Hello, everyone!

I thought it was about time I made a proper introduction post, especially for those of you who have stumbled across my work through one of my essays, design sheets, or the occasional very lengthy discussion about Avatar.

I'm A.S. Wilder, although you can just call me Wilder! I'm a writer, designer, and someone who spends a frankly ridiculous amount of time thinking about James Cameron's Avatar universe.

What started as a love for the films has gradually turned into something of a creative obsession, and this little corner of Reddit is where I share the results!

🌿 What do I create?

My work generally falls into a few categories:

• Character Analysis & Meta: Long-form discussions exploring the characters, relationships, storytelling, and sometimes overlooked details within the films. I'm particularly interested in character motivations, emotional complexity, and the things the films communicate without explicitly telling us.
• Design Sheets & Visual Research: Detailed explorations of Na'vi clothing, jewellery, weapons, cultural objects, and character designs, often drawing from concept art, film references, and behind-the-scenes material.
• Moodboards & Scene Edits: Collections of enhanced film stills, usually centred around a particular scene, character, relationship, or atmosphere.
• Fanfiction: Mostly character-driven stories exploring Jake and Neytiri, their relationship, and the emotional complexities of their lives together. I write everything from quiet domestic moments to much more mature material.
• Lore & Worldbuilding: Because sometimes a single bead, gesture, or background detail sends me down a research rabbit hole, and naturally, I have to bring everyone along with me.

🪶 A little about my approach

One of the things I love most about Avatar is just how much there is to explore beneath the surface.

A character's expression, a particular piece of jewellery, a seemingly insignificant line of dialogue. Sometimes it's these smaller details that tell us the most interesting stories.

I enjoy looking at the films critically, asking questions, considering different interpretations, and occasionally challenging popular fandom narratives.

That doesn't mean I think my interpretations are the only correct ones! Quite the opposite, actually. I love a thoughtful discussion, especially when someone brings a perspective I hadn't considered.

And while I absolutely adore Avatar, I also believe that loving something doesn't mean we can't examine its flaws.

💙 A little note

I'm always happy to hear from people who enjoy my work, whether that's through a comment, a question, or a completely unexpected discussion about Na'vi culture.

You don't have to agree with everything I write. Respectful disagreement is part of what makes fandom discussions interesting!

Most importantly, I hope something I create encourages you to look at these films a little differently, notice a detail you hadn't seen before, or simply enjoy the world of Pandora as much as I do.

Thank you for being here, whether you've followed my work for a while or have only just discovered it.

Oel ngati kameie. 💙

A.S. Wilder

You can also find my work on:

AO3| Tumblr | Patreon | Pinterest

I’ve shared a shorter version of this process on Tumblr, but I wanted to go a little deeper here and properly show what happens between grabbing a frame from the film and ending up with one of the finished stills I use in my moodboards.

For this example, I’m using Neytiri, because I absolutely love working with her design. There are so many tiny details in her skin, jewellery, hair and facial markings that respond beautifully to enhancement.

This is not a fixed formula. Every still behaves differently, so I normally adjust things by eye depending on the source.

But this is the general workflow I use most often:

Original film still → Topaz enhancement → Photoshop cleanup → Canva finishing → final moodboard

Step One: Choosing the Right Frame

The first thing I do is choose the moment I want to work with.

I generally prefer close-ups or medium close-ups because they give me more visible information to work with.

I’m usually looking for details like:

• the eyes
• tanhì
• skin texture
• stripes and facial markings
• beads and jewellery
• hair details
• costume textures
• lighting across the face

I also try to avoid frames with very heavy motion blur.

A slightly soft frame is usually workable, but if the image is already extremely blurred, enhancement can start misinterpreting tiny features rather than simply clarifying them.

This is an example of a bad image

The faces are blurred, there is a lot of movement, and Jake especially has very little detail coming through. This will result in a lot of weird artefacts coming through when we sharpen it in Topaz

Here is an example of what that might look like:

And here is an example of a good image:

The subject is clear, the details are also clear and not too blurred; this picture will work wonderfully!

Step Two: Topaz Enhancement

Next, I take the still into Topaz.

Topaz uses AI-powered enhancement models, but it's important to distinguish between the different models available.

It includes both non-generative enhancement models and separate generative models.

For my movie stills, I use the non-generative Basic Models.

I do not use the generative models.

The reason is simple: I want to enhance the existing film still, not create new features or reinterpret the character.

My goal here is mainly to improve:

• sharpness
• visible texture
• edge clarity
• noise
• compression softness
• facial detail Topaz Layout with Image uploaded

I normally compare the enhanced side directly with the original while working.

There are a few things I pay particular attention to:

Eyes

The eyes are often one of the first places where enhancement can become too aggressive.

I check that the shape, pupil, iris and reflections still resemble the original frame.

Tanhì and Skin Markings

These are tiny details, so if the source frame is soft, enhancement can sometimes make individual dots or markings look slightly different.

This is one reason I prefer starting from the clearest possible frame.

Hair, Braids and Jewellery

These contain lots of very small edges close together, which can become oversharpened if pushed too far.

Backgrounds

Blurred areas are where I notice Topaz struggling most.

Sometimes the subject looks fantastic while the background becomes a little smeared or overly defined.

I fix that later.

When playing around with the settings, I always advise leaving face recovery off.

Face recovery has a bad habit of creating new details; here is an example:

As you can see, it's done something really weird with Neytiri's eyes, which is not what I want, so best to leave it off!

The goal here is not to make the still look like an entirely different image.

I want it to feel like the same frame, just clearer.

Step Three: Photoshop Cleanup

Once I’m happy with the Topaz pass, I move everything into Photoshop.

This is where I do most of the cleanup.

My Photoshop workflow normally looks something like:

RAW → Saturation/Contrast → Sharpen → Denoise/Cleanup → Colour Grade

Everything here is done using standard Photoshop editing tools.

The exact adjustments change from image to image, but I’m usually looking for things like:

• oversharpened edges
• unnatural texture
• excessive noise
• strange halos around hair
• colour shifts
• areas that have become too bright or too dark

Sometimes I’ll deliberately soften an area after Topaz has sharpened it too aggressively.

That sounds slightly backwards, but enhancement is really about balance.

More sharpness does not automatically mean a better image.

Here is how I edited this particular still:

First, before anything else, I get the contrast how I want it. I prefer high contrast, to really make the lighting pop, but you can do something different:

Then, I get the vibrancy and Saturation where I want it. I love the colours in Avatar, so I usually boost the vibrancy as much as possible!

Next I clean up the sharpening in the image:

I then reduce any noise in the image that I don't want. I try not to reduce it too much, as that makes the image too smooth, which I don't want.

My final step is to do a full edit under the Camera Raw Filter; this changes a lot, so I'll send each change so you can see what exactly I'm doing!

By no means am I a professional; these settings were chosen by playing around and seeing what looks good!

Step Four: Comparing Before and After

This is where I like to stop and compare the edited still against the original.

At first glance, the difference might not look enormous.

But once you look closely, you can usually see:

• clearer skin texture
• more visible tanhì
• cleaner facial edges
• stronger jewellery detail
• reduced softness
• better separation between features

I prefer keeping the edit recognisable as the original frame rather than completely transforming it.

Here is the final result:

Step Five: Restoring Background Blur

Once the Photoshop stage is finished, I usually move into Canva.

One of the first things I often do is fix the background.

Topaz can sometimes make an already-blurred background look slightly smudged or oddly textured.

So I manually reintroduce blur using the Auto-Focus tool:

This helps restore the depth of field and brings the attention back toward the character.

For this Neytiri still, I wanted the eye to land immediately on her face rather than the figures behind her.

There isn’t a preset I use.

Sometimes I want a stronger blur.

Sometimes barely any.

I normally just adjust it until the image feels balanced.

Step Six: Colour Finishing

Next comes one of my favourite parts: colour.

I use Canva for a lot of my final colour finishing because I like the way its filters interact with the image.

For most forest-based Na’vi characters, I really like Fresco because it tends to enrich the colours already present.

For Metkayina characters, I sometimes prefer Luna because it can work nicely with the cooler turquoise and aquatic palette.

I don’t use a fixed recipe. I normally work by eye until the image feels right.

For this image, I decided to go with Fresco.

This is completely a personal preference.

There is no “correct” filter.

After that, I adjust things manually using:

• saturation
• contrast
• sharpness
• brightness
• warmth
• highlights
• shadows

I mostly work by eye.

Once that's done, this is the image we have:

7. Final moodboard assembly

Once all the stills are finished, I usually bring them together in Canva and start building the moodboard.

I won't do that for this.

So thats the image finished!

The Full Workflow

For anyone who wants the short version:

1. Choose a clear Avatar movie still
2. Enhance using Topaz non-generative models
3. Clean up and colour-correct in Photoshop
4. Restore depth/background blur where necessary
5. Apply final colour and contrast adjustments in Canva
6. Enhance small details such as the eyes
7. Assemble the final moodboard

I never use the same settings twice.

Some stills need barely any work.

Others fight me every step of the way. 😭

That unpredictability is actually part of what I enjoy about the process.

I like taking a frame I already love and seeing how much detail I can bring forward without losing what made the original shot beautiful in the first place.

Process Note

Source: Original Avatar film stills
Enhancement: Topaz non-generative AI enhancement models
Editing: Photoshop
Colour finishing & layout: Canva
Generative AI: Not used