07/23/2026
Anthem Republic came to us with an owl WISEcode had created using AI, a flat illustration with the right concept but not yet the structure needed to function as a real character. WISEcode had a clear vision for what this owl could be. Our job was to help get it there: refining the proportions, tightening the construction, and building in enough personality to carry an entire product experience.
That took several rounds of exploration. We pushed the shapes, adjusted line weight, tested expressions, and refined the shading until the owl stopped looking like a single image and started feeling like a character, something that could move, react, and hold up at any size. 🦉
Once the design was locked, WISEcode needed it to do more than sit still. The brief called for three states, a blue owl as the default, plus green and red variations triggered by what the app scans. Green means a good product, red means watch out. The owl needed to deliver that message instantly, like a traffic light with a personality behind it.
To bring that to life, we rigged the owl in After Effects with dedicated controls for the eyes, brows, mouth, and wings, allowing it to blink, wink, and react through small, intentional gestures rather than full frame-by-frame animation. Everything was exported through Lottie, keeping it lightweight enough to run smoothly inside the app.
What started as a strong AI-generated concept became a character doing real communication work, telling users in half a second whether what they're scanning is good news or not. WISEcode and Anthem Republic brought the vision. We helped make it move. 🎯
