The data yielded a 3-D approximation of Serkis’ movements that could then drive the motion of digital Gollum, an animation complete with skeleton and muscle system. The crew had to eschew all other reflective material, down to water bottles, so cameras shining bright lights would record only the markers. At the turn of the 2000s, that meant putting on a skintight suit with reflective markers placed at key points on his body. Serkis’ presence inspired rewrites that delved deeper into Gollum’s character, and Serkis also started acting out solo bits in a motion-capture studio. Then he arrived on set and started stepping in with other actors to help their responses to Gollum feel more genuine. Thirteen years ago, Serkis (who calls Gollum his Dorian Gray) was hired just to do Gollum’s creepy voice in The Lord of the Rings. ( MORE: Richard Corliss’s review of The Hobbit) Over the past decade, Weta has helped transform the process from a “science experiment”-as Letteri puts it-into standard practice. “It’s like sampling reality,” says Joe Letteri, supervisor at Weta Digital, Jackson’s New Zealand–based visual-effects studio. Computers instantly translated that visual data into a rough draft of the final creation, which Jackson could watch and direct in real time.
Special cameras recorded actor Andy Serkis’ movements and expressions, from froggy hops to conflicted scowls. Gollum was conjured using an animation technique known as performance capture or motion capture. The biggest difference between Gollums: in The Hobbit, he looks more grotesquely human, more real, than ever before. His cooing over his “precious” is hauntingly familiar.
14), he is already torn between his desire to be good and his dark addiction to a certain bijou. Though Gollum is 60 years younger in The Hobbit (in theaters Dec. ILLUSTRATION BY HEATHER JONES FOR TIME EVERETT (3) GOLLUM: WARNER BROS.Īt a pivotal point in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, our hero encounters Gollum, the haggard creature moviegoers will recognize from the director’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
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