In May 2021, I was contacted by Creative Director Gustavo González to produce an animated commercial for a small Spanish winery. The challenge: we needed to animate 10 characters, each representing a different type of wine, with its own distinct personality.
Given the tight budget and schedule, a traditionally animated piece was out of the question. So we pitched a different approach: using EbSynth to enhance 3D renders and transform them into a 2D visual spectacle. The result was my first AI-assisted commercial.
The characters were first designed in 2D, then translated into 3D models that were rigged, animated, and rendered with clown passes and tracking markers to help the AI process the footage more accurately. Two illustrators then created keyframes for individual stills of each character, allowing us to transfer the 2D illustrated style onto the animated 3D content. Everything was later composited in After Effects.
To earn the client’s trust in this unconventional pipeline, I produced a lookdev piece by restyling a popular meme to match the proposed art style of the final ad.
The final result was a fresh animated piece that showcased the entire winery lineup, produced in under a month by a minimal team consisting of myself, one 3D artist, and two illustrators.