Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
Every element needed to be designed in its entirety to fit into the creative vision and virtual production pipeline, and then certain facets and subcomponents (sometimes small, often huge) were selected out for extensive VFX detailing or live-action construction/fabrication. But what was the creative vision? The design needed to convey that the RDA is returning to Pandora with a vengeance. Jim suggested the RDA should "go big or go home," and the Art Department strove to find shapes, motifs and engineering for our tech designs which would express both the enlarged scale of the operation and a next-generation, "not messing around this time" vibe. We leaned into the first Avatar's brutalist geometries, but also expanded the palette to suggest an angularized kind of animal athleticism, particularly in our vehicles. Where the human world of the first Avatar was marked by gray concrete tones and dusty olive drab, we embraced color this time around to give the RDA world some aggressive sportiness and evoke the unrestrained use of color in real-world heavy maritime equipment. In all of our endeavors, we constantly kept an eye to believable details which would ground our sci- fi designs, but also looked directly to nature for inspiration as we adapted RDA assets to Pandora. The SeaDragon whaling mothership takes formal cues from both manta rays and whale sharks; though it may be a 400-foot aluminum work ship, it needed to look like a beast of the sea just like its prey, the beleaguered tulkun. We also endowed the new Kestrel helo with bulbous canopies which C D A A. BRIDGEHEAD OPS CENTER. ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL OZZIMO. B. KESTREL. LOOKDEV ILLUSTRATION. BY JONATHAN BERUBE BASED ON HAISU WANG'S 3D DESIGN AND BEN PROCTER'S CONCEPT. C. KESTREL INTERIOR. SET PHOTO. D. CRAB SUIT. ILLUSTRATION BY FAUSTO DE MARTINI BASED ON DAVID LEVY CONCEPT. B