Like millions of other viewers, I found myself completely lost in the landscape of Pandora. I didn’t care much for the anti-human/environmental messaging, but the visual brilliance overcame the story. Like one review I heard, it was “Dances with Wolves with Smurfs” but in an inescapable land that I wish I could buy multiple timeshares just to vacation year round (yes, that was a jab at the storyline).
Once I got past emotions left by the scenematic escapism referred to as the “Avatar effect”, I quickly moved my thoughts to behind the scenes. So exactly how many people were involved? How much work went into every tiny detail? I still daydream of being in the brainstorm sessions and concept reviews. I can imagine the room with stacks of ideas gestured out on paper and on monitor screens. The idea of having so much talent working on one project is so inspiring to me. It’s like the ultimate creative soup concentrated into one small boullion of 162 minutes. Check out the official movie credit roll to get an idea of what kind of production went into this project.
I visited the movie website and caught sight of the concept illustrations and was completely in awe. From my experience with comic geekdom, I’m no stranger to sci-fi illustrators and it seems that the movie’s concepting was orchestrated by some of the most talented mythical pencil magicians out there.
That to me explained it all.
It was these illustrators that forged the visual architecture and made the movie beautiful. Yes, other great minds and talents were involved, but I (heart) illustrators and they never get enough credit. So I’ll stand with a huge round of applause to all of them.
Here are just a handful of artists that were part of the magic. Visit their sites and be amazed:
| Alex Alvarez James Clyne Dylan Cole |
Steven Messing Neville Page |
Jordu Schell Daphne Yap Ryan Church |
There is a book dedicated to these artisans and well worth flipping through next time you are in the bookstore. I guarantee it will only make the movie 100x more magical.
And for all those aspiring artists, one of my favorite VCU professors, Alex Bostic, made the comment years ago that still holds true “illustration takes a certain breed of people in order to survive.” The reality is that it’s very competitive, but well worth the fight if you are a part of something as big as Avatar.
I will continue to push the crayons on my kids, that’s for sure.
