Andy Serkis turned a voice acting job into a tour-de-force acting role. © New Line Prods. 2002.

It certainly wasn’t just the performance that made Gollum so believable; it was everything about him. The lighting and texturing was so spot-on, people were second-guessing the fact that he might be a silicon mold. The interaction with Sam and Frodo and the environment around them took a talented team of roto/paint artists and compositors months to do. Some of the work was so spectacular; you still couldn’t believe it even when you watched it being slowly completed day by day.

Taking Gollum to the Next Level
Not only did we work to enhance Gollum’s acting between The Two Towers and The Return of the King, but we also worked quite a bit on his appearance. In The Return of the King, Gollum’s wretchedness and addiction come to the forefront of his personality. His desire to separate the two hobbits and his obsession for the ring become paramount. The stress of the journey and this constant battle between his two selves takes its toll and you can see it etched onto his face. In order to demonstrate this deterioration, we made a number of changes.

First, we made minor modifications to his body to make him appear more emaciated. Then the creatures department re-worked the muscle model to fix some of the issues we found while working on The Two Towers, including his shoulders and hips. Most of the work, however, was focused on Gollum’s shader and textures.

Throughout the film you can feel everything that’s happened to Gollum throughout the journey simply by looking at his face. We’ve added cuts and bruises, scrapes, road rash and lots of dirt and sweat. One scene, in particular, that is stunningly executed occurs on the windy stairs when Gollum is telling Frodo that the Fat One (Sam) is going to take the ring from him. Both Gollum and Frodo are face to face, directly in-camera, and they’re dirty, sweaty and exhausted. And it’s absolutely beautiful.

Gollum and “Us”
Because of this mutual understanding, the breadth of Gollum’s character, the subtlety in the acting, the ability for the audience to sympathize with him grew between The Two Towers and The Return of the King. We all learned to work together to create a better Gollum. In my opinion, his look and performance in The Return of the King far surpasses what was accomplished in The Two Towers.

Without a doubt, Gollum does not belong to any one person, department or company. He was conceived in J.R.R Tolkien’s mind; characterized and developed by Phillipa Boyens, Walsh and Jackson; designed by the amazing team at Weta Workshop, performed and analyzed by Serkis and brought to life by every single department at Weta Digital in New Zealand.

Roll Credits
It’s this intense passion and spirit of cooperation that has perforated every experience I’ve had here at Weta Digital and in New Zealand. I came out to this beautiful country to work but instead I lived. I made amazing friends, met my wife, bought a house, got two puppies, been on more incredible adventures than I can shake a stick at and now it’s over. I’ve submitted my last shot, cleaned out my desk, said goodbye and I’ve watched the final movie in a trilogy that has marked the last four-plus years of my life.

So, what’s left? How do you let it go? How do you leave Middle-earth and continue on knowing that this experience is going to be one of the ones in your life you’ll tell your grandkids about? What happens after the credits roll and the lights come up? How does it end?

It doesn’t.

Jason Schleifer is currently on holiday after living and working in New Zealand for more than four years on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a senior animator and creature technical director. When not enjoying the generous variety of seasons available daily in Wellington, he spends time with his lovely bride, two dogs and works on his short film Jonh and his Dog.