- Fast Fact: James Cameron had the idea for Avatar before his 1998 blockbuster, Titanic, but had to wait more than a decade for technological advances in order to make this film.
The
“Simulcam” camera is one of the many technologies Cameron relied upon to make
the action seem real. This camera allowed him to see the actors as their
CGI-selves and to visualize the scenery around the actors in real time, as they
actually occurred. By seeing how the animated actors interacted with each other
and with the animated scenery, Cameron was able to better direct the actors to
make the movie seem more realistic.
To film Avatar, actors wore tight-fitting motion-capture suits that contained sensors.
Cameras were then used to track the movements of the sensors, and therefore the
actors, many times per second. A special
type of motion capture, called performance capture, was used to realistically track
facial movements. The actors wore head gear fitted with a small camera that
would take detailed pictures of facial features, such as pores and wrinkles,
and expressions!
- Fast Fact: Previously, facial capture was done with a series of sensors placed on the face. Only a few sensors were used at a time, thereby limiting the diversity of expressions captured.
The images
generated by motion and performance capture were then used by computer
animators to create an image from the model, a process known as rendering. Using
highly specialized software, computers with fast processors, and lots and lots
of computer memory, animators were able transform the movement and facial
expressions of each actor into their Na’vi counterpart.
- Fast Fact: About 70 per cent of the footage in the Avatar is CGI.
James Cameron and his movie, Avatar, have redefined the 3D genre of
movies, making them seem more life-like than ever before. It kind of makes you
wonder what we’ll see from Cameron in another 10 years…
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