Culture & Arts
The God of Wealth keeps his gold ingot, crown and long beard, while his body is rebuilt from computing components and a clock dial on his chest, using a traditional symbol of fortune to ask where wealth comes from in the age of AI.
01 / Background
“A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth” is a graphic work created for the image category of the VACAT Awards. Its message: in the age of AI, wealth is generated by computing power, energy and time. The challenge was to turn this abstract idea into a deity recognizable at a glance from afar and rich in detail up close: electronic components grow into the God of Wealth's body, while his identity and Eastern artistic character are preserved.
Money, time and computing power come together in a single God of Wealth. The image uses Chinese gongbi painting with a rich, heavy-color finish; what catches the eye first is the chip array on the crown, the large clock dial on the chest and the ingot reaching toward the viewer. The scroll titles “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth” and “Wealth Rewired · Divine Duties Renewed” write the work's meaning straight into the image.
02 / Creative Highlights
The ingot is the God of Wealth's most recognizable symbol: a large gold ingot fills the lower-right foreground, while the long beard, crown and whip-holding pose preserve the recognizability of the traditional deity. The ingot reaches toward the viewer in exaggerated perspective, as if “bestowing wealth,” which feels approachable and gives the complex mechanical body a simple, striking visual anchor.
Time and computing power both had to appear in the image: the chest holds a large clock dial whose markings, hands and inner gears form the center of the body, each part with its own role alongside the chips on the crown and the circuit boards below. Time is no longer just a small symbol but the core that keeps the deity running.
The whole image uses gongbi technique: fine gold lines, a beige ground, vermilion ribbons and blue-green circuit boards unify the crown, clock dial and robes. Each material is still distinguishable, but the brushwork is consistent, so the technical elements blend into the Chinese-style deity instead of competing for attention.
The vertical scroll on the left follows the format of a traditional painted scroll, and the titles are separated by a symbol combining a square-holed coin with a chip outline, linking the wealth of the past with the wealth of today. The deity's face, the clock dial on the chest, the ingot in the foreground and the scroll with its large characters guide the eye in a clear order of importance. The detail is dense but the text stands out: from afar you grasp the theme first, and up close you take in the structure.
03 / Final Works
Arranged by work: first “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth,” then “Zhurong, Queller of Fire,” the second figure in the series made with the same technique. Each entry describes what's in the image and why it's arranged that way; for the process from 3D drafts to gongbi final, see “Case Study.”
Work 01
Chinese gongbi with a rich, heavy-color finish: the crown is stacked from chips and heat-sink fins, the chest is a large clock dial with Roman numerals and gears, a triple-fan graphics card marked 9090 sits in the lower left, and a huge gold ingot is held out diagonally toward the viewer in the foreground. Reading from top to bottom, you take in “computing power, time, wealth” in one pass. The vertical scroll on the left reads “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth” and “Wealth Rewired · Divine Duties Renewed”; A3 portrait, 3508×4961 pixels.
Work 02
Zhurong's body is made of fire hydrants, water cannons, an aerial ladder, pressure gauges and a transparent fire pump, with a red beast-like face; a giant mechanical hand presses down on a fire hydrant, light-outlined flame patterns rise behind him, and the water jets and steam are white. The technique and brightness match the God of Wealth; the scroll on the right reads “A New Divine Roster · Zhurong” and “Quelling Fire, Protecting the People · Divine Duties Renewed,” mirroring the God of Wealth on the left.
04 / Results
Completed “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth,” a portrait-format graphic work and one of the characters in the A New Divine Roster series. It was entered in the image category of the VACAT Awards and published with an accompanying write-up.
Case Study
If the God of Wealth were given a new “divine duty” today, what should he hold?
Our answer: he keeps holding his ingot, but his body is rebuilt from graphics cards, circuit boards and a big clock dial.
This is “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth,” a self-initiated work Liandan AI Studio created for the image category of the VACAT Awards.
Here's how this A3 portrait came together, step by step.
01
The category brief was wide open: any theme, any technique, as long as a single still image made a strong impact.
At first we planned three images: a traditional God of Wealth for money, a God of Wealth for time and a God of Wealth for computing power.
After several rounds, we found that each image felt thin on its own, and the connection between them wasn't clear. So we put both time and computing power into a single God of Wealth, tied together by one sentence:Wealth has shifted from gold and silver to computing power, energy and time, and the God of Wealth's body has been recast to match.
In the earliest 3D drafts, graphics cards, chips and circuit boards were piled all over him: lively from a distance, but with no clear focus up close. We kept just one of the most traditional symbols, so viewers would recognize the God of Wealth at a glance: the gold ingot.
02
Once we cut back the elements, the idea of “time” almost went with them. The clock that had been on the face was removed, and there was nowhere left to put it.
So we moved it to the very center of the body: the concentric rings on the chest became a large clock dial, with the Roman numerals, hands and gears all clearly drawn.
Now the crown is chips and heat-sink fins, the chest is time, at his feet are circuit boards and a triple-fan graphics card marked 9090, and the ingot sits in the foreground. Each part does one job, and reading from top to bottom, viewers take in “computing power, time, wealth” in one pass.
03
The realistic metal version was rich in detail but looked much like any other 3D deity, without a distinctive personal style.
We converted it to Chinese gongbi: the composition and components stayed exactly the same, and only the colors and brushwork changed. With a beige ground, fine gold lines, vermilion ribbons and blue-green circuit boards, the God of Wealth also gained a human face and a long beard.
Finally, we added a vertical scroll on the left reading “A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth” and “Wealth Rewired · Divine Duties Renewed,” linked by a small symbol combining a square-holed coin and a chip, turning a character image into a complete graphic work. When outputting at A3 size, 3508×4961 pixels, we checked once more that the 9090 graphics card and the edges of the image weren't cropped.
The second figure in the series, “Zhurong, Queller of Fire,” uses the same technique and layout, so the two read as a set at a glance when placed side by side.
04
With the God of Wealth workflow in place, the second deity went much faster. Zhurong switches to the language of firefighting: his body is made of fire hydrants, water cannons, an aerial ladder, pressure gauges and a transparent fire pump, a giant mechanical hand presses down on a fire hydrant, and a blaze rages behind him.
After generation, we masked off the head, hands, chest, ladder and other parts one by one, repainted each separately and merged them back into the original with masks: the face became a red beast-like face, the joints and fingers of the mechanical hand became clear, and the fan blades on the chest no longer blurred together. Finally, the same gongbi technique as the God of Wealth unified the colors and lines: the flames became light-outlined flame patterns, the water jets and steam turned white, and the overall brightness was matched to the God of Wealth.
05
AI can produce an image that “looks full” in no time; the hard part is making it hold up when you zoom in.
For this series, we split the work into four steps: generation, local refinement, a unified change of technique and layout. During refinement, parts like the face, hands and chest were masked off and repainted separately, then merged back with masks, so even in an A3 print every finger and every gear is clear.
For brands, the same approach works for festive posters, series IP characters and large-format visuals for print: first break a theme down into a few visible components, then make sure each component holds up to close inspection.
FAQ
After the full image was generated, we masked off the face, hands, chest, ladder and other parts one by one, repainted them separately and merged them back into the original with masks. Both images in “A New Divine Roster” were refined this way and output at A3, 3508×4961 pixels.
Set one technique first, then unify the layout. The God of Wealth and Zhurong share the same Chinese gongbi technique and colors, both have vertical scrolls, and both subtitles end with “Divine Duties Renewed,” so side by side they're clearly one series.
Give each element just one place and one meaning. The God of Wealth keeps his ingot and long beard to show who he is, the crown stands for computing power, the clock dial on the chest for time, and the graphics card and circuit boards at his feet for new sources of wealth; all other stray elements were removed.
“A New Divine Roster · God of Wealth” started in mid-to-late August and, after 3D drafts, composition, refinement, the gongbi conversion and layout, was submitted at the end of August, in under two weeks, with the series' second deity, Zhurong, made in parallel.
Approach
First we decided what each part stands for in terms of computing power, energy and time: the crown is computing power, the clock dial on the chest is time and the ingot in the foreground is the God of Wealth's identity. Each part does one job, and stray elements were left out.
The technique was unified as Chinese gongbi. Beyond the figure itself, a scroll, titles and symbols were added to make a complete graphic work.
Before submission we also checked the A3 canvas and output size, paying particular attention to whether the graphics card symbol and edge content stayed intact after cropping. The final piece is a 3508×4961-pixel portrait, exactly A3 proportions, with the scroll text and main figure fully within the frame.
More Work
Ideal for brand launches · public-sector communications · cultural-tourism campaigns · IP transformation · event openers · earnings visualization · social campaigns · AI workflow development
