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According to VFX artist Eric Saindon, there’s one key ingredient that makes Gollum’s standout scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King so memorable. Based on the beloved novels by author J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson’s acclaimed The Lord of the Rings trilogy culminated in 2003 with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Andy Serkis’ Gollum plays a central role in the film as Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam’s (Sean Astin) guide through Mordor, and one particularly memorable scene features the character’s two personalities arguing.
In a recent episode of “VFX Artists React” from Corridor Crew on YouTube, Saindon, who works at Weta FX, reveals that due to the technical limitations of performance capture at the time, Gollum’s body and facial movements in The Lord of the Rings had to be hand-animated using Serkis’ performance as a reference. What makes the Gollum and Sméagol argument scene so special, Saindon explains, is that only two animators did the entire thing. Check out Saindon’s full explanation below:
“To keep the two performances separate, of Gollum and Sméagol, we actually had one animator do one and one animator do the other. And the same animator did all the way through so that you ended up with the same performance, the same interpretation. I think that’s why it worked really well, because you ended up with the same idea across the two. That’s the one [scene] that I think really nailed it.”
You can also watch Saindon’s Corridor Crew interview below (the relevant section starts at 5:06):
Lord Of The Rings’ VFX Still Hold Up Today
Although there have been countless upgrades to VFX technology in the 20 years since The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released, the films’ visual effects still mostly hold up to this day. There are certainly areas throughout the trilogy where the VFX are quite noticeably dated, but the strong storytelling and heavy use of practical effects and miniatures means they very rarely ruin immersion.
Instead of relying much more heavily on VFX and CGI, as he did in The Hobbit trilogy, the limited technology of the time meant that Jackson used VFX in a more complimentary manner. For Middle-earth’s vast fantasy settings, New Zealand provided rugged natural landscapes, but detailed miniatures were constructed for everything from Helm’s Deep, Minas Tirith, Rivendell, and Isengard. For the trilogy’s large fantasy creatures like cave trolls and Balrogs, VFX are an obvious necessity, but the lighting, camerawork, and practical sets helps them look quite life-lick.
Gollum, in particular, remains a major standout in terms of The Lord of the Rings‘ VFX. While the performance capture used on more recent movies like Avatar: The Way of Water (which Weta FX and Saindon also extensively worked on) blows Gollum out of the water, Serkis’ strong performance and Jackson’s filmmaking ingenuity mean the creature still looks remarkable today. If anything, Saindon’s comment revealing the huge amount of hand animation in Gollum’s performance only makes all of his scenes in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (and the rest of the trilogy) more impressive.
Source: Corridor Crew
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