[pandorskiy kot]

На сей раз - концепты за авторством Ben Procter. Пояснения и комментарии автора к рисункам присутствуют.

Часть первая - Screen Graphics

A quick study of the bioelectrical network inside Hometree, represented as some kind of scan data display. Rick really wanted to play up the analogy between Pandoran bio-networks and the human nervous system, so in creating this I used textures derived from a preserved Victorian extraction and display of all the body's nerves.



A compilation of early screen graphics done for illustrations and the realtime set models. Jim liked the general look of these but we had to make them much more sophisticated for the final film.



With critical help from graphic designer extraordinaire Zach Fannin, I developed the base template for all OpsCenter displays. This amounts to a kind of "OS look" or interface design for Ops, and bits of it would extend into the science graphics as well. Pretty conventional and contemporary looking, but as with everything Avatar it was important for designs to feel familiar and believable.



What a remote vehicle driver might see on his screen in the OpsCenter. This graphic was used onscreen as a transparency wrapped onto curved plexi and backlit with customized, animatable EL panels engineered by Zach Fannin and art director Stefan Dechant.





Interface template for the transparent clipboard computers used in the LinkRoom and BioLab.



Medical readouts for the main plex panel which floats above the Link Units. This graphic was used onscreen as a transparency wrapped onto plexi and backlit with customized, animatable EL panels engineered by Zach Fannin and art director Stefan Dechant.



Medical readouts for the smaller plex panel which floats above the Link Units in the Shack. This graphic was used onscreen as a transparency wrapped onto plexi and backlit with customized, animatable EL panels engineered by Zach Fannin and art director Stefan Dechant.



It was important for Rick and Jim that the biomed graphics in the Avatar linking scenes would explain the linkage process in a fashion both beautiful and understandable. Many studies were done, including some absolutely gorgeous stuff from Leri Greer and Aaron Beck of Weta Workshop, bits of which are pasted into my final link sequence which you see here.

















An alternate color palette for the nerve microanatomy. Kinda like this better but the other palette worked better for the color coding of the whole sequence.



To showcase the potential of a 3D medical interface (after all Avatar was a pioneering 3D movie and its stereoscopy allows the perception of depth in the world's screen graphics), I did some stereoscopic graphic studies. These are presented here in cross-eye-pairs format.





и... на сегодня хватит, хорошего понемножку

[Bolo]

Фигасе, нарыл!

[нинат]

И где такой эксклюзив нашёл.

[pandorskiy kot]

Да вот, попадаются места интересные Продолжим?

Часть 2 - Мобильный блок (Shack)

The remote science station was known on the production as the Shack. I got to develop the final architectural bones of the Shack modules based on great, earlier 2D and 3D work by James Clyne, Andrew Reeder and Sean Haworth, and also on a fullsize mockup developed by Rick and Sean. Beautiful door design by scifi detail master Kevin Ishioka. Special attention was paid to lightweight aircraft-style structure in the hab module, articulation of the adaptable legs, and clearances for wheelchair access.

[нинат]

Некоторые рисунки из альбома Лизы Фицпатрик.

[pandorskiy kot]

Вполне вероятно, ведь там использовано множество концепт-артов.

[нинат]

Спасибо интересные концепт-арты.

[pandorskiy kot]

Это скорее художников благодарить надо, я то чего, просто нашел

часть3 - Vehicles

I had the lucky task of developing Jim's concept for the ISV Venture Star interstellar vehicle, starting from Jim's sketches and copious technical notes and delivering a partially textured 3D asset which was adapted for final shots by Blur studio (which uses Softimage and could open my native scene files). Enormous help with design, detailed modelling, and even texturing came from three brilliant friends - Tex Kadonaga, Joe Hiura, and Rob Johnson. I was the master planner of the ship but these guys designed a lot of the critical components. It was not unlike the real development of the ISS! More info in this io9 article.


















Venture Star; FILM STILL from final shots by Blur Studio.










Seat study for the Valkyrie shuttle cargo bay.


Selected Dragon pilot eyepiece.


Dragon pilot eyepiece options.


Final Dragon nose set piece.


Nose and canopy detailing paintover for the enormous Dragon gunship.


I was briefly involved with cockpit and control device development for the AMP robotic suit, working alongside the fabulous Ty Ellingson who was the primary suit designer. During the mockup phase I was the test subject for several fitting sessions, and I can tell you it's not comfortable to sit upright on a race bicycle seat for 20 minutes straight!

[нинат]

Интересные штуки.

[pandorskiy kot]

Ага

Причем, судя из пояснений художника касаемо Venture Star - он рисовал со слов Кэмерона его (я уже подзабыл историю его появления если честно). Учитывая этот момент - невольно задумываешься о том насколько вещи описанные скажем в недавней теме CYBERON'а о радиосигналах - фантастика. И различные мало объяснимые факты когда пытаешься из них сложить общую картинку говорят что все это скорее всего таки существует...

[нинат]

Возможно.

[pandorskiy kot]

часть4 - Biolink

Xray shader render of the LinkUnit. Was done for screen graphics, but looks cool on its own too.


Francois Audouy and Andre Chaintreuil did a lot of great work on the LinkUnit before I got to it, but I did a bunch of design on it as it pushed to the final build. A particular emphasis for me was the look of the interior, which needed to be studded with sensor tech. Rick pushed my first, more basic pass toward something more anatomical, where the sensor arrangement creates a graphic icon of the body and nervous system.




Close to the final set seen in the film, this LinkRoom rendering incorporates design geometry by myself, Victor Martinez and Scott Baker. Synthesizing a bunch of inherited elements into a more finished design, I tried to give the impression of extreme high sci-tech, but with some slickness and coherence that makes the room feel like a single medical instrument. More info in this io9 article.








As with the OpsCenter, I worked with Len Barrit (and also with Victor Martinez and Scott Baker) to produce a realtime model of the BioLab with baked textures incorporating both 3D lighting (it had been painted with Ops) and many structural details indicated only in texture. Once again, low-poly textured geo provided not only a model that Jim could "walk through" and play with in the capture volume, but also a kind of "rapid prototype" design pass which would influence the design and drafting of the full, more detailed set.












My version of the AmbientRoom where avatars are activated and tested. This incorporates some earlier 2D work by James Clyne and Ryan Church, and my pano render was done from geo by Victor Martinez and Scott Baker.


The AmnioTank needed a transit case for protection during shipping. In the film you see some of its panels being removed as Jake enters the BioLab. This early sketch didn't sufficiently match the shape of the tank to be practical, but Jim liked the flavor of it.




Final set in film.


Jake meets his fully-grown avatar for the first time. Based on an earlier Ryan Church illustration, this 3D test shows Jake's reflected image overlayed on his avatar with the correct optics of a large cylinder filled with water-like fluid.


Scott Baker did an exterior modelling pass in NURBS and SubDs after my initial 2D attack. Afterwards, to help NZ with fabrication, I took the coffin element of Scott's model (the basic shape of which was partially derived from Andre's earlier model), refined it a bit, and then texture-mapped it with high-res textures into which I cleanly painted the desired part lines and details in "trompe-l'oeuil" technique. There's no way I could have modelled all this! UV'd geo, textures, and ortho renders were then handed off to fabrication.


Final transit case parts, beautifully finished off in NZ.


Final BioLab set.


Final tank set pieces, beautifully finished off in NZ.


Scott Baker did an exterior modelling pass in NURBS and SubDs after my initial 2D attack. Afterwards, to help NZ with fabrication, I took the coffin element of Scott's model (the basic shape of which was partially derived from Andre's earlier model), refined it a bit, and then texture-mapped it with high-res textures into which I cleanly painted the desired part lines and details in "trompe-l'oeuil" technique. There's no way I could have modelled all this! UV'd geo, textures, and ortho renders were then handed off to fabrication.


A more final transit case concept done in 3D and rationalized as far as clearances, connection to the tank, method of removal, etc.. The NZ art dept. did a great job with adding graphics to this thing to give it more reality.


I did a small amount of art direction on the actual prop construction being undertaken in NZ. This wiring sketch was to aid in the layout of the tank's data and power lines.


Victor Martinez was the main set designer for the concept phase of the BioLab, and this is my lighting and rendering of his environment (he also made some cool textures for floor, ceiling, and main exterior door) with 3D consoles by Tex Kadonaga.






LinkUnit local control pad.


BioLab "tablet computer". Really needed detail, but I never got the chance to do it.


Paintover of Scott Baker set design geo.


I did a number of studies of the gel bed surface itself, but this was the final. Two layers and a graphic backing. The real gel generated by Weta Workshop was milkier than this, so some of the detail is lost in the film, but it is still visible to a good extent because of the internal backlighting. Graphic anatomical motifs, in the arrangement of sensor arrays, appear here as on the lid interior.






Interior tech detailing for the MRI ring units. Jim liked my addition of a second round mech imbedded into the wall behind the torus, because he felt it created a "tunnel" look, telegraphing the user's "travel" into another body.




Scott Baker did an exterior modelling pass in NURBS and SubDs after my initial 2D attack. Afterwards, to help NZ with fabrication, I took the coffin element of Scott's model (the basic shape of which was partially derived from Andre's earlier model), refined it a bit, and then texture-mapped it with high-res textures into which I cleanly painted the desired part lines and details in "trompe-l'oeuil" technique. There's no way I could have modelled all this! UV'd geo, textures, and ortho renders were then handed off to fabrication.


Closeup design pass on the center med tech console.




Material breakdown of the LinkRoom as a false-color rendering.


As with the OpsCenter, but only more so, my texture maps for the LinkRoom were carefully designed and went on to direcly influence final set design and construction. This is a segment of floor.


Francois Audouy did some preliminary work on the AmnioTank, but as seemed often to be the case on Avatar I was brought in to detail and finish. All elaboration was based on the functional requirements of the tank as it nourished and protected the growing avatar bodies on their interstellar voyage. A lot of research into med tech had already been done in the art department and I supplemented this with my own, esp. relating to hyperbaric chambers, dialysis systems, chassis for heavy equipment, etc.. More info in this io9 article.




Francois Audouy and Andre Chaintreuil did a lot of great work on the LinkUnit before I got to it, but I did a bunch of design on it as it pushed to the final build. A particular emphasis for me was the look of the interior, which needed to be studded with sensor tech. Rick pushed my first, more basic pass toward something more anatomical, where the sensor arrangement creates a graphic icon of the body and nervous system.


A more final transit case concept done in 3D and rationalized as far as clearances, connection to the tank, method of removal, etc.. The NZ art dept. did a great job with adding graphics to this thing to give it more reality.

[нинат]

Я вот что-то не поняла для чего вообще Amnio Tank нужен.

[pandorskiy kot]

Как так для чего? Доброе утро В нем же аватары растут пока летят с земли, начало фильма вспомни где аватар Жейка плавает.

[нинат]

Ой и правда.

[pandorskiy kot]

часть5 - Cryovault


It was ultimately decided that only two CryoUnits and a single cluster of lockers would be fabricated for photography. These would be undertaken by Stan Winston studios (now Legacy FX), and I was asked to do an additional finishing and prep process on the geo before handoff. This is a screengrab of my geo with final details, interior elaboration, graphics textures, etc..
















Why does the fog pass always look so cool?


It's hard to see this side zone of tech consoles and racked equipment through the hex latticework, so here it is raw. Kinda like this little nook. You can see techs floating in and out of here in the film.


An "action shot" showing lockers placed on a side wall.


Set still. Only two CryoUnits and one locker cluster were fabricated and shot.


An "action shot" showing lockers suspended in the middle of the space, which was the approved solution.


Locker study showing a kind of standard bag that might be given to personnel.


For live action shooting, Jim sometimes used a "SimulCam" system for comping cg set extensions into his camera in realtime. These are WIP screengrabs of a lo-res "texture-baked" Cryo model I developed for the Cryo shoot. This is what Jim saw beyond the two CryoUnits which were actually fabricated.


Material breakdown sheet.


Final room layout with CryoUnits open. Needs that dressing! Why didn't I put it in? Ah well...


Final room layout with CryoUnits closed.


A bank of Cryo Units at an intermediate detail level. The big umbilicals were requested as an element which could sway gracefully in the zero-G environment, like underwater kelp.








Before closing in on the final space layout, I was asked to do studies with various locker positions and degrees of openness. These illustrations had a layer of ISS-derived tech dressing that I never revisited in later renderings and unfortunately never made it into the movie. Always do a final, definitive illustration of your design, even when there seems to be no time! Otherwise things can easily be forgotten.




Rick felt the first pass was too expansive and visually disorganized, so he rightly suggested this more compact and graphic configuration.




I proposed a more "realistic" apparatus for each sleeping crewmember, incorporating a kind of pressure sleeve and a rotisserie system for varying the vector of gravity on the body, avoiding stress and bedsores. Ultimately these were deemed too cumbersome from a storytelling perspective and so the sleepers are dressed more simply and strapped to flat beds.


A first pass at the zero-G cryovault inside the ISV Venture Star spacecraft. In designing the cryovault, my personal goal was to completely avoid any "floors" or "beds" which would give a sense of gravitational orientation. The reason I stuck two people in each unit, facing opposite ways, was so that gravity was immediately denied at the most basic level. The lockers are placed for good line of sight and access for the cryo unit occupants, but this actually orients them counterintuitively (perpendicular) to the space's main walls. I also did study cameras and animations which had the view continuously rolling and adopting new orientations, and I was very gratified to see some of this in the final film.

[vit]

м- да все прорисовано теперь понятно почему фильм выглядит так реалистично

[Goopy]

Фильм выглядит так реалистично не только из-за прорисовки. Это лишь следствие продуманности и попытки ее рационально обосновать с точки зрителя.
Кэм знал, кого брать в свою команду. Или лучшее, или ничего.

[pandorskiy kot]

Часть 6 - OpsCenter HellsGate

Supervising art director and all-around design genius Kevin Ishioka developed a standard Hell's Gate column/wall scheme in pencil drafting. He imagined the mechanical elements to be fabricated from a future polymer. I built Kevin's system in 3D and elaborated it with additional piping and conduit systems, dressing modules, etc.. This rendering shows the system employed in a variety of architectural conditions.



A technical overview of Kevin Ishioka's standard Hell's Gate column/wall scheme. The level of thought put into the components and their function is typical of what Jim expected for all Avatar designs.



James Clyne did a number of great overall studies of the OpsCenter, but Rick asked me to detail out a more finished version of many tech components of the room. I began by focusing on the central platform with its technologized soffit, holo table, and side workstations, which I posited as rotating spherical display consoles. Flows of conduit from soffit to ceiling were designed, as explicitly requested by Rick, to visually suggest a tree, making the Ops platform a technological cousin of Hometree but networked for a different and darker purpose.



My first proposal for an immersive spherical station had rear imaging surfaces which could rotate out of the way for entry/egress. Partly the idea was that supervisors could interact directly with the back surfaces of the rear display. These were deemed unnecessary and impractical, probably for the best!



Overviews of my early Ops platform concept model. On the HoloTable, Rick wanted a sense of layered, connected data, and here I explicitly showed color-coded layers which can be slid up and down, expanded and compressed, each with a different dataset relating to the volume of space being studied.



An early look study for the HoloTable's graphics. The final designs, by Aaron Beck and Leri Greer, were far superior!!



Ops platform and HoloTable graphics as they appear in the film.



Spherical workstation in film.



The capture volume on Avatar allowed for virtual set scouting, where Jim could use mocap performers and his virtual camera to actually test-shoot scenes in live action set designs, testing them out, long before construction. For Ops, Rick had me work with Len Barrit to develop a realtime 3D model of the set based on preliminary geo and artwork by James Clyne and Victor Martinez. The walkthrough/test of this model was a big success, and in fact much of the detail I'd added into texture maps went straight into the real set design pipeline. Was a big eye opener re: using lo-res textured models as a design tool.











Wall texture for the realtime Ops model. This version combines tech detailing with handpainted lighting.



Floor texture for the realtime Ops model. This version combines tech detailing with handpainted lighting. Octagon squashed in UV space only.



Ceiling texture for the realtime Ops model. This version is purely tech detailing with no lighting overlay. Octagon squashed in UV space only.



For the view outside the realtime Ops windows, I rendered a rough spherical backing template based on Hell's Gate ext geo, and James Clyne painted it up to look like a proper scenic backing. This is my quickly-done "nighttime" version of Jame's paintover.



As part of my close work with Kevin Ishioka, I often had to do material breakdowns for sets. This usually involved special renderings of my camera views, color-coded to photographic sample sheets like this one. It's rare that a set can include as many true raw materials as seen here, but having a target is great for the painters to pick their palette with. And on Avatar, more real machined metal was used than I ever would have expected!



Final concept for the HoloTable base. Imaging emitters would be later added to the central plane by Tex Kadonaga. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.



The spherical workstation in a more final form. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.



The spherical workstation and Ops core platform in a more final form. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.



Spherical workstation chair. Quick sketch but the fabricators matched it with an amazing level of accuracy!



A hero "foreman" remote operator console, which was to be a beefed-up variant on the spherical workstation. Beefy add-ons based in part on an earlier James Clyne sketch. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.





The standard remote operator console, my detail pass based heavily on 3D work by Scott Baker. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.



Standard data management / operations station.



A bank of standard remote operator consoles, back panel detailing based in part on an earlier James Clyne sketch. All the high-tech consoles and desks for the Ops Center were fabricated in Los Angeles under the direction of Sean Haworth, and shipped to NZ for shooting.



Simple console variant with touchscreen desk surface.



Many people worked on the ArmorBay AMPsuit maintenance docks, including James Clyne, Victor Martinez, Sam Page, and others. I was lucky to come in toward the end, so this paintover detailing pass looks pretty similar to what's in the movie.



Standard airlock for Hell's Gate entry and egress. The level of thought put into the components and their function is typical of what Jim expected for all Avatar designs.