I was one of the first compositors on Avatar, leading the compositing efforts for three major environments - the vine tower / bridge, the banshee rookery and the floating mountains. I worked with the VFX supervisor developing the look of the environment, optical effects and cloud densities, all with the goal of making the most realistic and aesthetically pleasuring result.
Being one of the early compositors on the film, I helped develop and test the artist facing technology developed for Weta Digital's deep composting and volumetric cloud system. Unique challenges on this project were the new and frequently changing deep compositing process, the new world of stereoscopic VFX, and a huge number of shots on the go a the same time. Initial assumptions that compositing work on the project would be lite, (due to the majority of the shots Weta created being all CG) proved not to be the case, so I was supervising a number of 2D and 3D artists by the end of the project.
Work continued after the theatrical release of Avatar, with a number of extra shots and sequences finished and extended for the Special and extended editions of the film. I took on the compositing supervisor role for the completion of the last few months of this extra work.
Always challenging, constantly educational, frequently described as "my favourite sequence" by director James Cameron, I was honored to receive a VES award nomination for my contribution to the project.
All images © 20th Century Fox
