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#282

Mindblowing work - top notch character designs, and unbelievably breathtaking scenery, you guys created a living breathing world in a way that noone else has come even close to achieving.

But way way above all the amazing scenery is the culture of the Na’vi. All the beautiful imagery is tied together with the richest most vivid and real culture portrayed ever. So much meaning and underlying history oozed out of almost every shot throughout the entire film.

I walked out of that cinema believing pandora was a real place out there somewhere, without question.

I never believed Lord of the Rings trilogy would be knocked off my Number 1 spot for greatest film ever - but you suceeded. I think you should be absolutely proud of working on this film - for me the greatest film ever made.

#283

Hi Scott,

I’m Ben Kuhn, publisher of the French language web site Pixelcreation (www.pixelcreation.fr) dedicated to design, including animation and VFX work. So our Animation 3D VFX section talks about ZBrush as well as Avatar (please go and check for yourself). We’d like to publish a second, more detailed making-of about Avatar, and I’d like to talk about your work as described here. Would you allow us to use some of the visuals in this page to illustrate an article on what you and Legacy Effects did for Avatar? Thanks in advance, and if you have farther info you’d like to sahre with us, please do so.
Best regards,

Ben Kuhn
[email protected]

#284

They had a pretty good image analysis based facial capture solver as it seems, it was even able to track eye movement based on the pupils.
A Joe Letteri interview also mentioned that the software was able to ‘learn’, so whenever an animator corrected the result of the analysis for a certain pose, it was able to do it on its own from that point on.

But even the most advanced can’t capture many things like tongue movement, or scenes where the faces are obscured (kissing) so there was a lot of keyframe animation too. The software can’t fathom emotions and intents so it can only get you so far. Just as body motion capture can’t get you all the way either.

Not to mention all the many hundreds of blendshapes that had to be manually sculpted… so it’s far from automation, it just gets more and more automated help through the way.

#285

Hey Scott, Just wanted to drop in and say Hi since John cut our visit short when Jab and I where in town. Top notch stuff, glad you got to show it off.

Btw didn’t know you did some Zbrush DVD’s, I’ll have to look into that.

Give my regards and congrats to everyone at Legacy for an awesome job on Avatar.

Greg Smith
Troublemaker Studios

#286

The characters look slightly different from those from the film. They must have been reworked, I guess ?

…so you’re working on the sequel now ?

#287

Patton your work is amazing! I’m trying to learn zbrush myself and would love to make a custom Na’vi of myself based on Sam Eye-Chin project 880. Is there any chance you’ve released the model(s) so their available to download for person use? I’d love to have a crack at it! Sadly i’m no way near making something as good as this yet, modifying would be fun though!
If not possible, does anyone know where any free Na’vi-based models are to play with? I loved this movie, i watched it last night and think i’ve become a lil obsessed lol. :+1:

#288

Hello Friends.
I think the work you did on Avatar is seminal, and will influence many
filmmakers and artists. The designs were well thought out and well
executed. The movie is amazing and Stan would be proud of the finished
product, though I’m sure he saw enough material to know how Avatar
would turn out.

#289

They used Image Metrics for the facial animation as far as I know. Involves a camera directly in front of their face capturing all of the movement. So the bulk of it was most likely done automatically by this motion capture software but I’m sure that small nuances were still delt with manually by the animators.

#290

No, it was custom software that they’ve used for the facial solve.

#291

You might want to look into “image modeling” software. I’m going to use AutoDesk Image Modeler but there are a lot more programs out there. And no your not going to get the Models to play with no more than I’m going to get HQ images of MagaTrons crazy sword arm gun!

#292

Hii Patton
excellant work!!! amazing… mind blowing! Y’day I bought the first DVD of yours and it is amazing. really cool! I was wondering is there any way you can provide more references and turnarounds of Neyatri? I was planning to model her!

#293

You talk about not worrying about keeping the models animation friendly because it’s easy to do it later…how exactly do you do it? Retop it in Zbrush?

#294

Tremendous accomplishment Patton. Well deserved credit given. I cannot wait to see the movie.
:+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1:

#295

The movie definitely sucked but the CGI was amazing

#296

wow! what a thread:D

#297

Lol, dunno 'till you ask ^^ I just loved the Na’vi models, totally beautiful :stuck_out_tongue: I’m new to Zbrush aswell as the forums, thought perhaps some of the pro’s share a small portion of work(s) for others less experienced to learn from :slight_smile:
I’m part of a game-mod community that creates free models and skins but can’t make anything like this yet, hopefully one day :wink:
Thanks for your suggestion though i’ll look into AutoDesk too :smiley: Good luck on your crazy sword arm gun :laughing: :+1:

#298

Hi

Im really speechless …for giving any comments for “AVATAR Project”!!!

excellent output!!
“NEYTIRI”…the eexcllnt Chracater…excclnt expressions…body language…
Is “NEYTIRI”…in movie fully CG ?

thank you…

Surajit Sen
India
3D Character Artist-Sculptor-Instructor
[email protected]

#299

I loved the movie and feline elegance of your designs. Convey dignity, humanity and goodness, why should not other directors seem commercial, because they keep bombarding us with smelly alien, threatening and drooling. The captains of industry must think it is more profitable to put that fear, which is what divides us, that promote love and understanding, which is what unites us.

Congratulations, my friend.

#300

Patton, can you share some Banshee alpha/tools you used?

#301

…great artworks – soo cool!