Avatar 2: Revolutionary Special Effects in the Aftermath of James Cameron?

This is what experts say Corridor crew In the episode of their TV series “VFX performers respond“.

When it came out in 2009, James Cameron’s Avatar introduced the audience to the incredible alien world of Pandora and its inhabitants, the boat. The film is known for its impressive visual effects, an aspect that takes the filmmaker even further in the film’s sequel, Avatar: The Waterway.

The trailer gave us a first look at what awaits us in this sequel. The story unfolds ten years after the events narrated in the original feature film. Jake Sally (Sam Worthington) and Nateir (Zoe Saldana) became parents.

Their idyllic lives, close to nature, are threatened when a dangerous NGO, the Resource Development Administration, returns to Pandora. Forced to leave their natural habitat, Jake and his family travel to the reefs where they believe they will find shelter. But they meet the Metkaina clan with different customs from them …

This second opus is more focused on the water world. So James Cameron developed a new technology to make water more compelling in computer-generated images, and his actors underwent intensive training.

In 2020, Sigourney Weaver also admitted that the entire Avatar 2 cast had undergone special training with elite military divers to maximize apnea time underwater.

In November 2020, Kate Winslet broke the record for the longest underwater apnea on the set of a feature film. The actor managed to hold his breath for 7.14 minutes for the purposes of the scene. Winslet, who landed on Avatar, broke the record previously held by Tom Cruise (6 minutes Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation).

But in addition to these physical successes, the director seems to have once again achieved success in terms of synthetic imagery.

VFX Artists React specialists Sam Gorsky, Ren Weichmann and Ian Hubert took a closer look at the trailer for Avatar: The Waterway. The latter explains that the film’s synthetic images are much more revolutionary than they appear.

In addition to highlighting the incredible advances in CGI skin, they analyzed a specific shot from the trailer highlighting a new water simulation technology patented by the film’s leading visual effects company, Weta Digital. Created by Peter Jackson.

Ian Hubert says:I think the craziest is the surface tension, the contact of water with the fabric. I do not remember, I have seen it before. He is very challenging and dynamic. When water passes through, it remains in the tissue. “

Sam Gorsky, for his part, explains that Veta has filed numerous patents for the film: “I do not know how many patents were created, but I heard they were talking about 4 or 5 new patents that Weta received for water simulations so that I could get such unique shots.“

Ren Weichmann adds that “Weta is known around the world for successfully inventing new tools and creating new technologies for their films.“

In addition to working on the first Avatar film, Weta Digital is known for creating visual effects for many films, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Planet of the Apes, Tintin Adventure: The Secret of Unicorn, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planes, or Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

With Avatar 2, the studio seems to once again transcend the boundaries of computer graphics and must introduce techniques and technologies that the public has never seen before.

Avatar: Water way It will be released in our cinemas on December 14 and, according to Zoe Saldana.It will be an unforgettable adventure. “