CGI Landmark: Lord of the Rings (2001)

The last film that I want to talk about on the CGI landmarks best films is Lord of the Rings. Not only does this film visually look amazing due to all of the scenery, most of which isn't CGI due to extensive filming locations in New Zealand, but it also includes a revolutionary piece of technology in the form of motion capture. As previously explained in the Animation Techniques section for motion capture this was a huge advancement in the CG industry as it takes mapping of the human face and allows the animators to be able to manipulate the features to be able to create a particular face, in this case Gollum. He is an interesting looking character that still has some of Andy Serkis' characteristics but with the motion capturing the animators have been able to give his a thinner and more boney appearance that is what makes his character really come alive in the films and allows this to be a break through in technology based film.