How Work Dog streamlined video creation by 70% with Layer

About Work Dog Studios

Work Dog Studios is a New York-based creative agency built for high speed + narrative driven content. Founded by Vincent Scala in 2023, the 50-person team of artists, animators, writers, and strategists delivers truly unique and modern creative campaigns.

Whether it’s AI, animation, UGC, or motion design, Work Dog uses whatever tools it takes to make work that grabs attention and drives results - always anchored in strong storytelling.

Unleashing AI the right way

We’ve all had that early experience with AI, where every generation can feel like a toss of the dice - hoping for something usable but often getting a bad roll. While the Work Dog Studios team loved the potential of AI, the inconsistency made it tough to lean on for fast-moving and demanding client projects.

With over a dozen different AI tools in rotation, they were juggling platforms that each did one thing well - but nothing that brought it all together consistently. Once the team saw how Layer combined professional generation tools in one workflow, it immediately stood out.

Example video ad for June’s Journey on iOS and Android.

Layer fit their modular approach to building creative perfectly. Whether generating campaign visuals, mock assets for a game, or designing characters for animated ad spots, Layer let the team move from idea to execution in record time. The platform became especially valuable for video - giving the team fast access to consistent character animations, alpha-channel exports, and UI-inspired visuals using models like Kling Pro, Minimax, and Veo.

“The way Layer works really feeds into our “LEGO” mentality - it lets us build modular creative pieces that our animators and artists can snap together and elevate. It’s about giving the team better building blocks, faster.”

Vincent Scala, CEO/Creative Director, Work Dog Studios

Less bark, more build: Boosting production by 70% with Layer

If you’ve ever worked for (or with) a creative agency, you know that speed is everything. Client timelines are always tight, expectations are always high, and creative direction needs to be top-tier. Layer helped Work Dog cut early-stage ideation and production time by up to 70% - turning ideas into full assets in a matter of hours, not days.

UA ad development for the popular mobile title June’s Journey

The most important part? The new AI-enhanced process isn’t just faster, it’s purposefully focused and flexible. This gives the Work Dog team real visual building blocks they can align around, react to, and elevate with polish and animation.

Speeding up concepts. Supercharging creative campaigns

One of Work Dog’s biggest wins with Layer came when a client needed a full gaming ad - for a game that didn’t exist. No existing assets, no look, no feel - just a rough concept.

Traditionally, this would’ve meant a solid week of moodboards, and visual explorations (not to mention the alignment meetings!). Instead, Work Dog used Layer to generate characters, environments, mock UI frames, and even alpha-channel animations in a single day. These assets became the foundation for a full motion trailer, giving the client a clear, visual direction in record time.

UA video ad for Love & Pies on iOS and Android.

The results? 30 - 40 hours saved per campaign, faster client alignment, and a way to create entire fictional worlds as next-generation storyboards/concepting pieces.

When generating detailed static imagery like environments or layered scenes, Work Dog takes the opposite approach from video. Instead of keeping prompts short, they go deep. For polished results, it’s all about clear and specific guidance:

•  Simple scenes = simple prompts. “Create a cozy kitchen with checkered tiles, pastel cabinets, and warm morning light.”

• Detailed scenes = detailed prompts. “Design a bakery interior with wood shelves, fresh bread, a window display, and soft ambient lighting.”

“What used to take a full week of moodboarding, style frames, and rounds of back-and-forth can now be visualized in a single day - sometimes just a few hours.”

Vincent Scala, CEO/Creative Director, Work Dog Studios

Creating complex multi-asset game scenes across 2D and Video

For one of their recent UA campaigns, Work Dog was tasked with creating video ad creatives concepts for a mock mobile game

Starting in 2D Forge, the team used models like FLUX to generate character stills of the chef in different expressions and poses, alongside kitchen-themed backgrounds and game-inspired environments. Reference images and stylistic prompts were used to match the intended tone - cartoony, exaggerated, and high-contrast for mobile UA performance.

“Create a 2D illustration of a cartoon chef character standing proudly. The chef should have a round face, rosy cheeks, a thick black mustache, and a friendly expression. He is wearing a tall white chef hat, a crisp white double-breasted chef coat with brown buttons, a red scarf around his neck, a wide brown belt, dark pants, and polished brown shoes. His left hand rests confidently on his hip while his right hand holds up a large wooden spoon. The character should be drawn in a clean, colorful, mobile game art style with soft shading and bold outlines. The background should be transparent.”

Work Dog also discovered that simple, action-focused prompts delivered the best results. Instead of overloading the model with detail, they kept instructions short and direct:

• “Animate the chef talking”

• “Animate the chef looking happy and excited”

• “Animate the chef pointing to the screen”

Mock video ad for a mobile poker title.

From there, they created placeholder logos and mock wordmarks directly in Layer to simulate real branding. These were composited into the scene UI alongside Layer-generated props like playing cards, chips, and kitchen elements. Using Layer’s video models (including Kling Pro and Minimax), they turned key image sequences into character animations with alpha channels - allowing the team to drop the animated chef directly into scenes without external compositing.

The result? A fully produced UA video ad built from scratch using only Layer-generated components - characters, backgrounds, animations, branding, and props.

“Layer’s different models let me tailor visuals to exactly what I needed - character designs, environments, UI frames - and within hours, I had built an entire world that looked and felt real.”

Vincent Scala, CEO/Creative Director, Work Dog Studios

Scaling best-in-class video production with gen-AI

Video is a core part of Work Dog’s offering - but it also comes with some of the toughest production challenges. Without solid reference assets, generating consistent character animations and backgrounds is almost always time-consuming and difficult to scale.

Layer changed that. By using leading video models like Kling Pro, Minimax, and Veo, the team gained access to consistent, stylized character animations that didn’t fall apart across frames. Features like alpha channel export meant they could instantly drop characters into mock UI, gameplay, or motion graphic scenes - no manual compositing required.

Running ahead of the pack with AI

Work Dog’s advice to other studios? Start small, stay curious, and don’t expect magic out of the box. AI tools can be a game changer for creative teams - but only if you know what you’re building.

Treat AI like a production assistant, not a replacement for human creativity. Use it to unblock ideas, prototype faster, and generate a foundation your team can build from. Learn how to prompt with clarity, not complexity. Less is more - the sharper your input, the better your output.

Choosing AI tools that actually fit your studio workflows is critical. It shouldn’t feel like “another” tool, but rather a natural piece of how your team already works together.

“AI won’t replace great studios. But great studios that use AI? They’ll replace the ones that don’t.”

Vincent Scala, CEO/Creative Director, Work Dog Studios