Avatar 2 in 3D without 3D glasses is gearing up for absolute cinematic visual extravaganza by director James Cameron, with hundreds of mixed speculations.
Avatar had been the best 3D visual experience in huge lot of Hollywood stereoscopic movies. Avatar director James Cameron is the legendary innovative in the field of Animation and VFX. Cameron had always been miles ahead of his peers. Avatar 2 3D will be his upcoming directional movie with cutting edge and impeccable technology advancements. There are mixed reactions on the news of releasing Avatar 2 in 3D without 3D glasses.
Visual Effects fraternity respects Jim (James Cameron) for achieving highest level of quality details in Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, Avatar and other movies. Avatar was groundbreaking benchmark for 3D stereoscopic movies. Many 3D movies (stereoscopic movies) had come and gone. But, they couldn’t touch the quality of Avatar’s depth level, overall look and feel. Because majority of movies are shot by normal way and then they go through 2D to 3D conversion process in post production. So, it just becomes limited to certain pop out effects like arrow / bullet / object coming out of the screen. Long landscape shots along with gigantic mechanical devices or super heroes / animals / aliens actions sequences do some trick here and there. Too much of stereo rotoscoping end up in forceful depth which distracts the audience from storyline.
This is the reason, a large movie lovers prefers to see 2D version only, even if 3D or IMAX format is available. Believing in the same concept, Christopher Nolan never makes 3D stereoscopic movies.
Avatar 2 3D can be an entire new movie experience, as Cameron is working on the prototype to give stereoscopic feel without wearing 3D glasses. He had given the statement long time ago that he will release Avatar sequels only when such technology is ready. To achieve this glass free 3D technology, Jim’s company Lightstorm Entertainment is working in-sync with RGB laser projection technology of Christie Digital. Both have undergone through 5 year collaboration agreement. This latest RGB laser projection system can simulate bright visual imageries on high fps (frames per second), which eliminates the need of wearing 3D glasses to watch stereoscopic movie.
Official Facebook page of Avatar reveled release dates of Avatar sequels. As per news of April 2017,
- Avatar 2 release date is 18th December, 2020
- Avatar 3 release date is 17th December, 2021
- Avatar 4 release date is 20th December, 2024
- Avatar 5 release date is 19th December, 2025
In the latest Avatar news, James Cameron is also working on Avatar video game in partnership with Gaming giant company Ubisoft and Fox Interactive (video game publisher and developer). Not many details are revealed till now but Pandora will be backdrop of gaming levels.
Avatar movie Animation and VFX and Production Notes
James Cameron collaborated again with Joe Letteri, senior VFX artist and four time winner of Best Visual Effects Academy Awards (Avatar, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers). Joe is current heading the position of Director at top ranked VFX studio, Weta Digital. New Zealand based Weta studio is known for his unmatched performance over the years. By 2017, the visual effects studio had won six Academy Awards in the category of ‘Best Visual Effects’.
Weta Digital is officially booked for all Avatar sequels. Cameron is highly impressed with Weta’s photo realistic rendering and timely delivery of top notch Hollywood projects. Gollum character of Lord of the Rings trilogy is coined as one of the masterpiece of Visual Effects industry. CGI Paul Walker by Weta had taken entire Media industry by storm. Weta knows very well how to maintain consistency in the entire movie series. They had proved it in LOTR and Planet of the Apes (Rise, Dawn and War) movie franchise. Weta Digital knows very well how to maintain consistency in the entire movie series.
Jim has finished writing of script of all four parts. Underwater Motion capture shooting of Avatar 2 is scheduled to start with lead actors in August 2017. The principal shooting will start in late 2017. Manhattan Beach, California will be primary shooting location.
The Challenge of shooting Avatar 2
There are no news from any other major players of the Media and Entertainment sector to jump on the bandwagon of RGB laser projection technology and glass free 3D technology of filmmaking yet. On practical note, it will not be financially viable for any cinema owner to upgrade to this high priced technology for Avatar sequels which might release on span of upcoming 4 to 7 years. It is mammoth investment which James could afford, probably not all the theatres owners. Isn’t it the reason behind announcement of Avatar 3, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 along with Avatar 2? We don’t know.
Technology changes in leaps and bounds in today’s dynamic world. So, you can’t be certain to depend on same RGB laser projection technique for years to come. No one knows, what is in store of immersive technologies, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for us in the future. These are all speculations we are currently dealing with. On the flip side, it is also possible that this RGB laser tech opens a new door of film making and visual story telling. If it is successful, it might save billions of dollars which are used in current technology of 2D to 3D conversion in post production workflow. It may turn out to be affordable movie making process to start a new era of 3D boom.
Being unbiased and putting all real problems in neutral perspective, we are not sure how things will take shape in the future. To sum it all, there are three huge challenges:
- Will James Cameron be able to pull out Avatar 2 in 3D without 3D glasses, the way he wants?
- Will cinema owners invest in such costly technology for Avatar sequels?
- Will we see any new technology that can overcome these problems in less expensive manner with same quality output?
Kudos to James Cameron
James Cameron had officially changed release dates of Avatar sequels in past several times (He is very honest and ok with that, we too!). Jim is an innovative filmmaker who pushes boundaries of technology for direction and storytelling, by this time he is aiming for glasses free 3D. He is not the director who will compromise at any cost and literally he is bearing it all, financially and mentally.
This is not all, folks. He has given himself a gigantic mission. Rather than concentrating on one movie at a time, he is working on all Avatar sequels (Avatar 2,3,4 and 5) simultaneously. We can just wait and watch how he accomplishes this hurricane task of releasing Avatar 2 in 3D without 3D glasses.
We wish he achieve what he is thriving for. Kudos to his vision and his colossal contribution to the technology world.