Nearly every shot in the Lord of the Rings films required some kind of special effect, computer animation, or visual trickery. A live-action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work had not yet been attempted for this very reason - it’s just too fantastic to capture without the use of today’s technology. Director Peter Jackson, however, was not content to merely create a visually pleasing trilogy. He wanted it to be perfect - down to the last detail.

All of the armor, weapons, and costumes were handmade, even those seen only briefly. Each link of every character’s chain mail was forged by hand. Wherever possible, live actors and animals were used in place of CGI. In need of horses for a battle charging sequence, Peter Jackson put out an open casting call to all New Zealand riders and their mounts. For the impossibly large battles, he had a special computer program developed to create realistic troops. Peter Jackson both exhausted and replenished the resources at New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, which has since become the go-to company for models, prosthetics, and computer animation. The amount of money that Jackson poured into their efforts allowed them to expand considerably. When Disney began production on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they went straight to Weta.

With Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson raised the bar for fantasy special effects. He continued his partnership with the Weta Workshop for King Kong, which garnered less critical acclaim than LOTR, but was hailed as a visual treat nonetheless. Upcoming fantasy films like The Golden Compass have both an inspiration and a challenge in Lord of the Rings; special effects technology has made the impossible possible. So who do you think will set the next bar in special effects?

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