Avatar, without a doubt, will be long touted as the most revolutionary film of this century. Regardless of what anyone has to say about the “smurfs” or the recycled story, the technical achievement of the film will be unsurpassed for many, many years. And now, barely two weeks after its release and over $1 billion later, there's still droves of interesting information spilling onto the internet about Avatar and how it was made, including this epic interview with James Cameron himself.

Talking to Popular Mechanics, Cameron goes in depth about many aspects of the way that Avatar was filmed, the technical hurdles they had to overcome, and the added bonus of being able to see the true performance of the actor, rather than just a computer animated approximation.

Possibly the deepest way Cameron influenced the realm of film-making is the Simulcam system, which he talks in great depth about. While the system was tricky to work with, the system both enhanced the way motion capture rigs could do exactly that, and also allowed for live editing, meaning Cameron could put scenes together on the spot and re-shoot if he didn't like what he saw. He plans on using it on Battle Angel and again on other movies throughout his career with other directors jumping on board as well.

The man is truly an auteur, bringing endless brilliance to a Hollywood stuffed with remakes and poor adaptations. Watch this interview and just try wrapping your head around the scope of Avatar's production.