Last week, we wrote about Scott Baxter, a Bendite who traveled to New Zealand to work on visual effects for the first of three Hobbit films based on JRR Tolkien’s famous book.

Baxter shared this video with us about Weta’s digital effects process. Watch below to see how Middle Earth was created. Spoiler alert, it’s not a big bang.

Read the full story on Baxter, and my epic Lord of the Rings nerd-dom here.

There you have it folks, the visual effects process in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, or as I call it, a story that wouldn’t exist if Gandalf had just called the damn hawks in the first place.

This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2013.

MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN

One-time Monthly Annually

One-time

$25

$50

$150

Other Donation amount

$

Monthly

$10

$20

$85

Other Donation amount per month

$

Annually

$120

$500

$1,000

Other Donation amount per year

$

We're stronger together! Become a Source member and help us empower the community through impactful, local news. Your support makes a difference!

Donate Now

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Hobbit Visual Effects Breakdown

by Brianna Brey, The Source - Bend, Oregon
February 15, 2013

<h1>The Hobbit Visual Effects Breakdown</h1> <p class="byline">by Brianna Brey, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />February 15, 2013</p> <p>Last week, we wrote about Scott Baxter, a Bendite who traveled to New Zealand to work on visual effects for the first of three Hobbit films based on JRR Tolkien's famous book. </p> <p>Baxter shared this video with us about Weta's digital effects process. Watch below to see how Middle Earth was created. Spoiler alert, it's not a big bang. <br /><a href="http://www.bendsource.com/bend/an-unexpected-journey-to-new-zealand/Content?oid=2216827" target="_blank"><br />Read the full story on Baxter, and my epic Lord of the Rings nerd-dom here. </a></p> <p><object></object></p> <p>There you have it folks, the visual effects process in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, or as I call it, a story that wouldn't exist if Gandalf had just called the damn hawks in the first place.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> http://www.youtube.com/v/kYeQNH6gJhE </div> </figure> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-hobbit-visual-effects-breakdown-2218647/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=17802&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-hobbit-visual-effects-breakdown-2218647/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard

1

Trending

New Roundabouts and Traffic Signals Slated for Midtown BendJune 5, 2026Clayton Franke

MidCity SmashedBurger Bounces Outta BendJune 8, 2026Nic Moye

Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Three Employees for Alleged MisconductJune 5, 2026Peter Madsen

James McLaughlin, Candidate for Deschutes County Sheriff, Says He’s Been ‘Politically Targeted’June 6, 2026Peter Madsen