The Avatar trailer we were all waiting for...

[Miktar]

http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/10/avatar_theatrical_trailer_offi.php

That's better!

[vii]

WOW! The first trailer made me feel pretty meh.
But this... this is brilliant!!! MUST WATCH!

[Bonezmann]

It's on my watchlist, but it isn't what I thought it would be. It looks good.

[onona]

Definitely a better trailer than the first.

[MarryO+LewyG]

They REALLY don’t let you forget James Cameron made this.

[Cleric]

Am I the only one who find it funny that his initials are J.C. ?

Also, darn trailer won't load.

[Garson007]

Oh, wow. Reveal more of the plot will you. I still have some faith in Cameron to entertain me though, hopefully.

[Miktar]

So you've gone from this:


Case of CGI selling the movie instead of the film selling the CGI.

I'll give it a skip.

To this:


Oh, wow. Reveal more of the plot will you. I still have some faith in Cameron to entertain me though, hopefully.

In just one trailer! Now imagine what you'll think when you see the actual movie! You'll probably be its biggest fanboy. :P

[Cleric]

I think that Miktar may just be stalking Garson...

[Miktar]

No, I just remembered what he said in the other thread. Contrary to popular belief, I actually remember what people say on these forums, even when they don't. :P

[Garson007]

I believe my comment was still negative. :P

I don't approve of the bright jungle setting. CGI just isn't at a level where you can make it look believable (if ever, honestly - no jungle in the universe can surely be that bright). Imho CGI is best used with gritty environments, like District 9.

In PC games I can feel the difference; STALKER had a much better feeling about it, the world you're in, than a game like Crysis - even though the graphics in the latter is far more exhaustive, it doesn't suspend my disbelief hardly as much (opinion is purely based on graphical representation). Not to mention how much I still hate the smoothness of everything Doom 3 derived.

[Miktar]

The jungle is that bright because it bio luminesces. It's part of the setting - it's an alien world, and all the animals and plants are connected via neural nets.

[onona]

CGI just isn't at a level where you can make it look believable (if ever, honestly - no jungle in the universe can surely be that bright).

Bollocks. I bet you wouldn't be able to spot 99% of the CGI being used in films today. And believe me, you find it in almost all films these days, from summer blockbusters to rom coms and dramas. The only CGI you're aware of is the big in-your-face stuff like Transformers or films like this which have some level of stylisation where everyone knows it's CGI. The vast majority of VFX in films is, as we call it, invisible.

[Miktar]

"no jungle in the universe can surely be that bright"

You've been everywhere in the universe then, including to a planet near a gas giant with like, a billion suns, or something?

Dude. How arrogant ARE you? :P

[Garson007]

Bollocks. I bet you wouldn't be able to spot 99% of the CGI being used in films today. And believe me, you find it in almost all films these days, from summer blockbusters to rom coms and dramas. The only CGI you're aware of is the big in-your-face stuff like Transformers or films like this which have some level of stylisation where everyone knows it's CGI. The vast majority of VFX in films is, as we call it, invisible.
Context please. I know I was unclear, but I was strictly pointing out the jungle scenes - not CGI in general. So what you're saying is totally correct, but I never disputed that.


"no jungle in the universe can surely be that bright"

You've been everywhere in the universe then, including to a planet near a gas giant with like, a billion suns, or something?

Dude. How arrogant ARE you? :P
As arrogant as need be. :P Heh.

I put in the "surely" for exactly this kind of response. Yes, I know practically anything is possible in the universe. It's just that some things are just too fantastical (even though it may be probable) to suspend disbelief for us earthlings me. Bright jungles are one of them.

[onona]

Context please. I know I was unclear, but I was strictly pointing out the jungle scenes - not CGI in general.

Odd. I would have thought your use of the "if ever" phrase there kinda applied to it as a whole.

[Garson007]

Odd. I would have thought your use of the "if ever" phrase there kinda applied to it as a whole.
The "if ever" was me pointing out if CGI, no matter how fully realistic (Edit: as in, in the future, when new technology could possibly do more awesome stuff), could ever make a bright jungle realistic. :P Sorry for the ambiguity. :)

[Miktar]

But the bright jungle IS realistic, in the context of the universe being shown. You're the one /making/ it unrealistic, but not accepting what is shown to you. That's not the fault of the movie, that's your own biase.

How do you know what's 'realistic', when what's being shown /doesn't exist/?

Welcome to your own personal Uncanny Valley, Garson007 - where something doesn't look realistic to you because you /know it's not real/.

I guarantee you there will be shots in the movie that'll be full CG and you won't even know it.

[dislekcia]

How do you know what's 'realistic', when what's being shown /doesn't exist/?

Because god says so.

I think Garson picked his words poorly: He finds the idea of a bright jungle implausible. Fine. That doesn't mean that the setting on the Na'vi world IS a jungle. Given the idea of their heavy bioluminescence, a jungle is probably far more tightly packed than one in an earth biosphere. Not to mention that forests are extremely diverse. Jungles are only dim under the canopy, in the active growth region, it's actually relatively light and airy.

So, um, stereotype-fail? ;)

[Miktar]

Stupid bit of trivia: Cameron took a handheld camcorder and the lead actor, Sam Worthington, to the jungles of Hawaii, one of the islands, so that Cameron could take footage and bring it back to show the CGI artists what things should look like.

So there was that reference used - and Garson, go google the jungles of Hawaii. They may be too bright for your eyes!

But anyway, so Cameron is filming Worthinton moving through the underbrush, and for a joke, he had worthington put on a pair of cat ears and a tail. A truck driver came by, and stopped by Worthington and asked what they were doing. Worthington pointed towards Cameron, who was out of earshot, and said "that's James Cameron, the guy who made Terminator and Titanic". The truck driver leaned forward and whispered, "the dude's fallen far".