Reimagining 1Cover’s iconic yellow suitcase with AI through 3D design, animation, destination imagery and an experimental workflow.
Travel
Figma Weave
3D Render
Background
For more than 15 years, I worked with 1Cover Travel Insurance as a creative partner.
One asset I always loved was its distinctive yellow suitcase - a clever visual that combines the number “1” with an instantly recognisable symbol of travel. The original suitcase was created as a CGI image by another agency and was primarily used as a static brand asset. I always felt it had the potential to become something more.
The Idea
My original idea was simple: what if the 1Cover suitcase could travel around the world?
I imagined it rolling into recognisable destinations and becoming part of each landscape. The suitcase, the landmark and the yellow 1Cover branding would work together to create a flexible campaign across video, social media and destination pages.
At the time, producing this type of 3D animation would have required considerable time and budget. Today, AI makes it possible to explore the idea much more quickly.
I began with two assets: an image of a recognisable destination and an isolated version of the yellow suitcase. Each destination needed a landmark in the background and a suitable road or pathway in the foreground. This gave the suitcase enough space to enter from the right, move across the scene and stop in a believable position.
To establish the correct scale and perspective, I first created a rough Photoshop composition. This was particularly important when people appeared in the foreground, as the suitcase needed to feel naturally integrated into the scene.
Inside Weave
I used Weave to transform the original flat suitcase into a flexible 3D composition. This allowed me to explore different angles, adjust its depth and position it more convincingly within each environment.
The Photoshop reference worked well. The rendered suitcase appeared at the intended scale and maintained the perspective established in my original composition.
Weave also introduced subtle details that helped bring the asset to life, including realistic shading, light reflections and convincing contact between the wheels and the terrain.
The Animation Challenge
The biggest challenge was controlling the suitcase’s movement. I wanted it to enter the frame, travel across the foreground and stop at a precise position within five seconds. Early renders often stretched the movement to around eight seconds, making the animation feel slow and lacking energy. The stopping action was even more difficult. I wanted the suitcase to tilt forward slightly before settling back onto all four wheels—a subtle movement suggesting momentum and sudden braking.
Several attempts produced exaggerated tilting, unnatural wobbling or overly mechanical movement. The idea was right, but the physics lacked the subtlety needed to make it believable.
What Worked
The strongest results came from being extremely specific about timing, distance and the final stopping position. Giving the AI a clear five-second duration improved the speed and helped control where the suitcase finished. The Photoshop reference also proved valuable for locking down scale, composition and perspective before animation began.
The 3D treatment, lighting, reflections and wheel contact added a level of realism that would have been considerably harder to produce from the original flat artwork using Photoshop alone.
What Didn’t
AI still struggled with nuanced physical movement. Words such as “subtle,” “natural” and “slight” were interpreted inconsistently. The suitcase would sometimes wobble too much, tilt too far or stop too abruptly. Without a reference video, refining this movement became a process of repeated prompting and trial and error.
More experimentation would be needed to achieve the precise weight, momentum and braking motion I originally imagined.
Key Learnings
AI can quickly unlock new creative potential within an existing brand asset, but strong art direction remains essential. Reference images were highly effective for controlling composition, scale and perspective. Precise timing instructions improved the animation, while vague descriptions of physical movement produced inconsistent results.
The process reinforced the importance of combining traditional design skills with AI workflows. Photoshop helped define the composition, while Weave expanded the asset into 3D and created both animated content and polished still frames. Those final frames could then be repurposed across print, digital advertising, social content and website collateral.
Weave Workflow:
🔗Link to Workflow🔗
Where It Could Go Next
A complete campaign could follow the destinations already featured across the 1Cover website, including Bali, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, Europe, Thailand, Japan and Fiji.
Each destination page could feature its own short animation, with the yellow suitcase arriving in a recognisable local setting. Together, these moments could create a consistent campaign idea that reinforces the 1Cover brand while giving every destination its own personality.
This experiment is not about replacing the original asset. It is about exploring how AI can extend its potential, introduce movement and transform a familiar piece of brand identity into a flexible global campaign.
