“Dear Mom”, in real claymation

What changed today

• Opening: a new close starting frame (her frightened face reads on a phone) and 6 new Kling takes; picked the one where Gus keeps pulling in profile, the single cup splats in the first second and she clutches her right shoulder while still holding the leash.
• Music: real recorded tracks instead of the synth bed: a comic pizzicato piece (“Secret Garden”) under steady rain, the rain and music stop together when the trainer arrives, then a bright brass-and-flute piece (“Happy Spring”) with birdsong. A coffee splat lands with the cup.
• Talking shots: Gus's 4 talking shots are now MiniMax H3, your pick from the talking-shot test. His mouth moves with the words, where the old Kling + lip-sync version barely opened it.
• Two other music choices are below; say “B” or “C” and I swap it.

Other music choices (full ad audio)

• A, in the video: Secret Garden → Happy Spring
  
• B: Hail Mary (mischievous strings and woodwinds) → Happy Spring
  
• C: Secret Garden → Fun and Games (quirky brass and flute)
  

Tracks and sound effects are from Mixkit: free for commercial video, no credit line needed.

What changed from v4

• Look: new clay-puppet character sheets (fingerprints, sculpted fur, bead eyes, a miniature set) instead of the soft CGI look.
• First frame: picked from six candidates and checked at full size; her face sits below the title.
• Mom: scared and worried while she's dragged (wide eyes, “oh no”), the cup flies out of her hand; she only smiles after the trainer.
• Voice: Evan on ElevenLabs v4 (Bram is gone). Same G2 script, real pauses.

What it does

• Pain first, from frame one: “Mom, I pull, you follow. That's why your shoulder hurts.” The whole line is on screen at once for sound-off viewers.
• Offer earned in the story: the trainer builds a plan for their street; “Your custom training plan” appears on the map scene.
• Proof: 80,000+ owners and pets, counted up as Gus says it, with “A trainer comes to your house.”
• CTA: Gus asks the viewer “Is your dog walking you?”, then the logo, “Get your custom training plan today” and a pulsing Book Now button. No price.
• Sound off works: every spoken word is captioned on its syllable in Dog Academy's font and colours.

How it was made

• Codex image_gen: new claymation sheets, 6 opening-frame candidates and a starting still for every shot.
• Higgsfield: Kling 3.0 pro for the 10 story shots; MiniMax H3 for Gus's 4 talking shots (picture and lip-sync in one step). Voice: Evan on ElevenLabs v4.
• Music and sound effects: Mixkit recordings (rain, coffee splat, morning birds), ducked under Gus. −14 LUFS; every word checked by speech-to-text.
• Cost: about 360 Higgsfield credits in all (about $12): Kling 3.0 pro shots and opening re-shoots (today: 6 takes, 45 credits), the talking-shot test (40) and the H3 talking shots (34), plus the voice lines. Codex stills used about 1% of the week. The music is free.