Airbnb Aircover
2022
Airbnb’s new “Aircover” protection program has your backside (and money) covered during your booking experience and stay. We stepped in to help visualize memorable moments through a miniature, architectural dreamland built entirely by hand while a cast of composited CG characters revel in the joys of a stress-free vacation. Ahhh, the thought alone gives us itchy feet.
New Dog, Old Tricks
The stylized, letter-shaped houses—inspired by actual exotic Airbnb stays— were all constructed by hand.
After completing the tactile build and surrounding environment, we mixed in CG characters to give each location a habitable, lived-in feel.
A couple of our all-time favorite jobs (Share Your Gifts and Tinder) helped set the parameters for the look, albeit with a new magical twist.
Aircover: Treehouse
Dainty in the Details
Each aspect of our utopic Airbnb dreamland went through a scrupulous design process. The houses, the interiors, the characters, the changing landscapes, and the transitions all had to be unique and identifiable even at a miniature scale.
House Special, our partners and expert micro set builders, helped bring those practical little details to life. The Desert Home, for instance, features a watercolor painting of a golden retriever belonging to the CEO of Airbnb.
Aircover: Pool House
Little Folks with Familiar Tales
For each house, we created a little backstory to help bring our 3D characters to life.
A family skiing in the Alps, a multi-generation family meeting up in a Brooklyn brownstone, a couple relaxing in a tree house (the male partner doing a Zoom call wearing a shirt and tie with pink boxer shorts) in Oregon, a family enjoying a pool house in Bali, 60+ yr old friends celebrating a birthday in Joshua Tree, a couple and child coming back to their geodome after a hike in Chile, and a couple enjoying a sunset from a cottage in the South of France.
We wanted the viewer to feel like they went around the world in a day.
To achieve this, we carefully crafted the lighting to begin with a sunrise, following the sun’s journey through morning and afternoon, and ending with a sunset over an idyllic landscape.
The landscapes also needed to reflect the design of each home, but a problem quickly surfaced: the kerning (the space between the letters) of the “Aircover” logo was tight, meaning there was never enough negative space around each house for the viewer to fully enjoy the environment.
So we made two sets — one with a very wide kerning so we could beef up our landscapes and zoom tighter into the details, and another for the opening shot and end tag that compressed the homes and their surroundings from a more panoramic perspective.
Miniature Home Homies
The stars really aligned on this project. Airbnb gave us the space and creative latitude to develop our miniature world from the ground up, and House Special felt very much on home turf with us as we translated our designs into the building process.
Their flare for set construction and ability to quickly course correct with last-minute creative changes on a tight schedule was a dream come true.
We’d cop the cleaning fee for either of them any day—big love!
BUCK
Group Creative Director
Joe Mullen
Creative Director
Marcelo Garcia
Global Executive Producer
Nick Carmen
Executive Producer
Kirsten Collabolletta
Head of Production - Live Action
Trish Rigby
Senior Producer
Fernanda Garcia Lopez
Producer
Alex DeSanto
Fernanda Garcia Lopez
Production Coordinator
Christine Choi
Kyjahana Irizarry
Leeann Sands
Global Head of Design
Brian Won
Head of Design - LA
Kenesha Sneed
Steve Day
Art Directors
Jacob Myrick
Zack Williams
Concept Art
Arron Ingold
Conor Smith
Dan Muangprasert
Jack Usephot
Jong Lee
Joshua Harvey
Monica Grue
Sol Lee
Tuo Kan
Vanessa Cheung
Character Design
Amelia Chen
Grace Park
Gunnar Pettersson
Hanna No
Jacob Myrick
Jamiel Law
Production Design
Alex Kiesling
Freya Yeh
Heewon Kim
Joao Lavieri
Jose Flores
Kuu Chen
Kyle Strope
Mike Ellis
Tom Moore
Vicki Liu
Zack Williams
Storyboard
Shelby Chan
Global Head of 3D
Doug Wilkinson
Head of 3D - LA
Alex Dingfelder
VFX Supervisor
Marc Steinberg
3D Supervisors
Alex Dingfelder
Marc Steinberg
3D Lead
Kien Hoang
Rigging Supervisor
Ernesto Ruiz Velasco
Rigging
Ernesto Ruiz Velasco
Hernan Ares
Jing Huang
Jordan Levitt
Juan Carlos Barraza Mendoza
Modeling
Alex Liki
Chloe Tu
Eugene Goryachev
Fernando Ruiz
Hernan Ares
Irmak Semiz
Jing Huang
Kat Smith
Kien Hoang
Peter Sandeman
Look Development
Chloe Tu
Eugene Goryachev
Kien Hoang
Rui Huang
Tina Chao
Lighting TD
Jens Lindgren
Lighting
Chloe Tu
Kien Hoang
Lead Compositor
Sam Smith
Compositing
Chloe Tu
Chuong Vu
Dave Chen
Fiona Lu
Joshua Studebaker
Justin Wilcott
Kien Hoang
3D Animation Director
Alessandro Ceglia
3D Animation Lead
Tyler Lancaster
3D Animation
Alessandro Ceglia
Cesar Tafoya
Elizabeth Golan
Hillary McCarthy
John Fielding
Josh Baum
Peter DeSalvo
Teri Shellen
FX Artist
Carlos Moran Villanueva
R&D
Jens Lindgren
Global Head of 2D
Daniel Coutinho
Head of 2D - LA
Peter Kallstrom
2D Animation
Angelica Fernandez
Esteban Esquivo
Fabian Morison
Filipe Consoni
Lisa Kim
Peter Kallstrom
Rafael Araujo
Zackary Miller
Global Head of Post Production
Paal Rui
Colorist
Marc Steinberg
Editors
Billy Kostka
Dave Conte
Heather Bartholomae
Fabrication
Animation Production
HouseSpecial
Director
Gee Staughton
Creative Director
Kirk Kelley
Executive Producer
Lourri Hammack
Senior Producer
Karly Richter
DP
John Nolan
Technical Designer
Chris Herndon
Matt Cross
Spirit Birks
Graphics
Dominick Carachilo
Head of Sets Department
Chris Herndon
Fabrication Lead
Morgan Muta
Rachel Schmerge
Prop Fabricator
Anna Glanton
Arwen King
Greg Fosmire
Ilan Schraer
Joe Schmidt
Katie Mello
Kevin Shaw
Margaret Meyer
Max Shepard
Nina Lee
Suzanne Moulton
Yuna Cheong
Set Fabricator
Charles Daniels
Emily Neilson
Greg Fosmire
Sarah Wells-Lamont
Solomon Burbridge
Timothy Finlayson
Will Martin
Motion Control
John Livingston
Swing/ Electric/ Grip
Clay Connally
Russ Eaton
Wrangler
Charles Daniels
Set Dresser
Emily Neilson
Morgan Muta
BTS Videographer
Silas Bell
Production Liaison
Alix Iverson
Production Coordinator
Brooke Burgess
Sara Coleman
Production Assistant
Aaron McAdam
Christopher Reed
Megan Bina
Facilities Coordinator
John Averill
Media Tech Support
Josh Macy
