The Lord of The Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition - Special Effects

Special Effects

The traveling exhibit has one 'permanent' interactive special effects demonstration. A cart, like the one Gandalf rides into Hobbiton on at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, is set up, using the principle of forced perspective. Visitors who sit on the cart can see themselves in video monitors shrunk down to Hobbit-size, or enlarged to Gandalf-size. Even though the two halves of the cart are different sizes (or, as in the movies, a different distance from the camera), our eyes are tricked, with a little help from digital editing, into thinking that the two halves of the cart are in fact one cart, and the people on it are vastly differing. The same basic process was used for much of the size-changing special effects in the films, including the scenes where Gandalf sits down to tea at Bag End. This is actually one of the simplest and oldest movie special effects, just aided a bit by modern digital technology.

At the Museum of Science, Boston, two more interactive demonstrations were created and added to the Exhibit. A laser scanner, exactly like the one used by Weta Workshop, was used to scan the contours of visitors' faces, creating a digital model of their face in the computer, which was then shaded and textured to look like one of the Argonath, the Statues of the Kings. These hand-held laser scanners were used to scan in all the main actors, as well as a large number & variety of models and maquettes to create digital creatures and characters for the movies. This allowed everything from Shelob to the cave troll to have more realistic size, proportions, and shapes. For some scenes, such as the crossing of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm as it collapses, the entire cast was replaced for a few seconds by digital doubles; the laser scanning technology helped make these doubles look like the real characters/actors. Also, a motion capture demonstration was created by the HITLabNZ, in which visitors wielding colored foam weapons could move against a green screen and watch an Orc, Elf, or Gondorian Soldier move the same way they did. In the making of the films, especially for the motion capture process that yielded Gollum, a special suit had to be worn, covered in sensors. This allowed for a much more accurate and precise motion capture result than the suit-less camera-based demonstration in the Exhibit, but the basic idea remained the same. Presumably, as the Exhibit travels to more museums, more of them will create their own demonstrations to contribute to the visitors' experience.