The innovative technology behind the Avatar films (Spoiler Free)
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The third instalment in the world of Pandora has recently hit the box office and is absolutely crushing it.
Avatar: Fire and Ash crossed $1 billion just 18 days post-release, making it the 4th James Cameron film to cross this milestone.
The Avatar franchise has been surrounded by the use of innovative tech.
Although the idea of the film came to Cameron in a dream in the 90s, it wasn't until the 21st century that the technology needed to bring this world to life was ready.
Avatar was filmed using motion capture technology, which allowed the actor’s performance to be captured and re-inserted into the world of Pandora.
Actors wore mocap suits, covered in hundreds of reflective markers, which were tracked by infrared cameras, precisely capturing all the movement they made.
Innovative head-mounted cameras, small cameras worn by the actors, and mocap markers captured every intricate expression and emotion.
Wētā FX (who were responsible for the film’s photorealistic visual effects) used this data and developed software that mapped out which facial muscles were moving, then translated and applied that for facial animation.
Cameron used the “Fusion Camera System” that he and Vince Pace invented, which synchronises two high-resolution digital cameras compactly, capturing left and right-eye images simultaneously, allowing for an immersive 3d experience.
Avatar: The Way of Water (the sequel to Avatar) featured numerous underwater scenes, presenting new challenges.
Usually, films that require aquatic scenes (like in Aquaman) are shot dry-for-wet, meaning that they aren’t shot underwater; instead, the water is added virtually using CGI.
But Cameron did not like how wirework simulated the underwater scenes and the actors pretending to swim.
He wanted the film to have a more natural flow.
“The key to it was to actually shoot underwater and at the surface of the water”-James Cameron
So they filmed underwater.
Enormous tanks were constructed for filming, one holding 900,000 gallons of water!
The sheer volume of the water allowed for the replication of oceanic conditions like wave interactions and a propeller system simulated current.
To shoot in 3D underwater, Pawel Achtel’s DeepX 3D was used; like the Fusion 3D rig, it comprises two digital cameras, capturing for each eye.
But crucially, Achtel uses Nikonos submersible lenses, leading to magnificent visual recording underwater.
Light interacts with water in a way that messes with the mocap markers as the reflections create false markers.
In order to combat this, thousands of translucent ping pong balls were placed on the surface of the tanks, eliminating light reflections.
Scuba diving gear would also create a disturbance to the performance capture, as the bubbles would be mistaken for facial markers.
Therefore, everyone working in the tank was holding their breath, including the camera, lighting crew, and the cast.
They trained for months with elite freediving trainer Kirk Krack on free diving and breath holding for minutes on end.
Ultimately, a lot of dedication, resilience and innovation were behind the Avatar franchise.
