AVATAR: Not animation, performance capture

This is not an animated film. These actors did not just stand at a lectern and do a voice part and then animators went off for the next two years and created the entire physicality of their performance. Every nuance, every tiny bit of the performance that you see on the screen was created by the actors. They had to run, they had to leap, they had to fight, they had to do all the things that you see them do in the film, and that’s where the power of the performance comes from.

James Cameron, Director of Avatar

We’ve taken mocap and made it performance capture. You don’t just want the motion, you want the emotion of somebody. And for that, you need a performance.

Jon Landau, Producer of Avatar

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