Avatar, directed by Oscar winning director James Cameron, is from now on the world’s most expensive movie. Cameron is hardly a stranger of new technology and computer animation, with creations like Terminator and Aliens on his list of merits, but he has now raised the bar with his latest sci-fi action flick Avatar. The movie has received praise on previews before the movie reaches theaters in a few days and a lot is about the really cool 3D and CG effects.

During Avatar  Cameron has used a new technique for shooting the scenes in 3D, something we will be sure to enjoy during the screenings in the weeks to come.

Around  60% of Avatar is said to have been created using computers and the new  3D Fusion Camera system that was used not only requires a lot of processing power, but also a lot of storage space. The entire rendering of Avatar requires over 1 Petabyte of storage space, which is the equivalent of  500 harddrives of 2TB each. This means that just storage costs nearly $100,000.

With a budget of nearly $300 million storage was probably not an issue though, but it still shows how much it takes to make a 3D rendered move like Avatar.