MAKING WAVES

Wētā FX explains what went into the making of Disney's box office sensation Avatar: The Way of Water

The first Avatar film, released in December 2009, has since become the highest-grossing box office film of all time. Its closest competitor, Avengers: Endgame, came close to surpassing it, but has so far fallen short.

For years, the film world has eagerly awaited the sequel to Avatar, keen to find out if it would ever be able to surpass its predecessor. At time of writing, after a handful of months in the cinemas, Avatar: The Way of Water has risen to third in the box office rankings; a position that falls short of the first film, but is still an admirable feat.

To think that James Cameron has managed to create so many films with such appeal is nothing short of incredible. But it’s not just Cameron who deserves the praise, as countless others have enabled these bold visions to be realised.

One team that has contributed significantly is that of Weta FX, a 2021 acquisition by Unity. A group of talented creatives, they have gone over and above to deliver a new standard of visual effects to the movie industry. We caught up with Unity’s senior vice president of Weta tools Allan Poore, and principal research scientists Alexey Skolyarov and BK Choi to discuss Weta’s work on the film.

3D World: What role did artificial intelligence (AI) play in making the VFX sequences in this film achievable?

AI was utilised in the film to automate certain processes in the visual effects pipeline, specifically in animating the skin of the characters and transferring the facial motion-captured data onto the Na’vi characters.