Aragorn's sword - Fellowship of the Ring

For this shot actor Viggo Mortenson was using a sword handle without the blade so he could swing the imaginary sword blade at the correct distance to cut through Lurtz' neck. The blade was tracked into the shot, then I was tasked with painting the textures for the 3D blade, using photo reference of the prop sword. I worked out how the blood would smear on the blade after Aragorn had first impaled Lurtz, then cut his arm off, which although you'll never notice it, was indicitive of the level of detail we put into the vfx to make sure everything was correct.