Rust-Oleum's new paint job

To re-launch Rust-Oleum’s Colour Spark paint collection, Toronto-based agency AndSo adopted an unconventional approach. 

Rust-Oleum has just 11 colours, chosen by experts, so because some rival brands have up to 4,000 colour choices, AndSo’s idea was simple; these aren’t just good colours, these are the greatest colours of all time. To prove it, the campaign examined the world’s most famous art works and carefully matched the paint colours to ultra-specific sections of those iconic paintings.

They combined AI-generated backgrounds with live actors shot entirely on green screen, then composited the footage with CGI enhancements to create the new work. Post production added natural lighting, background reflections and environmental textures, with frame-by-frame attention to detail. 

“Most DIY spots showcase earnest couples standing back to admire a job well done,” said Jake Bogoch, AndSo's Creative Director. “We came up with a totally different idea, but the budget and locations were impossible. So we had to try something completely new. We used AI not because we wanted to, but because we had to.”

Produced through The Deli, the 30-second spot uses AI-generated environments instead of a traditional shoot, with the team effectively “stealing” access to grand museums that would’ve been otherwise off-limits due to cost, logistics or permitting. “The story called for a wide range of global locations — places the production never actually visited,” said Cynthia Heyd, Executive Producer at The Deli. “So, before even solidifying our shoot, our first call was to Tantrum, who are so good at VFX, and [who] created this new process with AI."

“This was an exciting project to create, but using AI tools in full production came with its challenges,” says Dominik Bochenski, Creative Director at Tantrum. “There’s a misconception that with AI, you just type in a few prompts and out comes fully polished footage. That’s simply not the case. It never emerges exactly right, and it comes with technical issues. Achieving the right result takes many iterations, retouching, upscaling and numerous other steps before you arrive at something truly convincing.”