Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora artist reveals key difference between video games and movies

We recently went to Portugal to attend DevGAMM, where we had the opportunity to interview leading figures in game development, such as the legendary John Romero, Joshua Flitcroft of IO Interactive, and tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik. And while all of these figures are involved in games, many of them, as well as a significant portion of the speakers at the event, have offered their work in the film industry. But few have had the opportunity to touch franchises the size and popularity of James Cameron's Avatar. An honour that Massive Entertainment associate art director Mikhail Greuli acknowledged to the Gamereactor microphones in an interview below.

Mikhail has worked on a multitude of projects as a concept artist. In film, for example, he was involved in the production of Hellboy, Jolt and Rambo: Last Blood (2019), so the opportunity to get involved in expanding the world of Pandora was irresistible. "For me, in general, it was a great pleasure to work on this IP because I'm a big fan. I saw the first movie when I was still in high school and I was like... I think I saw it like five times the first time. I think I watched it like five times the next week, because it blew my mind."

"And being a concept art expert and now working on this IP with all these [artists], like Dylan Cole and Ben Procter, who were like my childhood heroes, it's a real amazing experience, right? It's like they see my work and they comment on it or say, hey, this is amazing, thank you. And it's, yeah, this was the highlight for me working with them, right? It's very... I couldn't have imagined this 10 years ago, you know?"

With such a track record, it seems logical that Mikhail's career path runs between film and video games, and we'll see some of his artistry in the upcoming Red Sonja, in 2025. "I worked on it some time ago," Greuli said. "Like in early pre-production. And all I can say is that, at that time, we took a very dark and gritty approach, which I personally liked a lot, like very dark fantasy. I'm a big fan of fantasy. I'm a big fan of Conan. So I'm very excited for it to come out. And working on this film was, I think, one of the highlights of my film career."

You can find Mikhail Greuli's art along with the rest of the Massive Entertaiment team in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which releases its second DLC Secrets of the Spires tomorrow. Are you going to play it?