Permanent Collection

Laundry Hangs Your Heart Out to Dry for Washington Lottery

Posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Heart-tugging animated lottery spots may have hit an apex with this classic, but this new campaign from Laundry Studios thru Wunderman-Thompson keeps all the emotion while redefining the pipeline for the age of AI production.

ECD/director PJ Richardson at Laundry: “The Washington Lottery wanted to highlight a powerful but often overlooked truth: every ticket played contributes to funding education and career-building grants across the state.

“Laundry partnered with agency Wunderman Thompson to unveil this hidden benefit by bringing the films to life through genuine character emotion. We saw a chance to tell a story with real moments filled with feeling.

“80% of the project was story, edit, writing, and conceptual navigation. But the animation portion was an AI workflow.”

“What got us really excited was to craft backstories, personalities, histories, and characteristics for each character. Then, over the course of these stories, show how their life and emotions change visually.

“80% of the project was story, edit, writing, and conceptual navigation. But the animation portion was an AI workflow. The usual challenges and AI battles were true here – character consistency, and getting the final look to 100% when AI output only get us about 70% there.

“The navigated that by combining different AI outputs and tools into any given still or shot. We also brought in VFX and Flame talent for touch-ups, clean-up, and enhancements in the end.”

“Chain Reaction: Daniel” (above)

“Chain Reaction: Janelle”

Images

A cartoon man with curly hair, wearing a dirty denim jacket, jeans, gray hoodie, and brown boots—looking like his Heart Out to Dry in the laundry of life—is shown from the front, side, and back. His jacket has a patch and a name tag reading DANIEL. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

A cartoon character with curly hair and glasses shows eight labeled facial expressions, from worried to a very big smile—as if their heart's been hung Out to Dry on laundry day or just had a Washington Lottery moment. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

An animated man with curly hair and a denim jacket labeled Daniel is smiling with heart as he works on a car engine outdoors, sunlight filtering through trees in the background. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

An elderly man with glasses and a white beard sits at a table, smiling as he scratches a Washington Lottery ticket. Sunlight streams through a nearby window, illuminating the cozy room like warm laundry fresh from the line. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Two animated women, one with curly dark hair and one with blonde hair and glasses, smile at each other while petting a happy corgi on a sunlit city street, their laughter as bright as laundry hung with heart out to dry. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

An animated woman with curly hair, glasses, and a Vet Tech Janelle name tag smiles warmly while shaking hands with a person; an orange cat sits in the foreground next to a "Heart Out to Dry" Washington Lottery laundry bag. Frame from Stash Magazine article.

Credits

Client: Washington Lottery

Agency: Wunderman-Thompson
EP: Dax Estorninos
GCD: Todd Derksen
Associate CD: Cody Turk
Senior Art Director: Andy Spieth, Joe Gerlitz

Production: Laundry
ECD/director: PJ Richardson
EP: Dax Estorninos, Emily Rivvers
Group CD: Todd Derksen
Associate CCD: Cody Turk
Senior Art Director: Andy Spieth, Joe Gerlitz
CD: Ryan Brant
Producer: Ben Rejzer
Production Coordinator: Quentin Curry
AI Design: Carlo Sa, Byron Stanford, Ryan Brant
3D Particles: Matt Goldberg
AI Animation: Ryan Brant, Raphael LaMotta, Carlo Sa, Ben Rejzer
Cleanup: Ben Girdwood
3D Generalist: Micah Fitzgerald
Storyboards: Nick DeStefano
Editor: Ben Rejzer
Flame: Matt Trivan

Stephen Price

Stephen is the co-founder/CD of Stash Media Inc. and the executive editor of Stash Magazine and the Stash Permanent Collection.
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Category: Advertising, AI, Animation, CG, Character Animation, Featured · Tags: Laundry, PJ Richardson, Washington Lottery, Wunderman Thompson