Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
carefully designed and constructed virtual sets would form the basis for all stages of production. From proxy sets needed for actors to interact with during performance capture, to partial sets needed for photography, to the data handed off to visual effects partners like Weta FX creating the movie's final shots, our virtual sets formed the main digital backbone of the films. On the physical side of virtual production was the "Zulu" team, led by Rudie Schaefer and Len Barrit, which was responsible for designing, building and turning over the truly extensive array of proxy sets required for the critically important virtual performance capture process, assisted by Bob Carlyle who oversaw construction. While the gray sets built for capture represented only tiny sections of the truly vast virtual worlds which surrounded the action, they were huge in their own right, sometimes filling Avatar's larger 195-foot x 130-foot capture stage and standing thirty feet tall. A new sequels' challenge facing art, stage, construction and a number of talented technical teams, was the requirement for underwater performance capture—an innovative, never-before- attempted technology invented for the films. In this endeavor, we drew on the assistance of excellent, technically minded Art Directors and Set Designers to plan a wide variety of scenery which needed to be methodically installed (and often actuated!) inside the main 90-foot x 40-foot x 20-foot-deep capture tank, custom built for Avatar at MBS. A key method for designing predictable water action in the multipurpose tank, with its wave and river modes among others, was spearheaded by Luke Freeborn. His "similitude" tests used miniature models and slowed video playback to preview and refine our big water gags with great accuracy. Despite all of the technical wizardry on display, sometimes old- fashioned tricks work the best. As touched on, one key element in all things Avatar is New Zealand, where the live-action elements for Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 have been built and filmed. While the original Avatar utilized stages in Wellington, the scope of the sequels' set builds demanded a larger footprint, with work expanding beyond Stone Street Studios into a cavernous new converted warehouse and extending to Kumeu Film Studios in Auckland, where large stages and two large water tanks were employed. Dylan made a A. SULLY MARUI PERFORMANCE CAPTURE PROXY SET. SET PHOTO. GREAT CARE WAS TAKEN BY SET DESIGNER ED SYMON TO WORK OUT ALL THE CURVES OF THE TUBE STEEL SO THEY MATCHED THE VIRTUAL MODEL, ENSURING ACCURATE CONTACTS FOR THE CHARACTERS. B. SULLY MARUI MINIATURE. STAGE PHOTO BY WETA WORKSHOP. INTERIOR VIEW OF THE 14-FOOT-TALL MINIATURE CREATED BY WETA WORKSHOP. C. GORGONIAN CORAL ENVIRONMENT. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY DYLAN COLE. ONE OF THE FIRST PAINTINGS DONE BACK IN 2014 THAT MADE IT INTO THE FINAL FILM. PHOTOSHOP. B A C