If you’ve ever wondered where Santa goes when he’s not on the rooftops – the answer might just be above the shoppers! This year, we turned the ceiling of Printworks shopping centre, Manchester, into Santa’s festive stage.
Our immersive team partnered with Printworks to launch their 2025 Christmas campaign, using the shopping centre’s newly installed 1000m2 LED ceiling – the largest of its kind in Europe. Our friendly Santa appears at intervals, smiling and pointing at specific individuals in the crowd, creating a fun, personalised moment for guests. His sleigh races through the space, leaving magical flurries of snow; shoppers even get a glimpse into Santa’s grotto. Here’s how we made it happen.
Harnessing Hybrid Workflows for High-Impact Retail Media
Cinesite partnered with Printworks Manchester to develop a unique and engaging Christmas campaign for their immersive media space. Facing the tight budgets and rapid turnaround times typical of the retail sector, our team delivered a high-quality, humorous, and visually stunning festive experience by strategically integrating Generative AI into our existing VFX pipeline.
Challenge: Speed, Budget, and Scale
Picture © Jason Lock Photography
The Printworks brief presented a formidable challenge: we needed to achieve a quality standard typical of Cinesite, but with a significantly smaller budget and a rapid, seasonal content timeline—delivery was expected in weeks, not months. Furthermore, we had to design engaging content for a large-scale, non-standard LED environment featuring three long ceiling strips and a vertical display.
Head of Immersive Chris Fitzpatrick says, “Recognising the challenges of tight budgets and rapid timelines in retail, we have innovatively streamlined our hybrid VFX and Generative AI pipeline. This approach not only allows us to work within financial limits but also elevates the quality of our output, creating tailored, high-impact solutions.”
Solution: The Hybrid Workflow Advantage
Our solution centered on implementing a hybrid workflow, which involved leveraging the best of both traditional VFX tools and new technologies. This strategic approach was critical to meeting the client’s price point while maintaining our commitment to quality. We utilised generative AI tools to accelerate content creation and achieve financial efficiency, but the AI was always guided by our team’s creative expertise. Our artists employed their established knowledge of lighting, composition, and visual storytelling to refine the AI-generated elements, ensuring a polished, professional finish. This streamlined process resulted in high agility, allowing for rapid iteration and creative flexibility. As Project Lead Andy MacNamara noted, “Clients are paying for the expertise to make nice pictures with the tools, not just the tools themselves. The hybrid approach gives our creative sensibilities a faster route to delivery.”
Designing for the Space
The core creative goal was to move beyond flat, passive content and create an expanded, immersive canvas. To do this, we leveraged the screens to create a strong sense of 3D perspective, with the digital snow appearing to fall from a distance. To unify the separate screen panels across the long corridors, we created a continuous animation of Santa’s sleigh running the entire length of the ceilings. This animation served as a visual anchor, and as the sleigh passes, the digital snowflakes temporarily turn gold and silver for an extra festive sparkle. Crucially, we included sound effects and a musical score. A subtle auditory cue—a “ho ho ho” or jingle bells—plays right before Santa appears, effectively prompting shoppers and children to look up and engage with the screen.
Performance and Character
The campaign centered on creating a jovial, non-threatening Santa Claus character, executed in an appealing stop-motion or claymation style.
We needed to establish a look and personality for our Santa. Initially the team explored a range of approaches (below) from 2D illustration to more 3D. The client chose a look which was somewhere between the two; a mix of 2D and live action, with a jovial personality, of course!
To develop Santa’s comedic personality, the team initially used reference footage of them performing the movements. While a plan to use AI-driven video-to-video was ultimately adjusted due to challenges with minute detail (specifically hand fidelity), the reference was vital in crafting the character. Our team then animated a series of humorous, physical comedy moments—a Santa who tumbles and is perpetually getting up to funny antics—designed to maximise audience engagement and drive selfie opportunities in the central atrium.
Immersive VFX Supervisor Max Dennison explains, ” Our ‘acting’ performances were intended to emulate all the potential use cases for Santa, both on the ceilings and on the ‘Prezzo’ screen. While the original idea was to use this material to drive Video to Video, ultimately, it didn’t prove practical. However, it served another purpose which was to help drive the narrative beats. We were able to answer a lot of questions and manage the scope of what was required. I truly believe that doing this practical test was vital in helping to create a fun, humourous, character which would make people chuckle and laugh when they saw him.”
Results and Impact
The Printworks campaign successfully demonstrated how our immersive team can leverage hybrid workflows to unlock premium quality for the retail and digital out-of-home (DOOH) sectors. Our artists delivered a high-quality, custom 3D character campaign within an aggressively short timeframe. Client satisfaction was extremely high, resulting in positive feedback and virtually no revision notes on the final product. The content is purposefully designed to maximise dwell time and create a memorable, fun experience for a passive shopping audience, directly supporting Printworks Manchester goal of increased retail footfall and spending. This project clearly proves that the strategic, intelligent use of generative tools—when guided by our experienced artists—can expand creative possibilities for projects with demanding commercial constraints.
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