The stack
The AI campaign stack: what makes the film and the stills
For the marketing or creative lead deciding whether to run an AI campaign in-house or hire a studio, who wants to know what each layer of the chain does and where the people time goes.
The short answer
An AI campaign runs through seven layers: the brief and the world, stills and first frames, video generation, voice and music, finishing, review, and delivery. The tools in each layer change every few months (OpenAI shut down its Sora 2 API on September 24, 2026), but the order stays fixed: the world before the frames, the frames before the motion, the motion before the edit. Ruminate X, an AI film studio in Calgary, makes brand films and AI commercials so a brand does not have to run the chain itself: every frame generated with AI, with the script, boards, edit, sound and grade done by people.
The layers
Seven layers, in the order they run
- Brief and world. The brief, the world bible, the script and the boards. Documents and a board tool; no model yet.
- Stills and first frames. Character sheets, the key visual, campaign photos and the frames each video shot starts from. An image model, and often a tool around it.
- Video generation. The motion, shot by shot, usually from approved first frames.
- Voice and music. A voiceover, a licensed or generated score, sound effects.
- Finishing. Upscaling, the edit, the sound mix and one grade across every shot.
- Review. Frame-accurate comments from the brand, legal and MLR, round by round.
- Delivery. The versions, ratios and specs each channel needs. See ad campaign deliverables.
In the Ruminate X pipeline the same order runs as brief, brand world, script and boards, generation passes, edit, sound and grade, and delivery, and you approve the brief and the shot list before a single frame is generated. The stages are on how we make an AI brand film.
Layer 2
Stills and first frames
This layer fixes the cast, the product and the look before any motion is made: a character sheet for every recurring person, the key visual, the campaign photos and the still each video shot can start from. What to check here is the face against the sheet, the product against the real one, no type in the frame, and every frame made at the ratio it will be delivered in. More on each in character consistency and first and last frames. Overs, the sister product from the same founder, works at this layer; it is covered below.
Layer 3
Video generation
Video models make clips from a few seconds up to about 15, so a 30-second commercial is many shots cut together, each generated, checked against its board and often generated again. The models change faster than campaigns do: Google moved developers to a new default video model this year, and OpenAI shut down its Sora 2 API in September, so a campaign planned on it in the spring had to move to another model to finish this autumn.
The boards, the brand world and the edit do not depend on any one model. In the Ruminate X pipeline, faces, hands and the product get the most generation passes, because that is where AI footage usually breaks, and the real logo, product and on-screen text are set in the edit from the brand's files.
Layers 4 to 6
Voice, music, finishing and review
Voice and music. A licensed voice, and music licensed or generated for every channel and territory in the media plan. The license tier sets where the ad may run, so a track cleared for paid social is not cleared for TV until the license says so.
Finishing. Upscaling where the delivery needs it, checked for halos and invented detail; then the edit, the sound mix and one grade across every shot, so frames generated days apart match on screen.
Review. Frame-accurate comments from the brand, legal and MLR, round by round, with the number of rounds fixed before work starts.
At Ruminate X this is the edit, sound and grade stage: selected takes are cut to the rhythm of the script, sound design, licensed music and voiceover are laid in, one grade pulls every shot into one film, and your notes come back as a new cut.
Terms
The terms behind every shot
Every tool in the chain comes with terms, and they differ by tool and by plan: whether the output may be used in an ad, and whether the maker may train on what is uploaded. For an unreleased product, the training terms decide where its photos can be uploaded. Every video from Google's video models also carries an invisible SynthID watermark. Platform AI labels are covered in AI video quality control. None of this is legal advice.
Who runs it
In-house or a studio
The model bill is the small part. At the prices model makers published in September 2026, the video generation for a 30-second film at 25 takes per kept shot comes to somewhere between a few hundred dollars and about a thousand. The large part is people: someone directs every shot, chooses the take worth keeping from many, fixes the product and the faces, edits, mixes and grades, and runs the review rounds. The budget template breaks that down line by line.
Every frame Ruminate X delivers is made with generative AI. There are no film crews, sets or location shoots. At Ruminate X, people write and board every film, rerun the shots where faces, hands or the product go wrong, then edit, mix and grade it. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000); the length, the number of scenes, how exactly the product must be reproduced, the versions and the review rounds move the price. A brand that needs one cinematic film to hold a product, a face and a look across dozens of shots should not have to learn the chain on its launch.
Layer 2, for brands
Where Overs comes in
The stills layer is where Overs sits. Overs is the sister product from the same founder: an AI tool that makes product and campaign photos that match a brand, without a photo shoot. It was built on the process 100creatives used to make hundreds of photos a week for hundreds of brands.
It runs on your own OpenRouter key. OpenRouter is a service that gives one account and one bill for many AI models, and requests go from your browser to OpenRouter, so Overs adds no markup to the AI. You choose the image model that makes the final photos, from Nano Banana 2 Lite at about $0.034 a photo to GPT Image 2 at about $0.21, and the planning steps always run on strong models (Gemini to look and plan, Claude Opus to write and check) for about 20 cents a run. You see the shot plan and an estimated cost before anything renders. For worn products it makes a character sheet first, and for each photo it can write a motion prompt for Seedance or Veo, the next layer in the stack. It makes no video, publishes nowhere and has no public API; you export the files.
At 8 renders per usable photo, published model prices put a usable photo at $0.27 to $1.69 in AI fees. The free plan makes 40 photos a month; Pro is $29 a month and Team $99. What bringing your own key means in practice is in Overs' guide to bring-your-own-key AI tools. Put the stills layer of your stack on your own key today; Overs at www.overs.studio starts free.
Why brands hire Ruminate X instead of building the stack
Ruminate X is built for
- A marketing lead who needs a cinematic film or commercial and has no team to board shots, judge takes and grade.
- A creative director who wants the film built on one brand world without learning a new chain of tools for one launch.
- An agency producer who needs an AI production partner for a client film.
- A pharma or pharmacy marketer whose film has to clear MLR review, with the logo and claims set from approved files.
What you get
- Every frame made with generative AI, so there is no crew, set or location day to book.
- People on every film: the script, the boards, the edit, the sound and the grade.
- Your real logo, product and on-screen text set in the edit from your brand files.
- The cutdowns and aspect ratios each channel needs, cut from the same film.
Questions buyers ask
What is an AI campaign stack?
It is the chain of tools that turns a brief into a finished campaign made with AI: something to hold the brief and the world, an image model for stills and first frames, a video model for motion, voice and music, an upscaler, an editor with sound and grade, a review tool and the delivery specs. Each layer can be swapped as models change; the order stays the same.
Which AI video model is best for commercials?
There is no single answer, and the list changes every few months as models launch, change and shut down. The test is the hardest shot in the brief, usually a face turning or a hand holding the product. Ruminate X boards every shot before anything is generated and gives faces, hands and the product the most generation passes.
What does the AI part of a campaign cost?
Less than most people expect, per unit: at the prices model makers published in September 2026, a still costs cents and a second of video less than a dollar. Most of a campaign's cost is people: directing, choosing takes, editing, mixing, grading and review. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000); the length, the number of scenes, how exactly the product must be reproduced, the versions and the review rounds move the price.
Should we build an AI stack in-house or hire a studio?
Running the stack takes people as much as tools: someone to board every shot, judge many takes per kept shot, fix faces, hands and the product, then edit, mix, grade and run the review rounds, while the models and their terms change every few months. Ruminate X, an AI film studio in Calgary, does that work for brand films and AI commercials, with every frame generated by AI and the script, boards, edit, sound and grade done by people. Ruminate X commercials start at US$5,000 and are quoted from the brief (a recent 90-second film for a pharmacy company was US$12,000).
What does a studio add on top of the tools?
The people work: writing the spot, boarding every shot, rerunning the shots where faces, hands or the product go wrong, then editing, mixing sound, grading and cutting the versions each channel needs. Every frame Ruminate X delivers is made with generative AI, with no crew, set or location shoot, and its quotes reflect that people time more than the model bill.
Skip building the chain
Send the brief, the channels and the date, and we will tell you how the film gets made.