Like many other scenes in this film, the action was composed of layers upon layers of performance. As seen below, there was a principal Na'vi Scale capture in the tank, another stunt capture in water with doubles, a human scale dry capture, a Na'vi scale dry capture, and finally, a principal photography plate shot in New Zealand.

There was a lot of emphasis on testing at Lightstorm. So much so that Supervising Art Director Luke Freeborn, fellow Art Director Steven Light-Orr, and I spent many hours conducting similitude tests in a 1:12 scale model of the underwater motion capture facility, see below one of those tests for the Sea Dragon hatch.