Avatar was not a sudden inspiration but a decades-long obsession. James Cameron first conceived the idea in the mid-1990s, imagining a sci-fi epic about humans exploiting an alien world and an outsider who learns to see through another species’ eyes. At the time, the technology to realize Pandora and its Na’vi inhabitants simply didn’t exist, so Cameron shelved the project and waited. Instead of compromising, Cameron spent nearly ten years developing the tools the film required. He helped pionee