Animation - Study - Weta Digital

As part of the criteria for this project i am required to look at an animation studio, Pixar is probably the first thing that comes to anybodys mind when 'Animation' is said but i have decided to see who the animators behind the film Avatar are (my favorate Animated film of all time).

How much of Avatar is CGI and how much is live-action? In reading an article at Gawker recounting a Hollywood Reporter article it says, "When completed, Cameron expects Avatar to be about 60% CG animation, based on characters created using a newly developed performance capture-based process, and 40% live action, with a lot of VFX in the imagery." That works for me considering there's most likely no real way to tell for sure.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/should-avatar-be-considered-for-best-animated-oscar/

I think you know when a combined animated and real footage film is successful when comments in reviews are 'there's most likely no real way to tell for sure' - referring to how to tell the 60% CGI in the film compared to the 40% real footage.


Weta Digital is  the company i found that underwent the task of creating Avatars digital effects, this must have been a huge task so only a very top ranking animation studio could have worked on the film, here is a portion of information on the studio from wikipidea.

Weta Digital is a digital visual effects company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for Heavenly Creatures. In 2007 Weta Digital’s Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Letteri, was also appointed as a Director of the company. Weta Digital has won several Academy Awards and BAFTAs.
Weta Digital is part of a number of Peter Jackson co-owned companies in Wellington which includes Weta Workshop, Weta Productions, Weta Collectibles and Park Road Post Production.
Weta Digital is named after the weta. Weta are some of the largest insects in the world, prevalent in New Zealand.

Because this is a film that used both animation and a film production studio i have decided to include the film studio in this study also.

Lightstorm Entertainment is the film company founded by James Cameron and the film maker Larry Casanoff in 1990, best known for the films Terminator 2, Titanic and Avatar. I could go on for pages about the animation for Terminator 2 or for Titanic for that matter which says something about how good i think it is but may save them for another post.