Fifa has unveiled Diwa™, the magical and empowering mascot for the maiden FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup™ taking place in the Philippines on November 2025!
Inspired by the beautiful Philippine Eagle, the mythical Diwatas and the powerful Carabao, @unlockbrands created this beautiful mascot which we were so happy to bring to life!
Our development began with generative AI tools, using ComfyUI to explore potential 3D translations of the 2D logo created by Unlock. Early tests also explored utilizing AI to enhance the look of low-resolution 3D assets and initial lighting directions.
While these AI-generated visuals offered useful reference, they did not meet our standards for controllability or temporal consistency.
Therefore, the entire project was transitioned to a dedicated 3D workflow. We implemented intelligent procedural systems for the jungle environment, ensuring comprehensive control over the visual development and the final aesthetic quality.
To optimize our workflow, we leveraged ComfyUI and AI tools to generate an initial 3D mesh of the character before traditional modeling. This provided an immediate, custom asset for our animatic and pre-visualization stages.
This preliminary mesh was rapidly rigged via Mixamo and the C4D Mixamo Rig, allowing us to immediately apply Mixamo’s extensive animation library or quickly create bespoke motions. This strategic early use of a similar character model, rather than a generic figure, dramatically saved time and enhanced the quality and realism of the animatic.
