This week’s selection are the huge Avatar sculptures produced by Gentle Giant Studios
Most readers will have seen the original Avatar motion picture by James Cameron, which opened in 2009. At the time the buzz about the production was that it used 3D viewing technology.
It was possible, while wearing a certain type of 3D glasses and a suitable monitor, to watch the movie in 3D.
Honestly, it was a bit creepy and I didn’t feel that the 3D aspects added very much to the film, other than a few extreme scenes.
Now, 13 years later, there’s another Avatar movie: “Avatar: The Way of the Water”. It’s a sequel to the original story, but in many ways is basically the same story: idealistic setting disturbed by external forces, requiring action to resolve the situation.
To promote the film, Gentle Giant Studios was contracted by The Walt Disney Company to create several sets of these amazing Avatar figures. They’ve been placed in strategic marketing locations around the world, and will definitely attract attention — including this post.
Gentle Giant Studios said in a LinkedIn post:
“We are proud to see these in the wild… Created by Gentle Giant Studios to help promote “Avatar: The Way of Water”, these life-size statues of Jake and Neytiri stand ready to defend their family and tribe.”
While the 3D printed statutes are amazing, there’s another point to make here. Years ago such an operation might not have been possible. The costs of producing a series of identical and highly detailed figures of this type would have been prohibitive.
Today, however, the costs of production have gone down due to the new technologies — both hardware and software — that have emerged in recent years. Companies like Gentle Giant Studios are on the edge the envelope and fully leveraged their tech to make these amazing statues.
Go Blue!
Via LinkedIn (Hat tip to Jason)
