Reams of performance-capture data were gathered this way. The main cast also share their scenes with professional underwater dancers and gymnasts. There were safety divers on hand, and hot tubs for the actors between takes. Kate Winslet proudly holds the cast freediving record: 7 minutes, 14 seconds.įor the occasional propulsive boost in the water, performers wore jetpack like devices.

On top of getting their scuba certification, they trained with a freediving instructor, Kirk Krack. Cast members held their breath, not just during takes but in the moments leading up to a take. Something else that would have inconveniently disrupted the performance capture: actors with their pesky respiratory needs. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which opened Friday, represents a new milestone in the evolution of visual effects technology: underwater performance capture.

“If an actor is genuinely in water, there’s a viscous resistance. “It’s about the credibility of the actor’s performance,” said Richie Baneham, a visual effects supervisor with Cameron’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment.

According to members of Cameron’s crew, the director insisted on “wet-for-wet.” When it came to realising those watery scenes, there would be none of the usual Hollywood “dry-for-wet” performance-capture techniques: actors dangling from wires, feigning weightlessness, making vague swimming motions in the air. The screenplay, which he wrote with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, described many scenes in the water and underwater with a semiaquatic Na’vi clan called the Metkayina. With his long-awaited follow-up to “Avatar,” Cameron set about exploring more of Pandora.

Instal the new for windows Avatar: The Way of Water