Standing in Lightstorm’s version of “the Volume,” where the Avatar films are performed and shot, the team behind James Cameron’s sci-fi saga proves they deserve little gold man is proudly on display. The Avatar team took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects at this year’s ceremony — in part for their help crafting a new cinematic language to create the world of Pandora — work that Inverse, along with a small handful of journalists, got to see with our own eyes.
On a traditional soundstage equipped with a hundred tiny infrared cameras, visual effects supervisor Richard Baneham breaks down how, exactly, practical action informs the surreal wonder of this franchise. It’s not easy to get one’s head around, which makes the new special features rolling out with Fire & Ash’s digital release — like a mini-doc that goes deep on the science of performance capture — so appreciated. But even the SparkNotes version of their process justifies the years-long gap between sequels.
