UNIT VFX supervisor Nuno Pereira tells TVBEurope about the work that went into creating an emotive CG gorilla called El Ni o
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 14, 2025 Updated: January 15, 2025
UNIT VFX supervisor Nuno Pereira tells TVBEurope about the work that went into creating an emotive CG gorilla called El Ni o
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Released by Paramount , Stags follows Stu, who heads to South America for his stag do with a group of his closest friends. But what they expect to be a fun-filled week takes a dark turn with the group sent to a lawless prison island run by two warring siblings.
Production company Eleven Film called on UNIT Film & TV to create El Ni o, a CG photoreal gorilla as well as CG environments for the series.
The producers wanted UNIT to enhance the live-action suit version of the gorilla that was used on set, VFX supervisor Nuno Pereira tells TVBEurope. We built a really strong team around the challenge and ended up creating a full CG asset which was used in most shots. In the end, together with Giancarlo Sanchez, the director, we felt this was necessary to bring a crucial character to life, which was vital to the visual storytelling.
El Ni o Pereira led the UNIT team which brought to life the gorilla's movements, fur, eyes and overall emotive performance.
Our team focused on achieving a photoreal and naturalistic look for El Nino, which involved incredibly detailed animation and accurate lighting, he continues. We aimed to ensure the creature felt integral to the story, blending seamlessly with the live-action elements and enhancing the overall tension and drama of the series. As we started to develop this asset, and we were having rounds of feedback and dailies with the client, everyone realised that with so much work put into this asset to only have four shots, it would be a waste not to do more. So the shots and sequences, which included the CG version of the gorilla, quickly grew in number, scope and ambition.
The team carried out intensive background research work for both the look and development of the creature as well as its behaviour. Alongside many other sources of reference, we went to the extent of contacting a zoo to allow us to capture these amazing creatures in the closest way possible.
Creating realistic fur on screen can be notoriously difficult, traditionally the team at UNIT would use Houdini's fur tools but for Stags creature supervisor Aritz Basauri opted to use Maya and Yeti. Though we still did all the dynamics in Houdini, we had to develop proprietary tools and come up with a specific pipeline to manage the data back and forth between the applications without losing any detail, explains Pereira.
Another tricky part of the project was getting the gorilla to emote. After capturing the gorilla suit performance on set, the team felt it didn't provide enough range of motion and the performance wasn't quite right .
When you get that close, it's just not a real animal. The gorilla emotes only through its body language. But there's a really good mix of in-camera gorilla with full CG.
Our animation supervisor, Brett Margules, did an outstanding job in creating the baseline actions for walking, breathing, running and the facial expressions that were all very much grounded in real life gorillas. The animations for most shots then stemmed from that. We worked very closely for several weeks with the rigging team to ensure we had ample control over what we could do with the gorilla. However, we always kept true to what the real animal can do and made the conscientious decision to stick to that so we didn't create something that started to look unrealistic or like a movie character.
Pereira says it was important to create small, intricate details to help build realism, such as when the gorilla's hands land on the floor creating dust motes and changing the way his fur moves.
We go from the start where we experience the creature as a terrifying, brute force of nature and by the end of the sequence, people realise there is another side of El Ni o, and we only had 3 or 4 shots to make that happen, he adds. El Ni o realises that Gaucho is wounded and reaches out for the wound and then, really tenderly to him. This was the key moment where the gorilla connects with Gaucho and where the practical suit did not have enough range of motion to portray what the real gorilla does.
When we were on set, Javier, who plays Gaucho, started ad-libbing so all of these gestures that he's doing - none of those were scripted. Giancarlo and myself thought it was gold, and we could do a lot with it and that it could help inform the animation and the performance of the gorilla. So when Gaucho does something with his mouth, we have the gorilla mimicking him. This connection was really, really hard to achieve the look in the gorilla's eyes, as you were cutting directly to a human. It's really hard to just cut back-to-back sequences where you have real human emotion and then digital pixels.
In total the UNIT team worked on Stags for a total of 17 weeks, delivering both El Ni o and other visual effects across the series. In the end, from those initial four shots, the UNIT team delivered over 300 VFX shots across three episodes, states Pereira.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
24/07/2026
Kerry and Mayo fans Up For The Match as excitement builds in Croke Park on the e...
23/07/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 23rd, JULY, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), stitched 11.57 billion one-to-one addressable advertisem...
23/07/2026
Quickly creates reverse reverb effects
Low End Candy have recently released a new plug-in that offers a quick and simple way to create reverse reverb effect...
23/07/2026
New engines, resonators, effects & more
Expressive E's versatile soft synth has just been treated to an update that greatly expands its sonic range. Noi...
23/07/2026
SGL Carbon has further expanded its photovoltaic capacity at its Ort im Innkreis site in Austria. With the commissioning of new PV carports, the sites solar sys...
23/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents new software for three-phase power analysis on MXO seri...
23/07/2026
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni explores how the launch of Play Snooker reflects a wider shift in sports economics - from monetising peak broadcast audiences ...
23/07/2026
Download Now!
To receive a short case study showcasing Vivid Broadcast's audio setup, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name ...
23/07/2026
X-Rite Pantone and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) Partner to Advance Digi...
23/07/2026
Thursday 23 July 2026
New Samsung Galaxy Foldable range available now to pre-order on Sky Mobile
Sky Mobile, the award-winning network voted this year by Expe...
23/07/2026
Thursday 23 July 2026
Jason Statham leads Sky Original action thriller MUTINY in explosive new trailerTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy optio...
23/07/2026
Wuppertal July 23, 2026
Riedel Implements RefCam and Easy5G for the First Time...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year.
Ce...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
High-end analogue channel strip boasts plug-in recall
Originally revealed as a prototype back at NAMM 2024, the Channex Studio channel strip represented a b...
21/07/2026
Relies on same DSP as plug-in range
Musik Hack's line-up has been influenced heavily by founder Stan Greene's work as a mixing engineer, and their M...
21/07/2026
Official collaboration with boutique builder Dirty Boy Pedals
Warm Audio have just announced the launch of a new guitar pedal range created in collaboration...
21/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz showcases broad range of EMC test solutions at EMC SIPI 2026 in ...
21/07/2026
X-Rite Pantone and NIFT Partner to Build Color Management Skills for India's...
21/07/2026
Harmonics cOS Virtualized Broadband Platform and Pearl Remote OLTs Enable Flexible PON Migration, While SeaStar Optical Node Powers Cost-Effective Multi-Gigabit...
21/07/2026
160 hours of Irish storytelling for 2026
KIN and The Walsh Sisters return
RT has today unveiled its most ambitious drama slate ever, with a record-breakin...
20/07/2026
Product range now readily available in the UK
Graph Tech Guitar Labs have just announced the launch of a new UK Online Store that makes it quicker and easie...
20/07/2026
Popular headset gains active noise cancellation
The Maxwell headet was Audeze's first foray into the gaming world, and thanks to its Dolby Atmos compati...
20/07/2026
Monday 20 July 2026
Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal custome...
20/07/2026
Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communit...
20/07/2026
FIFA World Cup Final sets new RT Player record as the most-streamed single event in the platform's history
Over 1 million viewers watched live on RT 2 as ...
19/07/2026
Channel strip plug-in gets upgraded
Acustica Audio's vintage-inspired channel strip plug-in has just been treated to an update that expands its tonal ra...
18/07/2026
Captures nine sought-after Fender amps
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX expansion captures a selection of nine rare Brown Panel' Fender amps that were ...
18/07/2026
Latest batch ships alongside firmware update
Since being unveiled at Superbooth 2025, Frap Tools' debut polysynth has been met with widespread praise, a...
17/07/2026
Full engine access with reduced soundset
Sonuscore have steadily been introducing a selection of reduced-cost and free versions of their flagship products r...
17/07/2026
Two new special-edition models revealed
Over the past week, Arturia have launched special-edition versions of both their premium MIDI controller and stage p...
17/07/2026
Original founder now back at the helm
In a message posted on his personal social media accounts, Dirk Ulrich has announced that both Plugin Alliance and Bra...
17/07/2026
From intimate acoustic settings to large-scale festival stages, her focus has remained constant: preserving the true natural voice of the violin in every perfor...
17/07/2026
New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule
RT Radio 1 is...
UNIT VFX supervisor Nuno Pereira tells TVBEurope about the work that went into creating an emotive CG gorilla called El Ni o
