

At first, they filmed the actors on location with a stand-in, and Serkis would later perform his scenes alone on a sound stage in a complex green screen setup. Since it was all so new, they continued developing the technology even mid-production. Andy Serkis and his portrayal of Gollum are entirely responsible for the motion capture and performance capture industry we know today. Animators would draw the characters in later, making guesses about movements and expressions rather than referencing an actual performance.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63302529/gollum_hobbit.0.jpg)
Before the advent of motion capture technology, actors would struggle to muster real human emotions in reaction to blank space.
