Behind the Scenes: Building Airbnb's Miniature World Without Any CG

Christian Greet
4 days ago
2 min read

Most explainer-style commercials reach for CG to build elaborate worlds. For a 60-second Airbnb commercial, co-director Norman Yeend and I made the opposite call: skip the CG entirely and build it all by hand.

The Brief

The spot needed to show a miniature train traveling through a series of detailed handcrafted environments — snow-capped mountains, farmland, a treehouse — to capture the feeling of Airbnb helping travelers feel at home anywhere in the world. We worked with creative agency TBWA Singapore and production company Sixtoes Singapore to bring it to life.

Why Practical Over CG

A "handmade" miniature-world aesthetic doesn't read the same way when it's built in CG — the slight imperfections, real light falloff, and tactile texture of physical models are exactly what sells the illusion at that scale. We used out-of-the-box mechanical transitions and high-detail physical environments instead of digital effects to keep that authenticity intact.

Set Design and Model-Making

This was a large practical-effects build: over 20 team members were credited for model-making and design across the full set of miniature environments, each one detailed enough to hold up under close camera work.

Solving Problems Practically, Not Digitally

One of the trickiest shots involved filming on a dramatically inclined section of the model train's route. Instead of fixing it digitally in post, we solved it on set, repositioning a treehouse model to physically work around the incline while keeping the camera move and composition intact.

Lighting and Composition

With everything built practically, lighting design and camera composition carried more of the storytelling weight than effects would have. We used symmetrical framing and shifting scale throughout to guide the viewer's eye through each miniature environment as the train passed through.

The Takeaway for Agencies

CG isn't always the faster or better option, even for effects-heavy concepts. For anything with a tactile, handmade, or nostalgic feel, practical model-making can outperform CG on authenticity, and it's worth considering before defaulting to a digital build.

Want to talk through whether your next campaign concept is better served by practical effects, CG, or a mix of both? Get in touch.