Uncanny Valley  

It is hard to believe that the orangutan, "Maya," in a new commercial for the Scottish electrical utility is a real, well trained animal actor—she's not, she's 100% computer generated.

When you see the advertisement above, you will wonder how they trained an orangutan, "Maya," to perform the way she does.  As it turns out, they didn't trained it at all. It was entirely made with CGI by production house, The Mill.

"It has been an amazing ten month journey," says The Mill's Chief Creative Officer, Pat Joseph. "I've yet to have anyone tell me that that's not a real orangutan."

"I've yet to have anyone tell me that that's not a real orangutan."

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In the commercial, the majestic orangutan makes her way from the rainforest of Sumatra into our urban world.

To our eye, "Maya," totally crosses the uncanny valley.

The Mill created the photo-real 100% CGI Orangutan for leading energy supplier SSE. More details on the making of "Maya," are in the video below.

By 33rd Square

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