How the Rings Creation scene for 'The Rings of Power' was made by Outpost VFX ?

Set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power introduces us to the legendary heroes of Middle-earth in the Second Age.

“The (Amazon) VFX Team were looking for a vendor to be creative partners and come up with something special for this hugely important story-telling moment, and we were very excited to be able to offer our support.”

Outpost VFX Producer, Tom Barber touches on the excitement within the Montréal and Mumbai teams to take on such an iconic sequence within Amazon’s 2022 marquee production, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Barber outlines our involvement in the series: “We joined The Rings of Power relatively late in the show to help them with a specific scene which was both technically and creatively challenging; the making of the three elven rings.”

As such a climactic and significant story point, the team knew the importance of the sequence’s success. “Our work was purely the melting, flowing, and mixing of the molten metal, along with supporting CG fire and smoke,” Barber continues.

The team spent a lot of time finding real-world references to ground their work in reality: “We found references showing the different ways molten metal can move, how the crust behaves and how smoke, sparks, and light emit from the flow and interact with the environment,” Barber continues. “Along with finding our own references for the metal, we had a great initial guide from the first The Rings of Power teaser trailer, which was shot practically and contained many of the elements we ended up creating in CG.”

Outpost VFX Supervisor, Richard Clegg adds: “Working on forging the rings for the final episode of The Rings of Power was such a fun, creative and technical challenge. To be able to create something that is magical yet believable, and such a huge part of the Tolkien story line, was amazing. It was such a great experience with our super team of artists and the wonderful clients.”

VFX Breakdown by Outpost VFX:

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power VFX Breakdown from Outpost VFX on Vimeo.

Posted by Prabhkirat Singh

Prabhkirat Singh is a senior editor at BehindFilmMaking. He is an award-winning VFX Artist who has contributed in various Feature Films, Music Videos, YouTube Content, Advertising agencies & Animation Studios.