So, not only is the VFX work coming down to the last few months before the release, but it’s been in the works for years and still not done. But such is the way of a Cameron production, which is innovative and meticulous. Both the second and third Avatar films were shot all the way back in 2018 and 2019, and most of the time since has been dedicated to post-production. Really, the VFX work began before that, in the decade between Avatar and Avatar: The Way Of Water, during which time Cameron and his team were “pumping tons of money, millions and millions of dollars into R&D to generate the best computer graphics simulations of water that were possible—far beyond anything that had been done before—because you have to understand the scope of the challenge in any one of these films,” the filmmaker explained to The A.V. Club in 2023. “We started that process as early as possible, even before we were casting and all that sort of thing, creating those simulations. Then it all paid off in the final image because you can’t tell that that water is not real water.”
And if it took that long to get The Way Of Water right, just imagine how much time is going into Fire And Ash, which Cameron has said is an even longer movie than the previous one. But he explained to Variety that he’s working to build a new “creative culture” with his VFX team to get them to think about the “narrative purpose” of any given shot. “I’m trying to get them to think in flow. Why does this shot exist? I could do anything. I could not have it in the movie. I could have done a completely different shot. Why do you think I did that shot?” With Avatar: Fire And Ash, “The creative culture is so strong across all these artists that I can look at a shot for review for the very first time and say ‘It’s done.’ That is the craziest thing. Anybody that’s worked in VFX is going to be saying ‘Whaaaat?'”
Now that the VFX team has been in the trenches with this series so long, “they’ve had enough input previously that they’re now working within a culture that encourages the creativity and the specificity of our Avatar world and our characters. So this idea of really encouraging them to think as storytellers is really paying off,” Cameron explained (adding that it’s a quality generative AI could never replace). “So it’s actually become a kind of crazily joyful finish. You know, it was a fraught production, let’s face it, but it’s been a kind of a joyful finish, because it’s really starting to resonate and fire on all cylinders, and we’re getting a lot of first look finals, which is nuts.”
