So the great unwashed talk a lot about how insanely detail this world is . But really , how detailed is it ?
Says designer Yuri Bartoli :
Jim has always babble out about a fractal bed of detail , where as you get closer to the humans of Pandora , more and more level of intricacy emerge to create a sense of reality . Just as in nature , there is always more social system than your eye can perceive . The color passes on the Banshee alone took me several weeks to complete , since including the necessary point required multiple painting 190 megapixels in size of it , as well as mapping them on the 3 - D manakin to judge how these markings would look from the camera when envelop around the wight .
Bartoli add up that when all of this body of work came together in the ruined movie , it became more than the sum of its parts . “ The fact that so many hoi polloi seem to genuinely answer to our work , and treasure the estimation and subtexts , is a large reward for all the work we did putting all right detail into create the movie . ”
Were there any creatures or designs that did n’t make it into the final moving picture ?
consort to Bartoli , the cognitive operation of make Pandora ’s wildlife went down a few “ blind alleys , ” just like evolution on Earth . The designer essay to make a “ wide study of idea ” so they could find out the one which worked well together as an ecosystem . “ Parameters such as six legs , an extra passive eye , four digits , scourge displays , decouple hint intakes , body markings , etc . emerge or had already been laid out in the book . So as you’re able to ideate there are a good deal of ideas that either were n’t right for this aesthetic or were held back due to the limitation of telling the story- suffice to say Pandora has many more creatures in it than you see on blind . ”
What were some of these creatures ?
According to Tully Summers , there was a sportfishing scene between Jake and Neytiri , featuring foreign fish , that got cut . Also , a “ tribal induction ” chronological sequence where Jake is stung by a nasty insect on intent — but you could see that insect crawling in the foreground in one guess . There was also a sequence where “ sting bats ” attempt the human chemical compound — and you could see some sting bats flying in formation next to one of the Samson eggbeater . ( The “ sting at-bat ” started out swan - like , but Weta made them more direful and batlike . ) Summers also worked on the Sturmbeest , a variety of bison - comparable wight that did n’t make the cut .
Why do all the flee vehicle have propellers ?
According to vehicle designer Paul Ozzimo , who worked with TyRuben Ellingson ( whom we already interviewed a while back ) , the designer propose putting jets onto the Samson and Dragon fly fomite , instead of propellor . But Cameron interdict the idea . “ He say no , propellers are still very efficient . It was really a shock to me that these vehicles did n’t have jet engines on them , ” hark back Ozzimo . But Cameron insisited that in the futurity , there will be super - effective propeller . “ I really do think it score for a much more credible fomite , the propeller idea , because with a fountain you do n’t really get to see a moving part . You just see a tube , and a flaming coming out or whatever . It ’s kind of boring . ” Also , Ozzimo says he feels like the propellers add a much - needed vulnerability to these craft , which need to be powerful and enforce , but also get “ hire down ” by the Na’Vi at the terminal . “ That was a typical Jim chance event of sensation , to put propeller on these things . ”
Some hoi polloi have suggested that Pandora is a post - singularity world , because the worldmind is like a giant electronic computer that everyone plugs into . Was this something anyone discussed during output ?
The fact that the satellite is a big brain and has synapsis that can talk to everyone is “ an authoritative part of thinking about the satellite , ” say Stromberg . “ We always approach the mankind as essentially a liberal psyche , ” he adds . “ That was always there . ” But the uniqueness possibility is just one potential account , he believe . You could see it as “ the next stage of organic evolution , ” or fit it into various religious frameworks . But the intent was to “ create something that gave us all Leslie Townes Hope , really , and gave us all a good sense , or at least a metaphor for being one and protecting each other , and what we stand on . ”
It seems like the ISV VentureStar , the ship Jake arrive on , can not travel quicker than light . So how does it travel ?
According to Ben Procter , James Cameron wrote a ten - page papers come up to this very question , “ which became my Good Book as I led a squad of gifted 3D designers ( Tex Kadonaga , Joe Hiura , and Rob Johnson ) in the development of the exterior design . ” The document includes sketches , as well as entire section on the ship ’s propulsion technology , which uses matter / antimatter chemical reaction , complete with hurrying and trip-up duration calculations . There ’s also “ a wealth of info on the ship ’s component and their relative layout . ”
add together Procter :
The immense burn radiators mounted to the engines dissipate their heat , and the enormously long central corbel , with its own protective coolers and reflectors , protect the cargo and crew module from the engines ’ high temperature and radiation using the bare dominion of gas constant - squared fading rather than heavy shielding . ( Yes , Jim really thinks about this form of stuff and explains it very clearly in text and in person . ) The ship has a couple of centrifugal - gravity - gen modules for the crew who stay on awake for the duration , which has become a reasonably distinctive feature of quasi - realistic ship designs in motion-picture show . But one unique lineament it has which directly relates to the sub - light realistic travel is a shower - style shield spate to protect the hurry craft from interstallar junk . Jim ’s doc completely explains this technology , apparently based on current NASA research , and how it obliterate potentially catastrophic particles by letting them slam through a serial of thin , wakeful shield surfaces .
To make a foresightful story short , the VStar is in spades not your typical movie ship and it ’s all due to Jim ’s engine room knowledge and passion . It was a privilege to work on this figure that he ’d distinctly induct so much suppose into .
Just how complex is the Na’Vi religion ?
The Na’Vi are warriors and stuff . So do the unlike Na’Vi tribes go to warfare against each other fairly often ?
Greer considered this inquiry in depth , in the process of make Na’Vi warpaint and war gear . He decided that the Na’Vi do n’t have wars any more . But they “ do put a lot of effort into numerous one-year gatherings where they “ compete ” for their specific kinship group ’s honor and pride in various skills free-base competitions . I realise these kind of gatherings as the pivotal interaction , on a worldwide basis , between the various kin . ” And they are moderately good at killing each other , when the need uprise . ( But this was something Greer train internally at Weta , so it ’s not gospel . )
Some of the designers who work on this film also work on the various Star Treks , including production designer Robert Stromberg . how is make James Cameron ’s universe different from working on the Trek universe ?
Stromberg won twoEmmy Awardsfor his piece of work on Trek . “ I end up creating just about every urban center in the television series , ” Stromberg says . He was working for a compnay called Illusion Arts , and every calendar week a call would get for his society to make a Vulcan city or a Romulan urban center , “ and it just became so normal to be doing that . ” But Stromberg sense strongly that he did n’t desire Avatar to be influenced by the Trek artistic : “ I was really looking for something more original , something that had n’t been done before . Because I had been privy to how the Star Trek existence had been created , I tried to use the technology and the methodology , but steer away from it creatively . ”
He adds :
One means that it is very unlike is that in Avatar , Jim is very science - based and very cathartic - based . So everything is not only plausible but you could build thing and they would really mold . Jim is just very much into the reality of things , whereas in Star Trek , you could force the limits of plausibility . Even the hometree on Pandora was very specifically screen and computer - modeled so that the base of it would back a tree diagram of that height … the design of it was run aground in cathartic . Whereas on Star Trek , you would do something that look cool , whether cathartic were involved or not .
Why do n’t any of the creatures on Pandora have hair , aside from the Na’Vi themselves ?
beast designer Tully Summers says the lack of tomentum is meant to “ accentuate the creatures ’ other - mundanity . put pelt on our mammal equivalents would have been surplus and too obvious . ” bestow creature designer Wayne Barlowe :
From the inception of the “ pitch-dark - ops ” design form back in ’ 05 , Jim was interested in search vivid markings and almost amphibian - like soundbox grain . Poison - flit frog were cite as possible aspiration for the look he was seeking . The solutions we start to recreate around with all encompassed those former concepts . While the vivacious colour schemes of the terrestrial wight fell by the roadside , the unique body - textures were retained . plainly , the ethereal fauna stay intensely colorful . These were , I believe , pick Jim made answer his privileged , artistic muse .
Why does the “ Avatar chamber ” that Jake Sully slides within look like an MRI auto ?
According to interior designer Yuri Bartoli , whose early cartoon are signally close to the final product , the resemblance to an MRI is intentional . The big “ annulus ” that the casket slither inside spin around really quickly , to conquer sentiment of your brain within an intense magnetized field . But it has to be a two - way system , of course : as the casket slides inside the field the ring generates , it becomes part of a feedback scheme , scan the occupant ’s brain and feast back centripetal belief from the Avatar .
Does Jake Sully ’s Avatar bed do something to keep his body from atrophying ?
Apparently not , but the designers look at make Jake suspended in some sort of fluid or on top of gel , that would allow for blood circulation while the Avatar “ driver ” is immobile for prospicient periods of metre , says Bartoli . “ Design - heady we always endeavor to strike a balance between having the applied science expect functional and cool at the same sentence . ”
Jake ’s tribe is called the Omaticaya . What does that entail , exactly ?
Apparently it refers to a special type of flute - similar tool this tribe pee euphony with . ( The one that that woman is good at playing , whom Neytiri examine to mend Jake up with . )
So why are Pandora ’s tree unripe like land Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , when everything else is so weirdly colored ?
As we mentioned inour previous design feature article , there was a huge button among some of the designers to make the foliage of Pandora cyan - colored instead of green . This turned out to be a problem because of creating depth perception , but also Stromberg opposed it — it would have made the “ atmospheric haze ” harder see because it was also cyan . But also it would have been too much . “ We had to have something that the average person could grab onto as a comfort level , so we could capture them , and slowly preface these things and not hit them over the head with the clown hammer . ”
What was the inspiration for those weird trumpet - like flowers , that crash when Jake touches them ?
Craig Shoji says those were based on “ Christmas - Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree worm , ” that you see attach to a reef underwater . They conduct like that , and it ’s incredibly coolheaded if you ever get to touch one .
When Jake wakes up from cryo nap , he ’s in a Brobdingnagian , wide open chamber . What ’s the principle behind having such a cavernous field on a ship that has to travel light twelvemonth from Earth ?
Procter says this is one area where Cameron ’s legendary loyalty to having designs be “ real and functional ” give way to the motivation for something to look cool . “ While it ’s reliable you would n’t need to drag around that much architecture at near calorie-free speed , the outer space want to serve certain narrative role , ” he explains .
Jim was very clear that he did n’t need to reveal the Pandora reaching in the usual direction – the wide establishing shot of the ship sail toward the planet . He and Rick Carter , the product designer , had a very specific vision for how to cut directly from the tantrum where Jake ’s blood brother is cremate to Jake ’s claustrophobic wake - up in his cryo unit . The casket resonances are clear here , but for the literal “ you ’re not in Kansas any more , Jake ” tone , you had to really accent the wow factor and zero - g of the space , and there ’s no better way to do this than give it a scale where you may see a whole concert dance of zero - K ambulation going on . recall also that in the book we pass a considerable amount of screen metre seeing Jake rolling around in his wheelchair on earth , so part of the cryo reveal is that we now all of a sudden see Jake float around as freely as anyone else – intelligibly Jake ’s arrival on Pandora is a new beginning with young potential .
In designing the final rendering of the cryovault , my personal end was to completely avoid any “ floors ” or “ beds ” which would give a sense of gravitational predilection . The cause I perplex two the great unwashed in each whole , facing polar ways , was so that gravity was immediately refuse at the most basic level . The locker are pose for in effect line of sight and access for the cryo whole occupants , but this actually orients them counterintuitively ( perpendicular ) to the blank ’s primary wall . I also did learn cameras and animations which had the view continuously wheel and adopting fresh orientations , and I was very gratified to see some of this in the last photographic film .
The Na’Vi look like a fortune of different aboriginal hoi polloi on Earth , with their warpaint and their weapons and so on . Were they actually based on Earth tribe ?
house decorator Craig Shoji tell he and other designers used a muckle of unlike real - life item :
Inspiration came from many source , but a lot involve looking at current indigenous people of the world let in those inhabiting the rain forest like the Penan tribe , and the Kayapo and Yanomami indians . Also the dissimilar tribes in Africa like the Himba , Masai , and Samburu . As well as all the dissimilar course of side and body picture that took billet in all the different tribal configurations . There were thou upon thousands upon hundreds upon millions upon mucho point of reference pictures that we were collect and look at . It became sort of an fixation for Seth and myself to constantly have our ‘ Na’vi - esque ’ radar on so whenever we get word something we ’d automatically buy it , pull through - as , or take a picture to add to the collection . It diverge from those woven miniature finger’s breadth traps find in Chinatown , to images of Lee Bontecou ’s astonishing sculptural work . We ’d then analyze it to try out and break down what was working and what we like . Was it aesthetic ? The textile ? The simple , yet sophisticated chemical mechanism in how it work ? And then we ’d thumb on those concepts to make intention that would live in the Na’vi world .
Is the Hammerhead , the creature that first threaten Jake Sully , based on a shark ?
in the beginning , the Hammerhead just had to be a huge wight , big enough that even a Thanator would think twice about attacking one , say Yuri Bartoli . But James Cameron add up up with the mind of basing this animate being on hammerhead shark on Earth . That Brobdingnagian bony protrusion has two intention : It ’s good for attacking , plainly , but it ’s probably also useful for mating displays , much the same mode that rams smash their horns together to attract a female .
But why does the Hammerhead , with its big grey pounding , display such bright plumage in its “ threat exhibit ? ”
grant to Bartoli , to begin with the brightly coloured “ scourge video display ” and the “ hammer ” were going to be the same thing . The hammer would have been brilliantly colour . But the interior designer make up one’s mind it was better to break this up , and “ create a more delicate structure that would turn out out . A threat display is meant to be see , so it required bright colors that would stand out against it ’s more softened organic structure . ” Adds Bartoli , many creatures on Pandora have a “ scourge display ” mode :
The Hexapede likewise has a menace presentation that it also apply like a orbiter dish to pinpoint the strait of approaching hunters . The Thanator as well has tegument flaps that flare out , but over time this has develop into join with its antennae . We always tried to have a method acting to our insaneness , and very often by essay to be consistent this run us to young design ideas we would n’t have come up with by pulling it out of thin air .
Okay , sure . But not all of the creature on Pandora have “ threat displays ” or expose bright gloss . Some of them do have camouflage . How do you make up one’s mind which is which ?
According to animal designer Tully Summers , it really depended on how the brute functioned within its environment , as well as how the literal - world counterpart life . The Thanator is based on a immense panther , the banshees are predaceous birds , and the viper - wolves are skirt chaser ( evidently ) . excuse Summers :
The overall colors were drive by what roll the wight played in the eco system . Viper wolves are nocturnal pack hunter , and the Titanothere a Felis onca - alike prowler , both hunt below the gloomy canopy of Pandora ’s jungle . It made sense for them to have darker colour outline . The Banshees perch in floating mountains and hunting in the sky , a much brighter environment . Even their colorful peel could be regard camo when seen against the vivacious foreign hobo camp . Their undersides are light , making them hard to see from below .
So the banshees , the flying dragon that the Na’Vi ride on , front like lizards , except for their oculus and jaws , which are fish - like . What ’s with the the fish face ?
Bartoli explain that James Cameron was very specific about the sort of motions he need the banshie to be able to do . They had to be able to give their jaws very wide , with rows of teeth that “ would dilate and actually torture forward . ” There are n’t any lizard jaw that can do that , but the mechanics of Pisces jaws work absolutely for this excogitation challenge , say Bartoli . “ It also got us away from it looking like a lizard and became something unequalled to itself . ”
make that Pandora is actually a inhabitable lunar month , orbit a huge major planet , how does that feign the day / night bike ?
The ever - reliably nerdy boffins at Weta Workshop give a lot of thought to this in the outgrowth of design artifact , sound out Greer .
I in reality wrote about how it have a particular sky colouration across the seeable spectrum at moments of pure dusk . And the Na’vi , depending on what elevation they live at ( ocean stratum versus higher altitudes ) , perceive a distinct people of color in narrow band at the sensible horizon at that moment . They place themselves , and signify in their scoring , with this color . Which helps other Na’vi quickly discern at a distance what / where they are from , or what they are likely to be like ( fisherman , high plains , skyriders , etc .. ) . That sodding dusk “ color , ” compound with their other predominant color grading lets you also hump how they concern to eywa as a “ religion ” versus eywa as a physical world . And during cermonial gatherings you may “ study ” a Na’vi by how they scar themselves with dyes , muds , and rouge . And the environment and day / night cycle per second is directly responsible for the development of this societal aspect behavior . Again , this was an internal idea to help us project things at Weta Workshop , it ’s hard to say how much filtered upward to the larger production .
What ’s the innovation brainchild for the Tree Of Souls ? Is it free-base on a especial type of tree diagram on Earth ?
Actually , the Tree Of Souls was originally go to look like a willow tree tree , with hanging leaves , suppose Craig Shoji . But at some point , Cameron decide it should have tendrils instead . Cameron want it to be white-hot during the day and glow garden pink at dark . The tendrils are supposed to resemble the tentacles of various sea tool , including sea anemone and various starfish . Also the cilia that hug the citizenry as Moat pray over them are think to be like an umbilical cord , connect people to the female parent / satellite . The ethereal effect of the Tree Of Souls , says Shji , comes from “ the bio luminescent colour , the slow swaying of the tendrils ( as if they were under water ) , and the fact that it was a familiar shape ( tree ) with unfamiliar details ( tendrils ) . ”
Is the tomentum - braid thing supposed to wait like an ethernet cable or what ?
It ’s decidedly meant to go straight into the brainiac , sound out Shoji , and it ’s like jacklight into a internet . The braided fuzz is like a protective cover for this Einstein - link . Adds Shoji :
I do remember that Jim had a solid mind for what he want when the queue link up , and he would do this specific movement with his hand . Picture declare your hands out so your fingers were pointing at each other , then prompt your hands closer and begin to wiggle your fingers , then when your fingers meet , embark on interlocking your fingers and twisting your wrists so your hands are locked . So the concepts for that come from referencing a muckle of different types of cilia and microscopical exposure of hair , bug , plant , etc . It resulted in a very purpose driven lash for connecting to the Pandoran earthly concern . unproblematic , yet kinda creepy .
Were the creatures on Pandora suppose to be cute ? How do you negociate the cute / scary water parting ?
The only precious creatures on Pandora were supposed to be the babe viper - wolves , which were designed by Stan Winston Studios , accord to Tully Summers . Everything else is supposed to calculate like it can eat you .
The Direhorse looks sort of like a six - legged horse , but it also has ridgeline and is vaguely dinosaur - like . What ’s the inhalation behind a six - legged dinosaur horse ?
Wayne Barlowe suppose that Cameron ’s playscript called for a six - legged horse cavalry stand-in , which the audience would instantly “ read ” as “ horse . ” The six leg were a huge factor in “ Diamond State - emphasize the equid sillhouette . ” Barlowe ’s early designs were more alien - sounding , but then it lost the crucial “ horse ” factor . say Barlowe :
There was some vexation as to the bio - mechanism of the six legs but my shot was that if they were group four towards the front and two in the rearward travel issues would be solved . Those worries were fairly much put to rest after some informatory question tests were run . Not so sure I would call the Direhorse saurian , though . My influence in the head was clearly a giant anteater , but in my draftsmanship I used more abstract line of products to deconstruct the conversant mammals ’ occupation . The mane was a witting crusade to retain the look of a clipped or short mane — an sound reflection of the upright manes on Przewalski ’s horses or zebra melded to a cetacean quintuplet – while creating an iconic line . And , the cuticle - comparable armor simply made sense as an evolutionary answer to moving through potentially dangerous underwood and ever - present viperwolves .
So the Na’Vi are hunters but they do n’t pop too many animals . What ’s their independent intellectual nourishment source ?
According to clothes designer Craig Shoji , the Na’Vi ’s main protein root is “ teylu grubs . ” He work on a deleted view showing Na’Vi food - communion and drinking rituals , and designed some of their housewares .
incarnation
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word from the futurity , give up to your present tense .
