Pick what is CGI in LOTR's

[Marcus Telcontar]

I been reading a few articles about the specail eefects in LOTR's and I have been greatly surprised by what was not a CGI effect and what was.

So, here's a fun bit of thinking.... where do you think CGI was used in the following scences...


1) Gandalf and the moth

2) The Arwen horse chase

3) Aragorn vs Lurtz fight.


If you really want to have fun, also guess where special effects were used in those scences and what was real.



Yes, this is beginning to facinate me, mainly because the more I find out about the filming of FOTR< the more staggered I am by some of the tricks and when tricks were nut used at all.

[Darth23]

All I know is, after they kill the cave troll, the whole crew is cgi for like 3 seconds as they run out of the room.


And it looked cheesy.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am bad person to ask I couldn't even tell what was CGi in TPM or Jurassic Park not to mention FOTR and I have seen the first two countless times on Video and DVD and still can't pick out half the CGI.

[ReturnOfTheCB]

ummmmm.....I'm gonna go with the moth...I don't remember the rest...

And D23, I'm about sick and ****ing tired of hearing about the cave troll :P (j/k)

[Mu Satach]

my my my CB... thou doest seem a wee bit tense these days... lay of the "AWAKE" Tazo and go for the Zen dood. ;)

I would guess that the horses in the water are cgi... if there not then that's some damn good matte painting animation...

I've only seen it once though so I'm not entirely sure exactly what the scenes are... vaguely remember the moth... and it escapes me right now who Lurtz is...

but where are you reading up on this? I love behind the scenes FX stuff.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I'm very much reading up on it, cause the amount of CGI used is amazing. (I do a lot at theonenet.net, plus a few other places.)

ie : A LOT LESS THAN WHAT YOU THINK!!!!

For a start, The moth is in fact real and was not CGI'ed itself. I was really surprised, I thought it had to be CG. But it's not and it boggles my mind how they could film that thing being caught, resting and then flying.

The best thing I have found out is that they only relied on CG when it was clearly impossible to create the effect with tradional camera or blue screen tricks. Even more amazing is that with the fight with Lurtz (The Uruk-Hai Aragorn goes one on one with toawrds the end), there is no blue screen used at all. When Aragon cuts off the Uruk-Hai's arm it is digitally removed from the shot, as is his head. Now, this may not sound incredible, but think of this...

The arm and head were digitally removed and the computers inserted background to link in with the existing real backgrounds. Normally, you would film the actors in front of a blue screen and then add the background later. That surprises me cause I thought it was a prosthetic trick. I just scratch my head in amazement at that, honestly not what I thought

[Mu Satach]

Oh WOW!

[ReturnOfTheCB]

Son of a b***...I remember that now about the moth now that you reminded me...I was discussing it with my brother when I saw it on a special or something....stupid me :rolleyes

[Darth23]

"And D23, I'm about sick and ****ing tired of hearing about the cave troll :P (j/k)"

ummmm..... I wasn't talking about the cheesy cgi cave troll, I was talking about the cgi Gandalf and the cgi Frodo and the cgi Boromir and the cgi Strider and the cgi Samwise and the cgi Gimli.


Oh yeah, and the cgi Merry, Pippin and Logolas.

:p

[Jedi Master Carr]

LOL, Darth, still it didn't look bad to me but as I said I can't really distingish CGI unless its really really bad.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Okay, now what was CGI in the Arwen chase scene?


Answer - only the flood!

BUT, Liz Tyler basically had a real problem with the horses. It was all she could do, to sit on them and I understand the actual riding demands were quite difficult. - now before you get any digs in about that, that's not uncommon. I cant ride horses. It's actually not easy just to ride one.

So... there were these techniques used

1) Bloody good stunt doubling

2) Static models

3) Tyler riding a quite strange contraption which gave the illusuion she was riding, combined with camera tricks like forced perpectives, cut shots, etc.

Combined, you have the chase and the illusion she was riding the whole time.


Now, next effects question - can you identify when CG orcs and goblins are used, and when they are not?

[JonathanLB]

"All I know is, after they kill the cave troll, the whole crew is cgi for like 3 seconds as they run out of the room.


And it looked cheesy."

Huh? No it didn't! I've seen the movie two times and I never even noticed that. It looked fine to me, and I know exactly the scene you're talking about, but I had no idea they were CGI.

I honestly don't know what you're talking about.

[Champion of the Force]

I'm with Jon on that one - I didn't notice it either. :huh

[darth_mcbain]

Me as well - true I only saw it once, but I didn't notice that they were CG after that sequence.

[Marcus Telcontar]

I dont think it was CGI either. Forced perspective yes, CGI, no

[Mu Satach]

I'm with D23's side on this one. For a second or so the whole crew and surroundings are cgi and in particular Gandalf's hat and robe irk me.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

I noticed that too, actually. It was like when they were running through the halls (I think) they all looked very computer generated. Legolas started to remind me of Link then O_o

[Darth23]

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

A wise man once said:

"I have amazing powers of observation" :)


Wait for the DVD and I'll post a screen cap.

Or you could go see it again and watch more carefully next time. :D

Does anyone have an illegal pirated version? (of course not) If so you could do a screen cap.

It either occurs right after they kill the cave troll, or right after all the orcs run away because the Balrog is coming.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Does anyone have an illegal pirated version? (of course not) If so you could do a screen cap.

;; whistles and attempts this ;;


It either occurs right after they kill the cave troll, or right after all the orcs run away because the Balrog is coming.

When Legolas jumps down from the Troll, and when they are all running from the Orcs they all look like smooth comp. models.

[Darth23]

Thank You for the confirmation. :D

Can you do a screen print and post it?

[Champion of the Force]

While we're on this topic, does anyone know where on Earth that supposed car was in the film?

[Marcus Telcontar]

In Hobbiton., bacground shot when Gandalf and Bliblo are having a smoke - I think. I do know it's Hobbiton and it is a scene with Gandalf

Got the feeling the vcar is going to become as legendary as the bird's legs in ANH?

[Champion of the Force]

Well I totally missed that one - I thought it was in one of the battles scenes.