A new behind-the-scenes video for Avatar: Fire and Ash gives fans a closer look at how the film’s newest corners of Pandora were designed. The Art of Avatar: Fire and Ash book releases on July 21.

Exploring ‘The Art of Avatar’

The video features Dylan Cole, co-production designer for the Avatar franchise, discussing the art direction and world-building philosophy behind the third film. Cole has worked on the franchise since the original Avatar, and in the new featurette, he explains how the design team approached the challenge of expanding Pandora while keeping the world grounded, functional, and believable.

Cole says the guiding principle for Pandora is not traditional science fiction, but something closer to “science fact.” Rather than designing alien environments simply because they look strange or fantastical, the team tries to approach Pandora with the seriousness of a nature documentary. Cole describes the goal as creating a sense of tactile reality, with artists working through drawing, painting, sculpture, practical models, virtual reality, and other tools to make the world feel physically present.

That philosophy carries into the film’s new cultures. Cole explains that Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash were developed as one massive creative undertaking, which allowed the design team to clearly distinguish the Metkayina reef culture from the new groups introduced in Fire and Ash. Those include the Wind Traders, who occupy the skies and higher altitudes of Pandora, and the Ash People, whose lives are shaped by a volcanic wasteland.

Each group was given its own design language. The Metkayina are tied to the reef and ocean, while the Wind Traders are defined by motion, air travel, and bright, elevated construction.

The Ash People, by contrast, are rooted in a harsher landscape of fire, ash, and survival. Cole notes that their colors, materials, and structures were designed to reflect the environment around them.

One of the video’s central examples is the Wind Traders’ flying vessel. Cole says the team had to design the gondola, the giant jellyfish-like medusoid, and the wind ray as an interconnected system.

The result needed to feel like something that could actually operate, not just a beautiful fantasy image.

For the gondola, the designers expanded on marui-style construction techniques, using visual ideas like bent cane, lashings, ropes, and tied structures on a much larger scale. Cole says the team even developed a kind of flight manual for the rigging, helping the performance-capture work feel more grounded. The idea was to make the actors and filmmakers understand how the craft worked, even within Pandora’s heightened reality.

James Cameron also pushed the team to keep the alien designs relatable. Cole explains that the deck of the Wind Traders’ gondola had to make visual and narrative sense to audiences. The filmmakers drew on familiar pirate-movie language, giving viewers an immediate way into the scene even as the setting remained unmistakably Pandoran.

The Ash People are another major focus. Cole says the team added a burnt-out home tree as a visual anchor for their environment. The structure serves several purposes at once: it gives the audience a landmark, suggests the clan’s history, and helps explain their resilience after catastrophe.

By showing what the Ash People lost, the design also gives viewers a way to understand and sympathize with them.

Cole also discusses the design of sacred spaces, including the monument at the Cove of the Ancestors. He says the team looked at familiar Avatar visual language, including sacred trees and archways, then inverted those ideas for an underwater setting. By flipping the arch form into a C-shape, the designers created a backdrop that supported the scene visually while still feeling connected to the franchise’s established spiritual imagery.

Throughout the video, Cole emphasizes that good design in Avatar cannot just be “neat.” Every environment has to serve the story, communicate culture, and make efficient use of screen time.

A single design element may need to establish place, explain history, support character emotion, and guide the audience’s eye all at once.

Cole closes by tying the design of Pandora back to the broader themes of the franchise. He says the films are ultimately a metaphor for humanity’s relationships with one another and with Earth, with the Na’vi’s reverence for Pandora serving as a model for how audiences might think about their own world.

Be sure to check out the extensive behind-the-scenes video on YouTube for more concept art and creative insights into the blockbuster franchise:

The video serves as a sampler of the content and artistic commentary fans can expect from the film’s upcoming art book, The Art of Avatar: Fire and Ash, releasing July 21 from DK. The 272-page hardcover art book by Chris Prince includes a foreword by Oona Chaplin and an introduction by Richard Taylor, with concept art and behind-the-scenes material spotlighting the creation of Pandora’s new characters, creatures, clans, and environments. The book is available for pre-order now.

‘Avatar’ Experience Coming to Disneyland Resort

The behind-the-scenes look at Pandora’s expanding environments also comes as Disney prepares to bring a new Avatar experience to Disney California Adventure.

The upcoming Disneyland Resort project was confirmed as a new land with a boat ride, inspired by Avatar: The Way of Water and future Avatar films rather than directly recreating Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Disney has described the attraction as a “thrilling excursion” to the open seas of Pandora, with concept art showing guests traveling by boat through bioluminescent environments and encountering massive Pandoran sea life.

Notably, the concept art for the park expansion appears to suggest that the Cove of the Ancestors featured in the behind-the-scenes video will be visible to guests as part of the backdrop or possibly an attraction facade for the coming boat ride.

Let us know on social media what part of Pandora’s design in Avatar: Fire and Ash stood out to you most.

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