The Mill teamed up with Goodoil director Hamish Rothwell and ad agency The Monkeys for Bingle's "Chimpfall," featuring Joni the skydiving chimpanzee, who shows us just how easy it is to get a Bingle car insurance quote, even in mid air.

Joni the chimp is 100% CG, so it was important for The Mill's CG team to get all of her gestures, mannerisms and appearance to mimic that of a real chimp. 

When she makes the big jump out of the plane, the wind flow was animated to plaster the fur in the front, while the fur in the back flows dramatically. Replicating photo-real fur that could stand up to close scrutiny of the camera moves involved refining the movement of each hair. The artists created a bespoke process to ensure the fur interacted accurately with Joni's blindfold and backpack. The team also created many iterations of the jump to get the wind speed just right, to animate the fur realistically in the breeze.

The plane interior, landscapes and sky reference were shot in Australia with an actor on set to provide movement and lighting references for the CG artists. These references were key, as Joni's fur movement and lighting change dramatically throughout the spot.

Using footage shot by Hamish out of a helicopter, the compositing team created a digital sky for Joni to fly through. Unique images were stabilized and stitched together to make create the cloudy blue scene.

After getting her quote in under two minutes, Joni lands in her car safe and sound to drive off into the sunset!

- The Mill

Date
January, 2015

Role
Lead Compositor

Director
Hamish Rothwell

Agency
The Monkeys