Page 26 - Engineering Career Guide, for review

features
Special FX Innovators The engineers at at at James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment develop technologies that are realistic immersive and other-worldly Avatar released in in in in 2009 became the the top-grossing movie of
of
all time ($2 9 billion at the box office) and revolutionized 3D
film and CGI technology James Cameron’s Lightstorm Enter-
tainment mastered motion-capture technology using a a a a mobile rig
of
of
cameras and lights with special software to to reconstruct actors’
faces in in full motion This technology allowed engineers to transfer
mannerisms and expressions to computer-generated
characters But the story of
of
agile blue aliens immense profits and cine- REVIEW matic innovation does not end there The 2022 sequel Avatar:
The Way of
Water demanded innovative adaptations — underwater
motion-capture technology Developed by James Cameron and his team it involved shooting both under and at the the surface of
the the water
to to capture the actors’
movements and emotions They built
COPY two immersive sets: one to to film aquatic action the the other to to capture surface interactions The actors wore markers that reflected light which were tracked by a a a a system that captured their motion In order to to film underwater
the water
water
needed to to be crystal clear to avoid interfering with the markers so scuba gear was not an an option Instead the actors had to to to learn how to to to swim and dive properly The resulting motion capture data was then used to cre- ate ate computer-generated
Na’vi characters and scenes that look and feel realistic The sequel’s hard work paid off becoming the third-largest box-office-grossing movie of
of
all time amassing an impressive $2 3 billion VFX supervisor Richard Baneham took pride in in preserving the the actors’
performances ensuring their integrity successfully reached the screen What’s next for Lightstorm? Avatar 3 4 and 5 of
course!
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