Getting the Character Size Right in The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Took All the Book Tricks [Exclusive]

According to Aramayo, who plays a young Elrond in the new series, the cast of "The Rings of Power" has gone out of their way to ensure that elves, dwarves, Harfoots and humans all look perfect. They also made sure to find practical solutions that could allow the actors to work with each other rather than in a lifeless CGI setup. "What was great about the ladder team was that they only really used it when they absolutely had to," Aramayo said of, in Mathai's words, the "pass trick -movie pass" used in the series. "The technical aspect, the particular camera that we used, was for those times when we had to have it, as opposed to shooting entire scenes with tennis balls and not looking at Sophia's or Owain's face. "

While not all productions are upfront about how much of what we see is CGI, it's often easy to tell when actors aren't actually acting in front of each other. Marvel in particular has recently come under scrutiny for what some consider visually poor quality CGI in titles like "Thor: Love & Thunder" and "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law." The comments culminated in a Vulture report which found special effects artists report being underpaid, overworked, and even working without the guidance of a cinematographer in post-production. The result of subpar CGI is a viewing experience that makes it hard to suspend your disbelief, a problem a series as immersive as this surely wants to avoid at all costs.