I just saw James Cameron's Avatar movie in 3D. I generally hate anyone on principal who says things like this but, Oh my God! You have got to see this. The story is all right. Powerful corporation stomps on the natives, no shocker. Five minutes into the story you know whodunnit.

This thing is in real 3D. The camera makes every effort to show you just how 3D with shots from tree top, over waterfalls, little bugs flying by, etc. Unlike the old red blue glasses that focus on the characters this is real stereo. If you want to ignore the main characters and watch the bird 100 yards behind in the forest you can do it. There are layers and layers of depth with things happening constantly, dozens of species of animals,glow in the dark plants, sky floating islands, 1000 ft trees,and it all looks real.

going to see it tmrow morning.. (7;30 am..yes..you read right..) show.. or if I can get tickets for tonite.. theatre is a min walk from home.. been looking forward to seeing it..

youi won't be dissapointed

heeey yea i saw the movie too, the story is absolutely amazing! It's realy the best story line i have seen in a sci-fi in years! and the acting is great the graphics are astonishing, if u can see it in 3d with those 3d glasses you really should cuz its just awe inspiring! It's honestly in my top 5 of best sci-fi movies of all time! Even my friend who hates sci-fi's thought the movie was awesome! 
The 1st minutes or so they really do kinda overdo the 3d thing with some exaggerated depth effects but after the story starts to kick in they luckily return to much more realistic 3d effects.

Check this out!!!!!!

The film is shot in a whopping 144 frames per second. A gizmo on the projector flip flops between each frame and polarizes the image clockwise and counter clockwise. You wear glasses that look like nurdy 50s sunglasses.One lens is polarized clockwise the other counter clockwise. Each eye is seeing 72 frames a second and 72 black images in between. It's so fast you can't percieve it. If you live in the US with 60 cycle current or the UK with 50 cycle it's like trying to watch a fluorescent bulb to see when it switches off. Circular polarization also means you can tilt your head at angles and the image still comes through. It doesn't dim when you turn to grab the popcorn.

So what does that get you. Like Rayraz says, parts are overdone. The little seed thingies float to within arms reach, but you are constrained by the square screen. They disappear abruptly at the edge when you should still see them floating in the theater. The action starts you don't have time to pick it apart. When the characters are running across a tree limb they are running across the tree limb. You can look over the side and focus down to the ground. You can look at the bird flying off or the higher branch they passed under and they are all real at different levels and focal lengths.There are parts up in trees,over waterfalls, climbing floating islands, riding sky birds.Seriously, If you have a fear of heights 3D may be too much for you. It's that good!

 In the beginning tehres this scene where the lead character floats out of his stasis pod, and the depth perception is a bit strange, cuz he looks small! i'm guessing the 3d effect introduces new challenges when it comes to the perception of scale. In bryce you can often cheat by modelling things to look smaller or larger then they should be, to fool the composition, but when things float in 3d space in front of your eyes, you cant get away with that anymore.
but later on its indeed all good, between the story and the action theres just so much goin on you get sucked into the movie lol

Apparantly each frame required 48 hrs of work! Saw it Saturday, wasn't blown away by the story, but it is a visual masterpiece. I'm not one for getting over excited but found myself going "wow did you see that!!!!!" on a number of occasions. Just like with Terminator 2, Cameron has really raised the bar with this one. Movies won't be the same again after this.

Yup, Avatar is all that. (and more, imo) I've seen it 3 times now (in 2D, 3D regular theatre and in 3D-IMAX) Trust me, if you at all can, see it in 3D IMAX!!

Prepare yourself for even more Avater. The main actors have already been signed to possibly make TWO Avatar sequels.

Btw, I wrote an article for Renderosity, on the Avatar film (no spoilers) and a little from my experience working on Avatar. The article just got posted today.

http://www.renderosity.com/come-what-may-i-have-doubted-james-cameron-for-the-last-time-cms-14880

I saw this even while a snow storm was blasting NYC...  I need to see it at the imax .  can't wait

I heard the sequels will be on other planets... 

Oh yeah. You would not believe how much 3D contrent was created for Avatar. So much was not used it will be easy for them to make a new planet(s).

You guys are killin me! I have to wait another whole week before I can go see this movie. But will definately be going to an IMAX.

Here's some ZBrush 3D concepts from Avatar. Scott Patton posted them over at ZBC. Early stuff, back from when it was still being called "Project 880";
**
LINK**

just got back from it and wow! loved it. btw.. does it make a difference where you sit to see the whole 3d effect coming to you? I sat on the side. mainly because the crowd in the centre..and yes..at 7;30 int he morn..were chatterboxes and wouldn't shut up. A lot of the 3d effect of the seed pods and leaves seems to get lost. though it was amazing. Or maybe I was expecting it to float towards me.. so I could 'catch' it. The heights were awe strickening.. ooh..everything of it was..

I love the forest..the lighting of those flowers..oh..those colours!  Any ,mat's around like that?? Just to be able to create those... and well..cain I go live there? I love the idea of stepping on grass and it lits up at each footprint.. and the tree.. and ooh..everything...

um..er.. AS..why do you look sane in that article pix of yours?? What happened to thy long hair???

definately going to see it again soon....

The 3D viewing effect can yes make things look as if they are "coming at you", but Cameron didn't use that specific attribute as much at all as say "Aliens Vs. Monsters" did. Avatar's 3D was much more about showing depth of the scene and sometimes to a greater level, a DOF look.

AS..why do you look sane in that article pix of yours?*

-Ha, special effects keep me at least looking sane, lol. Nah, that's actually just my most recent photo that doesn't make me want to run away when I look at it.  ;o)

(and, my hair was pulled back into a ponytail)

Will you lot give it a rest? I haven't seen it yet!!!!  

hey we cant help it that movies come out later on mars ;-) 

I am dying to see this movie and I don't go out to see movies, I wait to check them out at the library.

UVDan.. you havta go..
Chris.. oh.. we not telling you anything.. we just praising it so you WILL go..

AS.. you look cute that way.. stay that way..
The DOF was pretty good... scared me at times..

Dan,
That's the point. Unless you have a fancy game console with 3D glasses there is no way to show this at home.For now with the 3D it's theaters or nowhere.

I think we should give AgentSmith a round of applause.

Kirk man, the characters looked at each other. They observed personal space. Characters in the back of the tribe reacted to the conflict instead of just being window dressing. Everybody breathed, everybody gasped, everybody smiled. I never once got creepy japanese robot syndrome. They're alive!

Bravo!

Do they give you good glasses at the theaters?  l always got the ones smeared with nose grease all over the lenses.

they did..and if I did get a good one in india.. expect better elsewhere...

UVDan, some movies are really just better on the big screen, and this is one of those! Just pick urself a nice girly to go with or such if u need an excuse to enter a theatre ;-) i promise it'll be worth not waiting till its in the library hehe 

Drive ins were great.  What happened to Drive ins?  But yeah, I am sure it will be worth it.

 well my guess is, since the time of drive-ins movies have actually become good enough that people are willing to wait untill áfter the movie before having sex on the back seat.. at which point simple chairs provide enough privacy during the movie.

I never once got creepy japanese robot syndrome

YES, finally Avatar (and Christmas Carol) got the eyes right! The eyes and the extremely subtle facial movements was the huge problems that Motion Capture hadn't really got perfect in previous movies. But, now the have the right hardware and software to capture all of that off of the actors. It truly helps with the realism.

And, its still getting better, even now.

Quote - I never once got creepy japanese robot syndrome

YES, finally Avatar (and Christmas Carol) got the eyes right! The eyes and the extremely subtle facial movements was the huge problems that Motion Capture hadn't really got perfect in previous movies. But, now the have the right hardware and software to capture all of that off of the actors. It truly helps with the realism.

And, its still getting better, even now.

Cameron said that a significant factor in deciding to keep the two main characters was the rigging.    The amount of time and work it took to get those two rigged was worth keeping and using towards the next movie...  I would have thought that expensive equipment would make it easier... not harder...

Super complex rigging is far more valuable than hardware. We get new hardware monthly. A complex 3D rig takes a team of well paid people a very long time to perfect. And, once it is perfect, you don't want to have to do that again, until you absolutely need to.

I can tell you, the Mocap hardware we used on A Christmas Carol was upgraded quite a bit as we then did Mars Needs Moms. And, yes as we are trying to capture something so complex (face and eyes) and as the hardware becomes better everything becomes more complex.

Hmmm...that sounds confusing...

Better hardware will not make things easier. Better hardware will give us more precise data on face and eye movement. And, with most things in 3D, if it is more precise and more realistic the more complex it is by default, or at the very least it will give us much, much more data in which to go through.

"Going through data" - what that means is called Data Tracking, which simply put is literally after a scene is "filmed" (captured), what you will see in playback is just a bunch of moving dots, nothing else. And, even though we have nearly 300 infrared mocap cameras capturing a scene a lot of times those dots either disappear or are in the wrong place. It's up to the Data Trackers to go through every single frame, of every single take, in every single scene and fix any dot irregularities.

Yeah...time consuming is the keyword here, lol.

Got your message erosiaart, and replied.

and I replied back.. :-)