Untold Studios Creates VFX and Painterly Animation for Netflix's 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'

BAFTA, Emmy and Grammy nominated Untold Studios has worked on a large body of complex shots across the live-action adaptation of the beloved animated series, ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’.

The show follows Aang, the young Avatar, as he learns to master the four elements (water, earth, fire, and air) to restore balance to a world threatened by the terrifying Fire Nation. Along the way, Aang teams up with Water tribe siblings Katara and Sokka, as well as many other unforgettable characters.

Untold’s work includes highly complex water simulation, epic fire effects, as well as a fight sequence where characters are seen lifting huge chunks of the earth and throwing it towards their enemies. 

In addition, the award-winning team is behind the beautiful painterly animated story entitled, ‘The Tale of Two Lovers’, where audiences are shown the origin of Omashu City and the love story that birthed it. The highly technical animation was captured through a single shot and mixes CGI visuals with watercolour effects, delicately layered over the top. To design and build the watercolour sequence, the team deeply explored the art and design of South and East Asia to authentically tell this story. 

VFX supervisor James Hattsmith explains, “Working on a show of this nature was really exciting because there was such a broad spectrum of work for us to bring to life. From the high-end photoreal effects peppered throughout the show, to the animated cave sequence, the team were constantly being challenged to create the best possible visuals, working closely with executive producer Jabbar Raisani throughout. It was a total pleasure to work on this from start to finish and the outcome really shows the range of expertise here at Untold Studios.”