Avatar rendering, cinematic lighting...

[Mike Philbin]

I remember JC going on about his first conversations with WETA about the rendering style and lighting of Avatar ... basically, how he had to 'teach them' how to light using CINEMATIC LIGHTING.

I forget the 'technical terms', you know you have a main light (the sun on location) then you have a couple of bounced lights, either from the surroundings or actually from a reflective plate (on set).

I wonder if this was a GOOD IDEA... okay, it gave a good cinematic effect, but did it really give a PHOTOREALISTIC RENDER effect?

Was the search for cinematic representation to the detriment of a really gorgeous RENDER that looks embedded in a purely RAY TRACED rendition of the Avatar Jungle via the reflectivity of Na'Vi skin...

In the film there's a scene where Neytiri is teaching SkyPerson Sully to ride a DireHorse and of course he falls off... just after that, I think Cameron's lighting plan was ignored or went awry because Neytiri looks GORGEOUS, it's a very naturalistic lighting that seems to simply bounce the sun off the water onto her face as she jogged to help up Sully (just as TsuTey arrives...). If only the rest of the film was as naturalistically lit as this! Rather than a garish effect-colour light intruding from the secondary position most of the time...

I mean, okay, it makes sense to emulate CINEMATIC LIGHTING in films... when you can... but there's also the simple act of BREAKING PHOTONIC PATHS that makes 'such fake lighting' really not as exciting as it could have been, not as NATURALISTIC.

And that fake glowing lighting from the landscape, at night... wasn't too keen, looked a bit 'localised' like a 'texture property' rather than an 'organic property' of the material. There are some great algorhythms for this sort of surface lighting trick ... but maybe it was too expensive in terms of HOURS PER FRAME @ 24 fps.

I dunno.

"Keep it simple, stupid," should be the watchword in 3D rendering ... I personally like the way ADVENT CHILDREN was lit, another great 3D film.

Wonder what BATTLE ANGEL ALLITA will do, lightingwise? Will Cameron draft in a Japanese lighting director?

Anyway....