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Human by Design — Final Update
A final update on my Envato Challenge submission: a new video for my Tea Pâtisserie & Flower House brand, and the two "Human by Design" moments behind it.
Texture & warmth: (AI-generated face on the left, my edit on the right) The AI output was clean — too clean. Too smooth, too "perfect," missing the warmth I wanted for a romantic, handcrafted brand. So I stepped in: warmer lighting, added texture and grain, turning a polished AI output into something tactile and human-made.
The eyes don't lie: (two robotic AI takes vs. the final expression) For this new video, character consistency was flawless — but the gaze wasn't. Every take had that flat, robotic stare no amount of polish can fix. I kept rewriting the prompt, take after take, trying to guide the AI toward an expression that felt alive rather than rendered — until I got one where the gaze finally felt real.
AI can nail the character. It takes a human eye to know when it's not looking back.
Want to see the full project? Head to my profile — you'll find the complete brand identity video (logo, full brand explanation) and the behind-the-scenes video too.
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For my #EnvatoChallenge I made a social reel called People.
Every stranger you pass is living a life as full and complicated as your own.
You just never get to see it.
That was the whole starting point. You catch a half-second of someone and your brain files them as an extra in your movie, while they're the main character of theirs, with a whole thing going on you'll never know about.
So I tried to make something that sits in that feeling.
No story line, but just a reminder that everyone's got one.
I used Envato for music, images and videos starting with stock images that I got inspired by and used as references and to expand ideas from those.
I believe the main human by design call I had to make was not only the final edit, but prompting for "imperfect" generations.
AI is trained to give the perfect image every time, centered angles, equal proportions, bright colors. I tried the complete opposite while still trying to make it look like a complete social reel.
envatochallengeaivideocreativeproductionAI Video ProductionVideo EditingVideo ProductionDaVinci ResolveEnvato
For the Envato Design Challenge, I created Sol & Snow, a completely visual identity for a fictional brand that doesn't exist yet; nestled in the Canadian mountains. A premium cold plunge and sauna wellness experience, inspired by the contrast between warmth and cold. My project includes a complete brand system, art direction, environmental storytelling, social campaigns, packaging, and moody touch points. Really focus on feeling for this one.
Enjoyed not having a workflow challenge but being tasked to make something functional.
I used Envato to generate the brand identity and Figma to glue it all together. Let me know what you think!
Great project! It's motivating to see the creativity in this community. Thanks for sharing your process and bringing your idea to life.
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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