Original title: “Avatar 2” presents a visual spectacle and the film “Spring Festival file” will bring a new experience (quote)
Immersive experience in the virtual world (theme)
Guangzhou Daily All Media reporter Huang An / article
In the newly concluded New Year’s holidays, the film “Avatar: The Way of Water” (hereinafter referred to as “Avatar 2”) attracted many viewers to watch the film and became the box office champion of the program.
Thirteen years ago, the various advanced technologies catalyzed by “Avatar” promoted the industrial revolution. Thirteen years later, “Technology Madman” James Cameron has once again achieved a breakthrough with innovative technology, presenting the audience with a more stunning visual spectacle on the big screen. When it comes to the film’s visual effects, almost all viewers are full of praise.
In films to be released during the Spring Festival, audiences will also see new technological breakthroughs in domestic films.
A new breakthrough in underwater 3D shooting technology
In 2009, the film “Avatar” was born. The alien world built by director James Cameron, the magnificent and unique worldview and unbridled imagination make people’s eyes shine. The use of various cutting-edge technologies such as 3D virtual image photography and dynamic capture provides an unprecedented viewing experience to the audience. After many years, many movie buffs can still remember the surprise and shock of their first visit to Pandora. In “Avatar 2”, these scenes are still confidential. In the first part of the film, the wonders of Pandora’s forest reappear, setting off the “memory killer” of the audience. However, this time the main scene of the film was also changed to the mysterious ocean world, using a new generation of 3D underwater cameras, which greatly improved the level of underwater shooting.
In the more than three hours of viewing experience, the audience sometimes had the feeling that they were on vacation on a beach with clear water and fine sand, sometimes they dived into the deep sea, and sometimes they were surprised by a giant creature rushing out of the water. And more and more people are overwhelmed by the sea that “can show 100 different colors of blue” in front of them.
If the jungle in the first part is the legacy of the previous work, then the main ocean scene is another transcendence of Cameron himself. Cameron has always been passionate about stories that take place against the backdrop of the “ocean”. In addition to filming the famous “Titanic”, he has also shot many documentaries about the ocean. Cameron’s attempt at underwater photography began in 2012. During the filming of the documentary “Deep Sea Challenge”, he took the “Deep Sea Challenger” and dived into the Mariana Trench to a depth of about 11,000 meters. provides an extremely useful experience.Part of the actual filming location of “Avatar 2” is in the Mariana Trench.
Improve capture performance in all aspects
Cameron believes that “Avatar 2” is a film with huge “water content”, and the effect produced by traditional methods is not realistic enough. Finally, the crew prepared a huge water tank that can hold 900,000 gallons of water as the main place for capturing underwater performance, simulating ocean currents to the fullest and replicating the real ocean environment. The team has also created a performance capture system specially prepared for underwater filming, precisely to best render the real scene of underwater diving.
It was also difficult to actually shoot. Air bubbles caused by the use of diving equipment can create too much noise in a performance capture system. There is only one solution to this problem: dive with full crew. “Everyone who works in the tank must hold their breath.”
To that end, Cameron has invited internationally renowned experts to teach the actors and photography team, and 70-year-old actor Sigourney Weaver is no exception. Her performance was very good, holding her breath for more than 6 minutes; and Kate Winslet, who played the Priestess of the Reef Tribe, also surpassed the 7:15 mark.
According to reports, including actors, photographers, security officers and other personnel, there were 200,000 diving records during the entire shooting period. At their busiest, everyone has to dive into the water for 12 hours straight.
When the film crew first released the poster, “Na’vi Girl”‘s clear and bright eyes amazed many viewers. If you feel that the “Na’vi” are more vivid this time, because there is light in their eyes. Compared with the previous work, “Avatar 2” has a great improvement, which is to achieve higher fidelity of expression. This is precisely because the film has improved the level of performance capture in all respects.
During the filming of “Avatar 2”, the team adopted an updated head-mounted system. The actors’ body, emotions, expressions, eyes and everything in the gestures were captured, even the nuances could be captured and applied to the CG Between roles. “The captured performance is now more authentic than before.”
This set of technologies also completely subverts the barriers posed by age and appearance to actors. The film’s character, 14-year-old Kiri, is actually played by powerful 73-year-old actress Sigourney Weaver. In the film, Kiri has a light body and delicate expression, just like a real child. People must admire the blessing of special effects technology for the performance.
New development: “Na’vi” in “Avatar 3” could become a villain
“Avatar 2” has undoubtedly promoted the technological innovation of the industry and Cameron has once again taken the technology to a new level. Next, what new tricks will the “Avatar” series play?
According to media reports, currently “Avatar 3” has entered the post-production stage and a part of the pre-shooting of “Avatar 4” has also been done. The new Na’vi people will be introduced in the third part. Cameron said, “So far, the Na’vi people have been as righteous and kind as ever. But in ‘Avatar 3,’ I’m going to change that.”
Currently, the sequels of “Avatar” have been arranged into “Avatar 6” and “Avatar 7”. Cameron stated, “Indeed, the sixth and seventh films will depend on how well the previous films are received and whether audiences really need them.”
