Return to Pandora in the latest befores & afters print magazine!

August 3, 2024

This special issue of befores & afters magazine takes a new deep dive into Avatar: The Way of Water with Wētā FX.

Issue #20 of befores & afters magazine is a new deep dive into the visual effects of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, with Wētā FX. It goes beyond the stories about new approaches to on-set performance capture, water simulation, real-time depth compositing, the eyeline system used during filming, and facial capture and animation that were all previously featured in detailed online befores & afters coverage.

Inside issue #20, you’ll find new pieces on:

– The making of the sea vessels for The Way of Water, including the practical Picador built for reference and filming, and the massive SeaDragon

– Managing 5,650 CG assets for the film, including a diverse array of sea creatures

– How the skimwing, ilu and tulkun creatures were built

– World building, plant simulation, rendering and compositing for the Pandoran jungle

– The art of combustion in The Way of Water — how Wētā FX mastered fire FX and simulation

– The animation of hands, and why animating hands with three fingers, crafting baby hands, and using hands to control throat microphones proved to be some of the hardest tasks

– Compositing: how new deep workflows and many other techniques were developed for the film

– Plus, a special tribute to Jon Landau from Wētā FX’s Joe Letteri.

Find it at your local Amazon store:

USAUKCanadaGermanyFranceSpainItalyAustraliaJapanSwedenPolandNetherlands

A big thanks to Reallusion and Action VFX for sponsoring this issue!

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