High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Lord of the Rings film trilogy used many groundbreaking practical and digital visual effects. The first film has around 540 effects shots, the second 799, and the third 1488 (2730 in total). The total moves up to 3420 with the Extended cuts. 260 visual effects artists worked on the trilogy, and the number would double by The Two Towers. The crew, led by Jim Rygiel and Randy Cook, would work long and hard hours overnight to produce special effects within a short space of time, especially with Jackson`s active imagination. For example, they produced several major shots of Helm`s Deep within the last six weeks of post-production of The Two Towers, and the same amount of shots for The Two Towers within the last six weeks on The Return of the King. Despite WETA being the major stylistic force behind the films, a single scene where Arwen confronts the Black Riders in The Fellowship of the Ring was done by Digital Domain.