It’s common knowledge now that most of the special effects in Avatar were done by Weta, although new information says that Weta found themselves a bit over their head and had to turn to other studios, namely ILM, to help them keep the deadline. An article on CBS4 discusses how the two studios worked together both competitively and cooperatively to bring the masterpiece to the screen.
Still, with both houses working in parallel, there was certainly a bit of a race to finish a shot, Knoll said, because the team that was fastest would be able to more or less set the tone for the whole scene. “Whoever gets there first is who drives it,” he said.
“For example, in the home tree sequence, we have to fire a bunch of missiles,” Knoll recalled. “[There wasn’t] anything established for what the missile trails look like. We did our own version of the what [they] would look like and Jim liked it, so that's what Weta had to match.”
Of course, in other cases, Weta would finish first, and ILM would have to match what the New Zealanders came up with. And in some cases, it was a bit of “splitting the difference,” Knoll said. Ultimately, he added, he hopes that audience members won’t be able to tell that two separate visual effects teams shared the work.
not trying to fuel the fire here but if you compare Star War prequels to the Lord of the Rings trilogy its pretty clear to anyone that Weta was far superior with the CG. I mean, seriously, Gollum or Jar Jar? and before anyone says anything.. Attack of the Clones and Two Towers both came out in 2002. Now since then ILM has caught up (or arguable surpassed Weta) and their work on Pirates of the Caribbean is the best CGI I’ve ever seen. Seriously, Davy Jones and company were AMAZING! They’re both amazing FX houses and a little friendly competition is great for everyone. It keeps everybody on their “A game” and we the audience reap the benefits. Just watch Avatar and the CG was amazing! So cheers to both ILM and Weta! 🙂
@humouriss
Everybody knows that those Weta folks are all american (most of them formerly working for ilm). They`ve just moved down there.
@ humouriss
Why is it that people like you have such an inferiority complex? New Zealand is certainly a wonderful place, great nature, super-Maori-whatever. So why not give credit, where credit is due? If some company in some other country did something for Avatar, let them have their share of fame. Be cool about it. Believe me, ILM certainly has no problem with a competitor as Weta. The world is big enough for some more of those.
Ah, and *my* friend hast 16 years of .. ah .. nothing. I don’t need to bolster my opinion with any friends. Fake or not.
You know what they say about people desperately trying to compare everything to Hitler to win an argument? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law)
Man, I’m sorry for you. Your true warrior Maori friends would be ashamed of you. Try to be cool. At least try.
Bravo to WETA! They did an incredible job with “Avatar”. After their phenomenol job on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, there was little doubt they could match and even surpass their work.
One of my best friends of the last 16 years is one of the lead devs in a particular department of Weta Digital, and he told me to check out what was being said by the American media in regards to ILM’s involvement in the Avatar project. I couldnt help but laugh at almost every piece of reporting on the subject and how they painted the New Zealand crew as inadequate and unable to cope, and how the great American company from San Fran had to step in. There was never any doubt in my mind that things like this would happen, after all, who wouldnt want to be seen in a favourable light alongside a movie like this?
Funny, Hitler didnt even bother with setting his sights on New Zealand in the war; to far away and containing native inhabitants that still walked on all fours and lived in trees….thats when the Maori Battalions rolled up to the front lines and became known as having some of the most fiercist, smart, hard and loyal fighters during WW2.