Feb. 14, 2023

Making cinematic history in The Way of Water

James Cameron makes cinema history with breathtaking new 3D technology in his latest sensation, Avatar 2, which has swept the world with more surprises giving a new dimension to the world of cinema. Cameron revealed that he was "hard at work putting the final touches on the film". He's previously spoken about his decision to set the majority of the movie underwater. By K Dass.

Nearly 13 years after audiences were overwhelmed by the immersive lavishness of director James Cameron's "Avatar" and its exotic planet Pandora, "Avatar: The Way of Water" finally arrived in cinemas on December 16 last year.

This mega-budget sci-fi sequel has been a long time coming, mostly to allow for CGI technology to advance enough to depict underwater environments realistically. Writer, director James Cameron is making another cinema history with the breathtaking new 3D technology in his latest sensation, “Avatar,” which has swept the world with more surprises giving a new dimension to the world of cinema. Cameron developed this new technology that could finally revolutionize film making by getting the 3D and the CGI to new heights while mixing the real footage and the motion-captured CGI in an immersive 3D technology.

Performance Capture by CGI

Cameron has used Computer-generated imagery (CGI) extensively in Avatar. Though he has already been using it since his earlier movie days, like Terminator2: Judgment Day and Total Recall, in Avatar, he specifically used a novel technique called “image-based facial performance capture” that required actors to wear some special headgears already equipped with a camera. As the actors performed, the camera transmitted facial movements that were put on the virtual characters. This made the body's movements back to a connected array of systems that acted out their scenes on a 'performance capture' stage six times bigger than anything that was ever used earlier in the industry. This resulted in an amazingly emotional authenticity by the movie characters. The movie's footage was built from around 70% CGI, including its female lead.

Having moved past regular motion capture and 3D technology, which granted Avatar its fame, Avatar 2 employs new underwater mo-cap that Cameron invented for the sequel. Instead of mimicking underwater scenes by suspending people from cables, the actors for Avatar 2 are submerged in a 900,000-gallon water tank designed to imitate ocean currents. The trailer provides the first real look at this new method, but the final product likely won't even compare.

It's not uncommon for visual effects to be worked on — and improved — up until a movie's premiere, especially for anything that relies as much on CGI as the Avatar franchise. There's surely still a fair bit of post-production work to do on the sequel. The trailer only revealed a few snippets of select scenes that were likely deemed most ready for the public eye, preserving the remainder of the film for more editing. Even the clips that were shown may still be subjected to last-minute touch-ups to ensure that the entire movie satisfies Cameron's high standards of perfection. His determination to break new filmmaking ground and try a new, much more difficult, and costly method for underwater scenes just prove how far he will go to deliver the best possible shot.

Development of Avatar began in 1994, when James Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999; however, according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film. Work on the language of the Na'vi began in 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006. Avatar was officially budgeted at US$237 million, due to the groundbreaking array of new visual effects Cameron achieved in cooperation with Weta Digital in Wellington. Other estimates put the cost at between US$280 million and US$310 million for production and at US$150 million for promotion. The film made extensive use of new motion capture filming techniques and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing and 4D experiences in selected South Korean theaters.

Following the film's success, Cameron signed with 20th Century Fox to produce four sequels. The first sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released on December 16, 2022, which received similar reviews and broke various box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing film of that year and the sixth film to pass the US$2 billion mark. Avatar 3 has completed principal filming and will be released in 2024. Further sequels are scheduled for release in 2026 and in 2028. Several cast members returned, including Worthington, Saldana, Lang, and Weaver.

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