Avatar: The Way of Water brought Pandora’s oceans to life with stunning CGI that looks real enough to touch. The team at Wētā FX, the visual effects studio behind the magic, created over 3,200 shots filled with digital water, sea creatures, and Na’vi characters swimming through it all. Check out their breakdown video for a close look at the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmawvbOpCY.
Rendering the ocean surface in CGI means building fake water that moves, sparkles, and interacts just like the real thing. Wētā FX focused on every detail, from waves crashing on reefs to tiny bubbles rising around swimmers. They built the entire underwater world digitally, including glowing corals and massive sea beasts. Light plays a big role too—sunbeams filter through the surface, scattering colors and creating that deep blue glow we see in real oceans.
To make it realistic, the artists simulated water currents and foam. When Na’vi dive in or ride waves, the CGI water splashes and clings to their skin naturally. Wētā FX invented new tools for this. Actors performed underwater in special tanks with motion capture gear, recording real movements that fed into the computer simulations. This let the digital ocean react to every kick and flip.
Complex lighting was key for the surface rendering. The team calculated how light bounces off choppy waves and penetrates depths, keeping characters visible without looking fake. Large action scenes, like battles with water beasts, mixed destruction sims with fluid dynamics. Every drop and ripple got rendered frame by frame to match real physics.
Wētā FX’s website shares more on their tech: https://www.wetafx.co.nz/. Their work raised the bar for CGI oceans, blending performance capture, water sims, and rendering into scenes that fool the eye.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmawvbOpCY
https://www.wetafx.co.nz/
