What's real and what's not?

I really love sci fi and fantasy movies. Becouse of the stories, special effects and imagination behind it. You all know Star Wars and Lord of the Rings of course. Personally I think LOTR is the best special effects movie ever made. Peter Jackson and team used a lot of computer generated stuff to make it look real, but also 'older methods' like miniatures and matte paintings.

What I think is so cool about matte paintings in LOTR is that you can't see where the real footage ends and the painting starts.

A very good website to see some examples is that of Dusso: www.dusso.com. To make it easier for you I selected some examples:

> LOTR's Frodo & Sam walk around in Emin Muil

> LOTR's great plains of Rohan

> Pirates of the Caribbean - ship in Port Royal

> Star Wars' city planet of Coruscant

SOME MORE...
Here's a nice 'how to make your own matte painting'.
And here another great Matte Painting website.
A great site for digital effects and behind the scenes looks: fxguide.com. Alex, thank you for the tip.