USHERING IN A NEW WAVE OF PRODUCTION FOR TABLETOP LIQUID SHOOTS
To create 4x spots each featuring a fantastical “maroon” Mr. Pibb world, we leveraged an AI-led creative pipeline to allow us to rapidly produce visuals/motion and most importantly, deliver on thirst-queenching condensation and liquid details.
THE CREATIVE BRIEF:
After a 24 year hiatus, Coca-Cola brought back Mr. Pibb. The cherry soda is back! XO tasked Tool to execute a bold rebrand that spoke to the nostalgic fanbase while creating impact with a new one.
FUEL THE CULTURE
Mr. Pibb needed to find its way back to gameday. The media was aimed directly at gamers, football fans, night owls, & content creators.
THE CREATIVE
We started with attitude, energy, and the new visual branding of Mr. Pibb. We utilized AI toolsets to generate environments, which was particularly useful to turn multiple iterations quickly to find what details felt authentic.
INSURING CAN AUTHENTICITY
In the past, one of the biggest issues with AI was being able to re-create a product 1:1. With advancements in AI, we took an “in context” approach that allowed us to achieve this. Mr. Pibb has a new can to showcase its new attitude, we did a simple shoot of the can so we could use this as reference and ingest into our AI pipeline. This allowed us to generate the surrounding details with limitless creative possibilities.
DYNAMIC FLUIDS
As always with beverages, it must look tasty, bubbly, refreshing, and stand out from the multitude of options on the market. Using principles of fluid dynamics and emerging animation tools, to deliver the ultimate refreshment cues. Condensation, water droplets on the can, not to mention cold water vapor from our cooler. Playful ice cherries move about the glass and refract the burgundy and caramel colors in the beverage.
Our team blended the precision of Photoshop with the creative power of generative imagery to achieve the most refined and expressive visuals. This hybrid approach allowed us to control every detail — from the exact amount of condensation on the can to the width and behavior of the liquid spray during the pour.
When the brief required animating eyes on the can, our AI team first produced a clean plate. Then our CG artists stepped in to add frost, animate the eyes, and integrate everything seamlessly, treating the sequence with full VFX craftsmanship.
AI-LED CREATIVE PIPELINE
Live-action cans, AI environments and elements, VFX compositing, color correction, and VO from Roy Wood Jr. makes that bold hit. By embracing technology as well as traditional techniques, Mr Pibb both speaks to the moment while giving a nod to its past while emphasizing the bold impact.
POST PRODUCTION
Post production allowed us to take our AI generated visuals and bring them from 90 to 100%. We use color grading and compositing to help give us the fine details required to deliver on the spots.
