Work / PolyAI

Agent Development Kit

A launch film written, storyboarded and animated by one person, with Claude in the room from the first line.

adk-loop.mp4
Role
Sole designer and animator. Wrote the script, generated and redrew the storyboard, animated and finished the film, designed the launch carousel and one-sheet.
With
PolyAI product marketing
Scope
Launch film, Motion, Storyboard, Collateral
Year
2026
Outcome
Launched publicly on 22 April 2026 and picked up by organic social after the product team asked to reuse it.
Agents
  • Script drafted with Claude from the product messaging document, then edited by hand.
  • A lo-fi storyboard was generated from the script and used as the animation plan, then redrawn frame by frame.
  • After Effects with Deep Glow for the finish.

Outcome

The Agent Development Kit launched on 22 April 2026 with this thirty-second film at the centre of it. The product design team called it out internally on the day, and product marketing asked to reuse it for organic social, which is usually the sign a launch asset has done its job.

The brief

ADK lets developers build PolyAI agents in code. The audience is technical and allergic to marketing. The film had to show the product doing real things, at a pace that respects a developer's attention, and still feel like a brand moment.

The launch film. Thirty seconds, 4K master, shown here at 1080p.adk-film.mp4

The process, honestly

There was no script when I started, only a messaging doc. I worked with Claude to turn that into a script that hit the points in order, then generated a rough storyboard from the script so I could see the pacing before opening After Effects. The storyboard was mostly wrong in the details, which is fine. It let me make the structural decisions early and spend the craft time on the frames that mattered. The icons were rebuilt on a baseline grid, the IDE scene became a working prototype rather than a mock, and the glow end frame turned into the launch's signature.

Storyboard generated with Claude from the script: two scenes with visual, voiceover and motion columns
The storyboard as generated from the script, before any drawing. Structure right, details wrong on purpose.adk-storyboard-generated.webp
Six final styleframes from the ADK film
The same scenes as finished frames. Everything between the two images is the work.adk-storyboard.webp

The call

Version one had the product in a browser window. Version two removed the window and let the interface float in the brand's dark field, because the thing being sold wasn't a website, it was the feeling of building. That came from watching the first draft with the product team and noticing where their eyes went.