Mill Paris | The Green Gorilla Toto is back in a new ad!

Work January 11, 2023

The green gorilla Toto, created by our Paris studio, is back in a new commercial with his signature big smile. In this film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, in collaboration with agency Vidiboko and production company Bonkers, our artists were tasked with personifying the mascot in a masterful photorealistic style. In order to find the perfect style for the gorilla and to make him friendly despite his large size and big teeth., our artists spent much time researching how to find the balance between photorealistic and approachable.

After Citroën ‘Cactus’, ‘Canal’+ ‘The Bear’, winner at Cannes Lions, Orange ‘Big Christmas’ and the recent Samsung ‘Playtime is Over’, this film is one of many collaborations with director Matthijs van Heijningen on which the artists of The Mill Paris have added some VFX magic!

“For this film we were in charge of creating the green gorilla in full CG. From rigging to animation to fur, we took care of the entire characterization of Toto. We are used to creating photorealistic characters, but we rarely create gorillas that dance and sing in Dutch! After several proposals and intentions to dance and wiggle the pelvis and shoulders, Toto became a "showman".
We asked the agency to translate the text into English and French so that the animators could understand Toto's intentions and intonations so that his actions would be credible. As a result, Alban, Augustin and the rest of the animation team created a fairly large bank of several posing/acting facials. On the FX side (fur and cape simulation), Karim did a great job. He automated everything on Houdini to save us time on all shots. Very nice teamwork all around. ”
Marouan El Bekri, CG Supervisor

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Credits

Director
Matthijs van Heijningen:
Agency
VIDIBOKO (TBWA):
Post Production
Post production Lead: The Mill Paris
Executive Producer: Fabrice Damolini
VFX Producer: Nicolas Huguet, Kahina Lamblin
VFX Coodinators: Ewan Rosenstrauch, Mathilde Cohen Selmon, Ghalia Chammat
VFX Supervisor: Guillaume Ho Tsong Fang
CG Supervisor: Marouan El Bekri
Shoot Supervisor: Patrick Bennar
Modeling & Environment: Arnaud Prat, Vincent Coni, Stephen Martingoulet
Hair & Surfacing: Marion Respaud
Rigging: Marine Sisnaki, Lucie Taglienti
Animation Lead: Alban Lelièvre
Animation: Valerian Lesprillier, Ludovic Martin, Augustin Paliard, Herve Anceau, Marie Moyer, Ganaël Chevalier
FX: Karim Lachaize, Dimitri Durand
CG generalist: Richard Rampaly, Remy Meilliat, Vincent Coni, Marouan El Bekri, Leon Rousseau
Lighting: Yohan Grau
Compositing Lead: Sébastien Podsiadlo
Compositing: Jeremy Gravinay, Luc Martias, Margaux Chambas, Eric Lemains
Flame: Sébastien Kremer, Flore Mounier, Valentin Gingembre
Colourist: Philip Hambi
Colourist Assistant: Loïc Lavaux
Planning: Annabel Akerboom, Sophie maillot, Magalie Luthringer, Orlane Lusbec, Isabelle Renaud
Assistants montage: Antoine Zimmer, Chloe Charrier, Fabien Beraudo, Felix Flechet, Julie Rigaud, Justine Chambert, Maite Tamain
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Post production support: The Mill Bangalore
Production Manager: Zahid Khan
Production Coordinator: Mohit Bhomia, Shubham Gajare
Prep Supervisor: Silambarasan R P
Prep Artists: Ramandeep Singh, Ramesh Basanna Vhataghonde, Yasasvini Vagampalli, Aakansha Yadav, Bairi Rakesh, Poornima Rao, Pankaj Harish Ukey, Sangeetha M, Sreeji Mol C.P., Bijeesh K U, Jaswan Vishnu Prasath Balla Mohan Rao
Matchmove Supervisor: Murali Krishna Reddy
Matchmove Lead: Smijumon Viswanathan, Elangovan Ganeshan
Matchmove Artist: Paras Pareshkumar Shah, Avaneetharan Karuppasamy, Pratik Vilas Pawar, Suman Sahu, Lokesh M
Roto Supervisor: Sivakumar R
Roto Lead: Rohit Charde, Yogesh Ahire, Mahendranatha Reddy, Moumita Pratihar
Roto Artist: Karan Sharma, Akhil Mohan, Rahul Mane, Rupan Thirumal, Anita Khandare, Joslin Job Mathew, Shivani Kumari, Mayur Chandrakant Kothawade, Nithish Nandaa T, Pankaj Powar, Raghvendra Singh, Sandeep Mishra
Production
BONKERS:
DOP: Lennert Hillege
Editor: Marc Bechtold