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Ty, Beanie Bouncers -
Hamleys Christmas Window Display Animation
Overview
To celebrate Hamleys’ 150th anniversary, Ty commissioned a festive campaign to introduce its new Beanie Bouncers plush characters through a stylised 3D Christmas window display. The goal was to create high-energy, character-led animation that felt instantly readable, child-friendly, and aligned with Ty’s playful, collectable brand personality.
The Challenge
Create a Victorian London Christmas world featuring at least eight Beanie Bouncers characters, while delivering the full production — from concept to final renders — within an ambitious seven-week timeline.
The Approach
To move quickly without compromising quality, I built a hybrid 3D + AI workflow with AI specialist Mauricio Tonon, whom I met through the Curious Refuge AI courses. The aim was to accelerate look development and use AI-assisted colour workflows to reduce rendering time, while keeping the animation itself grounded in a traditional 3D pipeline.
Creative Concept
Set in a warm Victorian Christmas in London, the film opens over snowy rooftops, glides down to Hamleys’ glowing storefront, and follows the Beanie Bouncers as they bounce through cobbled streets spreading festive joy — before landing in children’s stockings on Christmas Eve.
The visual style balances cinematic 3D depth with toy-like softness, using snow, velvet textures, warm light, and a storybook atmosphere to create a magical, festive world.
Production Pipline
I developed the 3D clay animation first, defining the timing, camera moves, rhythm, and ball simulations that mapped each character’s motion path. While Mauricio’s team trained custom LoRAs on the selected Beanie Bouncers, we explored multiple visual directions for the overall style.
Using still frames from the clay animation as composition guides, we tested a range of looks through Midjourney style transfer. Once the final direction was approved by the client, we transferred that look across the animation using the clay sequence as a guide.
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Final Character
We used the LoRAs primarily for close-up hero shots, generating more realistic and expressive character performances with strong plush detail. For the wider shots, we used AI-generated 3D character assets with lower quality, but maintaining visual consistency. The final shots were then upscaled and composited into the finished animation.
Sprunce
Klaus
Cookie
Outcome
The final piece delivered a festive, character-driven window display that celebrated Hamleys’ milestone anniversary and introduced the Beanie Bouncers in a magical, high-impact world.
The project also proved the value of AI as a creative accelerator — particularly for R&D, look exploration, and asset development — while reinforcing the importance of strong 3D foundations for control, polish, and reliability.
Reflection
AI brought speed and creative range, but also unpredictability. Careful model training and technical expertise helped stabilise the results and make the workflow viable within a real commercial pipeline.
For me, the future lies in deeper integration — AI as a reliable creative partner inside the tools we already use, expanding imagination without replacing craft.
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