The Hot Zone VFX Breakdown by DNEG

The Hot Zone VFX Breakdown by DNEG

Get a behind-the-scenes look at DNEG TV’s VFX work on National Geographic’s miniseries ‘The Hot Zone‘. Our VFX team was tasked with the creation of totally-believable, captive long-tailed macaques across all six episodes. After undertaking thorough research on the exact species of macaque that was featured in the show, our teams made sure that, from modeling and sculpting to lookdev and fur development, our digital creatures matched the real macaques exactly, and then started to exhibit signs of infection and neglect. Using real life footage of captive monkeys as reference, our Animation team gave realism to the performance of the digital characters in a challenging timeframe, creating a wide range of facial expressions that portrayed emotions like sadness, fear, panic and aggression.

The Hot Zone is an American drama television miniseries, based on the 1994 non-fiction book of the same name by Richard Preston. Six episodes aired from May 27 to May 29, 2019, on National Geographic.

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