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Wētā FX
Wētā FX, formerly known as Weta Digital, is a New Zealand digital visual effects and computer animation company based in Miramar, Wellington. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for Heavenly Creatures. The company went on to produce some of the highest-grossing films ever made, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Avatar series. Considered one of the most influential film companies of the 21st century, Wētā FX has won several Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects, which was historically featured in the company logo.
The company was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for the film Heavenly Creatures.
As of 2025, Wētā FX has won seven Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Avatar (2009), The Jungle Book (2016), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
The studio has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules.
To recreate 1933 New York for King Kong, the company created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis. Kong's fur also required the development of new simulation and modeling software. A set of tools that combined procedural and interactive techniques added wind to the five million individual strands of fur and modeled interaction with other surfaces. New shaders were written that accounted for the scattering of light from within each hair that added to the volumetric quality of the fur. Large chunks of fur were ripped out and filled in with scars, blood, and the mud of Skull Island. Each frame of fur took two gigabytes of data.
For James Cameron's Avatar, Weta Digital modified MASSIVE to give life to the flora and fauna on Pandora, for which the company did most of the visual effects with Joe Letteri, under a team led by executive and producer Eileen Moran. The film is regarded as a landmark for visual effects. By 2017, Weta Digital had started visual effects development for the sequels.
In 2010, a texture painting application developed by the studio for Avatar called Mari has been bought by The Foundry Visionmongers. For The Adventures of Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the studio developed a new grooming system called Barbershop where users can interactively manipulate digital hair. This tool received a Sci-tech award in 2015. The Adventures of Tintin was Weta Digital's first fully animated feature film.
For Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, the company was able to develop their motion capture technique to be able to leave the studio for shooting on location. The motion capture technology would be improved in the 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was further refined in War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.
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Wētā FX
Wētā FX, formerly known as Weta Digital, is a New Zealand digital visual effects and computer animation company based in Miramar, Wellington. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for Heavenly Creatures. The company went on to produce some of the highest-grossing films ever made, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Avatar series. Considered one of the most influential film companies of the 21st century, Wētā FX has won several Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects, which was historically featured in the company logo.
The company was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for the film Heavenly Creatures.
As of 2025, Wētā FX has won seven Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Avatar (2009), The Jungle Book (2016), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
The studio has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules.
To recreate 1933 New York for King Kong, the company created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis. Kong's fur also required the development of new simulation and modeling software. A set of tools that combined procedural and interactive techniques added wind to the five million individual strands of fur and modeled interaction with other surfaces. New shaders were written that accounted for the scattering of light from within each hair that added to the volumetric quality of the fur. Large chunks of fur were ripped out and filled in with scars, blood, and the mud of Skull Island. Each frame of fur took two gigabytes of data.
For James Cameron's Avatar, Weta Digital modified MASSIVE to give life to the flora and fauna on Pandora, for which the company did most of the visual effects with Joe Letteri, under a team led by executive and producer Eileen Moran. The film is regarded as a landmark for visual effects. By 2017, Weta Digital had started visual effects development for the sequels.
In 2010, a texture painting application developed by the studio for Avatar called Mari has been bought by The Foundry Visionmongers. For The Adventures of Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the studio developed a new grooming system called Barbershop where users can interactively manipulate digital hair. This tool received a Sci-tech award in 2015. The Adventures of Tintin was Weta Digital's first fully animated feature film.
For Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, the company was able to develop their motion capture technique to be able to leave the studio for shooting on location. The motion capture technology would be improved in the 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was further refined in War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.