Eyebolls Delivers Hybrid Live-Action & Animation Commercial for Magic: The Gathering’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Crossover Card Set
Production studio Eyebolls has delivered a hybrid live-action and animation commercial for Magic: The Gathering, introducing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the franchise as part of Wizards of the Coast’s Universes Beyond crossover strategy. The final film premiered during the Mutant Mayhem Regal cinema event (March 27–29), with a 30-second cut running in theatres ahead of the screenings.
Directed by Phil Hawkins (Robin and the Hoods, Prancer: A Christmas Tale, It Lies Within), with animation direction from Tony Cervone (Space Jam, Looney Tunes, SCOOB!), the project saw Eyebolls act as the single creative and production partner across live action, animation, and visual effects. The studio assembled a bespoke senior team around the brief, overseeing the work end to end, from early creative development and live-action production through animation and final integration.
“At its core, it’s traditional animation. Absolutely hand-drawn characters integrated into a live-action world. Making it believable meant focusing completely on that integration. Every choice was designed to support it. When an animated character truly interacts with live action, you start believing it immediately. The goal wasn’t just for the animation to fit in, but to elevate everything around it.”
Tony Cervone, Animation Director
That approach shaped the production from the earliest stages. Eyebolls unified every aspect of the live-action shoot, from securing talent, locations and set design, through to cinematography. The performances and lighting were all planned around how the Turtles would exist in the Wizards of the Coast world, with the aim of making the interaction feel natural. Camera moves and framing were carefully designed to anticipate the rhythm and physicality of the animated characters who would later share the screen.
“We were brought in early, which gave us time to test different approaches and figure out how to make the 2D animation sit naturally inside live action. The brief was clear: keep the integrity and charm of the 2D style, but integrate it convincingly into the filmed environment.”
Dan Bull, VFX Supervisor
To support that integration, the team treated the hand-drawn animation as 2.5D, giving the characters a sense of volume and depth within the live-action space.
“You’re essentially taking a flat image and asking it to behave like a 3D object. There’s no real geometry there, so a big part of the process was running tests and finding smart ways to fake that depth while preserving the original 2D look.”
Dan Bull
The team also developed a procedural relighting approach in compositing, using matte-based light passes to shape highlights and shadows across the hand-drawn characters, ensuring the lighting matched the practical environment and enhanced the illusion of depth.
With two globally recognised properties involved, the integration had to satisfy not just the client, but the fans who know both worlds inside out.
“Everyone at Wizards was very protective of the vision. Our role was to bring that IP into a live-action environment in a way that felt natural, while still delivering a strong commercial piece.”
Rhona Drummond, Eyebolls Co-founder and Producer
The project reflects Eyebolls’ integrated production model, bringing animation and live action together under one roof, without the complexity of managing multiple vendors. The result is a cohesive hybrid short film that unites performance, design and visual effects under a singular creative vision, introducing the iconic heroes in a half shell to the world of Magic: The Gathering with scale, humour and spectacle.
