When Strategy Creative reached out with a campaign for PGDB, the goal was clear. They wanted to get the public thinking twice before hiring someone just because they say they’re a plumber, gasfitter or drainlayer.

So we helped bring that message to life with a series of everyday scenarios where things have gone very obviously, very wrong.

The Idea

Each visual shows a job that looks legit at first glance, but on closer inspection is a total disaster. A wall light leaking water above a bed. A toilet dropped right in the middle of a kitchen. A living room full of gas smoke.

It all ties back to the same message: “Don’t just take their word for it.” Because when it comes to trades like plumbing and gasfitting, a mistake isn’t just inconvenient, it can be dangerous.

Our Role

We worked with Strategy Creative to develop and produce the visuals across digital billboards, bus backs and online placements. The aim was to create something that felt believable at first, then twisted just enough to make people stop and look twice.

Every scene was carefully designed to sit naturally in the city environment while delivering that moment of “hang on, what?” as people passed by.

The Result

The campaign rolled out across major cities in Aotearoa and PGDB’s online channels, sparking plenty of double takes. The message landed clearly: check for a licence before you hire.

It’s a reminder that a strong creative idea can travel fast when the visuals are sharp, simple and a little bit cheeky.

We used AI from the start to accelerate and visualise ideas. First, we generated the real-life cast — photo-real characters that helped the team and client decide on the look and feel of the talent. Once the casting was approved, we derived balloon versions of each person directly from those faces, already matched in likeness, tone and expression.

The same approach applied to the on-screen talent of the film. We built AI versions of their faces and bodies, then used that as the base to evolve their balloon doubles. Texture, reflectivity, colour, and costume were adjusted with input from the director and agency until every character felt just right.

These AI-generated frames became the visual reference for both live-action shooting and 3D production, saving time, unlocking clarity early, and allowing more energy to go into refining the final look instead of chasing it later.

Eudora was about to begin production on a new 3D product demo for Chronology. It needed to align with the visual identity of the campaign film and included a few wishful scenes that would require visual exploration before the director, agency and client could fully commit.

While 3D was clearly the right production tool for the final film, it was not the best tool to start with. Early storytelling and visual development needed speed and flexibility. Exploration rounds in full 3D would have cost time and money that simply were not available.

Working closely with the director and VFX team, we built a high fidelity storyboard that locked colour palette, ingredients and textures before a single polygon was modelled. Along the way we gave space for the creative team and client to explore how key moments of the demo, like the droplet containing life and the product mix bursting into a hair strand, would play out visually.

Because the storyboard already mirrored the final look, 3D production began the moment the client signed off.

No guesswork. Fewer revisions. Oddly happy people.

AI Concepts / Storyboard

Final 3D Demo

Client: Eudora (O Boticário)
Agency: AlmapBBDO
Director: Bruno Ilogti
Production Company: Surreal Hotel Arts
VFX: Voodoo House

]]> https://odd.global/portfolio-item/concepts-pitch-assets/ Wed, 18 Jun 2025 08:32:24 +0000 https://staging.odd.global/?post_type=portfolio-item&p=2631 Below is a snapshot of recent concept-and-pitch work where agile AI prototypes helped agencies and production companies lock the vision early and move into production with confidence.

Toyota Cross Animatic

For a creative concept presentation, we delivered a full animatic driven by a custom-trained model of the actual vehicle with Photoreal consistency.

Client: Toyota
Production Company: The Moon Unit

NIO “Balões” Launch Film

Ahead of Brazil’s new internet provider rollout, we designed balloon versions of the on-screen talent and created supplemental virtual characters to float alongside them. These concept frames became the visual reference for live-action and 3D production and integration.

Client: NIO
Agency: Artplan
Director: Otavio Machado
Production Company: Love Pictures Company
VFX: Voodoo House

Brand TVC Pitch

We produced epic, photoreal early explorers scenes that were enhanced by Voodoo House VFX as part od the Director’s Treatment as a proof of concept of how far we could take AI visuals by combining it with traditional post production.

Spicy Boys Pitch Concepts

For NONTOXIC Studio’s campaign pitch, we visualised the bold, tongue-in-cheek world of Spicy Boys hot sauces. Style frames blended exaggerated heat motifs with odd characters in explosive visuals.

Agency: NONTOXIC Studio
Creative Director: Rupert de Paula

(Seamless hair transition from 3D demo to live action shot with A.I.)

Project Snapshot

In three regional cuts, a single strand of 3D-rendered hair blossoms into live-action locks, delivering an “impossible” macro-to-model reveal for Sunsilk / Elidor’s global push.

Challenge

Droga5 São Paulo and VFX studio Voodoo House needed a way to link a conventional CG product demo with a photoreal transition that would hold up across varied hair types and markets, all under a compressed post schedule and budget. 

AI-Driven Solution

We began by re-texturing the hero 3D strand adding fresh cuticle detail, natural sheen, and subtle colour variation to read as perfectly healthy hair at macro scale. From that point, the camera “pulls” outward in a single fluid move: the digitally perfected strand seamlessly expands into the original live-action wide shot. The same pipeline was tailored to three hair types and model plates, ensuring culturally specific beauty cues for an international campaign.

Outcome

All three master films exceeded creative expectations and were delivered on schedule and under budget, enabling Sunsilk to launch simultaneously across territories with no additional shoot days required.

Credits:

AI Artist: Arthur Machado

Agency: Droga5 São Paulo

VFX: Voodoo House

(Playful AI-crafted launch film)

Project Snapshot
A vibrant spot that drops viewers straight into the magical worlds of Chingu Café, turning a delicious iced drink into a portal of day-dreamy adventure for Gen-Z across Southeast Asia.

Challenge
AsiaFoods asked Rabbithole AI Studio to create a fully AI-generated commercial that would speak fluent K-pop to a younger audience while remaining true to existing brand comms. Creative Director Blair Vermette, the legend behind the viral Adidas Floral ad, brought in Arthur Machado to lead the charge from creative concept to landing photoreal packshots, believable liquid pours and three flavour mascots without losing character or location continuity.

AI-Driven Solution
The overall look was set in Flux, then honed mascot and character fidelity in Midjourney to guarantee on-model consistency. Luma handled the close-up pour shots, Runway was used for extending the frame for a native 9:16 vertical format, while Kling, Hailuo and Hiuggsfield supplied fluid animations from real-world streets into colorful fantasy worlds. Adobe Generative Fill for fine tuning and product pack compositing; Premiere carried the edit; After Effects layered motion-graphic supers.

Outcome
The film racked up more than 280 k plays on the brand’s TikTok channel within the first 48 hours.

Tech Stack
Flux, Midjourney v6, Luma Dream Machine, Kling, Runway Gen-3, Hailuo, Hiuggsfield, Adobe Generative Fill, Premiere Pro, After Effects. 

Credits

Client: NutriAsia

Product: Chingu Cafe

AI Production Studio: Rabbithole AI

Creative Director: Blair Vermette

AI Film Director: Arthur Machado

Sound Design & Mix: Jonny Pipe

Modern-day Venice and Rio de Janeiro rarely share a frame, yet Polenghi’s new “Brasiliana” brand film opens with a vintage wooden cargo boat gliding down the Grand Canal before docking in Guanabara Bay, an impossible sequence in the reality of that production, conjured entirely through AI. The shots celebrate Polenghi’s century-old cheese heritage while underscoring the rising role of generative workflows in high-end commercial production.

Challenge

Director Rog Souza wanted a solid Venice-to-Rio establishing sequence, without the cost of overseas shoots or time for h

eavyweight VFX. The vision also had to stay open to client and agency tweaks on everything from hull details to location time period, and deliver high production value cinematography.

AI-Driven Solution

We designed an iterative generative pipeline that let the agency, director and brand adjust every detail in the images. Once those were locked-in, animation studies began generating multiple animated camera paths: overarching crane moves, aerial drifts, cutaways and transitions to live action footage were generated and previewed in context, letting Souza pick the perfect assets to blend into live-action footage.

Outcome

Scenes were delivered on schedule, with options for the edit and transitions to blend with the live action shots and no requests left unattended, successfully showcasing the historic voyage that established the Polenghi brand as one of the most traditional and beloved brands in Brazil.

Credits

AI Artist: Arthur Machado
Film Director: Rog Souza

Production Company: Tropical Film
Agency: DPZ&T

Project Snapshot

For Canopy’s Pack4Good campaign, creative studio People’s Television, with teams in New York and Washington, D.C., set out to dramatise how packaging choices impact forests through a quirky rom-com storyline featuring “Sweetfella,” a chocolate-bar hero, and Flora, a forest guardian. 

Challenge

Although People’s Television is renowned for festival-calibre documentaries like Minted, which premiered at Tribeca and now streams on Netflix, this was their first project built primarily with AI. They had narrative and motion-graphics talent in house but knew unforeseen hurdles could threaten the immovable Valentine’s deadline. To de-risk the schedule, they invited Arthur Machado to join as AI consultant, having seen previous work in the same space and knowing it would help them achieve their goals within the time constraints of the project. 

AI-Driven Solution

Drawing on prior experience with similar AI productions, Arthur mapped a pipeline flagging and bypassing likely roadblocks before they surfaced. Together with director Cutter Hodierne, the team set a clear cadence for review sessions and made astonishing progress in-between. When the biggest issue arose, keeping Sweetfella’s friendly expression and signature chocolate-shaving texture perfectly consistent, Arthur jumped on the tools himself to train a custom LoRA model.

Outcome

The campaign video launched on Valentine’s Day and headlined Canopy’s call for “forest-free” packaging, with the article praising Sweetfella and Flora’s love story as a fresh way to visualise complex supply-chain issues.

Credits

Client: Canopy Planet

Executive Producer: Nicholas Bruckman & Ryder Haske

Director & Editor: CUTTER HODIERNE

Producer: Jenny Catherall

Animator: Ivan Kander

AI Consultant: Arthur Machado

VO Artist: Meghan Hoople

Working solo, Arthur Machado scripted, storyboarded and produced the entire piece with generative tools. Crafted prompts created stylized transitions that whisk Santa between activities while keeping a coherent look and cheerful tone. 

Released on December 10, 2024, the film earned coverage from Campaign Brief and regional media, spreading seasonal goodwill while positioning Christchurch as a world-class destination. 

Credits:

Concept, Direction and Production: Arthur Machado
Distribution support: Christchurch Attractions, Paranoid Brasil, Resonate.