Nina

“Avatar might be described by others as ‘science fiction,’ but we challenge our designers to create everything as if it was scientific fact.”
― Tara Bennett, The Art of Avatar The Way of Water

“I felt we were struggling to keep the essence of what you’d immediately recognize as a whale, yet the specific details had to be very alien. The example that I used for the artists was the direhorse. You look at it and it’s clearly a horse. But when you really get to study it, it is some strange, alien dinosaur that has some horselike properties. I wanted the same thing with the tulkun. There should be no doubt in your mind what the metaphor is, but the specifics of it are very alien and strange, and totally unique to that species.”
― Tara Bennett, The Art of Avatar The Way of Water

“Of course, we have exotic, crazy, alien coral as well. But so much of it is based on the real world because the whole point of these films is that they are metaphors and analogies for our own planet. You don’t want to stray too far from reality to where that metaphor doesn’t work.”
― Tara Bennett, The Art of Avatar The Way of Water

“It’s pretty hard to come up with something crazier than nature right here on Earth,” the director says, laughing.”
― Tara Bennett, The Art of Avatar The Way of Water