The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure Hardcover – November 30, 2009

I received The Art of Avatar yesterday and it was one of the most amazing looks into the brilliance of technology and James Cameron's vision I've ever seen!I am a screenwriting student and film student and I was amazed at every page, every idea that is needed to put an idea for a motion picture to life. And it is mindboggling.Cameron had to wait for the technology to catch up to his ideas, and that took almost a decade.Peter Jackson's preface uses the phrase 'Suspension of Disbelief' as the world between the filmmaker and the audience. You as a member of the audience are watching a film in its real time. The world you are in is the world you see onscreen.And to do that properly is the magic of film.The Art of Avatar shows the people, the animals, the humans, the natives of the moon Pandora, in magnificent detail is worth purchasing the book. The process of the evolution of how a character or beast is created in amazing.I cannot wait to see this film and given the taste of its beauty and plotting, am amazed this technology exists to give this to us.The only negative I can give and it is nothing really, but the middle page of my book was not connected, and I don't think that was on purpose. There are fold-out pages that blow your mind in the book, but the middle photo encompased just the 2 middle pages.If that is the worst criticism I can give to a book, fuggetaboutit! I did and carefully fitted the page back.The Art of Avatar is a wonderful art showing unto itself, but if you are at all interested in seeing the movie, or are a film maker, you will appreciate this gorgeous book.

We've all read the main complaints: Too short, too costly, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I rather enjoy this book. It may not be the BEST art book, but it is full of amazing artwork. And even though there are only about 100 pages, these pages are freakin' HUGE, with two or three GIANT fold out pages of conceptual artwork. The whole thought process behind creating the creatures of Pandora (including the ever so beautiful Na'vi) is captivating to say the least, and I'm not just saying this because I intend on seeing the movie ten more times.I also suggest the Pandora Activist Guide if you're more prone to smaller carry-with-you books. But, trust me, there are several worse ways to spend twenty bucks.

The media could not be loaded. (I've updated this review a bit after watching the movie.)If you're blown away by the visual quality of the Pandora, as shown in the trailers, you'll be glad to see that majority of the art in this book are on the environments. There are also designs for the plants, animals, vehicles and the Pandora inhabitants, the Na'vi. Weta Workshop is also roped in to provide some models and help in designing the Na'vi. The creativity behind the design and the scale of work is of course amazing.The downside is there are only 108 pages, which is underwhelming considering that every set and prop in the movie is made totally from imagination. They certainly could have packed more pages but the price is also lower for that matter.This book didn't include as much preliminary designs as I hoped, like the iterations they had to do to get to the final designs. The only area where there are iterations are the character designs for the Na'vi. The rest, like the flora, fauna, vehicles and sets look pretty close to the finalized designs.Most of the art in this book look computer generated (not that it's a bad thing) and there are very few pencil sketches. Quite a few pieces created with mixed medium are a bit jarring to me, like mixing photos with digital painting for backgrounds. Again, nothing wrong with mixing medium but some of the styles just clash and calls for attention in the wrong way.The writeup talks mainly about the design concepts and very little on the production. Stereocopy, which James Cameron is an advocate of, is used, but it's only briefly mentioned.I'm intrigued that James Cameron actually wrote the script in 1995. But he had to wait until 2006 before technology was (deemed) advanced enough (for him) to make the film. I thought technology was already available when Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was released in 2001. So what technology are we really talking about here? It's not mentioned but, well, this isn't a making-of book. I'll definitely be getting the disc when it comes out.Overall, this book looks like a rush job. Page 82-83 has an image of the flying Ikrans printed upside down. I can't imagine how it's possible to place a picture on a page (on the software) without looking at the picture. There are very slight pixelation with the really big pictures, something I don't normally see with other movie books.It's a nice book but more for Avatar fans. But be prepared to be underwhelmed, especially after you've watched the movie.3.5 out of 5 stars(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I bought the book for a friend who loved the movie but I had also loved it (I saw it three times). I took a peek at it before I gave it to her and I couldn't put it down. It was like watching the movie all over again! The pictures are magical. It even has stories about how the creators got their ideas for the characters and the animals. It's an art book and it has information about making the movie. I highly recommend owning this beautiful book. Jane