A bold mix of 3D, 2D, and toon styles with Spider-Verse vibes: How a Team of Artists Crafted a Stunning Metaverse Ad

When a startup approached art director Valentyn Prokopenko to create a commercial for their ambitious project—building metaverses for famous artists—they had only one requirement: it had to be truly spectacular. The result? A vibrant and visually stunning piece of art that blends 3D, 2D, and cartoon styles to push creative boundaries. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary project.

Concept and Vision

Valentyn, no stranger to assembling top-tier teams, brought together a group of talented artists for this ambitious venture. First, he approached Dima Havryliv, to co-lead the art direction. The duo sought to break away from the typical 3D render style, instead opting for an innovative mix of 3D visuals, cartoon-like elements, and 2D highlights. Their key inspirations included “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and the works of Alberto Mielgo, whose artistic style heavily influenced their creative direction.

The project’s narrative revolved around a young musician chasing his dream of performing on a grand stage. From a hurried morning to a rehearsal with his band and culminating in a daydream of performing for a massive audience, the storyline seamlessly blended relatable moments with whimsical creativity.

Bringing the Vision to Life

The visual style was the heart of the project. Using Cinema 4D and Redshift, Dima developed a unique setup leveraging an OSL shader to create a procedural material with a cartoonish appearance. This helped achieve the vibrant, hand-drawn look they were aiming for.

The team began with test renders to experiment with the visual style:

Storyboarding and Pre-Production

A storyboard brought the musician’s journey to life. Early sketches and a rough montage were created to map out the flow of the video

The pre-production phase involved assembling the right team:

• Mykola Bazarnyk, Egor Gaev, and Yaryna Bernatska joined as 3D and 2D artists, each contributing their unique expertise.
• For character animation, Valentyn turned to Tim, a talented Ukrainian animator discovered on ArtStation. Despite having only three projects in his portfolio, Tim’s potential stood out.

With tasks divided, the team began integrating additional tools like Maya, Blender, Photoshop, After Effects, and Character Creator to enhance the workflow.

Challenges and Triumphs

Creating the visuals took nearly five months, a process marked by unique challenges. As Valentyn humbly admitted, some delays stemmed from his project management inexperience. However, the team faced more significant hurdles: the active phase of production coincided with intense shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by the Russian federation, resulting in power outages that sometimes lasted up to 12 hours a day.

Despite these obstacles, the team persevered, delivering a visually stunning final product.

The Final Animation and Gameplay Elements

To align with the client’s vision, the team incorporated gameplay interface elements into the video, showcasing the potential of the metaverse platform. The final renders showcased a captivating mix of cartoon-inspired 3D visuals and dynamic animation, creating a truly immersive experience.

The team utilized real-time footage as a reference to ensure the character animations felt authentic and aligned with the dynamic storytelling. Below, we are attaching a video showcasing the real-time footage used as a reference and how it translated into the final animation.

The final result

Meet the Team

Every great project is powered by an incredible team. Here are the talented individuals who brought this project to life:

• Producer: Illia Pashkov @ipashkov
• Executive Producer: Sergey Yaburov @yaburov
• Art Directors: Valentyn Prokopenko @_paperson_, Dima Havryliv @dima_gavriliv
• CG Artists:
  • Dima Havryliv @dima_gavriliv
  • Egor Gaev @ecccmo
  • Yaryna Bernatska @yarynabernatska
  • Mykola Bazarnyk @_bazarnyk_
  • Valentyn Prokopenko @_paperson_
• Character Animator: Tim Bogomolov @animmantis
• 2D Style Artist:
  • Yaryna Bernatska @yarynabernatska
  • Egor Gaev @ecccmo
  • Mykola Bazarnyk @_bazarnyk_
• Compositor: Dima Havryliv @dima_gavriliv
• Sound Design:
  • Artur Bredo @arturbredo
  • Roma Leshchuk @roma.leshchuk

Final Thoughts

This commercial is more than just a promotional video for a metaverse startup. It’s a testament to the resilience and creativity of a team that worked under extraordinary circumstances. The result? A visual masterpiece that’s truly spectacular—just as the client envisioned.