Togo

Disney’s ‘Togo’ is the story of Leonhard Seppala and his lead dog Togo, who completed the longest section of the Great Race of Mercy, the famed sled dog relay that brought diphtheria antitoxin across the U.S. territory of Alaska in five and a half days to save the town of Nome from an impending epidemic.

DNEG was the primary VFX house and was tasked with creating much of the visual grandeur and peril of their journey, from the rugged and dangerous Alaskan landscape, to the powerful winter storm the team had to navigate through, and ultimately the treacherous shortcut across the open ice of Norton Sound, racing against the violent breakup of the sea ice.

One of the main aspects of DNEG’s work on Disney+’s Togo was the need to create a realistic CG dog that would look identical to the on-set dogs used in the film including believable facial animations. During post production our VFX team had to dive into all the complex canine locomotive mechanics during the Norton Sound Ice crossing sequence and also tackle the challenges of how to create believability when animating 11 CG dogs sliding across a tipping sheet of ice.

The most heroic run ever !

Togo - VFX breakdown

Togo - Behind the VFX: Animation

'Togo' | Trailer 

 The untold true story

We all made 
it happen

'Togo': Raymond Chen – VFX Supervisor – DNEG

DNEG Creates a Dog’s Life for ‘Togo’

'Togo': Dogs and Digital Autochrome

3D Scanning a dog is not easy  

Yep, there's FACS for dogs 

The art of 'Togo's' procedural icebergs, and other snowy scenes