THE GOAL
X-Men For Boss Pro is a premium, dermatologically tested deodorant for men with advanced technology like anti-perspirant, anti-yellow stain, and anti-bacterial protection. The main goal of the campaign was to promote its features, so the agency came up with the big idea: Every step in life is a major decision, and the boss (the gentleman) needs a scent that keeps him proactive and decisive.
With the creative direction, the agency developed the visual treatment based around the chessboard, metaphorically presenting the game of life, where every step needs a careful decision and consistent form. Our team's objective was to materialize those assets and the draft storyboard into the final video to be used as an iTVC across various formats on social media.
THE CHALLENGE
From the creative brief and rough draft storyboard provided by the agency, our team's goal was to finalize the iTVC—from producing all the assets (boss talent, ambiance, props, etc.) to refining the storyboard and handling video generation. Maintaining the key action across both formats—horizontal and vertical (for social media)—was also a challenging task.
Consistency is key when working with generative AI, so we had to ensure the boss’s appearance (for example: consistent skin tone and detail, facial expressions, etc.) and the products remained consistent throughout the video. While the project's main approach was generative AI, there were a lot of aspects we had to tackle manually through digital imaging and motion graphics rather than relying solely on AI, because we wanted as much total control over the outcome as possible.
THE EXECUTION
We listed down the assets throughout the video from the draft storyboard provided. Using generative AI and digital imaging, we enhanced and finalized those assets. For the talent, we arranged a photoshoot to capture his body proportions and facial expressions, then used those photos as data to train the generative AI for consistency.
After all the assets were validated, we finalized the storyboard based on the draft storyboard the agency did initially. Even though all the frames were generated by AI, there was a lot of manual work refining each individual frame in digital imaging to achieve consistency throughout the video. The talent's skin tone, facial expressions, and product labels were key points we had to focus heavily on. While enhancing the storyboard, we also had to conceptualize and prepare how the action (camera, talent’s movement, etc.) would pan out.
After all the assets were validated, we finalized the storyboard based on the draft storyboard the agency did initially. Even though all the frames were generated by AI, there was a lot of manual work refining each individual frame in digital imaging to achieve consistency throughout the video. The talent's skin tone, facial expressions, and product labels were key points we had to focus heavily on. While enhancing the storyboard, we also had to conceptualize and prepare how the action (camera, talent’s movement, etc.) would pan out.
There were quite a lot of decisions made along the way to help pivot the creative treatment and improve the outcome while maintaining consistency.
You can view the the generative AI workspace at Figma Weave here.
Once the master 16:9 format was validated, we still had to adapt it to a vertical format for social media. With advancements in generative AI, we could resize it while still keeping consistency: the same action, expression, composition, etc.
POST-MORTEM
This was the first full-scale generative AI project we had the chance to participate in, and we learned how to move from a prompt-based approach to structured control: using ControlNet Canny maps, digital imaging for highly detailed scenes, and constructing prompts to achieve natural action rather than using start and end frames.
Aesthetic coherence was mostly controlled and cleaned up manually—specifically addressing lighting shifts, fixing artifacts, and transitions between scenes.
CREDITS
Clients: X-Men For Boss
Agency: ZEE
Production House: Rimagine Studio
Executive Producer: Tung Dao
Storyboard: Hai Nguyen, Hac Tam, Phuoc Nguyen
Video Production: Hai Nguyen, Hac Tam
Editing & Compositing: Hai Nguyen
Photography: Nhat Le
Account: Ho Anh
*All writing is my own - no AI used.