A world of blocks

The spot is built on live plates shot in a studio against a blue background: a boy in a helmet at the start of a flight, a swing, a hobby-horse unicorn, a lab table. Each plate set an anchor point for the world that had to be built around it.

Each scene was developed together with the art director, shot by shot. The environments were first built as stills — composition, light, materials — and animated only after approval. The worlds came out very different, but shared light and a single logic of camera movement hold them together as one spot.

Two approaches were used for compositing. If the live plate worked as is, the animated AI background was joined to it with a blue-screen key. If the scene needed more movement, the frame was generated in full, and the footage served as a reference. Left — the live plate, right — the AI frame.

The live plates came to life together with the world around them: the generation kept the actor's movement and built out the light and the environment. For the most dynamic shots the motion was first assembled in Blender: the cut-out live plate was placed on a simple 3D road with crystals, and this playblast set the camera and the pacing. From it, the final flight was generated in Seedance — the bottom pair.

The AI environments and generated frames formed the basis of the final assembly, carried out by the ZHEESHEE team: compositing and color grading are their work. The studio put the spot together at a high level. Thanks to ZHEESHEE, its specialists and its creative director for the joint project.