Lord of the Rings ALL VFX REMOVED!

Everybody has seen The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and marveled at the incredible scale of it all. Tremendous battles, massive magical creatures and of course the famous use of motion-capture for the creation of Gollum. These achievements were so brilliant that perhaps they have blinded us to other incredible work that in comparison has been hugely underdocumented.
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Middle Earth Miniatures.
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson is a miniature enthusiast and from a very early age began making, filming, and destroying his own miniatures.
In the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, a huge amount of work went into the design, creation, and destruction of miniatures, and without them, the films would not have had the same aesthetic or emotion.

City of the Dead.
For the city of the dead, the design team took their inspiration, not only from the book but also from a place called Petra in Jordan. It was Jackson's idea that the necropolis should crack open and release the skulls of all the people who had been interred there.
The mechanism was set up and the shot tested but the initial 200 skulls that were estimated to be needed, were deemed far too little, and the number quickly grew to 2000, then 10,000, then 50,000, until finally reaching 80,000 which was approximately a cubic meter of miniature skulls.

Minas Tirith.
Minas Tirith was the biggest architectural model made for the trilogy, and it was built at a 1:122 scale. It was 23ft tall and 21ft in diameter and it contained over 1,000 handmade individual houses. Other models of different sections of streets and buildings were built at 1:14 scale with incredible detail, including flowerpots and washing lines and these were used for the close-up detailed shots that wouldn't have been possible with the smaller scaled main model.

Minas Morgul.
Minas Morgul was actually a Gondorian city before falling into Sauron's hands, so the design team based it on Minas Tirith with its white stone but added rusty iron balustrades which had dirtied and stained the white stone. Two models were made, one was 1:120 scale and the second was three times bigger and used for close-up shots. In order to give the models the "Corpse-like" glow depicted in the book, they painted the models with special glow paint and then lit them with UV light.

A Change in Scale.
Another detail that tends to get lost within the marvels of the films, is the difference in scale between Gandalf, The hobbits, the Elves, and the Dwarves.
A combination of various techniques was used to achieve this, one was to alter the size of the world around the actors by creating different sized sets, for example, at Bag End, two different sized sets were built, every book, cup, or candle had to be made twice in two different sizes, even Gandalf's cart was built in different scales.
Another technique was to alter the size of the actors themselves, this was achieved by hiring doubles for the hobbits, actors that were only 4 feet tall and could be shot from behind wearing a wig, or shot from a distance wearing a specially developed silicone mask.

Perspective.
Other techniques that were used were in-camera perspective tricks, by shooting an object at an angle you can make it seem bigger or smaller, if you shoot from below the object seems bigger, if you shoot from above, smaller. another perspective trick is called Forced Perspective. Forced Perspective is an old technique where, by positioning an object further away from the camera, you make it look smaller. However, the Lord of the Rings team managed to create their own forced perspective technique that enabled them to be able to move the camera whilst still maintaining the illusion.

Scale compositing.
This technique involves shooting the two actors separately, and then combining both shots to make one. They would either shoot a pass with one actor against a blue screen and then shoot another pass with another actor against the blue screen but from further away or they would use computer software to scale one shot down before compositing.
This year, we await the new Amazon Prime Video, Lord of the Rings series and it looks like ILM will be the leading VFX house. Although it remains to be seen, if the effects are only half as good as those in the films, we're in for something really special.

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[Asher]

I think not going full CGI is the main reason why these effects still hold up 20 years later.

[EthanChlebowski]

The amount of forethought that went into this and then executing on the production side is actually blowing my mind.

[ross.metcalf]

I think the height difference for the dwarfs and hobbits is the most mind blowing. They shot all three movies having to make it work the whole time, and it never felt off. Especially funny because Gimli's actor, John Rhys-Davies, is actually 6'1" and would've been taller than most of the cast.

[dragonballsuper]

What's really tragic is that Peter Jackson was only given 3 months for pre-production on The Hobbit while he had 3 whole years to flesh out the LOTR trilogy with miniatures, battle sequences and manufacturing armour way in advance. This is why there is a huge contrast in enthusiasm and joy between the behind the scenes footage of LOTR where everything was meticulously planned and that of The Hobbit where they were laying the tracks right in front of a moving train.

[Nite-Mite]

Aw man, I wanted to see the green-screen guy twirl the ring onto Frodo’s hand.

[prdarkfirecaro]

As if the movies aren't legendary enough, even the filming is legendary. Pure genius.

[nickfunkhouser]

Now I understand why people criticize the Hobbit's overuse of CGI. This is incredible.

[AB]

This trilogy will stand the test of time forever

[TJSaw]

These movies have no equal. The amount of passion, dedication and care poured into them will always ensure that the Lord of the Rings will forever be counted as one of the greatest movie of all time.

[Catonzo]

Basically, the three Lord of the Rings movies were a whole lot of practical effects and techniques requiring a true artisan of a Director and actors of immense skill to maintain the sense of realism. They were truly absolutely amazing! There's no reason to ever remake the movies and I think they will make their mark on history as forever classics. I am certain people will be able to watch these movies centuries from now. How amazing it must feel for all actors to know this!

[CCovers]

LOTR was so successful because Peter was a nerd through and through. He knew what we all wanted, and produced the best series we will probably ever see.

I recently rewatched the original trilogy extended versions and they're phenomenal. I feel like I've rediscovered them again.

The way he fused miniatures, with CGI and extreme attention to detail will probably never be beat.

They simply will never make a movie like this again due to greenscreens and CGI.

[jennivamp]

These films were an absolute masterpiece I don't think we'll see anything comparable for a very long time.

[PumpkinMozie]

Honestly the use of miniatures creates such a more realistic setting than CGI.

[ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.]

Considering Tolkien's works inspired tabletop RPGs, the use of miniatures was as poetic as it was effective.

[alvesmaiara]

One of my favorite effects is when Gandalf releases King Théoden from Saruman's influence and his face slowly comes back to normal, it's amazing, totally beliavable!

[trinelangohr]

Ray Harryhausen was once asked why his creatures looked so real, and he replied: "Because they are real. They're really there." And LOTR is a brilliant examply of why miniatures, forced perspective and different-sized doubles work so much better than CGI. They only used CGI when they couldn't help it, and it blends in seamlessly. Well, except in those scenes where Legolas does a 360° turn around a horse's neck just to get in the saddle. That one was ridiculous :D

[AkuTenshiiZero]

I think one of the most impressive things is that the actors were able to make the forced perspective work. They're staring into empty space while the person they're talking to is several feet away, but you can't tell.

[Phlebas]

The LOTR trilogy is still one of the most visually impressive movies I've ever seen, and it's amazing how much work went into the practical effects. I was pretty impressed with that whole forced perspective trick where the entire table is rotating; it's not even an action scene - it's just two characters talking to each other, but they still went all out to maintain that illusion.

[BigBrotherMateyka]

It breaks my heart to think that films like this -- especially in the scope of a colossal fantasy epic like the Lord of the Rings -- will never be made again with such artisanry and craftsmanship. But just the same, it lifts up my spirit in thinking back having lived through such a titanic undertaking in theaters so many years ago. Truly a high watermark in moviemaking and film culture.

[izhamsham]

The scene with Gandalf and Bilbo at the front door of Bag End really blew my mind with how insignificant it looked versus how really difficult it was to accomplish. I mean I never paid any attention to how Bilbo took Gandalf's hat and staff and they changed perspective according to the sizes of Gandalf & Bilbo. Truly mind blowing how the production team paid attention to detail & realism. Bravo!