My attitude is "only a fool works for nothing". Unfortunately, in the "media-world" there are many fools out there who will work for free.

I'm not talking about "own work" here, as opposed to a project. So someone who spends every evening, weekend and minute of his/her spare time on something they feel passionate about, even if they're not getting paid, is worthy of respect. Someone who works, for free, on a commercial project for someone else, is a fool.

I also think that, if you want people to work for free, you could at least give a bit of your time explaining what the project is, what you've done so far, links to previous work and so on. A few lines saying "we want a mug to do our CGI for free" doesn't show much respect for the fish you're trying to catch.
I'm sure that you really have got someone who worked on "Lord of the Rings" to answer your post

The media world is full of wannabees, people "in pre-production" of a project, in other words... bullshitters. If you looked through this forums's archive, you would have seen that we get dozens of "I'm gonna be a great film-maker and want people to do do my work for me, without pay" postings. We have no way of separating your request from the others. So don't get out of your pram "darling", you want something from us, yet can't be bothered to make a bit of effort (a) to read through our forums and (b) compose a comprehensive request, detailing who you are and why our members should be bothered to reply to you.

Give us a link! Show us who you are!