I came away from watching Avatar the other evening stunned by the ingenuity and beauty of the world that James Cameron and his team created. Like any design geek I loved the futuristic hardware and the user interfaces that were even more seductive than those in Minority Report. What really blew me away though was the biology of Pandora. The design of the eco-system was both visually seductive and functionally believable, at least for the most part. I was particularly enamored with the little ‘helicopter lizards’. One only needs to watch an episode of Planet Earth to know that some of these weird creatures created by Cameron could be quite plausible and I couldn’t help wondering how much of a leap is it to go from representing the plants and creatures of Pandora in cinematic 3D to bringing them to life in real life 3D?
Avatar makes the idea of designers creating new life forms that much easier to believe. I am sure there is much that is technologically challenging about going from software models to flesh and blood but personally I found many of the biological ‘inventions’ of the movie just as desirable and interesting as futuristic inventions of the past like the Star Trek communicator or the light saber from Star Wars.
I particularly loved the night-time bioluminesence – and we can already engineer that. I wonder how much it would cost to make a garden of lights and, perhaps more importantly, how we could convinced the anti-GM lobby that it wouldn’t cause the destruction of life as we know it?
I found the scenes in the mining command center and science lab particularly fascinating. The idea giant curved, transparent screens effectively solves our current dilemma of cluttered multiple monitor workstation setups.
I was also blown away by the biology of Pandora in particular by the way the Na’vi connected to the other living forms. Instead of just conquering an animal they strive to establish a sort of biological bond that ties them both physical and mentally to the chosen animal.
I loved Avatar. The design of the characters was so intricate, so stunning, it took my breathe away. I especially loved the first night time scene in Pandora. It just glowed, and I did, too.
I echo Darryl’s comments about the transparent monitors in the mining command center. Aside from reducing clutter, a clear screen would get rid of yet another physical barrier in a collaborative work environment, and would provide an interesting interface to share non-text based visuals (i.e. maps, x-rays, photographs)
I was astonished to see that Samsung already has a prototype of this technology (see: http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/917/), and that transparency has also been accomplished on the “creature design” front (see: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/japanese-scientiests-create-see-through-goldfish.php)
When I was a kid the things I saw in sci-fi movies were still hundreds if not thousands of years off, now it seems like they merely weeks and months.
Still waiting on the hoverboard though…
This was definitely a leap forward for animated film making.
The 3d motion was smooth and organic.
The camera angles as well – it made you feel like you were flying at times.
The artistry was dreamlike – surreal yet believable.
I am sure there were many designers involved in this project….oh to be one of them!! Creating worlds – plants – and species with seemingly limitless media and such detail at your fingertips….
Have seen it twice so far and will be buying it for the collection…
I completely agree with you Tim – stunning forms and visuals.
For strange and marvelous earthly creatures, where nature outwits fiction, I think of Steven Jay Gould’s book “Wonderful Life” – on the ancient fossils of the Burgess Shale.
Tim, I am personally amazed as you are. Specially perplexed with the epic magnitude of the simulation. Technically read this post at nvidia.com about the NVIDIA Research and Weta solution. http://www.nvidia.com/object/wetadigital_avatar.html
I absolutely loved Avatar! I love the imaginative yet believable reality of the world! I was completely encapsulated by the movie. When I walked out back into reality I felt depressed, because all the bad elements of the real world where still there, all the negative people, the wars and all the bad things going on was still there! I loved the way the Navi people lived together in such beautiful harmony and all worked together helped each other and the most important thing to them was there planet! Not all the nonsense that the western world finds important! People abuse all the wonderful things we have in this world instead of consciously appreciating everything we have!
We should all live together in harmony like the Navi:)
I agree with you Tim about the plausibility of the wonders of the lifeworld created by Cameron and his team. I am reminded of Stephen Jay Gould’s celebration of the creativity of natural selection in his book about the extraordinary prehistoric creatures of the Burgess Shale – “Wonderful Life”.
Pandora is a fabulous Utopia – as an archaeologist I am all too aware that actually very few human societies have lived anything like the Navi – “in harmony with nature”. When we have enough information to judge, it is clear that every human society has had a damaging effect on the environment. The challenge to live sustainably is going to require deep questioning of this feature of human behavior.
I totally agree that the biological concepts were even more thought provoking and inspirational than the product concepts. To take it a step further, I think the main strength of the Avatar premise is that it pushes the boundaries of where the evolution of life could go. Imagining our technological progress 150 years out is one thing, even if considering areas such as bionics and bio-tech, but developing concepts for how lifeforms communicate and interact on a higher level is a whole new area of exploration. Bravo Cameron!
I am a huge fan of Avatar simply because it contains an outstanding amount of designed creatures and of a new world as a whole. The greatest thing about these designs though is not how ‘far fetched’ they are, but are contrastingly actually believable. Though there are different animals and plants and a vastly unique biological system it still very closely resembles that of which can be seen in our own world.
I loved Avatar. The design of the characters was so awesome, it took my breathe away and I can’t believe that looks like so realistic.
I’ll start of by saying that Avatar is a awe-inspiring movie that showed how innovative James Cameron and his team were to make such realistic sense of life. Just like Tim said the movie showed a sense of practicality that I haven’t seen in any movie thus far. The helicopter lizard did amaze me. The eco-system that Pandora was built out of was something else in its entirety.
Yes, Avatar was one of the most visually beautiful and exciting movies I have ever watched! James Cameron and his design team would have to be very patient people taking all that time to design Pandora. Best movie I’ve seen in a long time!
Avatar was a great movie, the design aspects used to create the plants and animals were very appealing.
Designers of complex systems that don’t read The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra are missing something really useful. Especially in the social software era. This post is a perfect segue.
It is said that a car, like other machines, are an extension of the body. Avatar is a wonderful expression of this concept. Designers should be thinking in terms of extending people’s ability to express their values.
I think this movie is the best movie in my life. I have watched many movies and Avatar is the most perfect and nice. I love the 3D motion in the movie. If I am a designer, I don’t have this ability and confidence to create a movie what like Avatar. So I admire James Cameron and his team. He is a great designer. I like the eco-system which looks like so seductive and glamorous.
Unlike the vast majority who seem to be brainwashed by the technologic prowess of Weta Digital (the New Zealand based company responsible for the stunningly advanced animation of Avatar), I feel that simply adding two additional limbs and overly complicated mouthparts to unrealistically sized variations of preexisting earth creatures as well as throwing key principles like Occam’s Razor out the conceptual design window, demonstrate the carelessness in the practice of movie-whore James Cameron and his design team.