Creative Exercise
From a family's escape to an aerial battle, this tests a motion comic opening where modern military forces meet cultivation powers.
01 / Background
This is a motion comic production test based on the novel “The Infiltration War Against the Cultivators,” whose core story is the conflict between the human side and the cultivators. This roughly 39-second segment focuses on the opening attack on the city: first ordinary people running for their lives, putting viewers on edge, then modern military forces and cultivation powers clashing in the same scene.
In very little time, this segment has to make clear where the threat comes from, who is hurt and how humanity fights back. From burning streets, a dropped stuffed toy and a fleeing family to a child looking up at the sky, the camera narrows step by step onto specific people; then the villain in the sky, the incoming missile and the command center pull back to the conflict between the two sides, and who is stronger becomes clear as they clash.
02 / Creative Highlights
A top-down view of the city first shows jammed roads and collapsing buildings; a low angle then finds a stuffed toy left among running feet, before cutting to parents fleeing with their children. The toy, the running and close-ups of the child follow one another, bringing large-scale destruction down to one family's loss and fear, and making viewers remember the young protagonist.
The villain hangs in crimson thunderclouds: first a figure in an extreme wide shot above the city, then cuts to his outstretched arms and a close-up of his face. The crowd below rushes to escape while the villain speaks at leisure; one above and one below, one frantic and one unhurried, the gap in power between them is plain to see.
After the missile flies toward the villain hanging in the air, the picture cuts into the command center, where the big screen shows the sky over the city, and the commander's expression lets viewers see the counterstrike from the military's side. When the figure reappears after the smoke of the explosion, viewers can tell the result of the attack without any explanation, and the conflict escalates.
The ending first shows outstretched arms and hands, then moves to a close-up of the face as the hands cross into a seal, and finally returns to a wide shot of purple light spreading out. The energy effects follow clear hand gestures, so the climax has both the starting move and the release.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The city beneath the thunderclouds first establishes the scale of the disaster, then the camera drops step by step: a stuffed toy on the road, a family running for their lives, a child looking up at the sky.
A top-down shot of the city: purple lightning strikes the high-rises, the roads are packed with cars and fleeing people, a smoking building topples onto the traffic, and someone shouts “Run!”
A low camera hugs the road where a bloodied teddy bear lies, running feet stepping past it; then parents with two children dash through a burning street.
Held by his mother, a boy with scrapes on his face looks up at the sky, his eyes full of fear. The camera brings the whole city's disaster down to this one face.
The camera rises above the city, where the demonic cultivator hangs at the center of swirling crimson thunderclouds, pushing in from a tiny figure all the way to a close-up of his face.
In an extreme wide shot, a figure hangs at the center of the thunderclouds; cut to a full shot as he spreads his arms and laughs wildly, with the caption “A bunch of ants.”
Long blue-black hair, one eye clouded white, a smile at the corner of his mouth, buildings still burning behind him. The people below are running for their lives, but he is in no hurry at all.
Humanity fights back for the first time: a missile flies between the buildings toward the villain, a fireball bursts over the city, and the picture cuts into the command center to show the military's reaction.
Trailing white smoke, the missile streaks across the dark red sky, skimming past burning buildings; the villain turns sideways and raises a hand toward the incoming missile.
A fireball bursts over the city; cut to the command center, where the big screen shows the same sky and a general stares at it, his frown deepening.
When the smoke clears, the villain is unscathed; he then forms a hand seal and unleashes his power, and the film ends at the moment purple lightning bursts out.
The thick smoke of the explosion slowly clears to reveal a figure; the villain hangs in midair with arms outstretched, as if nothing had happened.
First an outstretched hand, then a close-up of his arms crossing in front of his chest to form a seal; purple lightning bursts from his body, and finally he becomes a glowing silhouette.
04 / Gallery
05 / Script Excerpts
06 / Results
We completed a motion comic production test clip of about 39 seconds in 16:9, along with character design sheets for the characters in the film, showing how we handle urban fantasy conflict, character emotion and continuous action.
Case Study
A web novel: the human side against the cultivators.
Most of the novel is a battle of wits; to turn it into a one-minute film, we first had to find the most watchable part.
We chose the starting point of the story: the cultivators appearing in the sky over the city for the first time.
This 39-second AI 3D motion comic test begins with a teddy bear dropped on the road.
01
“The Infiltration War Against the Cultivators” is about a war between humans and cultivators. Humans have no spiritual power and can only fight back with technology and strategy, so most of the book is a battle of wits.
A battle of wits suits a long series that unfolds slowly; squeezed into one minute, it is hard to follow. Our first idea was to pick the most stirring lines from the novel and cut them into a trailer with a storyline; while writing the storyboard, we narrowed the focus to the opening: the cultivators descend, the city is attacked, and humanity fights back for the first time.
This segment doesn't require viewers to understand the fictional world first. Who is strong, who is weak and who is suffering are clear from the images alone.
Opening top-down shot: lightning strikes the high-rises as traffic and crowds jam the roads.
02
In a motion comic, the same person appears again and again in wide, medium and close shots; if their face or clothes change, viewers are pulled out of the story. So before making any images, we created front, side and back three-view turnarounds for every character who appears.
The 6-year-old boy wears a light blue dinosaur T-shirt and khaki shorts; his sister wears twin pigtails and overall shorts; the mother wears a white shirt with denim shorts; the father wears a gray polo shirt. The villainous demonic cultivator has long blue-black hair and a purple-black robe, and the general wears a dark green military uniform.
In the few seconds of the family's escape in the final film, all four characters' clothes and hairstyles match their design sheets one for one.
03
The storyboard script first laid out the opening 8 shots: a top-down view of burning streets, a building snapping in half, running feet stepping over a teddy bear, the mother carrying the boy and the father pulling the girl as they flee, the boy looking up at the sky, and only then the camera reaching the demonic cultivator at the center of the thunderclouds.
The order is from big to small: first viewers see the whole city collapsing, then the camera drops to a bloodied teddy bear on the road, and finally rests on a child's face. The bigger the city, the bigger the disaster; but what viewers really remember is the child being carried.
The teddy bear, the fleeing family and a close-up of the boy looking at the sky: three shots cut together.
04
The demonic cultivator makes his entrance hanging in the thunderclouds above the city: first a tiny figure in an extreme wide shot, then a full shot with arms outstretched, and finally a close-up of his face. The people below are running for their lives while he laughs at his leisure.
Humanity's answer is a missile. It flies between the buildings toward him and a fireball bursts over the city; the picture then cuts into the command center, where the big screen shows the same sky and a general stares at it, his frown deepening.
A fireball bursts over the city as the general in the command center watches the big screen.
The smoke clears, and the demonic cultivator floats in place, unscathed. Without a word of explanation, viewers know the counterstrike failed. He crosses his arms to form a seal, purple lightning bursts from his body, and the film ends at the moment he unleashes his power, leaving viewers in suspense.
Hands, the crossed-arm seal, the burst of lightning: the action builds step by step to the climax.
05
A motion comic depends on voice acting. This test set a voice direction for several main characters: the mother should sound kind, the villain sinister, and the male lead upright.
Our method was to first generate a video with dialogue from the character designs, extract the voice from it, then adjust the timbre and emotion with a voice cloning tool, comparing several approaches to see which sounded most natural. In the final film, a bystander's shout of “Run!” sits right next to the villain's wild laughter, so you can hear the gap between the two sides' situations immediately.
At the center of the thunderclouds, the demonic cultivator spreads his arms and laughs, “A bunch of ants.”
06
This 39-second film ran through the entire workflow for an AI motion comic opening: choosing a passage from the novel, writing the storyboard, creating three-view character turnarounds, generating images and adding voices.
It also answered a practical question: to turn a web novel into a motion comic or promotional trailer, you don't have to wait for a full season's script. A sample made from the most intense conflict is enough to show whether the characters and art style hold up.
For people learning AI video, two things in this film are most worth copying: lock in the characters before generating images,go from wide shots to close-ups.
FAQ
First create three-view turnarounds (front, side and back) for every character, then use the design sheets as reference when generating images. In this test, the boy's light blue T-shirt and khaki shorts and the villain's long blue-black hair and purple-black robe match across wide, medium and close shots.
For this test, we first generated videos with dialogue from the character designs, extracted the voices, then adjusted the timbre and emotion with a voice cloning tool. Each character got its own voice direction: the mother kind, the villain sinister, the male lead upright.
This one covers only the 39-second opening: the city attacked, a family fleeing, the villain appearing, the missile counterstrike and the villain unleashing his power. An opening built on the strongest conflict is enough to see whether the characters, art style and pacing work.
For this test, we began choosing the passage and designing characters in mid-March 2026, and this 39-second sample was ready about a week later.
Approach
In production we first designed the young protagonist, his parents, his sister, the demonic cultivator and the general, then broke the city streets, the stuffed toy, the fleeing family, the child looking up and the cultivator's attack into storyboard shots. The final film uses this opening set; crimson clouds, firelight and thick smoke recur throughout to keep the scenes continuous, while wide, medium and close shots each convey one clear point.
Character voices were also part of the test: we first generated clips with dialogue in Kling AI, then extracted the audio to try voice cloning, comparing how voices performed across different character emotions. In this short, the crowd's shouts and the villain's lines immediately set the two sides apart.
More Work
Ideal for brand launches · public-sector communications · cultural-tourism campaigns · IP transformation · event openers · earnings visualization · social campaigns · AI workflow development
