Culture & ArtsAI visuals support
The competing interests between states are told through characters, city walls and a sand table that is easy to read.
01 / Background
We provided AI story visuals for CCTV's “Exploring China Through Idioms.” The story follows Jin borrowing a path to attack Guo, Yu accepting the gifts and Gong Zhiqi's warning, and it is about how Yu and Guo depend on each other: if the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold.
The creative focus was helping viewers keep up with complicated relations between states. Ancient cities, convoys and the court set out the events, while a sand table with wooden soldiers, horses and flags turns the scheme into visible action; the sheen of the jade discs and the ruler's expression make it clear why he accepts the gifts.
02 / Creative Highlights
Cities, mountains, rivers and wooden soldiers are all laid out on the table. The camera looks down and moves slowly, so viewers can see the terrain clearly and the characters' plans move from words onto the map.
After the wooden box is handed over comes a backlit close-up of the jade discs, their patterns and translucence followed by the ruler's smile. The more precious the gift looks, the more sense it makes that the ruler later ignores the warning.
Close shots of Gong Zhiqi alternate with his hand gesturing over the sand table, as wooden soldiers and flags lay out for viewers the idea that “the two states depend on each other.” Because the argument is told through the props changing, no long explanation is needed.
The first half is an orderly court bathed in warm light; the second half cuts to marching troops, burning cities and capture, each consequence following from the last. At the end, the horse and the wooden chests appear again, echoing the gifts given at the start.
03 / Scene Breakdown
First the geography from above: Yu and Guo face each other across the water, living in peace; then beacon fires light up in the mountains, and Duke Xian of Jin stands on the city tower and decides to send his troops.
The camera first looks down on a whole ancient city in a river valley, then settles on a market on both sides of a small bridge, busy with people coming and going. As the narration says the two states share a border and get along well, the picture shows a scene of peace.
Beacon towers across the mountains light up one after another, then, from behind Duke Xian of Jin, we see smoke and fire rising in the distance. The peace is broken, and the man sending the troops is revealed.
Duke Xian of Jin studies a map at a table with his generals, then a black eagle sweeps over a sea of clouds as the caption reads “658 BC,” and the story properly begins.
Jin's convoy crosses the mountains, and an envoy leading a fine steed and holding jade discs enters the palace of Yu to ask for passage. The ruler of Yu looks at the gifts and smiles.
A convoy winds through a golden valley; in the next shot, an envoy in a blue robe leads a fine horse between two rows of courtiers. The gifts and the man bringing them arrive together.
The envoy walks forward holding a pair of green jade discs on red silk in both hands, then bows his head and asks, on Jin's behalf, to pass through.
The sand table holds cities, valleys and wooden soldiers and horses as the camera slowly moves across it. When the envoy asks to “borrow a path to attack Guo,” viewers can see on the sand table exactly which path he means.
The ruler of Yu holds the jade discs, beaming, followed by a close-up of a hand raising a disc to the light, the jade glowing. How tempting the gift is comes across without a word of dialogue.
Leaning back on his dragon throne, the ruler raises his hand, about to give his consent, as the narration says he “was about to agree.” In the next line, Gong Zhiqi steps in.
The white-bearded minister Gong Zhiqi steps forward to object. His argument that “the two states depend on each other” is shown on screen by a pair of hands demonstrating on the sand table.
In a gray robe and white beard, Gong Zhiqi stands among the courtiers, raising his hand to speak, his expression grave.
A hand points to a city on the sand table, then pushes the wooden soldiers and horses forward. “The two states are so close that by helping each other neither will fall” is told through these two movements.
A hand pulls a small red flag out of the sand table, then the camera sweeps across the cities on the sand table in golden light. The narration reaches “if Guo is destroyed by Jin, Yu will not survive either.”
The ruler turns away and walks over to the fine steed; Gong Zhiqi wants to keep arguing, but another minister, Baili Xi, catches him by the sleeve.
The ruler slowly turns around in the hall; in the next shot, he stands beside the fine steed and reaches out to stroke it. He cares more about good relations with Jin, and the picture settles on that horse.
Gong Zhiqi stands with his head bowed, still wanting to speak; beside him, Baili Xi reaches out and holds his arm. The warning ends there.
Jin's army borrows the path, destroys Guo, and on the way back conquers Yu as well. The fine steed and the jade discs are taken back, and the ruler ends up in a prisoner's cart.
Marching soldiers are layered over a yellowed old map, a black eagle flies over the flames of war, and then a vast army with a forest of red flags passes through a city gate.
A view from above shows the capital of Yu burning everywhere; in the next shot, a hand grips the reins and leads the fine steed away.
Carts pull wooden chests through the yellow sand, and the ruler of Yu is locked in a prisoner's cart, his smile gone. The gifts he accepted at the start are carried off in the end, along with him.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Shown in the order of the final film; each shot uses the final image that appears in the film.
Shot 1.1
Low-angle shot of a warm yellow sky as a few doves fly past, partly backlit. The film opens here.
Shot 1.2
Mountains, rivers and cities in the mist, showing that the lands of Yu and Guo border each other.
Shot 1.3
People come and go on both banks, showing the friendship between the two states.
Shot 1.4
Extreme wide shot: beacon towers light up across the mountains as tension rises.
Shot 1.5
Over-the-shoulder shot from behind: Duke Xian of Jin looks out at beacon smoke rising in the distance.
Shot 1.6
In the palace, Duke Xian of Jin and his generals gather around a map, planning the campaign.
Shot 2.1
Wide shot: a convoy with fine horses and carts loaded with chests winds along a mountain road.
Shot 2.2
An envoy in a blue robe leads a fine horse between two rows of courtiers.
Shot 2.3
In the middle of the great hall, the envoy bows his head and asks to pass through.
Shot 2.4
Slightly high-angle view of the sand table, with cities, valleys and wooden soldiers and horses, and a route running through them.
Shot 2.5
Close shot: the ruler of Yu holds the jade discs with a satisfied smile.
Shot 2.6
Point-of-view shot: a hand raises a jade disc to the light, the jade glowing.
Shot 2.7
Leaning back on his dragon throne, the ruler raises his hand, about to grant the request for passage.
Shot 3.1
In a gray robe and white beard, Gong Zhiqi stands in the middle of the court, his expression stern.
Shot 3.2
Close shot: Gong Zhiqi raises his hand to speak, his brow furrowed.
Shot 3.3
Slightly low-angle close-up of a hand: Gong Zhiqi points to a city on the sand table.
Shot 3.4
A hand rests on the wooden soldiers and horses on the sand table, ready to knock them over.
Shot 3.5
A hand pulls a small red flag out of the sand table.
Shot 3.6
The cities, mountains and rivers on the sand table, set to the narration “Yu will surely not survive either.”
Shot 4.1
The ruler walks and turns around in the great hall, showing he will not listen.
Shot 4.2
The ruler stands beside the horse and reaches out to stroke it; what he values is the gain Jin has sent.
Shot 4.3
Gong Zhiqi bows his head with his hands clasped in the court, still wanting to argue.
Shot 4.4
Another minister, Baili Xi, reaches out and holds Gong Zhiqi back.
Shot 5.1
An old map overlaid with marching soldiers shows the route Jin's army takes along the borrowed path.
Shot 5.2
A black eagle circles above mountains where beacon smoke rises everywhere.
Shot 5.3
Jin's army, with a forest of red flags, passes through a city gate in great numbers.
Shot 5.4
A view from above of the capital of Yu, fires everywhere.
Shot 5.5
Fine horses and carts loaded with wooden chests travel through the yellow sand as the gifts are carried back to Jin.
Shot 5.6
The ruler of Yu is tied up in a prisoner's cart, his clothes disheveled, his face full of misery.
Shot 5.7
Carts and horses come and go before the city gate, where the film ends.
05 / Script Excerpts
06 / Results
The final film runs about 1 minute 30 seconds and aired as a scenario question on “Exploring China Through Idioms” on CCTV-1. From the ancient cities, the court, the gifts and the sand table all the way to the outcome of the war, viewers can follow the two states' interests, the ruler's choice and the final consequences from the pictures alone.
Case Study
Jin wanted to attack Guo, but the state of Yu lay in between.
So Jin sent the ruler of Yu a fine steed and a pair of jade discs, asking to borrow a path.
The ruler took the gifts and lent the path. Jin's army destroyed Guo, and on the way back conquered Yu as well.
We turned this story from the Spring and Autumn period into a minute-and-a-half AI story film for CCTV's “Exploring China Through Idioms.” After it plays, contestants have to answer: what metaphor did Gong Zhiqi use when he warned the ruler?
01
This film tells “Borrowing a Path to Conquer Guo,” but the program tests a different idiom. After it plays, the question appears: when Gong Zhiqi warned the ruler, he used a vivid metaphor for the relationship between Yu and Guo. Which idiom is it? The options are “if the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold,” “watching a fire from across the river” and “the fox mourns the hare's death.”
So the narration could never use the words “if the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold.” Gong Zhiqi only says: the two states are so close that by helping each other neither will fall; once Guo is destroyed, Yu cannot survive either.
This relationship had to come across through the pictures so contestants could make the leap to lips and teeth on their own. Our approach was to lay out the geography first: the opening looks down from above on the two states' cities and river valley, then settles on people coming and going on both sides of a small bridge.
First, show viewers how close the two states are.
02
Gong Zhiqi's warning was the hardest part of the film to shoot: just one old minister standing and talking, while the information is about the interests of states.
In the refined script, we broke this passage into a set of hand movements, all on the same sand table. A finger first points to a city, then pushes the wooden soldiers forward, and finally pulls up a small red flag. Cities, soldiers and flags line up exactly with “two states,” “sending troops” and “a state destroyed.”
This sand table appeared earlier too: when the envoy asks to borrow a path, the camera slowly moves across it. The same table appears twice: the first time to show which path Jin wants to borrow, the second to show what happens once that path is lent.
Pointing at the cities, pushing the troops, pulling up the red flag: the warning becomes three movements.
03
Why won't the ruler listen? Because the gift is too good. Viewers had to believe that first, or the ending would carry no weight.
Before generating images, we wrote out what the jade discs looked like: round with a hole in the middle, greenish-white, translucent, with cloud patterns on the surface. Then we gave them a backlit close-up: a hand raises a disc to the light, the jade glowing. Right after comes the ruler's smiling face as he holds the discs.
The shot of the envoy presenting the gift was revised too. In the first version, the envoy held a closed wooden box; during refinement, we changed it so he holds a pair of jade discs directly on red silk, and viewers know at a glance what is being given.
After refinement, the envoy holds a pair of jade discs directly in his hands.
The same went for the shot of the ruler rejecting the warning. With him just standing there, his attitude didn't come across. We used first and last frames to create a slow turn, and in the next shot he walks over to the fine steed and reaches out to stroke it. Where his heart lies, the picture says for him.
He turns away from Gong Zhiqi and goes to stroke the horse.
04
A historical story on CCTV can't have anachronisms in the details. Before generating any images, we set the designs of five characters: the ruler of Yu, a little plump and quick to smile, in a tall black hat; Gong Zhiqi, around sixty, with a white beard reaching his chest and a gray robe; Baili Xi, with a short beard, a gray-blue long robe and a square cloth cap; Duke Xian of Jin, burly, in a dark red brocade robe; and Jin's envoy, in official robes, shrewd and capable.
When finalizing, we checked every image again: a square metal buckle on a belt didn't look like Spring and Autumn style, so it was changed to a plain black belt; the ruler's seat was reworked; and the campaign map had some strokes that looked like writing. A CCTV film can't show obviously garbled text, so we removed the obvious marks and kept only the mountains, rivers and marching troops.
The whole film was graded in a darker warm yellow, from the sky at the opening to the yellow sand at the end, so it all looks like the same era.
05
This film aired as a scenario question on “Exploring China Through Idioms” on CCTV-1. It is one of the nine AI idiom story films we made for the program, a series with 200M+ views across platforms.
It solves a common problem in historical subjects: relationships between characters and competing interests can't be seen or touched. We put them into a sand table, a pair of jade discs and a horse. Once viewers remember these objects, they remember the story.
The same approach suits history explainers, museum guides and cultural programs: first find props that can make the argument, then match costumes and objects to the era one by one.
The gifts are carried back to Jin, and the man who accepted them ends up in a prisoner's cart.
FAQ
In “Borrowing a Path to Conquer Guo,” we used a sand table: when the envoy asks to borrow a path, the camera moves across the route on the table; during Gong Zhiqi's warning, a hand points to a city, pushes the troops and finally pulls up a red flag, turning the idea that “the two states depend on each other and will fall together” into three visible movements.
First write a clear design for each character, such as Gong Zhiqi with a white beard to his chest and a gray long robe, and specify the shape, color and pattern of the jade discs. Then check every image when finalizing. In this film, a metal belt buckle that didn't fit Spring and Autumn style was changed to a plain black belt, the ruler's seat was reworked, and obvious writing on the map was removed.
Handle each shot according to its purpose: generate from a single image where that works, and use first and last frames where a specific movement is needed. For the shot of the ruler rejecting the warning, for example, first and last frames create his slow turn in the hall, followed by the shot of him stroking the fine steed.
The storyboard script came out in late December 2024. In early January 2025 we selected and added images and generated video according to the script, delivering a first rough cut the next day; we then regenerated a batch of shots based on the refined script and finalized on January 18.
Approach
Shots are laid out in the order of the telling, with dedicated shots for the beacon fires, the sand table, the hands and the prisoner's cart. The whole film uses a darker warm yellow palette, keeping characters and settings consistent from start to finish.
When finalizing the stills, we checked the Spring and Autumn costumes, belts, jade discs, seats and any text in the backgrounds item by item before animating them. The sand table demonstrates the scheme, while the narration explains the geography alongside it.
Characters turning, sleeves sweeping and props moving were each handled according to the shot's purpose, animated either from a single image or with first and last frames; in the edit, we spread the pictures across the longer narration lines and unified the subtitle font and position.
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