Sony Santa Monica borrowed virtual-camera technology used on ‘Avatar,’ while Paramount is recreating 1990s gaming for ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. The conversation also addressed AI, with Velazquez comparing current anxieties to earlier fears that computer animation and motion capture would eliminate traditional animation jobs.
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