Production on Avatar 2 doesn't begin until 2014, shooting back-to-back with Avatar 3, but producer Jon Landau revealed early test footage from the sequel at the Siggraph convention in Anaheim yesterday.

The producer showed footage from live capture test footage shot on a sound stage in November, featuring a human alongside one of the Na'vi from Pandora. He also showed how Autodesk's virtual production software MotionBuilder has improved the quality of this visual landscape.

Here's what he had to say to those in attendance at Siggraph.

"Ultimately our goal is to get to this on stage [for live capture]. This is gong to allow Jin (Cameron) to light the scenes and make the process more efficient ... and focus on what is most important-the close up. Movies about storytelling."

James Cameron is directing from his own screenplay. Actress Zoe Saldana revealed in May that the filmmaker was nearly finished with the scripts for both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.