Concept Art: ‘Avatar’ [UPDATED!]
Posted by Brian on 06/23/2009
Source: MarketSaw
UPDATE: I want to point you all in the direction of a first hand impression of the James Cameron footage that was screened. What he’s describing is what it felt like to read the decade old scriptment. This is ten years on with WETA Digital at James Cameron’s disposal, so we’re well beyond ‘excitement’ at this point.
The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw. [Cameron] is so proud of this movie and still handles it with great suave like he just folded a paper plane. I am just mindbaffled how a genius like that can contain himself with something like this.
This movie will change the industry. It can now enable me to play a character in a studio, then to be transferred into something different on screen so an audience will believe I am that different character. This is not the Polar Express style ‘change of character’. This will enable actors to act without them being cast on looks, but on bodylanguage from now on. [Source]
Comic-Con! Comic-Con! Comic-Con! PLEASE JAMES CAMERON BRING YOUR FOOTAGE TO COMIC-CON SO IT CAN BE BOOTLEGGED AND PUT ONLINE IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS!
Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, James Cameron along with cast-members Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang debuted 24 MINUTES OF FOOTAGE (!) from Avatar. While the general consensus has been “Holy shit, my eyes!” and sustained applause, people are using phrases like “stunning, literally jawdropping. Amazing visuals unlike any before seen, with incredible detail.” The footage was premiered at CineExpo in Amsterdam and while practically everyone was sworn to secrecy, a couple of shots of Avatar concept art from the after-party have shown up online.
We’ve seen concept art before but this, to my knowledge, is the latest to give us an honest-to-god look at what James Cameron is trying to create. The last time I was seriously blown away by special effects, and I’m talking jaw on the floor, was Termintator 2: Judgement Day when the T-1000 walked out of those flames, and morphed back into Robert Patrick. From that moment forward, I needed to know how every special effect was done. I don’t know if it’ll be at all the same, but: This. Looks. Friggin. Gorgeous. Decemember can’t get here soon enough.
