Culture & ArtsAI visuals support
The giant's chase of the sun crosses mountains and rivers, with his silhouette, footprints and a peach grove expressing an unyielding spirit.
01 / Background
We provided AI visuals for a mythology episode of CCTV's “Exploring China Through Idioms,” starting with the sun nourishing the earth and Kuafu resolving to chase it, then following him across mountains and rivers, drinking rivers dry and leaving a peach grove behind after he falls. The visuals had to capture both the giant's towering size and his exhaustion and determination.
We kept golden sunlight pointing the way throughout the journey, then used long overhead shadows, giant footprints and changing riverbeds to show the result of each action. The giant's running figure, the long shadow on the ground, the Yellow River drunk dry and his body turning into a mountain were where we put the most work into the visuals.
02 / Creative Highlights
A kingfisher, a river, tribespeople looking up at the sun and light streaming through fingers lead step by step to the prominences on the sun's surface and to the Earth. Viewers first feel how much sunlight matters to life, and then chasing the sun becomes Kuafu's clear wish.
Close shots of him running convey speed, while the ground seen from above and his long shadow show how big he is, and giant footprints mark where he has run. Alternating wide and close shots make both his strength and his exhaustion visible.
A wide view of the river is followed by Kuafu bending down to drink, then by a bare, cracked riverbed. A mythical act like drinking a river dry can't be told in one shot, so it is spread across several shots at different distances, with the change in the landscape completing the cause and effect of “drinking it all.”
The film uses a dedicated shot of a mountain to show his body turning into one, then golden light released by the staff, roots growing out of it and a hillside of peach trees to show his gift to later generations. It ends on a single ripe peach on a branch, closing a grand legend with one concrete image.
03 / Scene Breakdown
Before Kuafu appears, the film shows the sun: sunrise, a kingfisher, a river, tribespeople gazing at the sky, and then the flames churning on the sun's surface. Viewers first understand how precious sunlight is, and then they see why he wants to chase it.
Sunlight falls on a kingfisher on a branch, then on a golden river valley, and finally on a group of tribespeople looking up at the sky. The light travels from nature all the way to people.
A hand opens toward the sun, light streaming between the fingers; the next shot pushes right in to the sun's surface, where prominences and flames churn. The narration says someone wanted to learn the sun's secrets.
A figure seen from behind stands above the clouds, gazing at the sun, followed by young people in the tribe looking up. The narration says he hoped the sun would stay above the tribe forever.
Fiery clouds swirl into a vortex, and Kuafu appears before an enormous sun, then takes his first stride, crossing mountains and forests.
The sun sits at the center of fiery clouds; in the next shot, Kuafu stands on a rock, silhouetted against the whole sun behind him: long unkempt hair, a tiger-skin skirt and a staff in his hand.
Gold-green light flows through the mountains like the veins of the earth, then a giant foot stamps into the sandy ground and dust bursts up. The chase begins with this one step.
Dragging his staff, Kuafu races through the dust, through a forest shot through with light, bursts out of a valley and finally walks into a vortex of fiery clouds.
Giant footprints and a long shadow seen from above show how big he is, yet the sun is always ahead, and the more he chases, the farther it gets.
First a giant footprint on cracked ground, then an overhead shot of Kuafu walking on a dirt road as the sun behind him stretches his shadow long across the land.
Kuafu runs through a sea of clouds, his profile resolute; the camera suddenly pulls out into space, where the sun rises over the edge of the Earth. What he is chasing lies far beyond the Earth.
Kuafu bursts out of the forest; in the next shot, the sun is already sinking toward the distant horizon in a purple-red sky.
Parched with thirst, Kuafu runs to the Yellow and Wei rivers and drinks them dry in one go; the riverbeds crack open, but he is still thirsty.
In a close shot, Kuafu grits his teeth, then keeps racing through the yellow sand until at last he bends down, unbearably thirsty.
Golden water surges in waves as two rivers meet in the sunlight; Kuafu bends down and the river is drawn up into a column of water, and in the next shot only a cracked riverbed remains.
Kuafu lies at the riverbank gulping water, followed by an endless cracked riverbed with a tiny figure walking down the middle, still unable to quench his thirst.
Kuafu falls on the way to the great lake. His body becomes a mountain and his staff a peach grove, giving shelter and fruit to later generations.
Kuafu falls on his back into the yellow sand among scattered rocks, and never rises again.
The setting sun sinks into the mountains, Kuafu lies in a field of blooming flowers, and the sun's flames fill the screen once more.
Gold-green light surges through the mountains, a pillar of light shoots into the sky, and then a great mountain stands on the plain.
The glowing staff grows roots, peach blossoms open across the hillside, a sika deer walks through a shower of petals, and the shot finally settles on a ripe peach on a branch.
The full version we delivered has three more lines of narration than the broadcast version, about the spirit the story leaves behind. The picture moves from Kuafu seen from behind back to the footprints, the rivers and the Earth.
Kuafu walks away into the sunset, followed by a row of deep footprints across the land, and finally a rushing river seen from above.
The camera rests on the sunlit Earth as the narration closes on “the spiritual strength to forge ahead bravely.”
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Shown in the order of the full version, with timecodes from the full version. The giant's long shadow, the mountain formed from his body and the close-up of the peach aren't included below; you can see them in the clip breakdown.
Shot 1.1
Wide shot: the sun rises between valleys in the east.
Shot 1.2
Close shot: a small green bird basks in the sunlight in the woods.
Shot 1.3
Full shot: the land in sunlight, with a winding river and growing plants.
Shot 1.4
People of the tribe look up at the sky in awe.
Shot 1.5
Point-of-view shot: a raised hand, sunlight scattering between the fingers.
Shot 1.6
The huge sphere of the sun, with prominences and flares on its surface and gold-red energy flowing.
Shot 1.7
A young man of the tribe gazes at the sun, leading into “hoping the sun would stay above the tribe forever.”
Shot 2.1
Full shot: fiery clouds swirl into a vortex around a bright sun.
Shot 2.2
Kuafu stands on a rock with the whole sun behind him: long unkempt hair, a tiger-skin skirt and a staff in his hand.
Shot 3.1
Gold-green light flows through the mountains like the veins of the earth.
Shot 3.2
Close-up: Kuafu's foot stamps into the ground, raising dust.
Shot 3.3
Kuafu's figure at the center of a vortex of fiery clouds.
Shot 3.4
Close-up: a giant footprint on the ground, dust rising around it.
Shot 3.5
Full shot: a golden sea of clouds churns in a purple glow as Kuafu runs through it.
Shot 3.6
Close-up: Kuafu's face, thoughtful yet determined.
Shot 3.7
The Earth, half lit by the sun, with the sun rising at its edge.
Shot 3.8
Kuafu bursts out of the forest, the sun almost within reach.
Shot 4.1
Full shot: the sun moves west, about to drop below the horizon.
Shot 4.2
Close-up: Kuafu's expression, exhausted but determined.
Shot 5.1
Full shot: the Yellow River's waves roll and spray, all in golden tones.
Shot 5.2
The Yellow and Wei rivers meet in magnificent, glittering waves.
Shot 5.3
Wide shot: after the river has been drunk dry, only a cracked riverbed remains.
Shot 6.1
Kuafu lies on his back among rocks and yellow sand.
Shot 6.2
The sun sinks into the mountains, set to “he never rose again.”
Shot 6.3
Gold-red flames fill the screen, set to “moved heaven and earth.”
Shot 6.4
Mountains rise and fall like waves, with gold-green energy surging through them.
Shot 7.1
A beam of light shoots from the valley toward the sky.
Shot 7.2
Golden light and clouds churn, transitioning into the mountain.
Shot 7.3
A huge staff lies on the ground, golden energy flowing along it.
Shot 7.4
The base of the staff takes root like a young tree, glowing veins running through the roots.
Shot 7.5
Wide shot: pink peach groves bloom between the mountains.
Shot 7.6
A sika deer walks through falling peach blossoms.
Shot 8.1
Kuafu, his back to the camera, walks toward the sunset.
Shot 8.2
Wide overhead shot: rows of giant footprints across the land.
Shot 8.3
Rivers rushing and meeting, seen from above.
Shot 8.4
The film ends on the Earth lit by the sun.
05 / Script Excerpts
06 / Results
This project has two versions: the two-minute full version we delivered, which ends on “the spiritual strength to forge ahead bravely”; and the scenario-question segment of about 1 minute 50 seconds, cut for broadcast with the program's graphics and aired on CCTV-1. We made the story visuals for both versions.
Case Study
How big can a person be? Big enough to cross a mountain in one stride and cast a shadow over a whole plain.
How much water can one gulp hold? Enough to drain the Yellow River.
Kuafu, from the “Classic of Mountains and Seas,” is just such a giant.
We turned his story into a two-minute AI story film for CCTV's “Exploring China Through Idioms.” The hardest part of this film came down to one word: “big.”
01
Why does Kuafu chase the sun? The original says he wanted to learn its secrets and hoped it would stay above his tribe forever.
Viewers had to believe that reason first. So for the first 15 seconds, Kuafu doesn't appear at all; the time goes entirely to the sun: sunrise, a kingfisher in the sunlight, a golden river valley, tribespeople looking up at the sky, a hand opening toward the light, and finally a push right in to the flames churning on the sun's surface.
The color follows the story, too. The storyboard script set it from the start: a bright gold opening, purple and orange slowly added during the chase, and a soft pink peach grove at the end.
First, make people feel how precious sunlight is.
02
The character design was set from the start: long unkempt hair, a tiger-skin skirt and a staff. But in the first round of images, Kuafu striding over a great river or through a forest looked about the size of an ordinary person.
During refinement we discussed this specifically and settled on two fixes. First, place him on a plain or among only small hills: the smaller everything around him, the bigger he looks. Second, switch to overhead shots with the sun behind him, casting a long shadow ahead of him, so the shadow becomes the star of the shot.
It's hard to get both the man and the shadow right in one image, so we generated them separately: one image of Kuafu walking on a dirt road, one of the land with only a long stretched shadow, then cut them together. Before that comes a close-up of a giant footprint, the ground cracked all around it.
First the footprint, then the long shadow from above, and the giant's size comes through.
03
“He drank the Yellow River dry in one breath” was the hardest line in the film to shoot: just showing Kuafu drinking doesn't necessarily tell viewers the river is gone.
During refinement in January, the revision notes spelled out the direction: there should be a sense of Kuafu drawing in the whole river, and the river had to be seen turning into a dry riverbed. We split the line into three steps: first a wide shot of the Yellow River, golden and churning with waves; then Kuafu bending down as the water is drawn up into a column; and finally first and last frames, letting the rushing water recede bit by bit to reveal cracked ground.
The Wei River was shot the same way: the storyboard noted specifically that the Yellow River is golden and rushing while the Wei is jade green and calm, so the two rivers can be told apart at a glance.
The river rushes, he bends down, and only cracked ground is left in the riverbed.
04
The ending has two transformations: his body becomes a great mountain, and his staff a peach grove. A single prompt can't turn a man into a mountain in video; it takes at least two images.
We first had Kuafu fall into the yellow sand looking like himself, followed by a pillar of light shooting into the sky, and only then a great mountain standing on the plain. In an early version, the fallen body turned directly into a blackened stone statue, which felt too heavy; during refinement we changed the approach: the one who falls is Kuafu as he normally looks, and what he becomes is a mountain of earth and rock.
The staff sequence is split into three shots: the glowing staff lies on the ground, roots grow from its base, and golden veins spread along the roots; then peach blossoms open across the hillside and a sika deer walks through a shower of petals. It ends on a ripe peach on a branch, matching the word “fruit” in the narration.
The staff takes root, the peach grove blooms, and the film comes to rest on a single peach.
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. The full version we delivered runs about 2 minutes; for broadcast, it was cut to about 1 minute 46 seconds.
What mythological subjects fear most is failing to film “big” and “transformation.” This film offers several concrete methods: use the surroundings and a long shadow to set off scale; break a single magical line of narration into several shots of “action, process, result”; and prepare at least two images for every transformation, linked with first and last frames.
The same methods work for mythological animation, legend segments in cultural tourism promos, and commercials that need to make an exaggerated premise believable.
FAQ
This film used three methods: placing Kuafu in open terrain such as plains and low hills for contrast; switching to overhead shots with the sun behind him, casting his shadow long ahead of him; and adding close-ups of giant footprints. When one image couldn't get both the man and the shadow right, we generated two separately and cut them together.
Break it into three steps: first a wide shot of the rushing Yellow River, then Kuafu bending down as the water is drawn up into a column, and finally first and last frames to make the water recede and reveal the cracked riverbed. Viewers see the river go from there to gone.
A single prompt can hardly do it; you need at least two images. In this film, Kuafu first falls looking like himself, followed by the pillar of light and the mountain; the staff is split into three shots, glowing, taking root and the peach grove in bloom, ending on a close-up of a peach on a branch.
The storyboard script came out in late November 2024. In early December we settled Kuafu's design (long unkempt hair, a tiger-skin skirt, a staff) and began generating images and video; from mid to late January 2025 we focused on refining the giant's scale, the Yellow River drunk dry and the transformation into a mountain, and delivered the full version on January 20.
Approach
We first used a seven-act shot plan to decide what the sun, the giant, the drinking and the ending transformations each needed to convey, then separated the layers of the picture with warm golden sunlight, purple-orange clouds and a pink peach grove. Separate image plans were made for the character, the staff and the background terrain.
To show the giant's figure and shadow, shot sizes and angles were all chosen around his scale: plains, low hills and long shadows seen from above provide contrast, so the running Kuafu doesn't look only as big as an ordinary person.
Complex changes such as the river being drunk dry, the riverbed drying out and his body becoming a mountain were split into two steps, action and result, and created with first and last frames, single-image animation and editing, then rounded off with concrete images like the mountain and the close-up of the peach.
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