![]() ![]() ![]() He recalls the magic of seeing Hobbiton evolve from Tolkien's charming descriptions to detailed sketches to life-like sets. Lee had always tried to make his illustrations believable, but now he and Howe had a new challenge: producing illustrations so rich they could be turned into miniatures, models and sets. They gave us the Industrial Age look and feel of Middle-earth, and they brought the most intimate knowledge of Tolkien lore to their work. Says production designer Grant Major of Lee and Howe: "Their contribution to the project was absolutely fundamental. "When he said he wanted to be as true to the spirit of the books as he could and try to create very, very real landscapes and as believable a world as possible, I knew I was the right person for the job," he said. Lee was especially excited by Peter Jackson's mandate. Tolkien's descriptions are so beautiful and poetic, yet he has left plenty of room for us to make our own little explorations," said Alan Lee. "As a conceptual artist, it is quite a mine field treading through Tolkien's world, but you somehow have to trust your own judgment and your own vision. In addition to full-sized sets, the production widely used miniature sets - models so detailed and artistically rendered that the slightly larger ones became known as "bigatures. Inspired by their own intimate love of Tolkien's work, Lee and Howe produced hundreds of life-like sketches which later were metamorphosed into storyboards, then scale models of Middle-earth's many landscapes and regions, and sometimes into full-scale sets under the aegis of production designer Grant Major. Freed from that format, Lee and Howe sketched madly, producing seminal images of the cultures, creatures, buildings and landscapes that make Hobbiton, Rivendell, Mordor and more feel so alive. They turned to the two men who knew Tolkien's universe best: conceptual artists Alan Lee and John Howe, who illustrated the Harper Collins editions of The Lord of The Rings. WETA Digital, a separate arm, also took on the challenge of creating the groundbreaking computer-generated creatures and effects for The Lord of The Rings trilogy.īut before WETA could get to work, the filmmakers needed to turn Tolkien's vividly drawn descriptions into three-dimensional visions. He immediately employed a crew of over 120 technicians divided into six crucial departments: ![]() Taylor approached the project like a general going to war. So he immediately engaged the services of WETA Limited, New Zealand's premier physical effects house, under the direction of supervisor Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger - and gave them a mission: to create Middle-earth's physical reality, from the interiors of hobbit holes to the heights of Mount Doom, as if they believed with all their hearts and senses in its existence. But how do you realistically create a complete fantasy? Jackson knew that the answer would lie in an incredible amount of detail. Peter Jackson had one underlying precept for the visual design for The Lord of The Rings trilogy: a transporting brand of realism. But in The Fellowship of The Ring, the hobbit holes of Hobbiton, the sylvan glades of the elf refuge Rivendell, the smoky innards of the Prancing Pony Inn and the networks of underground caverns in the Mines of Moria come physically, palpably to life. Until now, Tolkien's Middle-earth has existed only in the imaginations of readers and in the wondrously detailed yet limited illustrations for the novels. We've painted Tolkien's palette as much as possible across the film. "The greatest feeling of success has been to watch all these bits and pieces of polystyrene and metal and wood become a world so real you believe these characters live there. ![]()
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