Hrmmm have any of actually watched the features on the Extended Edition of Lord of the Rings. I'm guessin not. If you had, I doubt you would be saying what you are now. There are shots in Lord of the Rings which you would not, seriously, know they are computer generated. Yes, that includes humans. Just to add, the characters in Lord of the Rings undergone the same treatment as the Matrix Reloaded in terms of special effects (scanned into the computer) before Matrix Reloaded even began filming.
The special effects in Episode 1 are garbage. I thought that when I went to see it. It just didn't look right. Episode II was much better but there was still the problem of Jar Jar - He just doesn't feel right when I see him on screen.
I will be honest, I downloaded the sample file for the Workprint version of the Hulk just to see the quality. Well it showed the scene from the picture of the one which can be found on the forum and around the net (the close up of his face). It was good, but it looks nowhere near as good when it is in motion.
Gollum on the other hand...WOW! Everything he does is believable because everything he does was actually done by Andy Serkis in motion capture. Every facial movement was from Andy Serkis acting out the part. This then goes along with his voice which he also did. What I am trying to say is that he was the first fully actor orientated computer generated character ever. So if you see something in the film with Gollum that you say - that isn't possible...well it is because Andy Serkis did it all 🙂
AliasNeo15: Did you not think the top down camera shot of all the fellowship running across the bridge of Khazad-dum looked realistic? Because the bridge used was actually real but the actors weren't. Motion captured by them, but they where computer generated in that scene. Also in MANY other scenes 🙂
The thing about Lord of the Rings is that all the computer generated characters fit perfectly into the environment which Jackson created from Tolkiens vision. The Cave Troll for instance, just looks like it should be there...if you know what I mean.