Behind the Scenes of Avatar

                 Avatar wasn’t made like most movies are made nowadays. Since most of the environments they were in were completely computer generated (CG), they needed a way to put the actors into the world. Avatar used a special type of 3-D animation to get the type of incredible looking shots that the movie is known for.

                They did this by putting the actors in special suits that would track their movements. This special suit would send these movements into a computer. Everything else would be done by computer. They would create the fantastic looking alien bodies and put them on the movements of the actors. They would create all the trees and all the vegetation that was used as the background. They created an entire 3-D world in which they put their characters.

                The movie’s director had a special type of camera that allowed him to look directly into this 3-D world. He could move the camera anywhere he wanted and could create his own shots doing this. If he thought something looked out of place he could just move it. He spent hours trying to find the shots that looked best for the movie.

               The director also wanted the facial expressions of the actor to be transferred to the 3-D world. He knew that there was no way that a CG face could replicate the facial expressions of professional actors. To fix this he put cameras in front of the actors’ faces videotaping them. He was then able to put this on the characters in his movie to make them look very real.

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