Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
Elliott to ensure that our design was coherent across wardrobe, props and architecture. Our close partnerships with Weta FX and ILM gave us the opportunity to collaborate on the refinement of sets, creatures, vehicles and props; drawing on years of shared understanding to achieve consistency and nuance. It bears repeating that Avatar films are not produced like animated features; they are, as Jim says, "live-action films by other means." Every performance is physically captured, placing substantial demands on our built environments and proxy sets. Production followed a dual-track pattern: performance capture in Los Angeles (led by Rudie Schaefer) and live-action photography in New Zealand. We developed a large library of virtual environments and live-action sets, deployed as required in interleaved blocks of capture and photography. Even the proxy sets used for performance capture were designed and constructed with precision so that actors could navigate the world naturally, regardless of how fantastical the final digital environments may be. The Way of Water and Fire and Ash were shot concurrently, and our crew often supported scenes from both films in a single day. Pandoran Design Notes from Dylan: The Windtraders I first heard about the Windtraders more than twelve years ago, in my very first meeting with our amazing and recently departed producer, Jon Landau. He read a passage from Jim's early notes describing nomadic sky traders drifting across Pandora at sunset, their Medusoids glowing like paper lanterns. That image inspired me, I wanted to design them immediately. To ground this new clan, we looked to several nomadic cultures—primarily Bedouin and Romani, in addition to the Beja, Turkana and Aghori—studying how identity is carried not just in architecture but also in objects, textiles and color. We reserved earth-rich palettes and deep burgundies for the Windtraders, in contrast to the oceanic cyans, greens and yellows of the Metkayina. Structurally, their gondola shares fundamental logic with other Na'vi architecture: rattan-like materials, bent cane structures supporting woven membranes and tension-based engineering. A. WINDTRADER GONDOLA PROXY SET BUILT AT MANHATTAN BEACH STUDIOS, FILLING STAGE 27. THIS WAS OUR LARGEST CAPTURE BUILD AND WAS ABLE TO ACCOMMODATE MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ACTION ON THE MAIN DECK, BELOW DECKS AND PARTIAL RIGGING. B. WINDTRADER GONDOLA ART DEPT. 3D MODEL RENDER. THIS DETAIL OF THE MAIN DECK TO BELOW DECK TRANSITION IS A RENDER OF THE MODEL CREATED BY JONATHAN BACH IN GRAVITY SKETCH AND CINEMA 4D. A B C