Acclaimed award-winning VFX artist Robert Legato breaks down how his and James Cameron’s work on creating the visuals for Avatar helped pave the way for the development of 2019’s live-action The Lion King. Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie retold the tale of the 1994 animated Disney classic of the same name, as a young lion cub must rise and embrace his calling amid tragedy, trouble, and betrayal. While The Lion King has been subject to the same criticisms that other Disney live-action reimaginings have faced, its effects were still celebrated as the feature became a box-office success.

Recently, Legato sat down with Corridor Crew to look back on the 2019 feature for “VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi 139.” Check out the video below:

The VFX supervisor explained that while most of the “live-action” footage was the product of hard-working animators, shots were still approached as if they were being performed by actors, with a large studio space full of cranes, dollies, and other mechanisms to capture specific motions for scenes. Legato stated these innovations helped capture “simple little things” only performing actors could invoke.

How Avatar‘s Fantastical World Helped Pioneer VFX

Cameron Helped Innovate The Use Of Motion Capture.

About 13 years before Cameron was ready to bring the Avatar world to the big screen, painstaking work was placed into bringing Pandora to life. With the aid of Weta Workshop, the production used a virtual camera system to visualize performers in real-time as their animated counterparts as they filmed, while actors wore headsets that recorded their performances. While these techniques are commonplace as seen with The Lion King and beyond, Cameron’s work laid the foundations.

While The Lion King and other features would employ these techniques, Cameron would not settle on simply relying on the techniques he utilized before with his Avatar sequels. With the simultaneous filming of The Way of Water and Avatar 3, the director further pushed technical innovation by taking over a year to develop techniques that capture an actor’s performance underwater with little interference. With Avatar: The Way of Water reviews praising the visuals and the sequel earning heavy award-season attention, it is clear that Cameron remains a visual-effects innovator to this day.

While motion capture is quite commonplace in the film industry, Legato’s exploration is a reminder of the incredible work put into it. Between those involved with capturing the performances and the support of those involved on the sound stage, to the animators who help add incredible detail, there is plenty of heart and effort placed into the process. As such, while Disney’s “live-action” movies such as The Lion King may be hotly debated, there is an incredible amount of work dedicated to making each feature come to life.

The Lion King, Avatar, and Avatar: The Way of Water are available to stream on Disney+.

Source: Corridor Crew