IP & Short Drama
Centered on the game character Jiang Wei, Liu Shan's recollections trace his apprenticeship, his campaigns and his unfulfilled ideals, with AI visuals portraying a tragic yet stirring Jiang Wei.
01 / Background
Jiang Wei was about to launch as a playable character, and the promotional content needed players to learn about his life and finest moments first, then come to like him. The brief focused on his story: the AI visuals had to match the given character design while also delivering big scenes of armies, marches and battlefields.
“Boyue of Tianshui” is told from Liu Shan's point of view as he remembers Jiang Wei. The “I” in the lyrics is Liu Shan, who carries the memories and regrets, but the visuals mostly follow Jiang Wei: the opening uses details like hands, cuffs and a wine cup to establish the narrator, then moves to the general in white, the armies and the palace. This keeps Liu Shan's personal perspective while viewers' eyes stay on Jiang Wei.
This page focuses on the AI visuals for this character-song MV. The finished lyrics, the songwriter's notes and the game character reference images were the basis for the imagery; across three and a half minutes, the character's look, color palette and context had to stay continuous, so viewers could follow even when the song's sections cut quickly.
02 / Creative Highlights
A wine cup, hands and a letter give Liu Shan's memories something concrete to rest on. The visuals then cut to close shots of Jiang Wei and the battlefield: the narrator carries the emotion, the hero carries the action. Private objects alternate with heroic scenes, so it's always clear who is speaking and who is being spoken about.
Every time Jiang Wei appears, he wears a white robe with green-and-white armor, carries a long spear and has his hair tied up, keeping these features in the palace, on horseback and on the battlefield. Production made it an explicit rule not to change the character's clothing at will, so however much the setting changes, viewers never mistake him for another general.
The long march, black-bannered armies and troops massed below the city walls convey the pressure from outside, while close shots of Jiang Wei holding his spear and meeting the enemy pull attention back to him. Big scenes show viewers what he faced; close shots show how he chose. The interplay of far and near sustains the tragic tone.
The later section moves from a secret letter to a portrait scroll held in someone's hands, then to a monument and the embers of a battlefield. These objects shift from clues that drive the action to things that are mourned; with that groundwork laid, the flames and words of farewell at the end hit harder.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The opening shows only Liu Shan's hands and a wine cup, establishing who “I” is. Then it goes back in time: a young general in white bows in the great hall, Zhuge Liang brings him before Liu Shan, then departs never to return. This section is mostly in bright, warm gold.
On a candlelit desk, a hand wearing a jade ring taps the table while the hand across holds a golden wine cup; in the next shot the cup is raised up close. The narrator's face is never shown.
Sunlight streams into the great hall as Jiang Wei, in white with green trim, kneels cross-legged on the floor; then it cuts to the battlefield, where he kneels on one knee with red banners and cavalry behind him, matching the lyric “I saw he was a general who had surrendered.”
Zhuge Liang spreads his sleeves in the hall with Jiang Wei kneeling behind him; the next shot shows cavalry charging through dust, grounding the lyric about a realm never at peace on the battlefield.
Zhuge Liang, his back to the camera and a folding fan in hand, gazes at a distant palace; then a white cloak billows as Jiang Wei stands before the army; finally he kneels in the great hall again.
Reports lie spread on a desk; then a hearse, surrounded by crowds in white, leaves the palace gate, followed by an empty sweep of mountains and rivers.
No one at court can stand up to Cao Wei, so the camera returns to Jiang Wei: riding, gazing north, spear in hand. The second half uses three old weapons to stand for three veteran generals, until only the spear in Jiang Wei's hand remains.
Two rows of ministers line a dim great hall; the next shot is a yellowed map of mountains and rivers; then Jiang Wei on a white horse charges out of the ranks.
Jiang Wei stands on the city wall, his back to the camera, raising his hand toward mist-shrouded mountains; then he walks in through the palace doors, matching the lyric “He was so much like my chancellor.”
The Green Dragon Crescent Blade is thick with verdigris, the Serpent Spear lies on scorched earth, the Twin Swords gather dust on a rack; in the last shot Jiang Wei raises his spear amid flames as the lyric sings “only this one remains.”
Beacon fires, snowfields, long roads and black-bannered armies stretch the war across thirty years. On the day the enemy reaches the walls, Jiang Wei reads the order to surrender in his tent, followed by a long sigh, kneeling, and a final command.
Jiang Wei stands spear in hand before a burning beacon tower; the next shot is a battlefield on a snowfield with a red-cloaked figure on high ground; then back to him on horseback, spear leveled.
A column of soldiers and horses winds through a valley in a long line, then a black-bannered army presses in; Jiang Wei leads his men in white to meet them, spear points forward.
A dark mass of troops stands before the city gate; in his tent Jiang Wei lowers his head over the edict in his hands, and in the next shot he stands sword in hand in a ruined camp, head bowed.
Jiang Wei swings his sword, crying out to fight to the death, then slumps onto a bloodstained wooden platform, spreading his hands to either side; in the last shot he covers his face, drenched in blood.
Jiang Wei leans over a desk, pressing his hand on the open documents; then comes a golden-roofed palace city in the mist, and common people sitting by a ruined street.
This section is in Liu Shan's own words: suspicion, quarrels at court, the fear that Jiang Wei would use the army to grow too powerful. The visuals cut back and forth between Jiang Wei's situation and Liu Shan's palace, ending on an imperial seal and a locked palace gate.
A group of officials surround Jiang Wei in white, pointing and whispering; the next shot returns to a bamboo grove where two men sit across a tea table; then Jiang Wei walks alone between two rows of armored soldiers.
Jiang Wei stands among a group of soldiers, his expression cold and hard; then he kneels on a snowy battlefield, head bowed, with fighting still raging all around.
Jiang Wei turns on a cliff, spear leveled, as the lyric sings “he was not defeated at Jiange Pass”; the next shot shows a pair of hands holding an imperial seal, then an empty palace gate and a dark, crowded court hall against the light.
The later section follows a secret letter: red writing on a sash, a hidden secret memorial, the dynasty's dwindling fortunes. What arrives is not an army but news of his death. The ending returns to the opening wine cup as Liu Shan raises a cup of coarse wine to Jiang Wei from afar.
A pair of hands in red sleeves press down on white cloth covered in red writing; two men confer by lamplight in a tent; a secret memorial lies open on a table, then is hidden in a dusty loft.
Red banners are planted on the city walls again as Jiang Wei walks among his soldiers; then a pair of hands unrolls a portrait, and it is Jiang Wei, matching the lyric “I remember how he looked.”
A soldier kneels before the steps, trailing a long white cloth; the next shot is Jiang Wei's portrait spread open, then a stone stele on a barren plain.
Jiang Wei, in a white robe, stands before the army; then he falls in the pouring rain beside flames; then it cuts to a general reading military texts by lamplight.
A hand emerges from the sleeve of a black-and-gold dragon robe and raises a small wine cup; two figures stand with their backs to the camera on a city tower, looking out over the land; finally a long spear falls into a sea of flames as the lyric is down to a single word: “General.”
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
61 shots selected in final-cut order: each describes what the shot shows, followed by the final image used in the film.
Shot 1.1
A candlelit desk: a hand wearing a jade ring taps the table, and across from it a hand holds a golden wine cup. Only hands are shown; the narrator, Liu Shan, never shows his face.
Shot 1.2
A close shot of a hand holding a wine cup, the background blurred into warm light. Liu Shan's face stays hidden; only his hand and sleeve are shown.
Shot 1.3
Looking down from the banquet table, a hand rests on a wine cup, its cuff embroidered with patterns.
Shot 1.4
Jiang Wei, in white with green trim, turns before the palace city, with cavalry and dust behind him.
Shot 1.5
A medium shot of him charging on horseback, spear across his body, robe and cloak lifted by the wind.
Shot 1.6
Sunlight comes through the hall doors as Jiang Wei kneels in the center of the great hall. This section is a memory, so the whole image is brightened.
Shot 1.7
The same great hall from a side angle: Jiang Wei is down on one knee, as if he has just looked up.
Shot 1.8
Jiang Wei kneels on one knee on the battlefield, with red banners and cavalry in the distance.
Shot 1.9
Zhuge Liang spreads his sleeves in the hall, no fan in hand, with Jiang Wei kneeling behind him.
Shot 1.10
Two figures seen from behind walk out of the palace gate, with the great hall in sunlight beyond.
Shot 1.11
Zhuge Liang, his back to the camera and a folding fan in hand, gazes at the distant palace and swirling dust.
Shot 1.12
A white cloak billows as Jiang Wei stands on the city wall with an entire army behind him.
Shot 1.13
A wide shot of open country: Jiang Wei in white sits on horseback before rows of soldiers.
Shot 1.14
A hearse, surrounded by crowds in white, leaves the palace gate.
Shot 1.15
An empty sweep of mountains and rivers in cold gray tones, matching the lyric “in an instant the world had grown old.”
Shot 2.1
Two rows of ministers line a dim great hall, with light coming in through the door at the far end.
Shot 2.2
A yellowed map of mountains and rivers, its corners curled.
Shot 2.3
Jiang Wei on a white horse charges at the very front of the army.
Shot 2.4
From behind, Jiang Wei stands on the city wall, raising his hand toward mist-shrouded mountains.
Shot 2.5
Jiang Wei walks in through the palace doors, backlit.
Shot 2.6
Under a golden sky, Jiang Wei grips his long spear, his cloak streaming out in a long line.
Shot 2.7
A crescent blade thick with verdigris rests on old wood.
Shot 2.8
The serpent spear lies on scorched black earth, with fire still burning in the distance.
Shot 2.9
Two swords rest on a rack under a layer of dust.
Shot 2.10
Jiang Wei raises his long spear before the flames and the army.
Shot 3.1
A battlefield on a snowfield: a red-cloaked figure stands on high ground, with beacon smoke in the distance.
Shot 3.2
Jiang Wei on a black horse holds his spear leveled, with rows of banners behind him.
Shot 3.3
A column of soldiers and horses winds through a valley in a long line, the figures kept very small.
Shot 3.4
An army beneath black banners presses forward head-on.
Shot 3.5
A dark mass of troops stands before the city gate.
Shot 3.6
In his tent, Jiang Wei lowers his head over the edict in his hands, documents scattered on the table.
Shot 3.7
Jiang Wei kneels on one knee, leaning on his sword, as if trying to rise again.
Shot 3.8
Jiang Wei slumps onto a bloodstained wooden platform, spreading his hands to either side.
Shot 3.9
Jiang Wei, drenched in blood, covers his face, with sparks behind him.
Shot 3.10
Looking down on a ruined city, with mountains stretching into the distance.
Shot 3.11
A golden-roofed palace city in the mist, with a long stairway leading up to the gate.
Shot 3.12
A few common people sit by a ruined street, with debris scattered on the ground.
Shot 4.1
By candlelight, a figure in white looks down at an open scroll.
Shot 4.2
A group of officials surround Jiang Wei in white, pointing and whispering.
Shot 4.3
Two men sit across a tea table in a bamboo grove, the ground covered in yellow leaves.
Shot 4.4
Jiang Wei walks alone between two rows of armored soldiers.
Shot 4.5
A cluster of palaces in pink mist.
Shot 4.6
Jiang Wei kneels on a snowy battlefield, head bowed, with fighting still raging all around.
Shot 4.7
Red banners over the city gate as troops cross a stone bridge.
Shot 4.8
A pair of hands holds an imperial seal, with stone carvings in the shadows behind.
Shot 4.9
An empty palace gate, with guards faintly visible outside.
Shot 4.10
Against the light, a row of silhouettes faces a throne on high.
Shot 5.1
Modeled on the Girdle Edict: a pair of hands in red sleeves press down on white cloth bearing red writing.
Shot 5.2
The secret memorial lies open on an old wooden table beside a lamp and books.
Shot 5.3
A dusty loft storeroom in dim light.
Shot 5.4
Jiang Wei, a white band tied around his head, holds his sword before a line of soldiers raising shields.
Shot 5.5
Red banners are planted on the city walls again.
Shot 5.6
A pair of hands unrolls a portrait of Jiang Wei.
Shot 5.7
Looking down on a city, with a broad avenue running straight to the palace.
Shot 5.8
A soldier kneels before the steps, trailing a long white cloth.
Shot 5.9
A stone stele stands on a barren plain.
Shot 5.10
A general in black walks across a hillside, with the battlefield behind him.
Shot 5.11
In the pouring rain, Jiang Wei lies fallen beside flames.
Shot 5.12
On a mountaintop, Jiang Wei, sword in hand, looks back as his green cloak billows, echoing the young general in white at the start.
Shot 5.13
A hand emerges from the sleeve of a black-and-gold dragon robe and raises a small wine cup, bookending the wine cup at the opening.
Shot 5.14
Two figures stand with their backs to the camera on a city tower, looking out at the distant river valley.
05 / Results
Completed a full character-themed film of about three and a half minutes in 16:9.
Singer Xiao Shaoyan released the film on December 26, 2024. At the time of the screenshot, it had 1.852M plays, 65K likes and 47K favorites on Bilibili and had reached No. 99 on the site-wide ranking; on Douyin it had 158K likes, 27K favorites and 29K shares.
Case Study
A game was about to launch Jiang Wei as a new character and wanted players to get to know him first.
For this, singer Xiao Shaoyan wrote “Boyue of Tianshui,” looking back on Jiang Wei's life in Liu Shan's voice.
We made a complete AI music video for the song: an image for each of more than a hundred lyric lines, nearly a hundred shots turned into video, and a final cut of 3 min 34 s.
After its release on December 26, 2024, it drew 1.852M plays on Bilibili and 158K likes on Douyin.
01
The brief was very clear: no need to introduce the game; just tell Jiang Wei's life, his finest moments and his famous lines, in a tone that is tragic yet stirring: pressing on even knowing it can't be done.
Two other hard requirements: Jiang Wei had to look the same as his in-game design, and the visuals needed big scenes of vast armies.
The singer chose Liu Shan's perspective. The brief also specified that Liu Shan must not sound like he is mocking Jiang Wei as “a fool set on getting himself killed.” So the whole song is an aging ruler reminiscing and regretting, and Jiang Wei is the man in his memory.
When creating the visuals, we first listed all hundred-plus lyric lines one by one, noting for each line who to show, where, at what shot size, and whether it's memory or present.
A long line of marching troops in a valley, a black-bannered army, and men in white advancing to meet them. The big scenes the brief called for are concentrated in the lines about the northern campaigns and the Wei invasion.
02
The “I” in the lyrics is Liu Shan, but this film was made for Jiang Wei. If Liu Shan kept appearing on camera face-on, viewers would lose track of who the hero is.
At the top of the document we set one rule: Liu Shan only appears as hands, sleeves and a wine cup, or in a shot looking down while he holds the cup. For shots where he needs to be “present,” we show his outstretched hand or look out from his point of view.
For the opening line “Duke of Anle ~ do you miss Shu?”, the first version showed two figures from behind, seated facing each other; it was later changed to show only two hands and a wine cup on the table. The ending line “From afar I raise this cup of coarse wine” returns to a single hand raising a cup, bookending the film.
The colors were split into two schemes as well: Liu Shan's “present” is darkened, with the palace in dim yellow; the past in his memories is painted brighter. It's the same great hall, but on the day they first met sunlight pours in, and after the fall of the kingdom only an empty palace gate remains.
03
This was promotional content for a game character, so Jiang Wei had to be recognizable at a glance. Every image used the in-game character design as its reference, consistently applying the white robe, green trim, tied-up hair and long spear.
With a dozen-plus people generating images at the same time, the most likely problem was someone casually changing Jiang Wei's clothes. Our rule: it was acceptable if the AI occasionally drew him slightly differently, but no one was to change his design on purpose.
So whether Jiang Wei is kneeling in the great hall, charging on a white horse or bowing his head on a snowfield, the settings differ greatly, but viewers always see the same man.
04
Some lyrics are hard to depict directly. For instance, “The Green Dragon Crescent Blade has lost its shine, the Serpent Spear is wounded, the Twin Swords are put away” means the generation of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Bei is gone.
Instead of painting the three old generals, we showed only three old weapons: a crescent blade thick with verdigris, a serpent spear lying on scorched earth, and twin swords gathering dust on a rack. With the next line, “only this one long spear remains,” the camera lands on Jiang Wei.
The blade, spear and swords each hold for just over a second, and in the last shot Jiang Wei raises his spear amid the flames.
The secret letter in the later section was handled the same way. “Yet that day I received a single line” is modeled on the Girdle Edict, painted as red writing on a strip of white cloth pressed down by a pair of hands; “The final passage” is painted as a stone stele on a barren plain. Viewers don't need to catch every word to know this is about entrusting and farewell.
05
The client was very particular about how Zhuge Liang's feather fan looked. We opened a separate document just to test fans: on the same image of Zhuge Liang, we used inpainting to try twenty versions of the fan, adjusting both the prompts and the inpainting strength.
We also prepared a version of Zhuge Liang without a fan. In the end, the shot for “All I saw was on my Father-Chancellor's robes” used the version where Zhuge Liang spreads his sleeves in the hall with no fan in hand.
When turning final images into video, we learned a few lessons: realistic, cinematic images convert best; they can go in without a prompt and still produce usable footage, while anime-style or semi-impasto images often only allow push-ins and pull-outs. Movement was concentrated in cloaks, hair, banners and dust, with characters mostly in locked-off shots or slow push-ins.
For shots that just wouldn't come out well, such as three people in one frame or complex action, we switched to extreme wide shots of landscapes and cities. They still match the lyrics, and they're better than keeping shots with badly drawn hands and feet.
Swinging a sword, slumping down, covering his face: the action is concentrated in the robes and arms, while the camera itself barely moves.
06
From images to final film, intensive production took only three or four days. A dozen-plus people claimed sections of the lyrics, and all shots lived in a single document, so it was clear at a glance who made which image, which were approved and which still needed changes.
The singer released the film on December 26, 2024. At the time of the screenshot it had 1.852M plays, 65K likes and 47K favorites on Bilibili and had reached No. 99 on the site-wide ranking; on Douyin it had 158K likes.
For us, this project left behind a method for character MVs: handle the narrator and the hero separately, lock the hero's look, hand abstract lyrics over to concrete objects, and boldly swap shots that don't work for wide shots.
FAQ
Intensive production on “Boyue of Tianshui” took only three or four days: a dozen-plus people split the lyrics into sections to generate images and turn them into video, with editing in parallel, and it was released on December 26, 2024.
Every image used the in-game character design as its reference, consistently applying the white robe, green trim, tied-up hair and long spear, and those generating images were asked not to change the design on their own. In the final film Jiang Wei appears in dozens of settings, from the great hall to the battlefield and snowfields, with a consistent look.
The narrator is Liu Shan, and we show only his hands, sleeves and wine cup, or look out from his point of view. The film opens with a hand holding a wine cup and ends with a hand raising a cup from afar, bookending the story while viewers' attention stays on the hero, Jiang Wei.
The final film runs 3 min 34 s at 1920×1080, 16:9 landscape, with animated lyric subtitles, and was released on Bilibili and Douyin. At the time of the screenshots, it had 1.852M plays on Bilibili and 158K likes on Douyin.
Approach
The storyboard matched images to each line of lyrics and the songwriter's notes, then checked the subject, shot size and the character's situation at that moment. Two rules were set during production: the lyrics are narrated by Liu Shan, but the visuals always focus on Jiang Wei; Liu Shan's “present” palace is darkened, while the past in his memories is painted brighter.
Characters were generated from the given character reference images and a unified style prompt, with armor, hair and faces checked repeatedly. Details like hands and props were handled with inpainting; Zhuge Liang's feather fan was revised and inpainted in repeated tests, with characters and props checked separately.
When generating video, the movement of cloaks, hair, banners, dust and the camera was controlled to suit each image, mostly using locked-off shots or slow camera moves, and plans were adjusted for problems in the stills such as legs and fingers. Before any shot went into editing, both the character's look and the motion were checked.
Close shots of characters, wide shots of armies, maps and close-ups of objects alternate. Denser stretches of the story are tied together by recurring images, and the cold snow scenes alternate with the warm palace and firelight, so the emotion builds section by section.
More Work
Ideal for brand launches · public-sector communications · cultural-tourism campaigns · IP transformation · event openers · earnings visualization · social campaigns · AI workflow development
