Original title: “Avatar 2” presents a visual spectacle, and the “Spring Festival file” movie will bring a new experience (quote)
Immersive experience in the virtual world (theme)
Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Huang An/article
During the just-concluded New Year’s Day holiday, the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water” (hereinafter referred to as “Avatar 2”) attracted many audiences to watch the movie and became the box office champion of the schedule.
Thirteen years ago, the various advanced technologies catalyzed by “Avatar” promoted the industry revolution. Thirteen years later, “Technology Madman” James Cameron once again achieved a breakthrough with innovative technology, presenting audiences with more amazing visual spectacle on the big screen. When it comes to the visual effects of the film, almost all viewers are full of praise.
In the films that will be released during the Spring Festival, the audience will also see new technological breakthroughs in domestic films.
A new breakthrough in underwater 3D shooting technology
In 2009, the movie “Avatar” was born. The alien world constructed by director James Cameron, the magnificent and unique world view, and the unrestrained imagination make people’s eyes shine. The use of various cutting-edge technologies such as 3D virtual image photography and dynamic capture brings audiences an unprecedented visual experience. After many years, many movie fans can still recall the surprise and shock of their first visit to Pandora. In “Avatar 2”, these scenes are still reserved. In the first part of the film, the forest wonders of Pandora reappeared, setting off the audience’s “memory killing”. 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 underwater shooting level.
In the more than three hours of viewing experience, the audience sometimes felt like vacationing on a beach with clear water and fine sand, sometimes dived into the deep sea, and sometimes was startled by a giant creature rushing out of the water. And more people are overwhelmed by the sea that “can show 100 different blue colors” in front of them.
If the jungle in the first part is the inheritance of the previous work, then the main scene of the ocean is another transcendence of Cameron himself. Cameron has always been fond of stories that take place in the “ocean” background. In addition to shooting 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 at a depth of about 11,000 meters. ” provides an extremely useful experience. Part of the actual shooting location of “Avatar 2” is in the Mariana Trench.
Improve performance capture in all aspects
Cameron believes that “Avatar 2” is a movie with a huge “water content”, and the effect produced by traditional methods is not realistic enough. In the end, the crew prepared a huge water tank that can hold 900,000 gallons of water as the main venue for underwater performance capture, while simulating ocean currents to the greatest extent and replicating the real environment of the ocean. The team also built a performance capture system specially prepared for underwater shooting, just to better restore the real scene of underwater diving.
It was also difficult to actually shoot. Scuba air bubbles from using diving equipment can create too much noise in a performance capture system. There is only one solution to this problem: diving with all crew. “Everyone who works in the tank has to hold their breath.”
To this end, Cameron invited internationally renowned experts to teach the actors and photography team, and the seventy-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, even exceeded 7 minutes and 15 seconds.
According to reports, including actors, photographers, security officers and other staff, there were 200,000 dive records during the entire filming period. At the busiest time, everyone needs to soak in the water for 12 hours in a row.
When the film crew first released the poster, the clear and bright eyes of “Na’vi Girl” amazed many audiences. 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 very big improvement, which is to obtain higher expression fidelity. This is precisely because the film has improved the level of performance capture in all aspects.
When filming “Avatar 2”, the team adopted an upgraded 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 CG Among the roles. “The performance captured now is more authentic than the previous one.”
This set of technology also completely subverts the barriers brought by age and appearance to actors. The character in the film, the 14-year-old girl Kiri, is actually played by the 73-year-old powerful actress Sigourney Weaver. In the movie, Kiri has a light body and a delicate expression, just like a real little girl. People have to admire the blessing of special effects technology to the performance.
New development: “Na’vi” in “Avatar 3” may become a villain
“Avatar 2” has undoubtedly promoted the technological innovation of the industry, and Cameron has once again brought technology to a new level. Next, what new tricks will the “Avatar” series play?
According to media reports, at present, “Avatar 3” has entered the post-production stage, and part of the pre-shooting of “Avatar 4” has also been carried out. The new Na’vi people will be introduced in the third part. Cameron said: “So far, the Na’vi people have been as upright and kind as ever. But in “Avatar 3″, I will turn it all around.”
Currently, the sequels of “Avatar” have been arranged to “Avatar 6” and “Avatar 7”. Cameron said: “In fact, the sixth and seventh films will depend on the reception of the previous films and whether the audience really needs it.”