To put this in perspective, “Titanic” required 2 terabytes to create (and sink) the ship and its thousands of passengers, about 1/500th the amount used for Avatar.

In addition to all this complexity, Avatar was made in stereoscopic 3D.  So not only did WETA need to work in 3D in creating their CG scenes (as did the other visual effects vendors such as ILM), but the live action scenes would need to be shot in 3D as well. 

For this Cameron used the Fusion Camera System, which he had co-developed with Vince Pace.  It took seven years of development to create the Fusion system, which is the world’s most advanced stereoscopic camera system.  The cameras performed flawlessly on the set of Avatar, allowing the live action scenes to merge smoothly with the CG scenes into a unified whole.

Because of the many layers of technology developed specifically for this project, Avatar was by far the most challenging of all of Cameron’s films to date.  The filmmakers found themselves in uncharted territory, figuring out the answers as they went along.  

Eighteen months were spent developing the performance capture “pipeline” before a single scene was captured with the cast. “I’ve always tried to push the envelope,” Cameron points out,  “But this time it pushed back.  So we had to push harder.  I liken the experience of making Avatar to jumping off a cliff and knitting the parachute on the way down.” 

But these revolutionary technologies are just tools in the filmmaker’s  “toolbox,” and are always in the service of the story, emotion and characters.  Says producer Jon Landau: “Ultimately, the audience’s reaction to Avatar is not going to be about the technology; it’s going to be about the characters and story Jim created. 

The technology allows Jim to tell a story that otherwise couldn’t be told.”  Adds Cameron: “It always boils down to this question: Is it a good story? Ultimately the discussion is going to be about the characters – alien and human – and their journeys.”

Landau compares Cameron’s use of these groundbreaking tools in Avatar to the way he used then-cutting-edge advances in his Best Picture Oscar-winning “Titanic.”  “On ‘Titanic’ Jim used visual effects to make people feel like a part of history; on Avatar, he is using new technology to transport people into the future to another world.”

Cameron notes, “The technology is at such a high level that it disappears, leaving only the magic… the feeling that you’re really there, and that the story, the characters, the emotions are real.”

Avatar is released 17th December.

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