantasy that is of interest to the audience. The only question is the price. Its so expensive! ssso expensive!
you have made a good job for many of us, vfx enthusiastics, students and pros.
Thnak you
This movie is really beautiful and a big thank to James Cameron for offering us such a masterpiece.
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Wow, I have yet to see this movie and I am so excited to see the new elements being implemented into live action/CG. James Cameron has done the unthinkable, well the unthinkable to most. Cant wait to see this movie!
I wonder if he has any thought on a 2d production like this and could it even work?
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