A landscape of hand-built miniature houses (inspired by real Airbnb properties) and their CG occupants come to highly-detailed life in this spot crafted by Buck and House Special for Airbnb’s AirCover travel protection.

From the team at Buck LA: “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.

“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.
 

“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 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 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 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.

“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.”
 

 
Client: Airbnb

Production: 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

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