Randy McEntee is a veteran visual effects artist, a recognized authority in Autodesk Flame, and currently the VFX Supervisor at 1986 Studios, a full-service content studio launched by award-winning agency Highdive. With over 20 years in the industry, McEntee’s resume includes a 13-year tenure at The Mill (New York and Chicago), where he led large-scale VFX teams and delivered award-winning campaigns for iconic brands like Verizon, Nike, AT&T, and Apple. Beyond production, McEntee has become a pillar of the global Flame community, serving as Chief Community Officer of Logik (International Flame User group), founder of Logik Academy Pro, and a vocal advocate for pushing the limits of modern VFX workflows.
For the recent commercial titled "Legends Aren’t Born. They’re Made. The All-New Jeep® Cherokee", McEntee and his team created an entirely generative AI-driven car commercial, a feat once thought unachievable for high-end automotive work. Using tools like Google’s Veo, Runway, and Topaz Labs Video AI, McEntee team took low resolution Generative AI renders and transformed them into broadcast-ready, brand-faithful content. "Topaz has become a verb and is now synonymous with high quality upscaling," he said. "If Topaz doesn’t solve the problem outright, it’s always part of the solution."
To illustrate the Jeep Cherokee’s timeliness, the commercial features the Cherokee transforming from various historically accurate models over time. McEntee and artists, Jon Gallo and Craig Minchington had access to archival imagery from the Jeep brand combined generative image creation in Midjourney with traditional photo editing in Photoshop to create the sources that would be used for the Image to Video generation process. The project presented a unique intersection of brand coherence, traditional commercial standards, and experimental GenAI workflows.
A Curated Workflow - Image to Video Storyboard Assets
The creative brief demanded faithful recreations of historic Jeep Cherokee models, from the 1977 Cherokee SJ to the 1985 XJ Limited, requiring high fidelity in design, color, and detail. The team used Photoshop and Midjourney to create “the ultimate storyboard”, designing and stylizing the locations while maintaining historical accuracy for the car models. Below McEntee describes the steps:
Virtual Location Scouting: Reference Photography with Midjourney
Crafting and Compositing Reference Frames
Generating Video Selects from Images
Creative Upscaling to Improve Quality and Enhance Details
Upscaling Without Artifacts: The generative models often produced beautiful imagery but lacking in resolution or sharpness. Upscaling was necessary, but had to be done without over-smoothing or artifacting that could diminish realism.
"We use Topaz at every step: to enhance stills, upscale and improve video, even to help train models with better sources. It’s part of our everyday toolkit."
Solution: Topaz Labs at the Heart of the Workflow
Topaz Video AI and Photo AI were deployed extensively at nearly every phase of the project to improve the quality of the source assets and the generative results. Towards the end of the production, McEntee gained access to Astra, Topaz’s diffusion based creative upscaler and was able to incorporate to add even more detail to the generative sources.
Enhancing GenAI Outputs: Each still or animated render was passed through Topaz to clean, sharpen, and upscale to 4K resolution. In many cases, Topaz was used repeatedly to rescue detail that was lost in an iterative generation.
Texture and Fidelity Control: "We were processing these images over and over again which can cause degradation," McEntee explained. "Topaz came to the rescue at every stage. It became a critical step in our fidelity pipeline."
Rescuing with traditional VFX: In addition to GenAI-generated content, some traditional VFX techniques such as motion tracking and clean-up were used to add back in special details such as the Jeep brand logo or Cherokee text.
Results and Creative Impact
The final commercial, which looks entirely like a traditional VFX and CGI heavy automotive spot, was created entirely with GenAI imagery. Without Topaz Labs’ enhancement tools, McEntee says, this would not have been achievable at the same fidelity, budget, or speed.
High-End Look from Low-Res Inputs: "Topaz gave us the ability to take a lower resolution GenAI render and make it look like a professionally shot frame."
Production-Ready Results in Record Time: The team completed the spot in under 14 production days, with Topaz significantly enhancing the workflow.
Conclusion
The Jeep Cherokee spot, "Legends Aren’t Born. They’re Made. The All-New Jeep® Cherokee, created in partnership with 1986 Studios, illustrates the power of fusing generative AI with practical VFX foundations. With Topaz Video AI, a small team was able to produce agency quality work in record time, without compromising visual fidelity or creative ambition. In a world where clients expect fast, stunning results, Topaz empowers artists to transform experimental workflows into polished deliverables. As McEntee puts it, "Topaz is the only app installed on every artist’s workstation. It’s essential."
