Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf and Frodo walk a little way around the hill, on a little used field track, to survey the Party tents being erected. Moss Image and some Photoshop finishing.

Hello all ...

I have been putting together a small Tolkien-inspired fan comic called The Suffering Knights.

This one is called “The Gazebo and the Cursed Book of Mordor.” It’s a mix of Tolkien inspiration, a bit of non-canon fiction and tabletop humour.

Just curious what people think of the cover and teaser — does it make you want to see more?

https://suno.com/song/823355f4-fadb-41dc-9caa-a1d4aebdc2f0

https://suno.com/song/0e84fdb4-10c3-4945-ac64-44fb8bfd0455

Morgoth appeared as a vast, towering tyrant, permanently locked into a dark, physical form. He was clad in black armour, held a massive, unblazoned black shield, and wielded Grond, the heavy Hammer of the Underworld. He wore a great iron crown that held the three burning Silmarils.

Fingolfin, the High King of the Noldor, shone like a star amidst the darkness. He wore mail overlaid with silver and carried a blue shield set with crystals. He wielded the sword Ringil, which shone with a cold, pale light and glittered like ice.

Following the duel, Morgoth’s physical appearance was permanently altered. He bore seven unhealing scars from Fingolfin’s sword strikes. With his final blow, Fingolfin hewed Morgoth's foot with Ringil, leaving the Dark Lord permanently lame and walking with a limp for the remainder of his existence.

Finally, as Thorondor, King of Eagles, swooped down to rescue Fingolfin's body, he marred Morgoth's face with his talons, leaving permanent scars upon the Dark Lord's visage.

Tolkien described Sauron's physical form as a man of more than human stature, though not gigantic, presenting an overall guise that was a terrifying image of malice and hatred made visible. His body radiated an intense, lethal heat capable of burning enemies to death, leaving at least his hand charred and blackened.

Although Tolkien never explicitly detailed Sauron's clothing, his status as the supreme Lord of Mordor suggests he wore regal, stately garments befitting a monarch rather than heavy plate armour.

In the third age, Gollum confirmed Sauron maintained this physical presence by noting he possessed a "Black Hand", lacking the One Ring and missing the finger Isildur severed.

According to Tolkien's original text, the Balrog is a dark form, "of man-shape maybe, yet greater". It is enveloped in a vast shadow that reaches out like two wings, rather than possessing literal, physical wings. Its streaming mane kindles and blazes behind it, and fire comes from its nostrils. The creature is wreathed in roaring fire and wields a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire alongside a whip of many thongs.

how iis this

What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and go before it.

I've long wanted to start creating art and content based on my favorite world. I wanted to show Middle-earth the way it should look. Over the past two weeks, I focused on learning AI tools and making a short video. I chose an artistic style with frame-by-frame animation.

I started learning AI content creation along the way and was surprised how tricky it actually is! I used Gemini for image generation and ran into a few problems:

1) Duplicated faces and gear across characters — many warriors end up with the exact same face.

2) Style bleeding from other fantasy worlds, especially with orcs — even though I explicitly wrote "not Warcraft style" in the negative prompt.

3) Changing one small detail often changed the entire image.

That said, I have to admit it sometimes produced really solid frames — like the fortress of Dol Guldur and a battle in the forest.

If anyone here knows how to work around these issues, I'd really appreciate the advice. I'd also be curious to hear which AI platforms work best for this kind of project — I went with a budget-friendly option.

I used ElevenLabs for the voiceover and dialogue. Every image used in the video was generated by me. Going forward, I plan to make more films in a similar style, but with a different approach to framing and animation.

You can check out what I made and share your thoughts here: https://youtu.be/MuxzHY_8ct0?si=GDucvDN3Gt4NAbZ1

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If the learning material would be all of Tolkien’s inspirations, letters and actual works, could it work?