Philo - Stay at home pets
Full-AI TVC advert
Agency - Synima
AI platform - AI animation
Creative Directors - Lucien De Vivo & Jon Draper
Producers: Justone Bossert
AI Prompters - Naveen Jose, Rodrigo Salazar, Joe Grimsdale, Jon Draper & Lucien De Vivo
Motion Graphics/VFX - Lucien De Vivo & Naveen Jose
Editors - Thomas Clark & Jay Kellet
Sound design - Andrew Chappell
Philo: Stay at home pets
Philo wanted to test AI production and see how an advert would perform with their audience on their platform. Full AI productions throw up plenty of challenges, equal parts exciting and frustrating, and this job was no exception.
The process
We approach AI work much like a traditional production. Character sheets stand in for casting, environment sheets replace recces and scouts, and then we direct with prompts. AI is still in its infancy, though, and prompts can fight you at every turn. This job was made before GPT’s image models became as capable as they are now.
First, the client approved the characters and environments. Then came storyboarding, which in AI is essentially the final look and feel. The storyboard stills become the start (and sometimes end) frames of each shot, so this is where most of the time goes.
Once the boards were signed off, we moved to video. We generated cheap 480p passes in Seedance, then upscaled the approved shots to 1080p. Topaz took them to 4K, and a final compositing pass removed the “AI perfection”: bloom, chromatic aberration, grain and a light colour grade.
Bringing it to life
My favourite part is adding foley and sound design. Just like a traditional production, it lifts the piece and gives it life.
Takeaway
I’m really proud of this one. It shows what AI can achieve, and also where it falls short. My view is that a hybrid approach works best, but with animals in particular, Full generative AI made this process far easier.
Tools used on this production:
AI tools in AIanimation: Nanobanana, Seedream, Seedance, Topaz
Programs: Bordin, After effects, mocha pro & Premiere