Creating Gollum

This month sees the release of the second film in The Hobbit trilogy: The Desolation of Smaug. Perhaps the most well-known of its characters is Gollum, a mysterious cave-dwelling creature corrupted by the power of the ring. His digital character was created by New Zealand-based visual effects company Weta Digital.

In this Nature Video we go behind the scenes with Weta's Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Letteri, who reveals the technology they used to make Gollum's eyes, skin and movements look believable.

[Alexanderoclock]

Not enough credit is given to Andy Serkis for bringing this character to life... Amazing.

[gpeddino]

Serkis' acting around 1:30 seriously brought a tear to my eye. Even with all the technical innovation that allowed Gollum to come alive, that would be nothing without a great actor behind it.

[NeonsStyleHD]

Andy Serkis did THE most amazing performance I've ever seen any actor do when he voiced and acted as Gollum. J.R.R. Tolkien deserves so much credit for it because the character was sooo well fleshed out in the books. Absolutely stunning piece of work from the entire team.

[IanTheCameraGuy]

Gollum is the only CGI character that has ever looked almost 100% real. Honestly if it wasn't for the fact that no creature like Gollum exists in real life, I probably would think that he's real. I just love how they put actual time and effort into not only making him look realistic, but to move realistically. 99% of CGI in films is just animated so badly. Everything moves so smoothly and doesn't have the jerky and quick motions that you see in real people, but Gollum just nails absolutely everything. Could you imagine if more big budget films put actual time and energy into their projects? Special effects aren't everything, but if that's all movies are now anyways, at least make them good.

[cpt_meric]

Makes me want to watch all of the movies again.

[meiji]

Am I The only one who thinks Gollum looks kinda cute when he was all innocent and wanted to play with Bilbo???? Just look at those eyes

[GucciGang-ljxm]

"SHUT UP"

"I didn't say anything"
I wasn't talking to you..."

[thomascampbell]

I love how you can see the tendons and veins in his neck, the wrinkles by his eyes, and the characterization and emotion in his facial features as he speaks and interacts with other characters. I find that so amazing. It really shows how far technology has come.

The level of animation used to make Gollum in LOTR was mind blowing for 2001, it’s one of those technical marvels that’s still hard to believe he’s mostly CGI with an actor capturing his every movement underneath, it’s an example of CGI done incredibly well, especially against other films at that time, Gollum blew everything away.

[ethann]

I want to watch the whole trilogy except instead of computer-generated gollum, just have andy serkis wearing that white suit in every scene

[connorveenstra]

I wonder how many times the crew cracked up watching Andy goof around in white spandex.

[Twilightingale]

"I wasn't talking to you."
XD

[chazhinkley]

My english teacher gave us a riddle from the movie and i answered in gollums voice.

[GamingRevenant]

I don't want to know how much they had to pay the Artists for the texturing and the modelers for this insane amount of work xD As a level designer, modeler and texture artist myself, this sounds like over the top incredible, but also only an option if you have millions of dollars.

[dyanapomp]

I love Andy Serkis, seriously, he's the man. He's SO good at his work it makes me cry, no kidding. 1:07 just look, they could do the film without the CGI and shit and I'd believe he's Gollum, REALLY really good work

[DarthCipient]

Criminal that Andy Serkis didn't get an Oscar for his performances as Gollum

NOTHING has ever matched it in terms of acting. NOTHING

[acapulcoramon]

..must be a strange feeling to be in a main role like gollum and never really phsysically to be seen on screen in front of public like andy serkis. and he did a fantastic probably.and gollum looks really terribly schizophrenic and insane.

[alainavlogs]

When Smeagol was transforming into Gollum that really freaked me out 😂

[pyrophobia]

Andy Serkis isn't being nominated for an Oscar in this scene

[sheiswe]

my heart goes up to my throat when gollum is upset lol