Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14320
■ ■ ■ ■ Visual Effects The question is: If the natural elements in a fi lm must behave in an unnatural way, how can a director and visual eff ects supervisor keep the visual eff ects from becoming the star of the fi lm? “Night struck the word ‘magic’ out of our vocabulary,” answers Industrial Light & Magic’s visual eff ects supervisor Pablo Helman, referring to M. Night Shyamalan, who directed T e Last Airbender. T e Paramount Pictures fi lm, an adaptation of the animated television series Avatar: T e Last Airbender, tells the story of Aang (Noah Ringer), who lives in a world where “benders” can control the elements fi re, earth, air, and water. As the story begins, the Fire Nation has torn this world apart, and 12-year-old Aang, an avatar and the last known Airbender, must restore balance. Only an avatar can control all these elements, but Aang must learn how. “Night [Shyamalan] came to ILM and talked to the crew about the spiritual- ity behind why things moved,” Helman says. “Directors don’t often come and talk to the crew, but it was really important for him that they knew this wasn’t magic. It wasn’t a fantasy. It was a grounded story. If a soldier, a Firebender, moved fi re from one place to another, it took energy to do that. It wasn’t a magic trick. I think that aff ected the work.” T at work included re-creating the animated fi re, water, air, and earth bend- ing from the animated series as realistic elements, turning cartoon animals into believable live-action creatures, and creating mythical environments. To do this, ILM created new technology for simulating fi re and controlling water, helped Shyamalan direct the animated characters, and refi ned the studio’s system for creating digital doubles. ILM’s work began two years before the fi lm released. “Our task was to come up with images that no one has seen before,” Helman says, “which means we haven’t seen them, either. So, we didn’t have technology in place to do the fi lm, but then, we never do. We know we can come up with the solution because we have the resources.” All told, ILM created 500 shots for the fi lm; the shots encompass more than an hour of screen time. “T is movie more than any other was about screen time, because the shots are not short,” Helman says. “For this director, it’s about the camera moving around and connecting one character to another. We had one shot that was four and a half minutes long with earth and fi re bending. We had to create all the elements. Take things out. Put things in. Matchmove. Particle work. Just imagine what it’s like to manage 7000 frames, and that’s only the plate.” Because the studio didn’t know what it looked like to bend fi re, air, earth, and water, how a six-legged creature would move, how a fl ying lemur could fold its wings, and so forth, the art department began working on concept art early to judge scale, color, temperature, mood, tone, composition, and distribu- tion of shapes. “We produced more artwork than any show I’ve worked on,” Helman says. First, the elements. 26 July 2010