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Visual-effects supervisor Pablo Helman describes the challenges of creating these animated characters. By Eric Ditzian Noah Ringer in “The Last Airbender” Photo: Paramount Pictures As fans of the “The Last Airbender” know, the brand-new movie started off as an animated series on Nickelodeon and introduced a slew of fantastical creatures over the course of its three-season run: dragons, flying primates and beasts unlike any ever seen on Earth. The task for filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan in his live-action adaptation was to re-create those beloved creatures in believable ways up on the big screen. For this task, he turned to visual-effects supervisor Pablo Helman and the team at Industrial Light & Magic. Shortly before the film’s Thursday (July 1) release, Helman called up MTV News to walk us through the creation of four of the coolest creatures in “The Last Airbender.” Appa In the world of “Airbender,” there are four nations, each capable of controlling one element: earth, fire, water or air. And then there is Aang, the young boy who is the only one with the potential to control all the elements and bring peace to this war-torn world. Aang’s transportation of choice? A flying bison named Appa. The only problem with digitally creating Appa is that there’s no equivalent to such a creature on our planet. “He has six legs, and that’s a big challenge for us, because how do you take it into reality?” Helman said. “There is no reference for a creature with six legs. Nature doesn’t create those things. It’s very difficult to get six legs to do the right thing. We looked at how elephants walked, which helped. We did some tests and figured out Appa would pretty much move like an elephant.” Momo Another of Aang’s animal pals is Momo, a flying lemur with a serious mischievous streak. As was the case with Appa, Helman and his crew struggled over how to take Momo’s stylized design into the cartoon and transfer the lemur into a realistic creature. “We agonized over the design for many, many months,” he said. “Night was very attuned to the fans. He wanted the fans to see the real stuff that they had in their heads from the cartoon. We made him furry and we kept his mischievous behavior. The kids will love him.” Giant Lizard The Fire Nation is the film’s central aggressor, as they’ve been at war with the other tribes for 100 years. In addition to their ability to manipulate fire, the nation maintains a fleet of warships and a convoy of giant lizards that take their soldiers to war. The lizards are invaluable in the fight, as they can scale great walls with ease. To create these creatures, Helman had to pay special attention to the lizard’s ability to survive in extreme environments. “It’s kind of a hybrid creature,” he said. “They carry the Fire Nation soldiers into battle. These lizards live in very hot environments, which are part of the Fire Nation. But they bring them into very cold environments. So you have to create them in a way that would make sense for them to survive in each environment.” Talking Dragon Throughout his travels, Aang encounters all manner of dreamlike beasts. One of the most memorable is a talking dragon who becomes a sort of spiritual advisor and motivational speaker for the boy in his quest to defeat the nefarious Fire Nation. The dragon is seen in a very tight shot, presenting animators with a difficult task. “All the close-up work is very challenging,” Helman said. “We had a very good reference of a crocodile opening its eye. If you actually look at the rendering we’re doing, it actually has a double eyelid. We had to build the eye paying close attention to geometry, so that the optics reflect and refract the light in a specific way. What is the thing that makes an eye look real? There is a lot of science behind what we’re doing, but also a lot of art.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Last Airbender.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos ‘The Last Airbender’ Clips MTV Rough Cut: ‘The Last Airbender’ Related Photos ‘The Last Airbender’ Premieres In New York The Powers & Creatures Of ‘The Last Airbender’

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‘The Last Airbender’: An Inside Look At Four Cool Creatures