Avatar: The Way of Water animator explains the truth behind that viral hand shot

Much attention has been paid to the frankly stunning technical wizardry on display in Avatar: The Way of Water, and it’s hard to argue against director James Cameron’s decision to wait more than a decade for the right technology to create of movies before he started working on his underwater movie. continuation.

In an exclusive interview with TechRadar, Daniel Barrett, Senior Animation Supervisor at Wētā FX, explained the method behind the magic of The Way of Water’s performance-enhancing visuals, and we asked the seasoned animator how he and his team created a very specific shot – a which thrilled the internet after being featured in the film’s very first trailer. Check it out in the tweet below.

“It’s almost human,” reads a comment below the post. “It could just be a man painted blue,” reads another. Best answer of all: “Pretty sure it’s not CGI. Cameron actually went to Pandora to film this one.

For context, the shot in question shows Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully tightening the reins on a skimwing, the Metkayina clan’s sea-dwelling version of the mountain banshees ridden by the Omaticaya. But how much – if any – of what we see in the two-second clip is real, and how much is computer-generated? Fortunately, Barrett has the answers.

“We practically shot that,” he explains. “At the time there was talk about whether that shot would come [used for] reference, or if it would be in the movie. It looked really good, what was done – but it was just the hand that was practical. So we had the challenge of connecting that hand, middle arm, to a CG arm, which was connected to a CG body, which was on a CG skim wing. And then we also had some practical water that had to be connected to CG water. So it’s a mix. The hand and the water around it [the shot] is practical. The rest is digital.”

CG water? No wonder Cameron’s sequel had to cost over $2 billion to break even.

A different kind of challenge

Warning: major spoilers for Avatar: The Way of Water follow

For Wētā FX – the New Zealand-based visual effects company founded by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson in 1993 – Avatar: The Way of Water represented the ultimate challenge. Animators like Barrett had to use all of their experience to raise the impossibly high bar set by Cameron, whose extensive use of underwater performance capture techniques created all-new VFX obstacles.

Were there certain sequences that aroused Toruk’s fear in Barrett and his team? “Technically, there were certain water shots that I was worried about,” he tells us. “A lot of the boot shots worried us just because we knew we were in a parallel workflow with the effects team. You can do your job, you hope the water surface stays as it is, you hope the wave phase stays as it was when you started animating. But then you also know that that has to be simulated, and the simulation of the water now influences the boat’s environment. You can get into a small loop. So a lot of the boat shots [were challenging].”

“There were also some huge scenes,” Barrett continues. “The return of the Tulkuen to the village – there was an awful lot going on in those shots. But personally for me was one of the harder sequences to work on – and I don’t want to get too slack – [Neteyam’s] dead on the rock. I found that really difficult. By the time I saw it in the cinema I was somewhat immune to it. But the first 20 times were very, very hard to watch.

“The performances are just so strong. Take Zoe [Saldaña] as an example. It’s not even just the raw emotion you see in her at the beginning. Later, when Jake begs her to do what it takes for the other kids, you can see her determination coming. The sadness never goes away, but the determination comes, and it’s so subtle.

“So for me [as an animator], it’s exciting to get to the point where you feel like you’ve found everything she’s done. Those subtler shots are really the most satisfying moments.”

Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters around the world.