James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Method of Water” sends the visual effects group back to the technological drawing board to attain, yet again, developments never before seen on-screen– underwater efficiency capture.
With the first “Avatar,” senior VFX supervisor Joe Letteri and VFX supervisor Richard Baneham of Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment became part of the brain trust that ushered in an innovative performance-capture system that allowed the “Titanic” director to see CGI characters and environments in real time as if it was live-action filmmaking. Their efforts did not go unrecognized as they went on to win both Oscar and BAFTA awards. This brand-new film sees the duo reuniting to flex familiar muscles, in addition to the tall task of producing digital water in a 3-D, high vibrant range, high frame rate (48 fps) environment.
“We pressed the facial [efficiency capture] style as far as we could,” says Letteri, a four-time Academy Award winner. “But we recognized for this movie that we needed a better understanding about how performance really works.” On “Avatar,” the technology was based upon the FACS system (facial action coding system) that integrated a head-rig with a single standard-definition video camera to record the expressions of the star whose face was dotted with computer-readable markers. The advanced tech found its way onto numerous blockbuster movie sets such as “The Hobbit” trilogy and was improved throughout the years leading up to Robert Rodriguez’s “Alita: Fight Angel” where it reached its metaphorical end of life.
Letteri reimagined the system for “The Way of Water” with actor efficiency in mind. “I began to think of how the muscles in the face work. All of our muscles collaborate to make an expression. You don’t state, ‘move this muscle’. Your brain thinks and your muscles express the best thing. We wished to give animators a tool that would do something really comparable,” he says.
A muscle-based system with a built-in neural network was established that moved each layer of the face– muscle, tissue, skin– holistically by the performance capture or by animators directly. The change offered animators a deeper understanding of a performance which, in turn, brought more sensible emotions to their Na’vi equivalents. The head rig was also updated with two high-definition electronic cameras offering more shape to the face, higher fidelity and additional info on the motion to tune the last image. “Our actors do such a great job devoting to their characters. It’s our task to protect the integrity of that efficiency and shepherd it to the screen,” Baneham states.
James Cameron talks with his team in a studio water tank.
(Mark Fellman/20th Century Studios)
The story gets from the 2009 movie, with Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their four children– Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Happiness) and embraced child Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). They’re required to leave the forest and hide in an oceanic town to get away the humans hunting them down.
Pandora’s captivating oceans is where Cameron’s enthusiastic vision (and visual effects) shines. The most lavish creation being the reef town of Awa’atlu, house to the Metkayina clan, led by partner and other half Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). Adjusted to sea life, they’re considerably different in look than their forest equivalents, the Omatikaya. More greenish in color, they have enlarged eyes, bigger chests and fin-like cartilage that protrude from their limbs with wider tails to help them swim. Villagers ride winged animals called ilu (the marine variation of the ikran seen in “Avatar”) and spiritually get in touch with tulkun, whale-like beings that can grow 300-feet long. In the Cove of the Ancestors, their Spirit Tree lies underwater with an otherworldly luminous glow. But it was more than undersea life that visual impacts curated. Crashing waves, moving currents and water splashes had to be digitally developed too.
Jake Sully flights a winged creaturs called an ilu.
(20th Century Studios)
The motion-capture system needed to be adapted for underwater usage also and the motion-capture suits were adapted to improve efficiency capture.
The visceral marine series were all shot in water (which included at the same time filming all ocean scenes of upcoming “Avatar” sequels 3, 4 and 5). Two massive tanks were constructed at Lightstorm studios in Manhattan Beach, one with a 250,000-gallon capability where the director could movie bigger action sequences with a wave mover. To capture the actors’ performances, 2 separate immersive sets akin to huge green screens, called volumes, were built, one that was sunk in the water to record the underwater action and another placed above the tank for surface area interactions. “We had the ability to align them geographically and temporally, which permitted us to capture everything above and below the water at the same time,” Baneham says.
Cast, crew and stunt performers all went through substantial training to hold their breath utilizing methods from free-diving instructor Kirk Krack, so as to limit their air bubbles since the performance capture system was unable to discriminate in between them and the marker dots on the entertainers’ face and wetsuits.
Sam Worthington wears the upgraded performance-capture innovation to shoot “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
(Mark Fellman/20th Century Studios)
The wonder of “The Method of Water”‘ is in the minutiae. Each animal, plant, tree and, of course, Na’vi, was digitally developed. Lighting was approached in a different way from the original film, simulating the real photographic nature of how light responds in a real-world setting. Even how water rolled off Na’vi skin was taken a look at with a fine eye as each bead dripped down the tiny hairs developing those familiar tracks. With the Metkayina village, a sun-drenched sky supplies a positive sensation, however as dispute arises, shifting weather patterns pepper the dirty mood with darker clouds. The outcome is aesthetically striking story from Cameron, where once again, visual impacts has hidden in plain sight despite 9-foot-tall lemur-like creatures appearing on screen.
“You want individuals to live in the detail and feel the emotion of the characters. The subtext of the characters is where we live and pass away,” Baneham says. “If we can get the results to feel genuine, and the appearance of them to feel photographic enough, that’s truthfully a task well done for us.” Letteri adds. “When you’re working with a group of artists who are all experts in their field, what all of us have to be aware of to some degree is how to make a film. That partnership is basic in filmmaking in any element whether it’s live-action or what we are doing digitally.”