Culture & Art
Each piece of equipment is matched with the creature behind its nickname, and the creature transforms into the equipment, using traditional Chinese imagery to help viewers understand modern military hardware.
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01 / Background
This military parade short, a collaboration between Baidu and China.com, is built on one core idea: animals or mythical creatures transforming into military equipment. At only about a minute long, the storyline had to stay tight, so each creature was chosen to match the equipment's nickname, aligning the name, the shape and the transformation.
In the finished film, seven figures (an eagle, a Yinglong, a divine eagle, a Kunpeng, a pterosaur, a long blue dragon and a shark) first appear over mountain peaks, seas of clouds, canyons, wetlands and the open sea, then turn one by one into aircraft. With so little time, consistent direction of motion, setting and light help viewers follow who becomes what.
02 / Creative Highlights
Creatures and equipment look different, so the film links the shots through outstretched wing silhouettes, flight postures and leaps from the sea. In the flying shark segment, the shark leaves the water and keeps moving forward as its body gradually becomes the outline of a fighter jet, with the spray and the setting sun keeping the same direction. The viewer's eye follows it the whole way, and the change happens along that path.
One transformation after another can easily become repetitive. The film has airdropped supplies fall into a canyon, then a flying animal turn into a drone, letting the action drive scene changes so the camera moves naturally from the sea of clouds to the valley and the sea.
Natural creatures and metal equipment share the same snowy peaks, canyons, cloud layers and sunset seas, every subject edged with warm light. We set a bright, warm base tone, then fine-tuned the sunset colors and sea details, so the mythic feel is supported by the light and the outlines of the metal equipment stay clear.
Captions such as “Wing Loong 3 — UAV” and “Flying Shark — J-15” appear on screen as soon as the creature appears and stay until the equipment arrives. The caption first tells viewers the basis for each transformation, so they understand they're seeing two forms of the same figure.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The camera descends from a high-altitude map of China through the clouds and lands on an eagle on a mountaintop. The eagle takes off and becomes the KJ-500 early-warning aircraft, with a caption showing its nickname, “Thousand-Mile Eye.”
The clouds over the map part to both sides, and the camera pushes all the way in to a peak above the snowy range, where an eagle stands on a rock gazing into the distance.
The eagle spreads its wings and flies into the sea of clouds; the outline of its wings slowly becomes the wings of an early-warning aircraft, and the radar dome on its back emerges in the sunlight.
The early-warning aircraft flies into a thunderstorm, and a golden Yinglong bursts out of the lightning and becomes a J-11; then a divine eagle flies through the sunset and becomes a Z-20 helicopter.
The early-warning aircraft disappears into churning dark clouds, and a winged gold-and-teal Yinglong flies out through the lightning.
The Yinglong breaks out of the clouds into blue sky and its body condenses into a J-11, with the caption “Yinglong J-11” flying forward with it.
As the fighter passes, a divine eagle flies in from the sunset glow; its wings gradually become rotor blades, and a Z-20 sweeps over the snowy peaks.
A golden Kunpeng flies over the snowy peaks and sea of clouds and becomes a Y-20; the Y-20 drops a supply pack, the camera follows it down into a canyon, and a red pterosaur flies up to meet it and becomes a Wing Loong 3 UAV.
A great golden bird flies out from behind the snowy peaks, spreads its wings above the sea of clouds and becomes a Y-20 with its landing gear down.
The transport aircraft drops a supply pack under a parachute; the camera follows it through the clouds into a canyon lit by the setting sun, and a red pterosaur flies up from below.
The pterosaur climbs along the cliff face and becomes a Wing Loong 3 UAV, hugging the canyon as it charges head-on toward the camera.
The UAV flies over a wetland, a whirlpool forms on the water, and a long blue dragon breaks through the surface and becomes the J-20 “Mighty Dragon”; the camera drops to the sunset sea, where a shark leaps out of the water and becomes the J-15 “Flying Shark” carrier-based fighter.
Looking down on a wetland covered in lotus leaves, a whirlpool spins up on the water and a long blue dragon surges out with a column of water.
The long dragon skims the wetland toward the setting sun, its body stretching and flattening into a J-20 with its afterburners lit.
The shark leaps from the sunset sea, becomes a J-15 in midair and flies forward low over the golden water.
A fighter sweeps past the camera, the formation flies into the sea of clouds, and the film ends on a single frame of every creature and every aircraft together, under the title “The Spirit of a Hundred Beasts, the Edge of a Great Nation.”
A fighter roars past the camera, and the transport aircraft, helicopter and fighter formation fly into the clouds together.
The golden Yinglong sits at the center, surrounded by the blue dragon, eagle, Kunpeng and shark, with the aircraft lined up in front as the title lights up above the clouds.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Shown in the order of the finished film. Each transformation has one image of the creature and one of the equipment; the two share the same orientation, angle and light, so the before and after connect.
Shot 1.1
A high-altitude view of the map of China; the clouds part and the camera pushes down.
Shot 1.2
An eagle stands on a mountaintop, gazing into the distance.
Shot 1.3
The eagle spreads its wings and takes to the sky as the camera shifts from a high angle to a low angle.
Shot 1.4
The early-warning aircraft the eagle becomes, in a low-angle wide shot that emphasizes the radar dome on its back.
Shot 2.1
The early-warning aircraft flies into a storm of thunder and lightning, and a mostly golden Yinglong with touches of teal bursts out of it.
Shot 2.2
The J-11 the Yinglong becomes, framed in strict profile so it lines up with the dragon’s direction of flight.
Shot 2.3
The sky shifts from blue to sunset glow as a divine eagle flies past in profile.
Shot 2.4
The Z-20 the divine eagle becomes, seen from behind and to the side, its fuselage bathed in golden evening light.
Shot 3.1
The helicopter flies out of frame, and a great golden Kunpeng flies in from the snowy peaks and sea of clouds.
Shot 3.2
The Y-20 the Kunpeng becomes, flying through the clouds at sunset with its nose pointing left.
Shot 3.3
The Y-20 drops a supply pack with a drogue chute, and the camera follows it down into a deep ravine between the cliffs.
Shot 3.4
A red pterosaur rises from the bottom of the canyon, flying up toward the supply pack.
Shot 3.5
The UAV the pterosaur becomes, flying head-on along the canyon wall.
Shot 4.1
The UAV flies over a ridge, the camera rises to look down on a lotus wetland, and a whirlpool spins up in the middle of the water.
Shot 4.2
The long dragon bursts from the whirlpool and skims the wetland toward the setting sun.
Shot 4.3
The J-20 the long dragon becomes, emerging above the clouds. The fuselage and wings were checked against reference images of the real aircraft.
Shot 4.4
The camera drops to the sea, where a shark leaps out of the water with its jaws open, spray flying.
Shot 4.5
The J-15 the shark becomes, flying forward low over the sunset sea.
Shot 5.1
Every creature and aircraft from the film shares one sea of clouds, with the Yinglong spreading its wings at the center. This image is the backdrop for the title.
05 / Results
Delivered a 65-second creative short for the military parade (1920 × 1080 landscape), plus an alternate version ending on a watchtower. The film was published on China.com’s Douyin account and earned 37K likes and 10K shares across platforms.
Case Study
The J-20 is called the “Mighty Dragon,” the Y-20 the “Kunpeng,” and the J-15 the “Flying Shark.”
Those nicknames are images in themselves.
Ahead of the September 3 military parade in 2025, Baidu and China.com asked us to make a one-minute AI short film in which auspicious birds and mythical beasts transform into national defense equipment.
The finished film runs 65 seconds. An eagle, a Yinglong, a divine eagle, a Kunpeng, a pterosaur, a long blue dragon and a shark appear in turn, and one by one become the KJ-500, J-11, Z-20, Y-20, Wing Loong 3 UAV, J-20 and J-15.
01
The client’s first ideas were rich: representative animals from each province, land, sea and air equipment, transformation effects, historical figures, regional features. They wanted all of it in.
One minute can’t hold that many threads. We made several rounds of test films and narrowed the direction step by step with the client and the media partner, until only one thread remained:Creatures transforming into equipment.
The client wanted every transformation to have a clear basis. So instead of pairing animals with equipment ourselves, we used the nicknames already made public by official media: the KJ-500 is the “Thousand-Mile Eye,” the J-11 the “Yinglong,” the Z-20 the “Divine Eagle,” the Y-20 the “Kunpeng,” the J-20 the “Mighty Dragon,” and the J-15 the “Flying Shark.”
At the client’s request, air force equipment fills the middle of the film and the sea segment comes last. Name captions appear as soon as each creature does and stay until the aircraft flies off, so viewers see at a glance what each transformation is based on.
02
For each transformation, we first produced two approved images: one of the creature and one of the equipment it becomes. The two images’orientation, angle and lightwere aligned first, and then we used the first and last frames to generate the transformation in between.
When generating images, the prompts spelled out which way the nose points and the camera angle. The J-11 shot, for example, had to be in strict profile to match the Yinglong’s direction of flight. The Kunpeng flies left, so the Y-20’s nose points left too.
The great bird flies over the snowy peaks, its wings slowly flattening into a transport aircraft with landing gear down, always flying in the same direction.
The aircraft also needed transitions between them. The Y-20 drops a supply pack, the camera follows it into the canyon, and the red pterosaur flies up from below at just that moment. One drop and one climb string two transformations into a single path.
The supply pack drifts under its parachute through the clouds into the canyon, and the pterosaur rises to meet it, leading into the next transformation.
03
The client wanted the film bright and warm overall. The parade is a celebration, so the images needed energy, never gloom.
We set most shots in the golden hour around sunset: snowy peaks, clouds, canyon, wetland and sea all share a warm golden evening light, with cool tones kept only for the sky and water as contrast.
With the same light running through the whole film, feathers, scales and metal fuselages sit together naturally; and as the scene moves from mountaintop to sea, viewers feel it as one continuous journey.
The setting sun lights a lotus wetland, a whirlpool forms on the water, and the long blue dragon surges up with a column of water.
04
Military audiences know their equipment, and they will spot even a small mistake in how it looks.
We gathered multi-angle reference images for every piece of equipment, checked each generated image’s fuselage outline and wings one by one, and repainted or retouched anything that was off. Flag graphics, which easily distort, were simply kept out of frame.
We redid the J-20 and J-15 shots against reference images to bring the fuselage and wings closer to the real aircraft.
The long dragon stretches and flattens into a J-20 with its afterburners lit, as the caption “Mighty Dragon J-20” appears.
05
After all the transformations, the film needed one image that brought everything together.
We cut out every creature and aircraft from the film and composited them into one sea of clouds: the golden Yinglong spreads its wings at the center, surrounded by the blue dragon, eagle, Kunpeng, pterosaur and shark, with the aircraft lined up in front and the title set along the bottom.
We made two endings: one pushes in from a soldier’s binoculars in a watchtower to this frame, the other cuts straight from the J-15 to the closing frame. The version released was the 65-second one with the direct ending.
06
The film was published on China.com’s Douyin account and earned 37K likes and 10K shares across platforms.
This project confirmed something for us: the shorter the film, the more it needs a hook viewers grasp instantly. Here the hook was the equipment nicknames. They tied together myth, creatures and modern equipment, so viewers understood without any narration.
AI makes it possible for an eagle to become an early-warning aircraft and a shark a carrier-based fighter. But giving every transformation a basis, keeping directions continuous and making the equipment hold up to scrutiny came down to designing and checking frame by frame.
FAQ
We first gather multi-angle reference images for each piece of equipment and spell out the model, viewpoint and orientation in the prompt; after generation, we check each image’s fuselage outline and wings and repaint or retouch anything that is off. In this film, both the J-20 and J-15 were redone against references. Equipment names and nicknames use only those made public by official media.
For each transformation we lock two images first, a first frame (the creature) and a last frame (the equipment), align their orientation, angle and light, and then generate the process in between. Between pieces of equipment we use action to bridge them: the supply pack dropped by the Y-20 falls into the canyon and the pterosaur flies up from below, joining two transformations into one path.
The project kicked off on August 13, 2025. We reviewed five test films with the client and the media partner, narrowing the direction step by step, and delivered the final film on September 2, about three weeks in all.
This film was produced in 1920 × 1080 landscape (16:9) with two endings delivered: a 65-second version with a direct ending and a 69-second version ending on a watchtower. We also tested vertical framing early on, and can deliver landscape or vertical depending on the platform.
Approach
The final script was storyboarded from equipment reference images and their nicknames, focusing the creative on the shape shifts between creatures and equipment. At the still-frame stage, we worked on subject orientation, side perspective and the outlines of key equipment—generating from references, making local fixes, adding side wings, and refining sea and image-quality details—to keep the shots consistent so the later motion would connect.
The camera moves from the peaks into the sea of clouds, then follows the supplies dropped by the transport aircraft down into the canyon; the rising pterosaur and the wetland whirlpool keep the viewpoint moving, ending with the flying shark in flight over the sea. Subject direction, background and light stay consistent from shot to shot, and name captions run through each transformation, turning what were separate pieces of equipment into one journey you can follow from start to finish.
More Work
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