The classic in-camera effect to trick the audience’s eye.
Director Michel Gondry demonstrates a forced perspective set from his film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004):
For scenes with humans and hobbits, director Peter Jackson employed more advanced, moving camera techniques in his The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) (via TXFilmProfessor):
Although Daniel Netzel at Film Radar argues that “if it can be done through practical effects, it should be”, he nonetheless examines the compositing of practical and digital effects used in the LOTR movies. The practical techniques examined here include scaled sets and costumes, miniatures and “bigatures”, matte paintings, props, forced perspective, big-rigs, all of which, through blue- and green-screen compositing, are integrated seamlessly with computer-generated characters and locations:
Filmmaker IQ offers a deeper dive into the math which makes forced perspective work:
Try It Yourself
DIY film-maker Steve Ramsden shows how to convincingly make a model car look life-sized in your shot…
Further Viewing
More on how miniatures are used in film – and how to do it yourself: