Saturday, January 2, 2010

Learn Na'vi, are you for real?

Now I'm expecting most of us to have already watched James Cameron's epic film of 2009, Avatar. (If you haven't, go and watch it! It's fucking awesome!)




I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and what excites me even more was the filming and special effects. Such state of the art techniques were used enabled the director to create photo realistic computer generated characters and the use a more refined motion-capture animation technology. Unlike previous motion capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors motions have been captured, this one used in this movie allowed James Cameron to observe directly on a monitor how the actors virtual counterparts interact with the movie's digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action. In real time! That's like one giant video game!

The motion capture stage was six times larger than anything previously used, ever. The technique used to capture facial expressions was also improved and refined for this movie. It is quite a marvel.

James Cameron had originally written the script in 1994 but he stated he wanted technology to catch up for his vision for the film. I guess it was really worth the wait! Good 'ole James also promised us two sequels if the first film was successful as his story arc is big enough for two more. So looks like there is more to look forward to.

Anyway, I shouldn't bore you with such details. Guess what I stumbled upon. A website where you can learn the language of the 'big blue cats' from the movie. Geeze!



We have elvish, klingon and I'm sure a bunch of more nerd'ish fictional languages out there. Now you can add Na'vi to that list.

Visit learnnavi.org for the full experience. You can even download a pocket guide in the form of a PDF.

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