AI didn't arrive to replace the VFX pipeline. It arrived to speed it up, and that changes how we shoot from day one of pre-production.

For years, building a believable background meant weeks of matte painting, 3D modeling or an expensive location. Today at FEELS, much of that work starts with generative tools and ends in the hands of compositors who decide what stays and what goes. The result: more iteration, less downtime and more room for the idea.

In this article we look at what's changing on set, where AI fits into post-production, and how we applied it on a recent project for PEPSI.

Shooting with AI in mind

If the background is going to be built later, the shoot has to leave everything ready for that build to be believable. That has changed several practices on set:

• Green screen and neutral backgrounds with more intent. We no longer light just for a clean key, but so the light on the talent matches the world that will be generated.

• Light and camera references for every shot. Reference photos, HDRIs, lens data, camera height and angle. That information feeds the prompts and the integration tools.

• Tracking planned from the set. Markers and camera moves planned so the generated background follows the shot without sliding.

• AI previs before shooting. We generate the environments in pre-production, so the director and the client see the final world before a single light is switched on.

The logic is simple: what's shot well integrates well. AI doesn't fix a badly lit shot; it exposes it.

The traditional pipeline, with AI inside

We didn't throw out the classic VFX pipeline. We added AI to the stages where the most time went into repetitive tasks or visual exploration:

1. Look development. We explore dozens of art directions for the same environment in hours, not weeks.

2. Background building. We generate photorealistic environments from the shoot references, then adjust them for perspective, scale and depth.

3. Integration assistance. Assisted rotoscoping, set extension, relighting and color matching between talent and background.

4. Final compositing. This is where the compositor leads: layers, depth of field, grain, aberrations and everything that makes a shot feel filmed.

5. Upscaling and finishing. We bring the generated elements up to the resolution and quality an advertising piece demands.

AI speeds up almost the entire process, but final compositing is still craft.

Case study: FEELS x PEPSI

For PEPSI we made a spot starring Vozinha, with many changes of location and environment throughout the piece. We solved it with a hybrid model: a controlled shoot, AI-generated backgrounds and final integration done by hand by our compositing team.

The challenge was to take Vozinha through several different worlds without moving the production to each one. Shooting all those locations physically wasn't viable in time or budget. The key was planning post before the shoot: we defined each environment, its lighting and its camera in pre-production, and shot every frame with the background it would receive in mind.

On that foundation, AI did the heavy lifting in background generation: each environment was built from the set's light and camera references. We also used it as an integration assistant, for keying, set extension and light adjustments, so Vozinha, the product and each environment felt part of the same shot. Then everything went through traditional compositing to deliver the detail a brand like PEPSI demands.

What the project gave us:

• Many different environments in a single spot, without moving production to each location.

• Post planning that shaped the shoot, not the other way around.

• More exploration of visual options with the client before locking the look.

• More of the team's time spent on finishing rather than repetitive tasks.

What AI doesn't replace

AI generates options; judgment decides which one works. A background can look spectacular and still be wrong: the light comes from the wrong side, the scale is off, or it simply doesn't tell the story the brand needs.

That's why at FEELS, AI is one more tool in the pipeline, not the pipeline. Art direction, the compositor's eye and an understanding of the brand are still what separate a generated image from a piece that works.

Ideas in motion, now with more tools

Shoot better to integrate better, and use AI where it really adds value: that's how we're doing Hybrid VFX at FEELS. If you have a project that needs big worlds on real-world timelines, let's talk.