MakingOf recently paid a visit to Industrial Light and Magic in San Francsico, CA. We sat down with Visual Effects Art Director Christian Alzmann, Environment Supervisor Barry Williams, Associate Visual Effects Supervisor Craig Hammack, and Techincal Director Supervisor Daniel Pearson as they discussed the effects used in “The Last Airbender.”
As Visual Effects Art Director, Christian Alzmann is responsible for any artwork needed throughout the course of production on ‘The Last Airbender.’
When coming up for a design for the films most important elements: air, earth, fire and water, Alzmann said, “A lot of the work we did in the concept phase was framing out these ‘bending’ events. What does the air look like? Because it’s air and it’s kind of hard to see. [laughs] What does Earthbending look like? Firebending and so on. And we could use the animated series, of course, as a guideline but everything has to be a little more based in the real world. M. Night was very specific about having everything be very physics based. He wanted there to be a little logic to the fantasy.
Barry Williams serves as Environment Supervisor on the film and talked with us about the four main environments in the film, each representing a different tribe of peoples and each with their own unique characteristics and design aesthetic.
“Night was very specific about the realism of each shot, so we did everything we could to make each shot look photographic and real. That meant shooting plates, real plates that would be a base for these worlds to exist. Everything is basically green screen and we go in and replace that with a realistic environment…Less is more was a big idea on this movie. We’d start off with doing huge amounts of replacement, trying to make a huge impact, but Night was always pulling us back. He wanted it to make less of an impact. So we ended up wanting to keep as much of the real photographed plate as possible.”
Says Alzmann, “Everything has to be drawn from real world references.”
We also talked with Craig Hammack, Associate Visual Effects Supervisor and Daniel Pearson, Technical Director Supervisor
Hammack, described director M. Night Shyamalan as a “naturalist,” wanting everything to be grounded in reality. Says Hammack, “The fire seemed to be Night’s initial concern. He had said that he didn’t think that he had ever been convinced by CG fire. He even did tests where he photographed the fire on film and he still thought it looked fake. [laughs] There was something about the way fire was photographed that he thought made it look synthetic. It was a challenge.”
Technical Director Supervisor Daniel Pearson previewed a clip from the film, recreating the intro to the show and highlighting the four elements in action. One of the challenges was answering the question “What does air look like?” Ultimately, they chose a “gaseous air look” and more emphasis was put on how the air would affect the environment around it.
Whether it was fire, earth, water, or air bending, a common theme throughout was that the ability and the element should always feel like an extension of the character.
