Quick experiment 02 · Ad
Alora Velvet Rose
One candle recipe, two scents. A hero still, a 15 second ad for social, and a swap that changed the ingredients and kept the look.
6 hrs
start to finish
10
rounds to the hero still
$58
in API generation for the ad and the swap (USD)
2
scents, one recipe
Overview
A product editorial look for a candle brand I made up. It became a hero still, a 15 second vertical ad for social, and an 8 second scent swap. The swap is the part I'm proudest of. I changed the ingredients, kept everything else, and the look held.
This was a quick experiment, about 6 hours from start to finish. It isn't meant to be perfect, and you'll spot a few AI flaws along the way. I wanted to see how far I could get in a short time. I directed. Claude acted as producer and ran the video generation through my Leonardo API. Costs below only cover generations Claude ran through the API.
01 · The brief
The product sits on its own story
I wanted to see if an AI product shot could hold up next to real photography. For this look I pictured a small maker who wants their product to look like a campaign.
The idea it hangs on: the product sits on the material of its own story. Velvet Rose sits on a rose, and the petals look like velvet. Swap the product and its own ingredients step in.
15s social ad · 9:16
8s Wild Moss swap · 1:1
The Velvet Rose ad and the Wild Moss swap. Turn the sound on for the pour and the match strike.
02 · The numbers
What it took
Time
About 6 hours, mostly 1 to 3 Sept
Generation cost
About $45 for the ad (keyframes, three film runs, music options). About $13 for the Wild Moss swap
Stills
Hero: 10 rounds to final. Ad: 22 keyframe options generated, 6 moments used. Swap: 2 options, 1 used
Clips
Ad: 3 runs, 1 used. Swap: 2 versions, 1 used
Music
4 cues generated, 1 used (warm felt piano)
Models
Seedream 5.0 Pro, Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image 2, Seedance 2.5, Leonardo music
Generation cost is what the Leonardo API charged for the runs Claude made. It doesn't include my own time or the stills I made in the Leonardo app.
03 · How it was made
Five steps, from a borrowed logo to a second scent
1
Brand and references
I needed a brand, so I searched Canva Elements and found the Alora logo. It isn't a candle company. I added a slogan to make it read as one. My references were a perfume bottle on roses and a gin bottle on velvet.
2
The hero still, in 10 rounds
I worked with the Leonardo agent. The rose first came out huge, because the model thought it had to hold the candle up. Asking for a smaller rose didn't help. Asking for the candle to hover and barely touch it did.
A lot of the other rounds were me being picky about the background. I didn't like the glow around the candle, so I pushed it to a dark red gradient. When I asked for motion blur, the agent added extra roses, so I took it back to the composition I'd approved.
All that editing made the product soft. So I put the original product back in with Seedream 5.0 Pro, then used Nano Banana Pro to remove extra wicks and make the petals feel like velvet.
3
Stills first for the ad
I gave Claude the story in plain words: a petal falls, wax pours, a thumb presses the dent into the clay, a stamp, a match. Hook at the start, logo at the end. Claude wrote the shot list and made the keyframes through the API.
I caught three problems before any video was made. The logo was on the vessel before it was even shaped, so we added a stamp moment. The workshop shots came out bright and cheerful, so they went back to dark velvet red. The stamp kept coming out tiny, so we framed it pressed flat over its own mark.
Before · stamp too small, workshop too bright
After · pressed flat, back in the dark
The stamp fix. Once the stamp covers its own mark, the size can't look wrong.
4
The film
The first run came back with the camera standing still. I'd described every shot and every sound, and never what the camera does. An edit pass didn't change anything, so we regenerated with the camera moving in every shot. Then I picked the music from four options.
5
The swap
Same formula, new scent: roses became moss, lichen and fern. I asked for a slow orbit with the light moving, so the pressed ALORA logo shows up as the light passes over it.
Velvet Rose
Wild Moss
Same recipe, different scent. Only the ingredients changed.
04 · Looking back
What worked, and what I'd change
What worked
Writing the formula down worked. Product, its ingredient, one warm light, gradient background. Once that existed, the second scent took one still.
What I'd change
Next time I'd direct the camera from the first draft. That one gap cost a full film run.
Frames from the ad, hook to logo.
Credits
Made with
Images and video made with the Leonardo API and the Leonardo app. Claude as producer. Logo from Canva Elements.
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© 2026 Phyo Thu · @phyofox
Wellington, NZ