This charming story sees one of the jungle’s most majestic apes leave its leafy home and explore the wonders that the energy of the big city has to offer. The 100% CG Orangutan was developed to highlight energy company SSE’s actions to make a difference. It is seen climbing buildings, playing on escalators and appreciating the bright lights of Piccadilly Circus.

Our team pushed the boundaries of VFX with the creation of a 100% CG Orangutan.

The anatomically correct skeleton was built first, starting from very loose blocking to small details such as wrinkles and pores of the skin.

The aim was to create a photo real animal that moved in a natural way, coming down to the smallest details such as bulging of the muscles, skin compression and pupil dilation.

Skilled animators created each movement, before muscles were constructed on top of this.

The muscles added a layer of detail by bulging in the correct way when under pressure and flexing when relaxed. The bulging affected the skin and hair, which were given a true sense of naturalism through compression mapping and complex simulations.

We paid a huge amount of attention to the eyes, as they needed to convey naturalism and emotion. A key example of this detail is that we added a small amount of liquid into each eye, to give it a sense of depth.

We also built a custom eye rig in which the pupils dilated and contracted depending on light conditions.

This ape is is 100% CG, no real apes were filmed for this ad.