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For my Envato, Human by Design challenge submission, I created a commercial for Dulce, a fictional soda brand. I started by defining the story I wanted to tell. Every scene was planned on paper first, from the product reveal to the way each fruit would enter the frame.
I wrote the voiceover structure, refined it with Claude, and generated multiple AI voices until I found one that matched the energy I was after.
Instead of generating finished shots, I created the environments and the product separately. That gave me complete control over composition, product placement, motion, and storytelling during editing.
The product was generated on a green background so I could composite it into each scene manually. I extracted the wordmark, vectorized it in Illustrator, and animated it in Jitter. Every transition, every product movement, every flavor title, and every timing decision was crafted by me.
For the soundtrack, I used MusicGen to generate music plus sound effects from Envato library to bring the commercial to life.
AI accelerated the process, but the creative direction, motion design, editing, compositing, pacing, and final storytelling remained my human decisions.
That's what Human by Design means to me: using AI as a creative partner, not a creative replacement.
Here's the final commercial. I'd love to hear what you think.
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Human by Design
Human by Design is a cinematic short film that explores the quiet rituals behind creative work. The film follows an editor immersed in his work as fatigue gradually sets in. At the same time, a cup of coffee is slowly taking shape, unfolding alongside his creative journey. As both processes reach completion, he pauses, picks up the coffee, and returns to his work with renewed focus.
Built using Envato stock assets as the foundation, every creative decision, from shot selection and pacing to sound design and color progression, was carefully shaped to transform individual clips into one cohesive story. The result is a reminder that while creative tools can accelerate the process, it is human judgment, intention, and taste that give the work meaning.
Credits:
Editor Footage: DC-Studio
Coffee Footage: KinoMaster, gvalia1, Tanarch, adi413114, Aretem_ka, Pressmaster
Atmospheric Footage: BlackboxGuild, KinoMaster, Artfotodima, Grey_Coast_Media
Music: Magnetic Tune
Sound Effects: Sounddogs, Hollywoodedge, Pro Sounds, Cinematic-Sound- Design, Mountainaudio, SoundJay
This is a great reminder that editing is about storytelling, not just assembling clips. Loved how the pacing and sound design tied everything together.
For this challenge, I built Hydrated: a fictional summer soft drink — carbonated, ice-cold, citrus-sharp — with a visual identity built entirely around temperature. The can runs a gradient from pale ice to deep navy, top to bottom, so the design itself feels like it's getting colder the longer you look at it. Tagline: "Stay Cool. Be Cool."
Using Envato as my toolkit, I sourced the typefaces, built the can label in Affinity Designer, and composited it onto a photorealistic mockup in Photoshop. I then used Envato's AI Video Generator — with a custom Start Frame and End Frame built from my own can mockups — to generate the hero shot: the can dropping into an ice bucket, splashing, sinking, and settling cold. Claude helped draft the ingredient list and nutrition copy, and I built a companion landing page in HTML/CSS so the brand exists somewhere real, not just in a video.
Target audience: Teens and young adults, roughly 10–28 — people who live for summer and want a drink that matches the mood: crisp, cold, a little bit of attitude.
Human by Design moment: The AI video. The first generation rotated the can in a way that mangled the label, and it took several rejected takes before one actually held up. Deciding which take was right, and which word was right, was human work from start to finish.
Thank you to Envato and Contra for putting this challenge together — for the toolkit, and for the push to make something real out of an idea instead of just thinking about it.
Stay cool. Be cool.
The Project Includes:
- The Logo
- The Can Design
- The Video
- The Website
- The BTS Video
#envato #HumanByDesign #Envato
envatochallengeCreative Design Creative DirectionCreative StrategistAdobe PhotoshopAffinity DesignerEnvato
Awesome!
Wear Your Feelings — a pop-surrealist streetwear ecosystem 🧠🔥
Standard AI gave me generic clip art.
My Human by Design moment: overriding it, mapping every detail to real psychology — handwritten letters for Grief, exploding dough for Hope, a vinyl record for Nostalgia, a "CLOSED" sign for Burnout, grenade chilis for Rage.
Started as a cookbook concept. Became a full brand — apparel, sunglasses, hot sauce packaging, campaign reels — one Envato pipeline, start to finish.
@Envato gave it a canvas. Human taste gave it a soul.
Check out the raw walkthrough video below for the exact workflow breakdown. 🎬👇
walkthrough:
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