The software used in the making of Avatar

Avatar has captured the imagination of millions of people from around the globe. Creating a completely new world from scratch, one with hundreds of species of flora and fauna and breathtaking landscapes is a daunting task that Cameron completed with flying colors. Let’s see what companies and software were involved.

Updated on January 16 with more details. Also, in a new article I’m providing some details on the challenges and innovations involved in the making of Avatar.

Although usually only big names like Weta Digital or ILM are mentioned in the making of high-budget CGI, there are always tens of companies involved (possibly hundreds considering that work often gets outsourced), with thousands of digital artists, 3d modelers, animators and compositors working to bring the script to live. It wasn’t all just exotic contact lens or colorful makeup and props; hours of digital recreation was performed to create such a breath taking film.

It’s also too bad that many of the companies (the ones involved in the production and the ones making the software) do not promote their software more. Adobe was the quickest to show how their line of software was involved, even though it wasn’t really crucial to the project and this is why I decided to make a list and try to give proper credit to everyone involved.

Wireframe of a Na’vi

For Avatar, these are the companies credited for the visual effects:

• Weta Digital, New Zealand (most of the work, character modeling, animation, rendering)
• Industrial Light and Magic, USA (180  non-character shots, mostly the human aircraft in the final battle)
• Stan Winston Studios (most of the props, including the Ampsuit and the Samson helicopter)
• Framestore, UK (70 shots of the Hell’s Gate)
• Hybride, Canada (graphics for the link room)
• Prime Focus, USA (design and compositing of the control room screens, HUDs, etc)
• Look Effects, USA (compositing)
• Hydraulx, USA  (digital extension shots of crematoria and cryovault)
• Giant Studios, USA (motion capture)
• Blur, USA (4 space shots of ISV Venture Star)
• Pixel Liberation Front, USA (screens and HUD design)
• BUF (the conscience-transfer tunnel)
• Lola VFX, USA (digital cosmetic)

ZBrush study

And here are the main software used:

• Autodesk Maya (most shots)
• Pixar Renderman for Maya
• Autodesk SoftImage XSI
• Luxology Modo (model design, e.g. the Scorpion)
• Lightwave (low-res realtime environments)
• Houdini (Hell’s Gate scenes, interiors)
• ZBrush (creature design)
• Autodesk 3d design max (space shots, control room screens and HUD renderings)
• Autodesk MotionBuilder (for real-time 3d visualisations)
• Eyeon Fusion (image compositing)
• The Foundry Nuke Compositor (previz image compositing)
• Autodesk Smoke (color correction)
• Autodesk Combustion (compositing)
• Massive (vegetation simulation)
• Mudbox (floating mountains)
• Avid(video editing)
• Adobe After Effects (compositing, real-ime visualizations)
• PF Track (motion tracking, background replacement)
• Adobe Illustrator (HUD and screens layout)
• Adobe Photoshop (concept art, textures)
• Adobe Premiere (proofing, rough compositing with AE)
• many tools developed in-house
• countless plugins for each platform, some of them Ocula for Nuke, Ktakatoa for 3ds max, Sapphire for Combustion/AE.

The list of tools is not exhaustive and you can see there’s overlap in capabilities, depending on each company’s pipeline.

Art related Quotes

”I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” – Picasso.

“Talent is long patience, and originality an effort of will and of intense observation” – Gustav Flaubert
”You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore.

“I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, – light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful .” – John Constable.

“Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting” – Leonardo da Vinci.

“If you can draw well, tracing won’t hurt; and if you can’t draw well, tracing won’t help.” – Bradley Schmehl.

“Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there.” – William Bouguereau.

“The essence of drawing is the line exploring space.” – Andy Goldsworthy.

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” – Abdre Gude

“I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.” – Picasso.

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.” – Robert Motherwell

“I never finish a painting — I just stop working on it for a while.” – Arshile Gorky.

“Real painters understand with a brush in their hand … what does anyone do with rules? Nothing worthwhile.” – Berthe Moriset.

How to Draw an Eye....?

Eye:

Eyes is the most important part of the face.  If you are planning to draw an eyes it is best to first study the anatomy of eyes how it is placed on the face. You should realize that eyes is not round in shape unlike how we use to draw eyes in our child hood days. The shape and structure of an eye changes from how it looks when one is a baby to how it looks when he is aged.  Every stage of life shows a different shape in eyes.  Baby eyes are round and really cute and very expressive.  Female eyes are normally very pretty and generally have long and thick eye lashes, and thin eyebrows. On the contrary Male eyes are rough with thick eye brows.  It is good to first observe how the eyes look even before we draw the first line.

We shall learn how to draw eyes step by step which is very realistic.

Before drawing you need to first observe how an eyes look like.  Above is a sketch of an eye of an Adult. Fully grown up. First step is to draw an oval shape like how it is shown below.

Second step is to make it little dark and on both the edges slightly elongate it and also draw a thin line above which shows like a small fold above the eye.  Draw a circle in the middle of the oval to draw a pupil inside the eyes and also a tiny circle inside the circle.

Step three is to start shading the eyes to show some depth for the eyes.  Darken completely the inner circle and the pupil dark it little less.  On the right side of the circle leave little white space to give the effect of reflection.  Draw the outline for the eyebrow as shown in the image.  Also mark a small line just below the eyes where the eye lashes will be drawn later.

Shade a little bit more both inside the eyes and outside the eyes where you need to  know how to draw eye lashes.  Shade more inside the pupil and let the lines and strokes be drawn from center to outside the circle.

Next step is to shade more around the eyes.  Be careful to show some light falling in the eyes.  Just below the pupil is not shaded that much in order to show light.  Also start to shade just below the eyes.

In this step you can start to draw small eye lashes and little bit more shades in the eyes.

Next step you should start to bring some life to the picture.You can draw slight curves below the eyes to give the skin tone.  It gives the eye a realistic look.  Along with that you should also start to draw the eyebrows using line.  This will show as if the shades are hairs which gives a natural look to the image. Draw small lines for eye lashes around the eyes.

In the next step dark the skin area little bit more and darken the eye brows.  This will give the image more life.

In the last step the eye brows need to be given more effect like curls in the hairs to show it is an eye of a man.  Darken the image more by applying more shade to the skin and this should give more depth to the image.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson how to draw eyes, and in case if you are satisfied please bookmark this page to your social site for immediate reference on this tutorial how to draw eyes.