The production of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel Avatar 2: The way of Water has finally revealed what they’ve been waiting for for the past decade. It could very well change the future of movies. It’s been such a long time since Director James Cameron is out with his box office-breaking, technologically innovating, big blue alien world movie.
A quick recap: James Cameron’s Avatar was a 2009’s epic sci-fi film about humans colonizing a new planet called Pandora and the main character Jake ends up becoming the savior of the local people of Pandora called Na’vi from his own fellow humans and their greedy intentions to earn money from the new Pandora.
Why did Avatar 2 wait so long?
Why has Avatar 2 taken so long? According to James Cameron, the necessary tech was not yet available to achieve the vision of his film and that’s not even to mention how difficult it was to get funds for this ambitious movie. Avatar (2009) was described as a hybrid with a full live-action shoot in a combination with computer-generated characters and a live environment integrated into the 3D experience.
James Cameron really wanted to achieve these incredibly realistic and immersive Cg versions of these environments and characters for Avatar, so they used advanced motion capture. But motion capture wasn’t a new thing that James Cameron invented. He didn’t even really give it more publicity. Video games have been using this technique to assist with animation for a long time.
However, it seems like if James Cameron makes a movie, he doesn’t just want to make a movie. He wants to blow people’s minds and play with some new tech out there.
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Underwater innovations for Avatar 2.
So what is this new game-changing tech and why Avatar 2 took so long? According to the rumors, Avatar 2 will mostly focus on the previous main characters’ children. Jake Sully and Neytiri will have grown older, but their children will be encouraged to explore new biomes and environments on Pandora which also means places underwater.
Of course, to make a movie like Avatar 2 that is gonna have spectacular effects underwater, James Cameron would have to pursue some new technological innovations, and well it turns out that’s exactly what he was doing. Not only he’d improved the motion capture, but he’d also taken it to a whole new level by actually filming the scenes underwater. When we say filming scenes underwater, it’s not just some sort of CG in a swimming pool. Actors are made to perform underwater wearing advance-motion capture suits.
They have built huge sets in New Zealand containing huge pools that are used to try and get fully realistic performances of characters while submerged. Actors are trained to hold their breath for longer periods of time for Avatar 2. Walls are lined with motion-capture sensors and a specific cover is placed along the surface of the water to prevent the light from disturbing the camera and sensors below the water.
“The real difficulty came from how the water creates a moving mirror that reflects the dots on motion capture suits that creates a bunch of fake markers,” said Cameron. Imagine how time-consuming and tiring it would be acting like you’d be literally swimming for entire film shoots.
There are two sides to filming this movie. One has live-action segments which require effects work, and potential work with miniatures, and the other is the whole new world underwater. Avatar 2 can be a torch bearer for all the underwater movies yet to come in the future. Once this technology is finessed in Avatar 2, we could potentially see it more widespread. This could open up a whole new world for underwater films that were never possible before now. Movies surrounding Atlantis no longer have to be underwater superheroes.
Can I watch Avatar 2 on Netflix or Disney plus?
OTT giants Netflix and Disney Plus have an enormous collection of movies and web series but that does not include this big blue alien movie.
How much of Avatar 2 is underwater?
Producer John Landau confirmed in 2018 that water plays a huge part in Avatar 2.
Avatar 2 will be a revolution in Hollywood industry