Joe Letteri, Visual Effects Supervisor, Weta Digital (NZ), one of the Oscar-winning inventors of the stunning Middle Earth landscapes of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, will reveal the visual effects secrets behind this film phenomenon at the Australian Effects & Animation Festival Melbourne, Melbourne Convention Centre, June 1-2, 2004.

Revealing how Peter Jackson’s team devised the characters and environments that faithfully recreated the imagination of author J R R Tolkien, Letteri will join a feature-packed schedule at AEAF Melbourne.

Joe Letteri specialises in lighting design and computer graphics and has spent much of his career working for Industrial Light and Magic (US), the company established by Star Wars supremo Geoge Lucas. Having made his debut as a visual effects supervisor with the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Daylight, Letteri's subsequent accomplishments include acting as senior technical director of the team that brought Steven Spielberg's dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park.

Letteri will be joined by some of the creative talents behind such movies as Tim Burton’s Big Fish, the Mel Gibson blockbuster Master & Commander and the forthcoming Hellboy and Starship Trooper 2.

AEAF is part of the Digital Media Festival 1 - 2 June Melbourne. The Festival includes AEAF, DV Fest and for the first time, Digital Imaging, a one day seminar program for digital still photography and imaging techniques.

The Digital Media Festival will also include an expanded exhibition of the hardware and software for animation, imaging and digital video, plus cameras, editing systems and everything for video and digital content creators.

MELBOURNE 1-2 JUNE 2004 Full program at http://www.dmw.com.au/