A christmas carol technology has nothing to do with Avatar

I was a little surprised when recently at dinner a friend was comparing the technology used in A Christmas Carol to that of Avatar- drawing on similarities between the two. But let it be said there is absolutely nothing similar about the two.

"You're basically animating what I think they call a virtual puppet in a database. A kind of avatar version of you" This is what Colin Ferth had to say about the technology used for A Christmas Carol releasing this weekend and it is similar to how Polar Express used it- but only this time your taking the classic Dicken's fable remade a zillion times over and giving it a new age, cutting edge tech makeover. To simply explain how this technology works- Robert Zemeckis' captures the motion of the real actors i.e. Jim Carey holding a torchlight say-covers it in computer generated graphics and then puts them against an animated backdrop. an added advantage is CGI takes care of Carrey's 7 different get up's.
But don't get confused bloggers when you hear the term avatar being thrown around loosely-this technology has nothing to do with James Cameron and his AVATAR and the pathbreaking technology he has developed for that one. Avatar uses STEREOSCOPIC CAMERAS- in lay man's terms- Cameron takes two cameras, straps them together-each one giving you a different perspective on a scene-eerily mimicking the way the human eye in 3 D form views the world.The difference is- movie geeks pay attention- Avatar version gives you depth- it's like watching images through a window-that real, that involving with a distinctive background and foreground to it. Unlike AVATAR, A CHRISTMAS CAROL is like a flat, moving, animated painting.

And that my dear friends is the difference.

Enjoy

Neha