EDINBURGH, UK – Eyebolls (eyebolls.com) recently completed work on a hybrid commercial for Magic: The Gathering that introduced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the franchise. The spot combines live-action and animation, and brings the characters into the franchise as part of Wizards of the Coast’s Universes Beyond crossover strategy. The final film premiered during the Mutant Mayhem Regal Cinema event in March, with a :30 cut running in theatres ahead of screenings.
Directed by Phil Hawkins (Robin and the Hoods, Prancer: A Christmas Tale, It Lies Within), with animation direction from Tony Cervone (Space Jam, Looney Tunes, Scoob!), the project saw Eyebolls act as the single creative and production partner across live-action, animation and visual effects. The studio assembled a team around the brief, overseeing the work, from early creative development and live-action production through animation and final integration.
“At its core, it’s traditional animation,” notes Cervone. “Absolutely hand-drawn characters integrated into a live-action world. Making it believable meant focusing completely on that integration. Every choice was designed to support it. When an animated character truly interacts with live-action, you start believing it immediately. The goal wasn’t just for the animation to fit in, but to elevate everything around it.”
That approach shaped the production from the earliest stages. Eyebolls unified all aspects of the live-action shoot, from securing talent, locations and set design, through to cinematography. The performances and lighting were all planned around how the Turtles would exist in the Wizards of the Coast world. Camera moves and framing were carefully designed to anticipate the rhythm and physicality of the animated characters who would later share the screen.
“We were brought in early, which gave us time to test different approaches and figure out how to make the 2D animation sit naturally inside live-action,” explains VFX supervisor Dan Bull. “The brief was clear: keep the integrity and charm of the 2D style, but integrate it convincingly into the filmed environment.”
To support that integration, the team treated the hand-drawn animation as 2.5D, giving the characters a sense of volume and depth within the live-action space.
“You’re essentially taking a flat image and asking it to behave like a 3D object,” Bull explains. “There’s no real geometry there, so a big part of the process was running tests and finding smart ways to fake that depth while preserving the original 2D look.”
The team also developed a procedural relighting approach in compositing, using matte-based light passes to shape highlights and shadows across the hand-drawn characters, ensuring the lighting matched the practical environment and enhanced the illusion of depth.
With two globally recognized properties involved, the integration had to satisfy not just the client, but the fans who know both worlds.
“Everyone at Wizards was very protective of the vision,” says Eyebolls co-founder and producer Rhona Drummond “Our role was to bring that IP into a live-action environment in a way that felt natural, while still delivering a strong commercial piece.”