PETA "98% Human" - (2014) :30 (USA)

The Mill took home a coveted D&AD black pencil, yellow pencil last night for this expertly rendered CGI chimp. It is a truly photo-real and completely life-like chimpanzee, but it's all digital. The eyes are so real.

It was when BBDO NY and PETA teamed up that the pledge to stop primates being used within the entertainment industries as actors really began to have impactful communication. The idea is that you take a pledge, promising to not use primates in your career. I never have, unless that smelly guy assisting my shoots counts.

The Mill+ team was lead by animation director Angus Kneale and he explains some of the complexities and new techniques Mill+ created to bring the photo-real chimpanzee to life.

"This was one of the most exciting and challenging projects I've ever worked on. Crafting PETA "98% Human" was more than about creating a totally believable, photo-real CG Chimp. It was about establishing an emotional connection and empathy with the audience. In the past we would have used motion capture and mapped a human actor's performance directly onto the CG character but we wanted to approach this project in a different way, so we decided to rely on the skill of our animators for the final chimp performances, only using an actor for previs.

"We pushed computer graphics imagery to a new level creating bespoke technology in muscle and skin simulation, higher than any other project or film to date. We achieved this by developing new techniques from simulated bloodstreams, skin tension and even individual pores at the base of every hair on the chimpanzee, all with the aim to create a creature that is practically indistinguishable from his flesh and blood counterpart".

Earlier I wrote "black" pencil. It was a yellow pencil, my mistake.

Ad agency: BBDO , NY
Client: PETA
Post: THE MILL