Design 3D Character Animation & Edit

DIGI-HANCE™ — the agent that doesn't exist.

A spoof pharmaceutical commercial made to open Bracco's 2023 National Sales Meeting — selling the sales team their own digital toolkit as a miracle pill, complete with five-star testimonials, serious sales reactions and one very confident blue horse.

Apotheotik customedialabs Bracco Diagnostics · NSM 2023

Freddie the 3D horse spokesman in a Freddie Mercury pose, with the badge 'Freddie — super agent'

01 — Overview

Sell the sales team their own medicine.

Back in 2023, "agent" still meant James Bond — or the active ingredient on a drug label. So when Bracco wanted its sales force to fall for a new set of digital tools, we did the on-the-nose thing: we packaged them as a pharmaceutical agent.

The toolkit became DIGI-HANCE™ — a "digital-based agent" — pitched in the one format every pharma rep knows by heart: the drug commercial. Indications, glowing testimonials, a spokes-character with a licence to sell, a packshot with a rocket, and the obligatory wall of safety copy. Three years later, "agent" means something else entirely. Turns out we were pitching one before agents were cool. Made at customedialabs; I took the film end-to-end — 3D character build, animation and edit — with character concept and opening frames by Lila Diavati.

2:36

Final runtime

Agent that doesn't exist

5★

User testimonials

Prescriptions needed

02 — Design

A year-in-review collage that swallows a pharma ad.

The film opens as a mixed-media scrapbook of 2022 — halftone mountains, cut-out photography, a rep riding a paper rocket — until a UFO beams down 2023 in the shape of a pill. From there the visual system goes full pharma: a sunny yellow pack, macro dissolve beats, benefit callouts and starfield testimonials, all played perfectly straight.

Retro collage: a biplane towing a Bracco banner over halftone mountains, with 2022 in a gradient circle — The opening collage. 2022 as a scrapbook — cut-out photography, gradient circles and a biplane towing the client's name.

A businessman riding a paper rocket through a starfield — The year in motion. Sales wins re-told as collage vignettes.

A pink UFO beaming down the year 2023 over a giant pill — Enter 2023. The new year arrives by tractor beam — and lands as a pill.

Bold repeating kinetic typography reading GET READY — Kinetic type beats. Bold, dumb-on-purpose typography drives the transitions.

DIGI-HANCE package macro shot with pills in a blister tray — The product reveal. DIGI-HANCE™ — "digital-based agent," in a pack you'd swear you've seen in a pharmacy.

03 — 3D Character — Building Freddie

Meet Freddie — super agent.

Every miracle drug needs a spokesman. Freddie is a blue horse in an electric-blue suit — pompadour, round glasses, a grin with far too many teeth — posed after a certain Wembley showman the sales floor would recognise. From Lila Diavati's 2D concept, I built, shaded, rigged and animated him in Cinema 4D. Here's the make-of.

2D character concept turnaround of Freddie the horse — front and side views — From the page. The 2D character concept & turnaround — design by Lila Diavati.

Blocking. Finding the form in grey — proportions and silhouette before any detail.

Shading & texture. Turntable once the materials and hair were on.

Rig & motion test. First moves once he was rigged — checking he could act.

Freddie the 3D horse presenting a DIGI-HANCE pack at a desk, with the callout 'digital-based agent' — In the film. Freddie presents the product with the unearned confidence of a daytime-TV spokesman.

Freddie scanning the clouds with binoculars beside a giant 3D clock and a banner reading 'Heightened awareness, acute focus, efficiency' — Benefit theatre. Claims staged as a soft 3D dream-world of clocks and clouds.

Freddie photographing a biplane that tows a 'Bracco' banner with pixel hearts — Acting beats. Small performance moments keep the character alive between claims.

04 — Motion & Edit

Cut like an ad. Timed like a joke.

The comedy only works if the form is played straight. The film borrows the full grammar of a pharma spot — soft camera pushes, dissolve macros, benefit callouts, a triumphant packshot — and cuts it to a driving rock track so the parody lands beat by beat.

↗Two worlds, one cut. Flat collage 2D and soft-shaded 3D live in the same edit without a seam.
↗Ad grammar, replicated. Dissolve macros, molecule motifs and benefit callouts animated exactly like the real thing.
↗Testimonial beats. Real praise for the tools, restaged as five-star drug reviews under a starry sky.
↗The packshot. DIGI-HANCE™ gets the full hero treatment — rocket included. No prescription needed.
↗Timing is the punchline. Every reveal is held exactly long enough to read — and half a beat longer to laugh.

A translucent pill dissolving in macro with the callout 'informed actions'

DIGI-HANCE packshot with a rocket and the headline 'Accelerate now!'

A five-star testimonial floating in a starry night sky, watched by Freddie with a telescope

05 — The Fine Print

The fine print is the punchline.

A drug ad isn't a drug ad without the safety crawl — so the film ends with a full Important Safety Information section, written line by line in genuine regulatory voice.

"WARNING: SERIOUS SALES REACTIONS." Contraindicated for reps with a known hypersensitivity to free time. Side effects include better communication and an overall pleasant sales experience. It scrolls at real-ad speed, cites real references and closes on a real-looking compliance code — the joke committed all the way to the last frame.

A parody Important Safety Information page with Contraindications and Warnings for DIGI-HANCE — Important Safety Information. The full ISI parody — warnings, contraindications, references and all.