How ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water Achieved Those Epic Aquatic Visual Effects

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a sequel, but the visual effects team was only tasked with offering "more". The sequel to the original 2009 Avatar has undergone many innovations over the years, and these incredible innovations have helped the film become one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

Weta FX team head Joe Lettari told Variety , "We've been working on this film lately figuring out what we could do better. Then there was a huge explosion in research and development." Six years ago, writer-director James Cameron, while he was making three sequels to this and more, realized that a film that takes place 60% underwater has its full potential."

Prepare a set of water simulations for the first "avatar".

"But we knew it wouldn't be enough," Letrie said. “For example, when covered in the face, water flows under the skin. It's a minor detail, and very hard to fix, we've been working on this feature for a long time.

Things get more complicated when the characters are on the big stage. “If you have a character dropping like a drop of water and you see a big ocean in the background, you can't have a drop and a big ocean at the same time - there aren't enough computers in the world to do that. . So everyone has to decide individually."

While the 2009 Outback has many performance uses, none of them are used above water. "In the first film, Jack's character jumps in the water and swims a bit," Lettrey said with a laugh. We achieve this by pushing Sam Worthington into an office chair. We knew that wasn't going to work with this film. We need actors in the water to make the right moves.

So the actors performed in huge tanks at Lightstorm Studios in Manhattan Beach, California, holding their breath to keep the bubbles from distracting from the visuals. (This film is a Lightstorm Entertainment production by 20th Century Studios.)

“In terms of performance, we have expanded our capacity. In the first film, I could work with three or four actors at a time. Besides, there might be 24-26 of us on stage at any given time.

It's not just extended coverage; And that is the list.

Vetta practiced the face-gripping golem technique in the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This system has become the industry standard. But Letteri added: "We started to see his limitations and realized he wasn't going to give us the specific specs we needed for Avatar 2.

So they wrote a new system that became "cinema's big focus".

“Shooting underwater gives us body shots that you can't get any other way. But we live and die narrowly; We have to see what the actors do. It's probably the most detailed effort we've made; We created a new facial animation system for this character.

This film will end forever the fear of some actors being replaced by statues. Well, that opened up casting opportunities: Sigourney Weaver was cast as a 14-year-old in a role she wouldn't normally find in action movies.

Lateri was nominated for an Oscar for Avatar: The Way of Water alongside Richard Baynham, Eric Sindon and Daniel Barrett. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Sound and Production Design.