The Avatar Plug-in List

As Avatar, in its first week of release, continues to rake in money at the box office, word is trickling out—and in some cases flowing—from technology companies and post facilities about the tools and techniques used to create the film. In the spirit of the season, I’m making an expanded list of all the off-the-shelf plug-ins that played a part in bringing James Cameron’s 3D epic to the screen. If you check it twice and find that a key plug-in used is not listed, e-mail me and I'll expand the list below. Here's what we know to date:

For Holotable Imagery: Prime Focus Krakatoa
Prime Focus used the full version of it proprietary particle system Krakatoa, available as a plug-in for 3ds Max, to generate the film’s holotable imagery, notably the 3D terrain of the Home Tree. Krakatoa was used to enhance the images with scan lines and LIDAR-like results, as if the footage had been captured by satellites scanning the planet’s atmosphere. Krakatoa was also used to treat images brought up on the Holotables by military personnel in the Ops Center scenes.

For 3D Composites: The Foundry’s Ocula, Keylight and Furnace
In London, Framestore used The Foundry’s Ocula, as well as Keylight and Furnace, to coax along an otherwise punishing compositing schedule. Says Jonathan Fawkner, the shop’s VFX supervisor, “On Avatar, we had an optical stereo image to deal with, so, in essence, double the usual workload. It involved a hideous number of man hours. We simply don't do conventional working days." Ocula has evolved into a set of plug-ins and now ships in version 2.

For Glows, Flares and Refractions: Knoll Light Factory and GenArts Sapphire
Though Weta Digital and Cameron’s own Lightstorm Entertainment created the majority of the film’s CGI, ILM was brought in about one year ago to help with critical scenes, in particular, the many specialized vehicles and fiery explosions seen in close-up. John Knoll, VFX supervisor for Avatar at ILM and a co-creator of the eponymous lens flare plug-in, confirms that Red Giant Software’s Knoll Light Factory was used throughout the film. ILM, long-time users of Sapphire Sparks on its SABRE-ized Inferno systems, also dipped heavily into the GenArts plug-in suite.

*Updated*