In crafting Bad Ape, Weta Digital had to slightly re-think its primate designs. That’s because the character had a particular look, as Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Lemmon explains: “He was based on a juvenile ape, but we wanted to make him look old and kind of wizened. So we blended visual cues that would tell you that he was old with an anatomy that’s actually a lot closer to an adolescent chimpanzee.

“The ranges of Bad Ape worked pretty well with what Steve was doing right from the start, so we didn’t find that need of adding more human characteristics onto it. The body language and everything came through in a way that it was very loyal to Steve Zahn already, but was still its very own CG character.” — Alessandro Bonora, Facial Models Lead

“He had such a unique kind of face as well,” adds Lemmon. “It’s an innocent but tired, worn visage. And that meant we actually didn’t put a whole lot of Steve back into Bad Ape. A little bit in his eyes, but for the most part it was a lot more about how he moved and what his facial expressions were – following the changes that he would make – but less so than we would have done with Andy and Caesar.”