Article
A Dive into Pandora's Magic
By Trevor Hogg - Animation Magazine
Watching the Hollywood blockbusters of James Cameron, it is not hard to point out the influence of his deep fascination with marine life...
3,240 shots (98% of the total shots in the film), 2,225 featuring water
Our brief was simple, create emotionally engaging digital characters that blended naturally with their live-action counterparts in photorealistic CG environments.
To get there we needed new water and facial animation techniques as well as more advanced virtual production workflows. These included a real-time in-camera depth compositing as well as underwater performance capture and a new performance-driven cable-cam eyeline system developed with Lightstorm Entertainment.
By Trevor Hogg - Animation Magazine
Watching the Hollywood blockbusters of James Cameron, it is not hard to point out the influence of his deep fascination with marine life...
From The Hollywood Reporter
James Cameron tells The Hollywood Reporter about the extensive performance-capture underwater scenes in the Avatar sequel.
By AWN.com
Wētā FX’s 4-time Oscar-winning Senior Visual Effects Supervisor discusses his collaboration with director James Cameron on the highly anticipated ‘Avatar’ sequel, now in theaters.
From befores & afters
Ian Failes from befores & afters with a description of new water technology in Avatar: The Way of Water.
By FXGuide
Wētā FX has developed an entirely new face pipeline. The team first developed this breakthrough new approach in 2019, but the company has only just revealed the new approach at SIGGRAPH ASIA in Korea, to coincide with the release of Avatar: The Way of Water.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature
Richard Baneham, Walter Garcia, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, Jd Schwalm
Outstanding Animated Character In A Photoreal Feature - Kiri
Anneka Fris, Rebecca Louise Leybourne, Guillaume Francois, Jung-Rock Hwang
Outstanding Created Environment In A Photoreal Feature - The Reef
Jessica Cowley, Joe W. Churchill, Justin Stockton, Alex Nowotny
Outstanding Virtual Cinematography In A CG Project
Richard Baneham, Dan Cox, Eric Reynolds, A.J Briones
Outstanding Model in a Photoreal or Animated Project - The Sea Dragon
Sam Sharplin, Stephan Skorepa, Ian Baker, Guillaume Francois
Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature - Water Simulations
Johnathan M. Nixon, David Moraton, Nicolas Illingworth, David Caeiro Cebrian
Outstanding Compositing & Lighting in a Feature
Sam Cole, Francois Sugny, Florian Schroeder, Jean Matthews
Emerging Technology Award
Alexey Dmitrievich Stomakhin, Steve Lesser, Sven Joel Wretborn, Douglas McHale