Microsoft Beach House

Cannes Lions unites creative minds from around the world every year for a week of celebration, exploration, learning, and networking. This year's festival recognizes the explosion of Artificial Intelligence as a powerful tool for unleashing creativity and human ingenuity.

It's time to play!

Microsoft believes the true power of AI lies in your hands, your prompts, your curation, your unique style. This year's challenge is to create a beautiful sea creature using Bing Image Creator. Choose from a starfish, a nudibranch, or an octopus. 50 out of 2,000 submissions will be displayed at Microsoft's Beach House at Cannes.

Concept and direction

I was honored that Microsoft chose my Nudibranch, Zee, to be displayed at Cannes 70. My nudibranch is inspired by Disney Pixar, specifically Toy Story. I've always been a huge fan of the heartfelt story and emotional depth, and connection we feel to each character.

I wanted to create a story that was close to home. A story of friendship and discovery. As I reflected on the past few years, I realized moving to California just before the pandemic made me feel quite homesick, lost and alone. I reached out to those closest to me that were thousands of miles away for support. It all starts with acknowledging emotions and accepting them. One friend told me a good quote "worry belongs to tomorrow, regret belongs to yesterday, happiness is here and now."

I have created three Nudibranch's called Zee, Penelope and Mort. They're best friends supporting each other through their wild adventures.

Prompt structure

I structured my prompts with the subject noun "Nudibranch" and the style modifiers "3D render" and "animation character". I experimented with different sets of descriptors that establish the relationship between elements, characteristics, environment, and formatting. Keywords such as "natural light, dream-like atmosphere, warm, centered" generated better results. Below are some of my creations.