James Cameron’s “Avatar” technology helped shape the look of Sony Santa Monica Studio’s “God of War” games, game director Bruno Velazquez revealed at View Conference in Turin on Monday during a discussion of how increasingly intertwined filmmaking and video game production have become.
Velazquez said the studio sought to present the two most recent mainline “God of War” games as uninterrupted single takes, borrowing techniques from cinema to give the virtual camera a handheld feel. “We take inspiration from films,” he said, recalling that the developers obtained one of the cameras used by Cameron on “Avatar” and brought it onto their motion-capture set to shoot scenes alongside the performers.
The comments came during an “Ask Me Anything about Games, VFX and Animation” session featuring Industrial Light & Magic animation director Hal Hickel, Guerrilla Games studio director Jan-Bart van Beek, Paramount VFX supervisor Tara DeMarco, Lola Visual Effects supervisor Trent Claus and Skydance Animation production designer Noelle Triaureau. The discussion was moderated by Wieke Schrakamp.
“Arguably, it’s almost the same job these days,” said van Beek, whose studio is behind the “Horizon” franchise, pointing to shared rendering and motion-capture technology and the migration of talent between the two industries. He cited the LED volume used in virtual production as one example of game technology influencing filmmaking, although he noted that games remain fundamentally different because of player choice and agency.
The traffic also runs in the other direction. DeMarco said her current Paramount project, “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” is drawing on gaming historians and consultants to recreate the look and play of video games from the 1990s and early 2000s, rather than simply applying present-day technology to period material. The team is preparing a guide to pixel art, resolution and gameplay, she said.
The movie, directed by Siân Heder and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, adapts Gabrielle Zevin’s best-selling novel about game developers.
Van Beek pointed to the success of “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” as evidence of the growing flow of video game intellectual property into film and television. “The other way around, it almost doesn’t really happen anymore,” he said, recalling the proliferation of movie-based games in the 1990s. However, he cautioned that adaptations remain challenging because much of the original interactive experience can be lost.
The convergence also extends to how studios assess audience reactions. In detail, Velazquez revealed that “God of War” development incorporates scheduled play-tests, facial recordings, eye tracking and detailed surveys examining narrative comprehension and difficulty. “We actually have eye tracking software where we actually see where their eyes are going,” he explained. “Are they looking at where we want them to look at certain moments?” Such feedback has become integral to the production process.
For Hickel, technological sophistication does not necessarily guarantee a better character performance. Discussing “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” he explained how ILM determines when to retain Grogu as a physical puppet and when digital intervention is necessary. “Sometimes the puppetiness is exactly the effect you want on the audience’s brain,” he said, noting that viewers appreciate the character’s “muppety quality,” even if certain movements require digital corrections.
Hickel also described how the production used virtual reality to scout digital environments and simulate different seating positions inside an IMAX auditorium. Apple Vision Pro proved particularly useful for judging the scale of sets before physical construction. “We could really understand the space and know how big it was, and which parts were going to be built practically,” he recalled.
The conversation also addressed AI, with Velazquez comparing current anxieties to earlier fears that computer animation and motion capture would eliminate traditional animation jobs. Both technologies ultimately expanded artists’ capabilities, he argued. “You still need that creative mind. You still need a team of creatives to come together and use these tools,” he said. “But if you don’t have the soul behind it, it’s not going to matter.”
Van Beek took a more cautious position, warning about the potential misuse of AI and the appropriation of other artists’ work. “People are going to use it for really great things and really terrible things,” he underscored. Hickel, meanwhile, distinguished the uncertainty facing professional employment from the enduring ability to create art. “There’s no technical innovation that’s going to stop people from making art and finding ways to make art,” he argued, suggesting that new types of animation and VFX companies may eventually emerge.
Despite increasingly sophisticated tools, the panelists stressed that technology alone will not secure a career. Velazquez said he would rather recruit someone who collaborates effectively than a technically stronger candidate with a poor attitude, while DeMarco emphasized the importance of communication, constructive feedback and adaptability when moving between disciplines.