Designer talks about the look of Avatar's aliens

Schell explains that when he started designing the Na’Vi he “knew that they were humanoid, that they were blue-skinned, that they were cat creatures, but that he [Cameron] very much wanted them to retain a humanoid, human-faced element to them.” He began sculpting the creatures, and his first full length maquette of Neytiri, one of the main characters, was exactly what James was looking for. When asked why Cameron picked the feline like facial features Schell says: “It’s probably because he thinks that cats are elegant, and they are. I mean, so are horses, but we don’t have horse-faced aliens” and that he “wanted them to be very beautiful”.

When quizzed over their strange blue skin Schell says: “I believe that they’re blue because it’s unusual and weird. I mean, maybe there’s some ecology-based sense that it makes in the context of the story.” With 40% of the film live action and the rest created using photo-realistic CGI, Cameron has made the most of his rumoured $300 million budget. Find out more about Jordu Schell’s creations here. If this has got you in the Avatar mood, check out the collectors’ models, available for pre-order, here.

[via io9]

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