Clown Time Burger | CGI & Photography Case Study | Dale May | New York
CLOWN TIME BURGER
Services: Concept Development, Art Direction, Studio Photography, Photorealistic CGI Environment Creation, AI Enhancement, Compositing & Post-Production | 2025
THE CONCEPT
"When we were kids, we swore the clown ride came to life, chasing down kids who spilled a milkshake or wiped their boogers on it. Most of our friends are gone but traditions die hard."
That was the seed of this project. A free-spirited woman who never left the city, who still measures time by the rituals that shaped her. Before every heavy metal show at the local club, she and her friend would meet at Clown Time Burger for dinner and a milkshake. The world moved on. She didn't need it to. The nostalgia is still strong with her, and so is the clown ride.
THE CHALLENGE
The location existed only in my mind, and it needed to stay that way. A burger joint with just the right amount of warmth and playful wrongness, neon signs, a deliberately creepy kids' coin ride out front, and a choking clown poster on the kitchen wall. Nothing like it exists in the real world, and even if it did, I wouldn't have found it on this budget.
The wardrobe presented its own constraints. Marissa had solid options to work with but a few key pieces I had in mind were too specific and too time-sensitive to source traditionally. The concept required a hand-braided and beaded tank top that simply wasn't available. It would have to be created another way.
The challenge was to build an entire world, a brand, a location, a character's history, out of CGI, AI, and a single studio shoot.
THE APPROACH
Reconnecting With the Right Subject
I originally photographed Marisa back in 2009 and reconnected with her on Instagram while searching for the right faces for new concepts. When I walked her through the Clown Time Burger idea, the first thing I needed to confirm was that she didn't have a clown phobia. She didn't. We set a date, discussed wardrobe, and planned a few additional concepts to shoot the same day. That last part matters: because location changes happen in post with my hybrid method, I have significantly more time on set to experiment and move between concepts without losing hours to travel or setup.
Building the Brand from Scratch
Before anything was shot, I designed Clown Time Burger as a complete fictional brand. It started with a logo. I sketched a few rough concepts, used AI to render them out, and combined the strongest elements in Photoshop to arrive at the final version. That logo became the neon sign.
From there, I designed the kids' coin ride, deliberately and unapologetically creepy. I used AI to generate the 2D design, then converted it into a 3D mesh using AI, which I brought into my 3D software to refine the textures and add detail. The mesh itself was clean and accurate, saving an enormous amount of time compared to sculpting from scratch. For the interior, I used AI to design a custom choking clown poster for the kitchen wall. I genuinely enjoyed building this place. Every detail was a choice.
To achieve the most realistic final results I used photogrammetry, custom modelling and photographic textures, rendered the scene in Blender 3D in Cycles Render Engine and final compositing with blue screen photography.
On Set
Marissa shot in a denim skirt, sneakers, and a top that was always going to be replaced in post. Using AI, I transformed it into a hand-braided and beaded tank top and added a lucky rabbit's foot to complete the look. These are the kinds of small details I love most, touches that people might not register on first glance but reward anyone who takes the time to look. The details are where the story lives.
Lighting by Design
For the key outdoor image, I wanted Marissa lit by direct sun while most of the surrounding environment sat in shadow, a specific and unforgiving combination to chase on a real location. Weather, cloud cover, and the time of day all work against you when you're waiting on natural light with talent on set. With a CGI environment, the sun is exactly where I put it, every time.
Post-Production
Final selects were siloed in Photoshop and placed into the 3D environment as image planes, with the CGI world built and lit around them to match the studio shoot. AI was used selectively throughout, for logo design, prop creation, wardrobe refinement, and background elements, but the photography, the directing, the environment design, and the creative vision are mine. AI accelerates specific parts of the process. It doesn't author the work.
THE RESULT
Clown Time Burger exists now. It has a logo, a neon sign, a coin ride with a history, and a regular who's been coming since before you were old enough to order for yourself. None of it was built on a stage or sourced from a prop house. All of it was built in post, from sketches, from CGI, and from a single studio shoot with the right subject.
This is what the hybrid method makes possible: complete creative authorship over every element in the frame, at a fraction of the cost and time of a traditional production. For advertising clients, that means faster concept validation, tighter creative control, and the ability to build any world a campaign requires, whether it exists or not.
CREDITS
Photography, CGI, Art Direction & Post-Production: Dale May
Agent: WSWcreative
Model: Marisa Stashenko
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