The Labyrinth: An AI Film Pipeline Experiment
Safari Sosebee: Art Director / Principal Creative
Felix Jorge: Creative Director / Producer
Why We Did This
This is a project we did to better understand how AI impacts pre-production, treating it like an animated film and using Simon Stålenhag’s The Labyrinth as a loose reference.
The Labyrinth started as an experiment to better understand how current AI tools impact art direction and CG workflows - especially in development and pre-production, with an eye toward what holds up in production and post. We wanted to see what helps, and what’s hype.
We approached it like a live-action film project, using The Labyrinth as a loose story and visual reference rather than something to directly adapt.
How We Ran the Experiment
We ran an art department & cg worldbuilding workflow out of Unreal Engine, comparing hand-built and AI-assisted workflows.
We treated the project like a full art department and world design pipeline, with some R&D extending into production and post - covering concept, environment and character creation, previs, shot layout, animation, lighting, rendering, and compositing - while deliberately comparing hand-built and AI-assisted approaches across each stage, using Unreal as the central hub, and using AI to explore multiple visual directions.
Safari led the artwork and visual exploration, with Felix working alongside to frame the tests, critique the work, and dig into where; and why; the tools helped or didn’t.
What We Learned
It clarified where AI tools genuinely help, where they fall short, and how we might use them more responsibly in future work.
We found a few areas where AI tools had real, practical value, and many more where they over-promised. What we walked away with was clearer, hands-on understanding of where these tools actually fit across the live-action, and digital art pipeline.
More importantly, it gave us a better sense of how we might use them differently; and more responsibly; on future projects.
