A special thank you to newsletter subscribers.
After James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water was released, I wrote a number of stories on the new approaches to on-set performance capture, water simulation, real-time depth compositing, the eyeline system used during filming, and facial capture and animation.
Well, that only scratched the surface on what was done for the film. So I went to Wētā FX and did a whole new series of interviews. The result was this dedicated magazine full to the brim of exclusive info and stories.
It’s now yours FREE to download just by signing up to the befores & afters newsletter.
In it, you can find out about:
– 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.
There’s of course also an issue coming soon on Avatar: Fire and Ash, so what better way to get prep’d than by accessing the Way of Water issue!
