A door just barely opened - performance capture in AVATAR

I really enjoyed the film AVATAR recently... and the main thing that is pulling me to go back and see it a second time is remembering the details of the motion capture work.

Actors whose faces are already quite familiar -- Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder, Zoey Saldana, et al -- worked in a highly constructed technological "volume," with a new motion capture process, that resulted in CGI with a very human face. The stunning detail and artistic craft behind it has stayed with me. Watching the footage now, of how the actors were photographed and their bodies/faces rebuilt from scratch on computers, is just fascinating -

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Such a promising door, opened further than ever before...