Adam Deer / Creative Director
Case study · In progress

AI visual system for a new social media company.

An explainer series on the systems behind the world's biggest news needed visuals for things like supply chokepoints and the hidden systems under a phone. I built a visual language, creative pipeline and prompting rules to run as standalone as possible.

Role

Creative, prompt engineer, app development

Tools

Z-Image, Qwen Image Edit, Kling, Seedance, Premiere, Next.js

Status

In progress

The challenge: High level concepts that need quick visual translation, artistry and consistency.

01

Meaning first. Style last.

Every frame got tested as plain white models before any style touched it.

ConceptMeaningMetaphorWireframeImageStyle
02

Four metaphors do most of the work.

Abstract ideas became the repeatable visual framework for episodes. The metaphor holds up across episodes, with the narrative open.

A grey seesaw on a rusted gear, a factory photo cutout on the low end and a small paper house on the high end.

Seesaw

Balance tips as one element gains more impact.

A paper-cut iceberg: a small grey peak above the waterline and a large rust-colored server room below it.

Iceberg

The concept on top hides layers underneath it.

A rusted valve on a grey pipe, with storefront photos on one side and a fan of payment cards on the other.

Valve

A chokepoint in the system.

A grey tower with a rust-colored ring orbiting it, small cutout figures of workers riding the ring.

Gravity

A central element starts pulling outside pieces in.

03

Metaphor evolution.

Going straight at the metaphor with prompting didn't work. The model couldn't grasp what the image was supposed to say. So I worked backwards: a wireframe step first, then several agentic steps built on top of it, until the results came out consistent.

  1. Early attempt: a realistic ocean with a tiny iceberg on the horizon and a city of data centers under the water.1

    Initial pass at metaphor

  2. The original iceberg wireframe: a grey box above a wavy waterline, with a pyramid of plain circles below it.2

    Wireframe.

  3. Render from the wireframe: a phone on a clear tank, white servers stacked in a pyramid, the water tinted light blue.3

    Layout held.

  4. The locked iceberg frame: paper-cut peak above the waterline, rust-colored server room below.4

    Style versioning with wireframe locked

04

Wireframe first.

Sketching the layout before any image or motion grounded everything. The model stops guessing where things go and just renders them. That's what made the metaphors repeatable.

The original iceberg wireframe: a grey box above a wavy waterline, with a pyramid of plain circles below it.
Wireframe
The same layout rendered as a pencil sketch on cream paper.
Sketch
The same layout as a photo: a phone on a block of clear blue water over dark servers.
Photo
The same layout in a dark style with green light glowing through the water.
Dark
05

Sample prompting rules.

  1. Describe the end and work backwards.
  2. Don't name what you don't want.
  3. Skip relative terms like “small” without relativizing them.
Every prompt, same six slots
FrameSubjectCameraStyleLightingConstraints

Fixed order, so someone else can pick it up and write one.

06

Styling.

Subject, seed and lighting stayed put.

SeesawIcebergValve
3D collageSeesaw in 3D collage style.Iceberg in 3D collage style.Valve in 3D collage style.
GlassSeesaw in glass style: a clear glass beam on a rusted base against a dark background.Iceberg in glass style: a crystal peak over a pyramid of glass blocks holding photos.Valve in glass style: a rusted valve glowing amber on a clear glass pipe.
Abstract spheres
07

Still to moving.

With wireframes and styles dialed in, motion was next. Each style needed its own approach: start and end frames for the collage, and a style mapped over a motion wireframe for the spheres.

Collage
Kling 3.0
Kling 4.0
Seedance 2.0
Spheres
Original
Kling
Seedance
08

Scoring

The review page: a white satellite model next to its city-covered end frame, with scoring buttons for narration, anchor, same scene and added color, and an A/B comparison against an edited version below.
09

Where it's headed.

ScriptShot listStills + motionRough cutPremiere file
Style file (swap it, get a different show)

The look lives in its own file and nowhere else. Swap that one file and the same system makes a different show.