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'Avatar': Behind the scenes at Weta Digital

To celebrate the release of the Avatar Extended Collector's Edition, CNET Australia got to go behind the scenes at Weta studios to witness how the movie was made.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
motion capture on Avatar

Instead of computer-animating the Na'vi, "Avatar" creators used a technique known as "motion capture," which helps to create more natural-looking characters. Click on the image for more pictures from the behind-the-scenes tour.

 Ty Pendlebury/CNET Australia

New Zealand may be known as the home of "Lord of the Rings," but you may not know that it's also the unofficial birthplace of "Avatar."

You see, Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop in Wellington is behind the special effects of films such as "Heavenly Creatures" and "Prince Caspian." But more famously, it has produced the effects in both the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Avatar." In fact, the company was working up until July to finish work on the Extended Edition of the "Avatar" Blu-ray version.

To celebrate the release of the Avatar Extended Collector's Edition, CNET Australia got to go behind the scenes at Weta studios to witness how the movie was made. As this Avatar photo gallery shows, we were taken through each step of the process--from motion capture through to the finished product.