The film's visual effects team used a combination of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and practical effects to create the film's stunning world. The CGI was used to create the film's digital characters and environments, while the practical effects were used to create the physical sets and props.
In a recent interview with Metro at the 2023 Baftas, at which they won the award for Special Visual Effects, Avatar: The Way of Water VFX artists and supervisors Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, and Eric Saindon reveal that the film only has two shots with no CGI.
Comes Avatar: The Way of Water. The first movie I will admit is NOT an animated movie due to the extensive human shots. The second one however, features only one human (Spider) and the whale scientist sequence, both of which are animated for the most part when not participating in dialogue.
Both Avatar and Ant-Man 3 take place in an almost entirely CGI world. Why does Avatar look and feel like a real world, but Ant-man looks and feels like a giant green screen? I just got back from Ant-man and it's such a stark contrast from Avatar in terms of the CGI world.
In one of the many stunning sequences in James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water, the imprisoned child Spider (Jack Champion) is talking to Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who is in avatar form. Spider is a live-action actor, but Quaritch is a much taller CG character realized by Wētā FX.
The film's visual effects team used a combination of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and practical effects to create the film's stunning world. The CGI was used to create the film's digital characters and environments, while the practical effects were used to create the physical sets and props.
Instead of filming in front of walls of blue or green screens, Cameron and his crew developed underwater motion-capture technology, and submerged the cast for much of filming in a 900,000-gallon tank.
Despite all those long skin-pruning sessions in the tank and the vast quantities of water in the sequel, nearly all of the water in the film is computer-generated.
In a recent Twitter storm, critics of Avatar 2 accused James Cameron of racism and cultural appropriation, with some indigenous American groups calling for a boycott of the film.
While making this story more about family and one individual's desire for vengeance than about the human race's unchecked avarice and the military's (writ large) boundless bloodlust, the movie manages to avoid the most egregious sins of wokeness which its predecessor committed.
In the case of the “Avatar” sequel, the action and underwater sequences will run at a higher frame rate, allowing the motion to look better and more realistic, while dramatic scenes have been adjusted to look like the traditional 24 frames per second standard that audiences are accustomed to.
Some, but not all, scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water run at 48 frames per second (FPS), particularly the underwater scenes. That's double the standard 24 FPS that's used in the vast majority of movies – which is why you're probably not used to everything looking so smooth.
There are 3,289 shots in the final film and Wētā FX worked on 3,240 VFX shots, 2,225 of which were water shots. In fact, only two shots in the entire film do not contain any visual effects at all.
Filming Avatar, there were 120 of these cameras set up around the stage, in order to capture every intricacy of an actor's movement. In sum, Weta digital created over 800 computer-generated characters, as well as 1,800 visual effects shots which boasted detailed CG settings.
Physics also helps to keep CGI grounded. With motion-capture technology, for example, digital graphics are overlaid atop the facial and body movements of real people, as was used in films like Avatar, War for the Planet of the Apes, and Avengers: Infinity War.
The fully grown avatar is much closer in appearance to the long-limbed Na'vi than to a human. Typical adult size ranges from nine to ten feet (2.75 to 3.0m) tall with blue skin, bioluminescent markings and large eyes with golden irises.
James Cameron's Avatar James Cameron's Avatar was filmed in photo-realistic, “stereoscopic 3D,” which mixes live-action and CGI imagery in a seamless blend. Avatar utilizes 60% CGI imagery, with a majority of the CG character animation filmed with revolutionary new motion-capture techniques using live actors.
RealD is generally considered the least desirable option (though it's still preferable to 2D) due to concerns about color clarity. Dolby and IMAX ultimately come down to preference, with the consensus being that Dolby offers better picture quality, but the larger screens can often make IMAX a better viewing experience.
Weta, the special effects company founded by Peter Jackson to create realistic computer animations for his movies, went on to create masterful works of art in movies like - LOTR, King Kong, Avatar, and Avatar 2: The Way of Water.
The actors swam in performance capture wetsuits and goggles around fully submerged sets. The medium made actors' movements more fluid, allowing their characters' actions to appear far more realistic than they would have with the use of wire suspension systems.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is now the highest-grossing movie released in 2022. Much of it was filmed in a 120-feet-long, 60-feet-wide, and 30-feet-deep tank. The crew developed new motion-capture techniques for underwater filmmaking.
