AI

How I’ve built AI into my workflow (and why it’s never plug-and-play)

AI has become a fixed part of how I work. Not as a replacement for craft, but as an extra tool alongside the ones I’ve used for years. Here’s a look at what that actually looks like in practice.

Telling stories that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise

What excites me most,  is being able to tell stories that would otherwise require a massive budget or an enormous amount of time. Scenes, worlds, or moments that would normally be out of reach suddenly become achievable, opening up creative possibilities that just weren’t there before.

Product visualization without a shoot

Also one of the things I use AI for most is visualizing products that simply don’t have decent stock photography available. For a large home improvement store, this means I can show products in context, in a kitchen, on a patio, in a shed, without needing a full photoshoot. That saves time, budget, and logistics.

Generating backdrops, finishing them the old way

Another application: generating backdrops. I then process these the classic way. compositing them in, matching the lighting, getting the shadows right. AI provides the canvas, but the composition and finishing remain handwork. In example, for the short film “De dag dat ik naar buiten ga” I created some of the backdrops with AI, but I always had to enhance them with fire/sparks-assets.

Pre-viz

For pre-visualization it’s become indispensable. Before a single camera turns on or a design is finalized, I can quickly show what a concept will look like. That makes conversations with clients and teams much more concrete, early in the process.

Never plug-and-play

What keeps becoming clearer to me: AI is never the finish line. Every result goes through a solid layer of old-school post-production — color correction, retouching, compositing — to actually finish it. That’s also exactly how I avoid the “AI slop” look: by keeping the human eye and craftsmanship in there, right up to the point where you can no longer tell the difference from traditional work.

AI is the tool, not the artist. It saves time where it can, and leaves room for craft where it should.