"The Rings of Power" Virtual Art Book

An in-progress collection

Concept Art

Roberto F. Castro¹

“Celebrimbor’s Study Room”

“Ceremony”

“Durin’s Home”

Elven Boat

Healing Chambers

King Chambers

“The ancient and rich architecture has elven and human elements that [connect] with the history of the city…reveal sea related ornaments on the columns and the pointed arch with sea waves motifs. On the other side, the leaf-shaped window mullion and frames have clear elven influence.”

Lindon Dinner

Lindon Gazebo

Númenor Court

“The main hall of the Court of Númenor is an open space under a big dome, like the Pantheon in Rome…[four] towers with bells and two plinths, for Tar-Míriel and Pharazôn.”

Lindon Paths

Sketches

‘“It’s a very specific Tolkien thing,’ explains Production Designer Ramsey Avery. ‘It has the prow and shape of a swan…but when you try to draw that, it looks like an afternoon-in-the-park kind of thing. It’s hard to make that feel dramatic.’ As a result, the team enacted a design process that married Tolkien’s concepts with the team’s vision for more organic Elven design principles: ‘We had this idea of Elven architecture always coming from nature. So it’s not a swan; it’s a swan that’s built out of vines.”

Gerhard Mozsi²

Duranost

Khazad-dûm

Steven Cormann³

Eregion

Khazad-dûm

Orchard

Other Exteriors

Pablo Dominguez⁴

Tirharad

Collab with Julien Gauthier

Meteor Crater (Collab with Julien Gauthier)

Ice Troll

Númenor

Rodolfo Damaggio⁵

Watchtower

Orc Tunnels

Facades

Armenelos

Ev Shipard⁶

Tavern Interior

Númenor

Julien Gauthier⁷

Númenor

Khazad-dûm

Armenelos Concept

Armenelos

Episode 2 Keyframe

Lindon

Ryan Church

Khazad-dûm

Númenor's Great Sea Gate

Eduardo Pena⁸

1x07 Set Extension

Simon Murton⁹

Númenor

Deleted Observatory Scene

Tirharad

Harfoots

Eregion

Emmanuel Shiu¹⁰

Durin’s Home

Via Amazon: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power¹¹

Via Wayne Che Yip’s Instagram¹²

John Howe

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Weaponry

“‘The blade itself,’ describes Dunckley, ‘is stiletto-style, representing a shaft of light.’ To forge such an integral prop, the team used 3D printers, and a nickel-chromium-based superalloy called Inconel that is resistant to corrosion, stronger than steel, and well-suited for extreme environments—be they nuclear reactors, rocket engines, or the unforgiving, frost-bitten terrain of Forodwaith.”

“‘On Elendil’s sword, you have the icon of the sun rising over the sea, representing the rise of man. And on the cavalry scabbards you’ve got the infinity symbol, which we repeated throughout the weaponry as the Númenóreans struggle with the concept of mortality.’”

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Costumes

The precise use of imagery continued beyond the weaponry and into the costumes. The Costume Designer, Kate Hawley, had her department create armor and prop departments within the production, and the work to differentiate the unique cultures within Middle-earth began.

“‘[Hawley] looked at classical images of of the Green Man and that world of pagan worship. The [Wood] Elves’ home is the land, so we came up with classical armor with the face of the Green Man on it with leaves, which we brought together with designs by the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris.’”

“The standard Númenor armor…reflects the landscape in which their civilzation lies. The architecture is akin to a Mediterranean coastal city, designed by Production Designer Ramsey Avery with intricate street sets and a huge wharf by the water. ‘There is a lot of Atlantis in Númenor. We used imagery of the sea and Hippocampus, the seahorse. While the Elves have stars and moons, the Númenoreans have the sun. It reminds me of Icarus flying too close to the sun and the mortality these people face.’”

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VFX

“This raft sequence was shot in a tank that held approximately two million liters of water. Around the tank there were 14-ton diggers with paddles to produce the waves.”

The show used over 20 studios and 1500 individual artists to bring Tolkien’s Second Age to life.¹³

Studios Used:

Industrial Light & Magic
Weta FX
Rodeo Visual Effects Company
Method Studios
DNEG
Rising Sun Pictures
Amazon S3
Amazon Studios Technology
Autodesk
Moxion
Ncam
ARRI
Blackmagic Design
Rebel Fleet
Cause and FX
Cantina Creative
Company 3
Atomic Arts
Outpost VFX
Dolby
The Third Floor
Plains of Yonder

Some studios, like Cause and FX, Outpost, and DNEG, have released reels, breaking down some specific shots detailing their involvement in the show.

Cause and FX

Outpost

Others, like Wētā FX, have released small videos on their social media platforms.

Wētā FX and John Howe's Ice Troll

“Bigger” VFX houses like Wētā, ILM, and DNEG “provided close to 9500 shots.”

For reference, that’s more than six times as many VFX shots from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Ron Ames, who served as VFX Producer on the show spoke to Variety about the quality of what audiences would see:

“Our target was the 65-inch screen at home, but we made it so that it would play technically beautifully in everything up to an IMAX screen. It is finished to a theatrical resolution.”

But that didn’t mean that everything would be CGI. The production stretched the limits of what we expect from television in terms of both VFX and physical production design, weaponizing both for stunning world-building.

Getting Númenor “right” was an all-hands-on-deck experience. The show’s “Loremaster,” Griff Jones, along with Production Designer Ramsey Avery and countless other members of the art and VFX teams had to create this pivotal island from scratch, as it had never been seen on-screen before. Taking inspiration from Tolkien’s writing, they drew in elements of real ancient civilizations.

“‘We discovered that Romans had a type of concrete they developed that was made with oyster shells,’ [Avery] said. ‘We implemented that idea in our back alleys, creating rough concrete where you could actually see the seashells the city is built on.’”

“VFX Supervisor Jason Smith says the grandeur of Númenor reflects the valiant nature of its people. ‘They were given this island by the Valar because they fought on the right side of the war.’”

Much like the massive water tank representing the Sundering Seas in episode 2, Avery and his team created a waterfront “about the equivalent of two Olympic-size swimming pools, more or less,” that was extended via the VFX teams.

“‘The city set was planned to be almost 300,000 square feet,’ he said. ‘There were also multiple sets and locations showing all different parts of the city and its surroundings.’”

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Season 2

While we wait for season 2, I hope to find more and more information about the “making of” The Rings of Power season 1!

1. https://www.artstation.com/robertofc

2. https://www.artstation.com/mozsi

3. https://www.artstation.com/stevencormann

4. https://www.artstation.com/pablodominguez

5. https://www.artstation.com/damaggio

6. https://www.artstation.com/ev_s

7. https://www.artstation.com/renart

8. https://www.artstation.com/eduardo-pena

9. https://www.artstation.com/murtoscope

10. https://www.artstation.com/emanshiu

11. know who drew them? let me know!

12. know who drew them? let me know!

13. https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-visual-effects-breakdown-studios-artists-10000-shots-1235354513/