- Client
- Global pharmaceutical company, via its events agency
- Deliverable
- 90-second cinematic opener for a corporate conference
- Format
- Ultra-wide 4224 x 1408 (3:1) for a 30 m wide LED screen, 24 fps
- Look
- Photoreal, blockbuster-grade sci-fi: transforming piloted mechs and a vast mothership
- Timeline
- Under two days from a blank page to a complete first edit with sound
- Rounds
- Storyboard and character sign-off, then two edit rounds on client feedback
- AI generation cost
- Under US$250
The brief
The client wanted to open its conference with something the room would not expect from a pharmaceutical company: a short, heroic, feature-film-style sequence that framed the organisation's change programme as a mission already under way. The creative had to carry a message about collaboration, put real members of the client's team at the heart of the story, and play across a 30 m LED wall at a resolution no AI generator could natively fill.
The agency had a concept. What it did not have was the time or budget for a traditional VFX house, which would typically need months and a far larger budget for this kind of CG character work.
The idea
A crew of three transforming machines launch from a mothership, change form in flight and work together to rebuild the vessel while it is still moving. Each machine stands for a different instinct the business needs: the drive to go, the discipline to manage risk, and the question of who the work is ultimately for. Their work reaches real people on the ground. In the final beat the helmets open to reveal that the pilots are three of the client's own people, smiling, before a three-way fist bump hands the stage to the conference.
No combat, no villain. The spectacle comes from scale, engineering and teamwork.
My role
Creative director and producer of the AI production, working with the agency and client stakeholders from storyboard through to final delivery. I translated the agency's storyboard into a production-ready shot plan, directed the look and performance of every shot, ran the AI production pipeline, managed feedback rounds, and delivered picture and a full sound build ready for the client's voiceover.
This is the same job I have done for 25 years across design, corporate communications, writing, directing and producing for multinationals. The difference here is that I ran it with an agentic AI production team rather than crew or staff.
How it was made
01
Original characters, designed to be signed off
Three original mech designs, each with a vehicle form, a robot form and a pilot-reveal form, built from the agency's character archetypes. They are deliberately original: no franchise names, logos, insignia or weapons, so there is no IP exposure for the client. Each character got a locked reference sheet so it looks the same in every shot. The client signed off the designs before any video was made.
02
A 28-frame cinematic storyboard
Every shot was built as a full-resolution still first, composed for the 3:1 frame of a 30 m wide LED screen, so faces and titles land where the whole room can read them. The client approved the boards before anything was spent on motion. This is where most of the creative risk is removed, at a fraction of the cost of video.
The frames shown here are from an early iteration. The final storyboard is private to the client.
03
Video, shot by shot
Each approved frame became a shot, using start and end frames to control transformations precisely. Different models were used for what each does best: one for large-scale spectacle and camera moves, another for close performance and acting. Physics, lighting and scale rules were enforced across the whole film: grounded shadows, straight beams, no smoke in a vacuum, and a crew that always reads as small against the mothership.
04
Real faces, real voices
The pilots are three real people from the client's team, matched from a single low-res reference photograph each. All dialogue was supplied as AI-generated voices.
05
A full sound build
An original score plus a library of design sound for ships, robots, transformations and ambience, cut to picture and delivered as a guide mix with separate stems.
06
Finish
Keeper shots were upscaled for the stage and delivered at full 4224 x 1408, 24 fps, then conformed to 25 fps for playback.
Toolset. Stills: Nano Banana Pro. Video: Seedance 2.5 and 2.0, Kling. Upscaling: Topaz Starlight. Music and sound design: ElevenLabs. Orchestrated through an agentic AI workflow that handled prompt engineering, shot logs, version control, cost tracking and reporting, so I could stay focused on the creative decisions.
Working with the client
- Sign-off before spend.
- Characters and boards were approved as stills, so the expensive stage only ever ran on approved creative.
- Fast feedback rounds.
- Notes on the first edit (for example, bringing the score in earlier) were turned around in days, not weeks.
- Transparent costs.
- The client received a clear usage report showing exactly what AI generation was spent on.
- Brand-safe by design.
- Original characters, no third-party IP, and the client's own people and voices at the centre.
A follow-on VFX shot was produced for the live event, showing one of the pilots suiting up on stage, and the client loved it.
By the numbers
- 90 s
- Running time
- 3
- Original characters, each in vehicle, robot and pilot-reveal forms
- 28
- Storyboard frames
- 30 m
- Wide LED screen, filled at 4224 x 1408
- 2
- Edit rounds
- < 2 days
- Blank page to complete first edit with sound
- < US$250
- AI generation cost
Total AI generation spend for the whole film, covering stills, video, upscaling, music and sound design, was under US$250. That excludes creative direction, production and editing, which is where the value sits. The client received a full usage report for every generation; here are sanitised copies: