How Avatar’s VFX Became So Realistic | Movies Insider | Insider

It took James Cameron 13 years to make the follow-up to “Avatar” (2009). That time was spent making the sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022), even more technologically groundbreaking than its predecessor. While the first movie’s water-based scenes were actually shot on a dry set, the director and his crew built a performance-capture stage that actually worked both underwater and above the surface.

But to get the clearest reference footage possible, the cast had to learn to hold their breath for extended time periods. That way, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet could act out scenes underwater without worrying about breath bubbles obscuring their faces. The crew could also translate Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana, and Stephen Lang’s performances to their Na’vi counterparts with even more accuracy thanks to a helmet with two cameras attached to it that was first developed for “Alita: Battle Angel” (2019).

Tools created specifically for “The Way of Water” allowed the crew to see rough CG renderings of a given scene while they were filming it and helped Wētā FX more convincingly place CG and live-action elements in a scene than ever before. The VFX artists could also create even more nuanced emotions in CG with a brand-new system that allowed them to animate deep below the surface of a character’s face.

These new systems would not have existed without developments between the new “Avatar” films on Gollum in the “Hobbit” movies (2012 to 2014), Caesar in the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy (2011 to 2017), and Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). It’s no wonder that on “The Way of Water,” Wētā was able to create 2,225 water shots while tracking 3,198 facial performances.

Check out more of Wētā FX’s work:

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How Avatar’s VFX Became So Realistic | Movies Insider | Insider

[brandonwei]

Having Spider in the movie was genius, because not only was the audience reminded that what we were seeing on screen was animated but very real, he almost became a proof of concept for how good the visual effects were.

[jokester]

Way of Water is the best number 1 water VFX. It made Little Mermaid and Aquaman looking like straight to dvds.

[sancheezzzy]

Even them saying the water is better than the first, the first avatar water sequences are still great today. They’ve aged like fine wine.

[ethanholgate]

When I'm an old man I can say I witnessed history with The way of water and got to see all 5 avatar movies when Jim completes his saga It's been awhile since I've been truly blown away by cgi but my god my jaw was on the floor from beginning to end of the way of water especially pyikain

[georgedeng]

You can say what you want about the movies, but you gotta respect the passion and dedication James Cameron has to his craft.

[djnfbrhkelkondwvb]

I think the originals effects are some of the best VFX we’ve ever seen and that’s impressive for a movie that’s 13 years old in this new age of technology

[Immortal_BP]

creating facial animations gets exponetially harder the closer that character is to a realistic human. i would say the Na'Vi are like 80-90% close to humans so the fact you dont get the uncanny feeling from this is amazing

[graceross]

The animation of this movie was fantastic, a lot of nice details

[TheGoobler]

My bold prediction:

I think the Avatar movies will hold up for the next 100 years. Over time, I think there will be noticeable flaws that our eyes don’t see at the present. But I think the movies will be respected and admired decades from now; purely based on visual effects.

[Greg_Buckingham]

While I didn’t care a whole lot for the movie, this definitely makes me appreciate the film making process way more. Crazy to see how far technology has come

[Corzappy]

I find it interesting that there is a very distinct facial expression for holding your breath and I feel like the actors had to consciously avoid that while filming to get the right expressions.

[Ak_-chcl]

I’ve watched it today in theatre, better than the first movie for sure in every thing I enjoyed it!

[hasinurrahman]

Avatar 2 is the most deserving winner of VFX oscar in the history since Avatar 1. I have seen it 7 times in the theater and every time I was blown away by the sheer genius of the VFX in the whole movie.

[amanofnoreputation]

It's kind of staggering how simple it was to give more depth to what they could capture with respect to facial expressions given that all it took was to apply parallax by adding a second camera.

[sobczak]

Finally some good blockbuster with great CGi in cinemas . After years of Marvels making worse and worse cgi it was great to go to cinema to see something amazing again.

[kimi_hakim]

I can never imagined the level of the visual effect artists behind the scenes in making these movies.

[Whavr]

It’s amazing what technical work is going in to this movie. Can’t wait for Part 3 and how it will look

[nazoproduction]

I saw Avatar: The Way Of Water..

I'm so proud of everyone who worked on this masterpiece and it's predecessor!

I will ALWAYS continue to support Avatar! I am a diehard fan of Avatar!

And I want to personally thank every human being that worked on this masterpiece, and it's predecessor, they are my favorite movies by far, and of all time, GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

[gtssage]

Just watched Avatar 2 on Disney+ yesterday (should have seen it in 3D IMAX when I had the chance). The CG effects in this film is light years beyond any other studio. Absolutely stunning. Overall a better movie than the first. Breathtaking visuals and good story.

[revelare_xvii]

Keep in mind we have 3 more Avatar films to go. Imagine how much the CGI is gonna improve with each film.