Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
Concept Art Directors.) Lead character designer Joe Pepe was also diving into his realm alongside artists from Legacy FX and Weta Workshop, who contributed heavily to early character and creature concepting. It was a heady time, with all the artists embedding themselves into Jim's vision in order to reveal it, working on designs across ALL the planned sequels. The small team embraced Jim's desire to underpin every element of his new and expanded Avatar world in existing sciences and studies—marine biology, anthropology, indigenous handicrafts, astrophysics and heavy engineering, to name a few. Reviews were informal and conversational, with an exciting energy of brainstorming and discovery. Jim was our guide as we all explored and discovered this world together. As the practical requirements of putting all this design into action presented themselves, the artistic group expanded into a full-blown Art Department of the highest caliber, soon joined by an equally adept sister department in New Zealand. Supervising Art Directors Luke Freeborn and Aashrita Kamath were brought on to wrangle the enormous challenges of ramping up such a group and applying its energies to the needs of a complex and ever-evolving production. At its peak, the LA Art Department comprised forty people, while in NZ the total crew of the Art Department and set decoration department reached forty-four, hired and supervised by the incredible eyes and brains of Kim Sinclair (Supervising Art Director), Neil Kirkland (construction supervisor) and Vanessa Cole (set decorator). On the side of props design and fabrication, we were fortunate to have Brad Elliott leading the charge across both continents, with Melissa Spicer giving vital support in New Zealand. Though virtual production is more common now, Avatar had its unique challenges with the sheer scale and quantity of the extensive scenery built for both the virtual and practical realms. On the virtual side, we worked in the digital trenches with a tirelessly dedicated team of virtual production specialists, supervised by Dean Lewandowski and Motoki Nishii, who built the innumerable environments, characters, creatures, vehicles and other assets into layouts which could run in real time on Avatar's multiple virtual production stages. This enabled a "virtual scouting" process where Jim could evaluate and edit layouts using his virtual camera and live performers. Our E. SULLY MARUI. DIGITAL MODEL BY KEVIN LOO IN RHINO BASED ON A DESIGN/MODEL BY JONATHAN BACH. F. UNDERWATER IN THE LAGOON. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY DYLAN COLE OVER A VIRTUAL SET ROUGH LAYOUT. PHOTOSHOP. G. SULLY MARUI. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY JONATHAN BACH. PHOTOSHOP OVER VIRTUAL SET LAYOUT. F G