Culture & Arts
The colors, objects and situations of the nine dragon sons unfold with the lyrics, turning mythical figures into a five-minute musical narrative.
01 / Background
“The Nine Sons of the Dragon” is an AI music visual co-created for Xiao Shaoyan's song, using the stories of the nine dragon sons to tell of the misunderstanding, constraint, expectation and perseverance in the lyrics. It needed striking mythical figures, but viewers also had to tell the chapters apart and follow the emotions amid fast-paced lyrics and a large cast; repeating grand dragon scenes alone couldn't carry the rise and fall of the whole song.
So we first set the characters apart by main color, body features and objects: Qiuniu with a guqin, Yazi with blades, Chaofeng with a roof ridge, Pulao with a bronze bell, Suanni with an incense burner, Bixi with a stone tablet, and so on. Within each character's segment, the film intercuts figures, close-ups of objects and landscapes, turning the situations in the lyrics into concrete images; at the end, the dragon sons appear once more, turning from their earlier entrapment to moving forward.
02 / Creative Highlights
Yellow Qiuniu, red Yazi, cyan-blue Chaofeng, white Suanni and purple Fuxi are easy to tell apart at a glance, while the guqin, blades, roof ridge, bell and stone tablets further mark who is who. Colors and objects recur, so even with characters switching often over five minutes, viewers can keep track.
Pulao's segment first uses palace towers and seas of clouds to express hopes of rising high, then cuts to the bell's decorations, the dragon shape on its knob and the act of striking it. The image narrows from wide vistas to details, and the bell turns from a coveted goal into the thing that traps him, matching the emotional turn in the lyrics.
Fuxi's segment intercuts people in conversation, market streets, a giant brush, stone inscriptions and floating golden characters. These objects and settings carry the lyrics about writing, misreading and spreading word, giving the literary theme visible action and texture.
In the final section, music, blades, bells, inscriptions and the characters come together again, followed by a sunrise and a dragon in wind and rain. The same figures return with new emotions, so the ending connects to the earlier story instead of starting an unrelated set of grand scenes.
03 / Scene Breakdown
After the title, a golden dragon circles in the clouds, then the camera moves to the Nine-Dragon Wall, a scholar in his study and an ancient book opening, introducing the legend of the dragon's nine sons; at the line “Heaven made me, so my talents must have use,” the nine sons flash by one after another.
A golden dragon turns and opens its jaws amid clouds, then it cuts to the Nine-Dragon Wall in mist and dragon shapes in a starry sky, with the first line, “When were the dragon's nine sons born?”, landing on the wall.
A scholar stands with his hands behind his back at his study window; in the next shot an ancient book opens, pages flying up with golden light, and a golden dragon appears in fiery clouds, matching “and so a legend arose.”
On the line “Heaven made me, so my talents must have use,” the nine dragon sons, including yellow Qiuniu, purple Fuxi, cyan-white Chaofeng and red Yazi, flash by one after another so viewers can get a first look at each face.
Yellow Qiuniu guards his guqin. His melody is stolen and sung in the streets, he can't make anyone understand, and in the end he can only lie over the head of his instrument.
A furry yellow dragon son plays the guqin with eyes closed, cutting to glowing waves and a thunderstorm at night, as a hand reaches for the guqin in the water, matching “slipping in under wind and rain to steal nine whole strokes.”
Under lanterns, a musician plays among a crowd that keeps growing, and so “that strikingly similar melody” spreads.
Qiuniu plays alone by the sea, and in the golden light only an ink-soaked brush remains, as the lyric sings “he never wrote anything tender again.”
Red Yazi is tied to blades, an opera stage and crowds; cyan-white Chaofeng stands on roof ridges and seas of clouds, and the second half turns to fine silks, steeds and golden elixirs to show a life of inherited luxury.
A warrior swings his blade at a dragon's shadow in the firelight, followed by dragon-shaped shadow puppets on a stage with a dense crowd below, and a red dragon tumbling through the clouds, matching “drawing crowds wave upon wave.”
A large dragon and a small one face off in storm clouds, a red-eyed dragon crouches in the clouds, and the shot ends on the red gem in a blade's ring pommel: “the light went out on the ring of his blade.”
A cyan-white dragon coils on an upturned roof ridge; a close shot shows its face, then it turns and dives into the sea of clouds just as the lyric sings “should be up there in the clouds.”
A white-whiskered, gold-scaled dragon rests on the clouds, a horse with a purple-and-gold saddle gallops across golden water, and golden elixir pills lie scattered before a golden vase: three images for “fine silks, and music and song through the night.”
Chaofeng sits at the corner of a palace with light shining through a moon gate; the next shot is a baby wrapped in brocade, leading into “some, on the day they are born, are born immortals.”
Pulao makes his way into the heavenly palace, only to end up bound to the knob of a bell; white Suanni saves a man, yet people take his hide and fur, and he later sets his nature aside before an incense burner.
A long stone stairway leads upward through the clouds, a golden palace appears, followed by branches laden with ice and snow, telling of “sixteen years of effort.”
A dragon's silhouette lowers its head in golden mist, daylight breaks through the clouds, and the camera turns to a huge bronze bell and its mouth, matching “your bell hangs high in the clouds, to be struck from nine to nine.”
Pulao lies atop the bell, chained to its knob and unable to move; a hand pulls a striker tied with red silk: “when someone strikes, he gives way.”
White Suanni keeps watch beside a wounded man, then it cuts to the man lying indoors, an old sheet of paper painted with dragon patterns and a table of food, and the story turns at “kindly carried him to his door.”
A saddle made of white scales and fur, a figure from behind wrapped in white fur, a heart burning among chains: three shots in a row for “first they took his hide, then his fur, and in the end his heart as well.”
The white dragon son runs along the water, cutting to fireworks over an old town at night; he turns his head to look, showing that by nature he “loved fireworks and couldn't keep still.”
Bixi carries a stone tablet, weighed down by people pointing at mountain after mountain and by layer upon layer of expectations; Bi'an sits in a courtroom, faced with gold brought to his door and colleagues riding high, and in the end can only stand by the door.
Bixi, with a tortoise's body and a dragon's head, stands in the mountains bearing an inscribed stone slab as golden light spreads, then it cuts to two rows of giant statue silhouettes in the clouds: “you should be just like them.”
Bixi's scaly face presses up to the camera, then he crawls slowly under the slab as golden light falls on broken stones, and finally shrinks into the shadows, matching “a lifetime of meek submission.”
A stone tablet stands in the night, its carved lines burning with firelight, followed by churning red clouds, telling of “generation after generation of favor and authority.”
Blue-black Bi'an sits at the courtroom bench as incense smoke billows and a painted screen of cloudy mountains appears, matching “talked around in clouds and mist” and “he laughs at his younger self.”
A beast's claws hold a sheet of gold leaf, golden scrolls lie on the desk, and a treasure chest overflows with gold and jade: the favors arrive at his door in a new form.
A high-angle view of slanting high walls and narrow alleys, then a gray wall, and finally a cyan-white dragon raising its head: “can't break through that south wall.”
The words written by purple Fuxi are cut off, spread as rumors, and finally carved onto a stone tablet; Chiwen watches it all from the rooftop and can only keep looking this way and that, day after day.
A glowing brush writes in midair, golden characters fill the frame, then a scroll of blue-green landscape appears and is split by a bolt of lightning: “but listeners hear what they want to hear.”
A sheet of writing is torn apart, people gather around a table talking in a teahouse, an old man looks up in a daze, and the crowd in the street keeps growing.
A glowing brush tip is ringed by fire, purple Fuxi coils beside a stone tablet as words are carved into it, and finally a screenful of golden characters flows into the distance: “handed down, its fame lasting through the ages.”
Chiwen, in cyan and red, lies on a roof ridge, his face emerges from the clouds, and an ancient book opens with glowing pages: “he read nine pages in a row.”
A folding fan opens, followed by points of light among flowers, passersby on a flagstone street and a bowl of tea on a stone table, telling of “clearly, you and I are just the same.”
Chiwen lies on the roof, flames burning on his body, looking all around; as the lyric sings “how you look every day,” golden leaves fall layer upon layer from the eaves.
The nine dragon sons return once more in the order they first appeared, each with his own object; then come a road stretching into the distance, a sunrise and a stormy sea, and finally a dragon pushing through the clouds in wind and rain. The closing captions offer no interpretation.
Qiuniu holds his guqin again, Yazi's blade is still burning, Chaofeng gazes at the full moon from a roof ridge, Pulao guards his bronze bell with open jaws, all just as viewers first came to know them.
White Suanni stretches out in the clouds, the slab on Bixi's back is gone, Bi'an stands at the door, “cleared of dust,” and purple Fuxi swims past trailing glowing runes.
Chiwen looks back among colorful clouds, and the image becomes a pink-and-purple path leading into the distance under a starry sky as the lyric sings “I only wish this road beneath my feet.”
Steep peaks, a sunrise over a sea of clouds and a heaving stormy sea appear in turn, and finally a dragon circles in the storm clouds: “if the wind and rain don't stop.”
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
The storyboard document follows the lyrics line by line: each line is described as an image first, then the image is generated and turned into video. Below, in final-cut order, a few shots from each chapter are shown with their final images. Timecodes refer to the final film.
Shot 1.1
Mist holds up an entire Nine-Dragon Wall, and the first lyric line begins with this wall.
Shot 1.2
A scholar stands with his hands behind his back at his study window, seen only from behind, books and ink piled on the desk; his frustration is left unspoken.
Shot 1.3
An ancient book lies open, its pages turning in the light, turning the “legend” into something visible.
Shot 1.4
One image of a golden dragon and one of a fiery phoenix, composed in mirror image, cut back to back.
Shot 1.5
A poet stands among floating golden verses with a wine jar beside him, more evocative than simply showing him drinking.
Shot 2.1
The yellow, furry dragon son sits by the water playing the guqin, his expression calm, setting him apart from his fiercer brothers to come.
Shot 2.2
A hand reaches from the darkness toward the guqin in the water.
Shot 2.3
A street musician plays under lanterns, watched by a large crowd.
Shot 2.4
An ink-soaked brush on rice paper, the ink slowly spreading.
Shot 2.5
The head of the guqin is carved as a dragon's head, and Qiuniu ends up “lying” on his own instrument.
Shot 3.1
In the firelight a warrior swings his blade at a black dragon's shadow; from his very first appearance, Yazi is bound up with blades.
Shot 3.2
Dragon-shaped shadow puppets on a stage with a crowd below: the fight becomes a spectacle for onlookers.
Shot 3.3
Red Yazi tumbles through the clouds, across several images used in sequence.
Shot 3.4
A large dragon and a small one stare each other down in storm clouds, the large one bearing down on the small one.
Shot 3.5
The red gem in the blade's ring pommel loses its luster, closing the segment on a close-up of an object.
Shot 4.1
A cyan-white dragon stands on an upturned roof ridge, the curve of its body following the arc of the ridge.
Shot 4.2
A white-whiskered, gold-scaled dragon on the clouds, richly adorned.
Shot 4.3
A horse with a purple-and-gold saddle gallops across golden water.
Shot 4.4
Golden elixir pills scattered before a golden vase, a red cord tied around its neck.
Shot 4.5
A baby wrapped in brocade, leading into “are born immortals.”
Shot 5.1
A stone stairway leads upward through the clouds, with no end in sight.
Shot 5.2
The dragon gazes at a golden palace and swims all the way toward it.
Shot 5.3
A dragon's silhouette lowers its head in golden mist.
Shot 5.4
A low-angle shot of a huge bronze bell, its decorations crisp and clear.
Shot 5.5
Pulao lies atop the bell, his body coiled around its knob.
Shot 5.6
A striker tied with red silk swings into the bronze bell, without directly showing a person striking it.
Shot 6.1
White Suanni lowers his head, keeping watch beside a wounded man.
Shot 6.2
A pair of hands unfolds an old sheet of paper painted with dragon patterns, where the rumor begins.
Shot 6.3
A figure seen from behind, wrapped in white fur, stands in the light: only the result is shown, not the harm done.
Shot 6.4
Fireworks over an old town at night, as Suanni turns back to look.
Shot 6.5
An incense burner before the hall gives off blue smoke as Suanni grows quiet.
Shot 7.1
With a tortoise's body and a dragon's head, he stands in the mountains bearing an inscribed stone slab.
Shot 7.2
A low-angle view up at two rows of giant statue silhouettes in the mist, backlit and overwhelming.
Shot 7.3
A memorial archway gate amid flames, gold and red intertwined.
Shot 7.4
Bixi's scaly face, his eyes gone empty.
Shot 7.5
Firelight glows through the carved lines on the tablet's face.
Shot 8.1
Blue-black Bi'an sits at the courtroom bench with red lanterns behind him. His dragon features outweigh his tiger features, and the setting is a courtroom.
Shot 8.2
A beast's claws hold a glowing sheet of gold leaf.
Shot 8.3
An open treasure chest piled high with gold.
Shot 8.4
Three horses pull an ornate carriage out of a narrow street.
Shot 8.5
Bi'an stands beside a vermilion gate, able only to look on.
Shot 9.1
A giant jade-colored brush writes in midair, filling heaven and earth with golden characters.
Shot 9.2
A sheet covered with writing tears apart down the middle.
Shot 9.3
A table of people in a teahouse eat and talk, and the rumor gets distorted along the way.
Shot 9.4
Purple Fuxi coils beside a stone tablet, its face carved with patterns.
Shot 9.5
A screenful of golden characters flows into the distance.
Shot 10.1
Chiwen, in cyan and red, lies on a roof ridge.
Shot 10.2
Dragon patterns on the pages of an ancient book burn golden red.
Shot 10.3
A hand opens a folding fan, half of it light and half dark.
Shot 10.4
Chiwen lies on the roof, wreathed in flames.
Shot 10.5
Golden leaves fall layer upon layer from the eaves, showing the days passing one by one.
Shot 11.1
Qiuniu holding his guqin, Yazi gripping his blade, Chaofeng gazing at the moon: each is back beside his original object.
Shot 11.2
Pulao guards his bell, Suanni stretches out in the clouds, and the tablet on Bixi's back is gone.
Shot 11.3
Bi'an stands at the door, Fuxi trails runes, and Chiwen looks back among colorful clouds.
Shot 11.4
A pink-and-purple path leads into the distance.
Shot 11.5
The sun at the edge of a sea of clouds, matching “there will surely be a dawn.”
Shot 11.6
A stormy sea, leading into the final dragon pressing on through wind and rain.
05 / Results
The final film is a 5 min 08 s landscape Chinese-style music video, with the nine sons' chapters, lyric subtitles and a thematic ending forming one whole. We took part as AI visual co-creators, and the “AI Acknowledgments” in the end credits list Shenzhen Alchemy Technology Co., Ltd. It was released on Xiao Shaoyan's Douyin on December 20, 2024, and at the time of the screenshot had 312K likes, 69K favorites and 63K shares.
Case Study
A song of over five minutes had to tell nine stories of nine dragons.
With nine characters appearing one after another, viewers could easily mix them up.
We first gave each dragon son a color, an object and a body shape, then illustrated the 168 lyric lines one by one.
This is “The Nine Sons of the Dragon,” an AI music video we made with Henan Satellite TV and singer Xiao Shaoyan.
01
The song follows the legend of the dragon's nine sons in nine sections, each about one son. The difficulty: all nine are dragons, and however beautifully they're drawn, once the cuts get fast, viewers can't tell who's who.
We wrote a design brief for each dragon son, focusing on just three things: main color, signature object and body features. Qiuniu is yellow and holds a guqin; Yazi is red and carries a blade; Chaofeng is cyan-white and stands on roof ridges; Pulao lies atop a bronze bell; Bixi bears a stone tablet; Fuxi is purple and surrounded by writing.
The designs didn't have to share a uniform slender dragon form; they could borrow the bodies and faces of other mythical beasts, with free rein on build and size. Each relied mainly on its main color, with accents and gradients allowed. When setting the designs, three designers each took three dragons, and all images of a given dragon were made and processed by the same person; every later line-by-line image was based on those designs, so the characters stayed consistent throughout.
02
Once the designs were set, the storyboard document laid out the lyrics line by line: each line spelled out what to show, then the image was generated and turned into video, with the review status marked alongside. The film has 168 lines in all, and every one has a matching final image.
Abstract lyrics had to become concrete things. For “hoping to use his sixteen years of effort,” we showed branches slowly loading with ice and snow; for “when someone strikes, he gives way,” rather than showing someone striking the bell, a hand pulls a striker tied with red silk while Pulao, lying on the bell's knob, sways along with it.
A dragon lowers its head in golden mist, the camera turns to a bronze bell high in the clouds, then to Pulao chained to the bell's knob and a striker tied with red silk.
We also set rules for the style: Chinese, ancient and realistic, nothing Western, modern or anime-like. A single image that strays drags down the feel of the whole segment, so this was the first thing checked in every review.
03
Henan Satellite TV provided a reference script and revision notes, and Xiao Shaoyan also gave specific ideas after seeing the first-round visuals. We worked this feedback into the storyboard document line by line, marking each image as it was revised.
Some typical revisions: the scholar, originally drawn looking frustrated and downcast, became a figure seen from behind at his study window; Bi'an originally had too many tiger features, so he was reworked to be mainly dragon-like, and the setting moved from the wilds into a courtroom; for “in the end his heart as well,” with the TV station's content review in mind, we didn't draw a bloody heart but a heart burning as it hangs among chains.
For the line “A passage Fuxi wrote,” the original idea was a dragon holding a brush and writing; it was changed to a giant jade-colored brush writing in midair, with golden characters filling heaven and earth, giving the image more breadth.
04
In the image stage, we tackled sharpness first. Comparing with the same parameters and seed, we found that words like “thin mist” or “hazy” in the prompt made images noticeably blurry. From then on we avoided such words whenever possible.
For video, we split shots by need: still-life shots that only needed camera movement used Runway for push-ins, pull-outs, pans and tracking; shots where the dragon had to move were generated with Kling, which handled the dragons' movement and the motion in murals more flexibly. The same shot was often run several times to pick the best take.
Transitions between shots got special attention too. Some shots were reversed to get the direction of movement we wanted; for the ending where the dragon plunges into the clouds, we generated several versions using first and last frames and picked the smoothest one for the final film.
Mountain peaks, a sunrise and a stormy sea appear in succession, and finally a dragon circles in the storm clouds.
05
The nine dragon sons are spread across five minutes, and though every segment was carefully made, viewers might not remember them all. So on the line “Heaven made me, so my talents must have use,” we quickly flash each son's signature look to leave a first impression.
The nine dragon sons flash by one after another, each in the shot where his look is clearest.
In the finale, the nine sons return once more in the order they first appeared: Qiuniu is still playing, Yazi's blade is still burning, Chaofeng gazes at the moon, and the tablet on Bixi's back is gone. The earlier stories close here, followed by the sunrise and the dragon in wind and rain.
06
For the singer and the TV station, it showed that a long Chinese-style song with many characters can get complete mythological visuals without live-action shooting or 3D animation, with a matching shot for every lyric line.
The film was released on Xiao Shaoyan's Douyin on December 20, 2024, and at the time of the screenshot had 312K likes, 69K favorites and 63K shares.
For fellow AI video creators, the most useful takeaway from this project is to write character briefs first, then generate images line by line: in a film with many characters, settle the designs and rules up front, and the hundred-plus shots that follow won't fall into disorder.
FAQ
First write a design brief for each character covering just three things: main color, signature object and body features. Lock the design images before moving into the storyboard. Each character was handled by the same designer during design, and every later line-by-line image followed the locked design; when the nine sons appear together, each one's image is taken from its design stage.
“The Nine Sons of the Dragon” was made line by line from the lyrics: 168 lines in all, each with a final image and a video shot. Work on the nine sons' designs began in mid-November 2024, all images were final by the end of November, a rough cut was ready in early December, and it was released on the singer's Douyin on December 20.
Lyrics involving gore or horror are expressed in a different way. For “in the end his heart as well,” instead of a bleeding heart, we showed a heart burning as it hangs among chains; the overall style was unified as Chinese, ancient and realistic.
The song was written and performed by Xiao Shaoyan, and Henan Satellite TV provided a reference script and feedback. Shenzhen Alchemy Technology Co., Ltd. (Liandan AI Studio) was responsible for the AI visuals: designing the nine sons, the line-by-line storyboard and images, the AI video shots, and the edited version with lyric subtitles.
Approach
We first set out each dragon son's main color, signature elements, body features and overall feel, then generated images for each character separately, processing all images of the same character together so each stayed recognizable and consistent. The style was then unified as an epic fantasy look that is Chinese, ancient and realistic, while body shapes and accessories were given free rein, so the dragon sons each have their own personality within the same world.
The storyboard set each image against the lyrics line by line, focusing on actions and characters' situations: the scholar is shown from behind at his study window, Pulao lies with head bowed over the bell's knob to show his confinement, and Bi'an is shown in a magistrate's court with his head lowered. That way the close-ups of objects and the setting shots in the film all tell the story rather than just decorating it.
Finally, the subtitles were checked word by word, and first-and-last-frame generation was used to compare transitions for the dragon plunging into the clouds. The film has separately typeset lyrics, and the ending returns to the theme of wind, rain and the dragon; technical support was provided by Kuaishou Kling AI.
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