The Transits are an indie band working remotely between New Zealand and South Africa. With a growing global fan base, especially in Brazil, they see music videos not just as a way to reach their fans but as emotional extensions of their songs. For their new track Dancing With Shadows, they wanted a visual narrative that could express the depth and metaphor of the lyrics: a journey through darkness, emotional collapse, and the return of hope.

But producing high-end, metaphorical visuals across continents and with limited resources is a creative challenge.

The Approach

Directed by Arthur Machado (Paranoid BR), the video was built entirely using generative AI. It enabled the team to design impossible visuals: liquid shadows consuming entire environments, metaphorical spaces collapsing under emotional weight, and characters navigating surreal transitions.

The process was collaborative from the start. The band gave Arthur full creative freedom, and with Dom Antelme (frontman and ECD at Bastion Shine) involved in shaping the narrative, the project became a fusion of music, storytelling, and technology.

The Brazilian fan connection added another layer. With over 70 percent of The Transits’ engagement coming from Brazil, teaming up with a Brazilian director based in Aotearoa and backed by Paranoid BR, one of the leading production companies in Brazil, felt culturally and creatively aligned.

The Result

The final video is a poetic, visually rich film that expands the song’s emotional message through metaphor and mood. It showcases how AI, when used responsibly, can empower artists to tell bigger, bolder stories, regardless of geography or budget.

The video was featured in international music and creative media and was the subject of an interview on CNN Brazil.

(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

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

In partnership with São Paulo design studio MAAR, Arthur Machado acted as AI-artist on Nubank’s “Caixinhas” savings feature, delivering a library of brand-perfect images in record time. Forty core photographs, rendered in three formats for two product tiers, were expanded into 120 final assets, all exuding Nubank’s unmistakable purple and a sun-lit, aspirational mood. 

Project Snapshot

Nubank wanted iconography that would turn the idea of “putting money aside” into something people could feel. MAAR’s brief called for photographic visuals that looked shot on location yet could be produced fast enough to meet a looming app-update deadline.

Challenge

Each asset had to land instantly on a small mobile canvas, stay faithful to Roxinho (mass-market) and Ultravioleta (premium) sub-brands, and preserve icon clarity across three aspect ratios. All of this needed to happen without drifting from Nubank’s global brand system, anchored in its now-iconic purple palette and human-centred design language. 

AI-Driven Solution

LoRA models were trained on Nubank’s guidelines, allowing the use of generative tools to “photograph” perfectly centred objects under soft natural light, wrapped in subtle violet gradients. The healthy mix of human art direction and machine iteration meant textures, shadows and depth could be refined at speed, while LoRA kept every pixel on-brand across all 120 outputs.

Outcome

The asset pack rolled out inside the updated Nubank app without a single revision round, earning internal recognition as a benchmark for high-volume, AI-driven asset production.

Credits

Agency: MAAR.Company
Creative Direction: Fábio Simões & Pedro Burneiko.
AI Artists: Arthur Machado, Pedro Burneiko.

Project Snapshot

For GloboNews, Brazil’s flagship news channel, SantaTransmedia’s directing duo Olhos wanted to visualise a butterfly-effect chain reaction: a popcorn vendor’s small decision on an English pier ripples through corn fields, container ships and oil refineries before lifting credit purchases back in Brazil.

Challenge

The concept demanded globe-spanning imagery and cinematic transitions, yet budgets, schedules and travel logistics ruled out a traditional multi-country shoot or an all-CG approach. The AI-powered design agency MAAR, under the creative direction of Pedro Burneiko, brought in Arthur Machado as lead AI-artist to craft sequences that could sit naturally beside premium stock footage and layered motion graphics, while still giving client and agency full aesthetic control.

AI-Driven Solution

Through an iterative pipeline, stakeholders approved frame-accurate previews before animation began. The scenes in motion where then delivered as a menu of camera moves and actions, so Olhos could orchestrate rhythm in the edit. 

Outcome

The finished 30-second spot aired in GloboNews prime time, delivered on time without a single overseas shoot day. The approach has since been earmarked by all for future hybrid productions.

Credits:

Client: GloboNews

Production Company: Santa Transmedia

Director: Olhos

Design Agency: MAAR

AI Creative Director: Pedro Burneiko

AI Artist: Arthur Machado