City landmarks turn into a sweet watermelon world, keeping the buildings' outlines while amplifying the summer imagination.
Project Type
City & Tourism
Client
Longgang city daily publicity (contributed content)
Year
2025
Our role
AI city-landmark short with sound design
Original format
1912 × 1080 · 00:34
Film00:34 · Film
01 / Background
How can one watermelon reinterpret different city buildings?
This short turns Longgang's parks, campuses, sports venues and corporate buildings into watermelon. The challenge wasn't just pasting green rind and red flesh onto surfaces; the cut faces, stripes and seeds had to follow each building's shape, so that while the images kept changing, viewers always knew where they were.
The film begins as a whole watermelon is cut open into Longtan Park, followed by venues, campuses, a plaza and corporate buildings. Every scene uses rind, flesh and bright sunshine; cutting, approaching and sweeping past turn watermelon details into doorways that carry viewers forward, keeping both the summer theme and the tour route clear.
02 / Creative Highlights
Matching rind and flesh to each building's mass, one by one.
01
Assigning watermelon materials by building shape
Venues, towers and campuses each need a different fruit structure. The energy eco-park's ring-shaped main building becomes a cylinder with a red cut face, the velodrome's ring roof is lined with watermelon wedges, the Universiade Center's faceted mass meets triangular slices, and the twin towers turn into two upright strips of red flesh. The watermelon follows each building's most essential shape, so however the theme changes, the building stays recognizable.
02
Carrying the red-green contrast across many spaces
Light and dark green stripes form the shell, while red flesh and black seeds form the cut faces, and both recur on roofs, facades and plaza platforms. Blue skies, sunlight and the real city surroundings keep a bright summer backdrop, so even transformed, every location still feels like part of one watermelon city.
03
Turning cut faces into doorways
The opening melon splits down the middle to reveal Longtan Park; later, the camera sweeps past the flesh and seeds of the Galaxy Twin Towers before opening onto the tech district. A fruit surface up close first fills the frame, then moves aside to reveal the city beyond, so the same material both shapes the buildings and serves as the transition, and the city tour keeps flowing forward.
04
Clear names for fantasy landmarks
Once buildings turn into fruit, their familiar look changes, and place-name captions become essential. Names follow one consistent style, fixed in the top-left corner and left-aligned, with full names such as “Guangdong Longgang International Velodrome,” so viewers enjoy the fantasy while knowing where they are.
03 / Scene Breakdown
Cut open one watermelon and pass through nine Longgang landmarks.
Film · 00:00–00:11
One cut, and we're in the city
A whole watermelon splits down the middle to reveal Longtan Park inside; the camera then flies over the velodrome to Shenzhen MSU-BIT University.
Clip · 00:00–00:04
Cutting the melon to reveal Longtan Park
A whole watermelon fills the frame and splits down the middle, the two red halves sliding out of frame; behind them is Longtan Park, with watermelon roofs and a water platform made from a slice.
Clip · 00:04–00:08
Melon wedges cover the velodrome roof
A ring of triangular melon wedges rises on the circular roof of Guangdong Longgang International Velodrome, and the camera flies forward along their tips.
Clip · 00:08–00:11
A university with a red-flesh spire
The spire of Shenzhen MSU-BIT University's main building turns red flesh and green rind, and the roofs of the surrounding teaching buildings are covered with cut watermelon.
Film · 00:11–00:22
A whole chunk, triangular slices and a watermelon dragon
In the middle section, three landmarks each use a different part of the watermelon: the eco-park is a whole chunk of melon, the Universiade Center is triangular slices, and the dragon sculpture takes on green rind and red flesh.
Clip · 00:11–00:15
The eco-park is a cut chunk of watermelon
The round main building of the Longgang Energy Eco-Park becomes a whole chunk of watermelon, red flesh on top and striped rind on the sides, while its two chimneys still stand beside it.
Clip · 00:15–00:18
Triangular slices form the Universiade Center
The faceted roof of the Shenzhen Universiade Center is pieced together from triangular watermelon slices, their points lining up exactly with the building's edges.
Clip · 00:18–00:22
A watermelon dragon and a rolling melon
The Longcheng Square dragon sculpture takes on green rind and red flesh, with cut slices around its base; then a whole melon rolls in from the right, blocks the lens and leads to the next stop.
Film · 00:22–00:34
The university gate, the red-flesh towers and Huawei HQ
Once the melon rolls aside, we're at the gate of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; the Galaxy Twin Towers become two upright strips of red flesh, and the camera sweeps past the seeds before settling on Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters.
Clip · 00:22–00:26
Cubed watermelon by the university gate
The pillars of the CUHK-Shenzhen gate are painted pale green, a big cubed watermelon sits by the gate, and the university's name sign takes on the color of the rind.
Clip · 00:26–00:30
The twin towers are two strips of red flesh
The Galaxy Twin Towers become two upright strips of watermelon flesh, with a section of striped rind at the base. The camera passes between the towers, and seeds flash by up close.
Clip · 00:30–00:34
Arriving at Huawei's Shenzhen HQ
Past the twin towers, the city's buildings spread out ahead, roofs covered in slices of watermelon, and the camera finally stops in front of the rind-covered facade of Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters.
This 34-second city landmark creative short was finalized in July 2025 and published on WeChat Channels. One watermelon is broken down into rind, flesh and slices and shared among nine differently shaped landmarks, linked into a summer stroll through the city.
Case Study
From rind to seeds: dividing one watermelon among nine buildings
A watermelon has green rind, red flesh and black seeds, and once cut, it gives you triangular slices, cubes and whole chunks.
What this film does is assign these parts one by one to Longgang's landmarks: which gets the rind, which the cut face, which a whole chunk, decided by the building's shape.
This is the watermelon film in the Longgang Everyday Content series: 34 seconds, starting with one watermelon cut open and passing through nine landmarks.
Client
Longgang everyday city content (supplied for Longgang's everyday publicity; no presenter credited in the film)
Project Type
AI city landmark creative short, Longgang Everyday Content series (a set with Ice Cream Longgang and Lychee Longgang)
Timeline
Started in late June 2025, first cut in early July, finalized July 9
Runtime & Specs
34 s · 16:9 · 1912×1080
Deliverables
Landscape film with place-name captions, music and melon-cutting sound effects
Distribution
Published on WeChat Channels
Produced by
Shenzhen Alchemy Technology Co., Ltd. (Liandan AI Studio)
01
One watermelon, cut up according to each building's shape
Watermelon comes in only two colors, red and green. If every building were simply “painted in watermelon colors,” nine landmarks would quickly get boring. We broke the watermelon into parts and assigned them by building shape:
A whole chunk for the round energy eco-park;Triangular slices form the Universiade Center's faceted roof and also line the velodrome's ring roof;Upright strips of flesh for the tall, straight Galaxy Twin Towers;Cubed watermelon sits by the CUHK-Shenzhen gate, while Longtan Park's roofs are simply covered with a piece of rind.
Longgang Energy Eco-Park: a whole chunk of watermelonShenzhen Universiade Center: triangular slices form the faceted roof
Galaxy Twin Towers: two upright strips of fleshVelodrome: the ring roof lined with melon wedges
02
The watermelon isn't just a look; it's also the transition
With nine places to visit in 34 seconds, relying only on hard cuts would feel choppy. This film lets the watermelon handle the transitions: at the start, one cut splits the whole melon open, and inside is the first stop, Longtan Park; midway, a whole melon rolls across the frame, blocks the lens and moves aside to reveal the next stop, the university gate; in the twin towers section, the camera skims past the flesh, seeds flashing by, before opening onto the district around Huawei's headquarters.
Opening: a whole melon is cut down the middleCut open, it reveals Longtan Park
The opening sound follows the picture too: we went through several rounds of the melon-cutting sound effect and chose a crisper, louder version, and brought the music in from the first second so the film has rhythm right from the start. Place names all sit in the top-left corner, left-aligned, each one checked, with full names like “Guangdong Longgang International Velodrome.”
Clip · 00:18–00:22
A rolling melon as the transition
After the dragon sculpture, a whole melon rolls in from the right, blocks the frame and leads to the next stop.
03
What this project achieved
For everyday city publicity, the strengths of this kind of film are speed and recognizability: about two weeks from setup to final, with all nine landmarks transformed, while their outlines and place names make it instantly clear this is Longgang.
For learners, the watermelon film shows a small trick: when “reskinning” buildings, break one fruit into several parts, and a single theme can carry a whole film; the fruit itself can also serve as the transition, saving abrupt cuts.
FAQ
FAQ
With only red and green, how do you make every landmark look different?
Use the watermelon in parts: whole chunks, triangular slices, upright strips of flesh, cubes and rind, assigned by building shape. The eco-park is a whole chunk, the Universiade Center triangular slices, the twin towers two strips of flesh; different shapes mean nothing looks repeated.
In a short with many landmarks, how do you keep the transitions from feeling choppy?
Let something in the frame make the transition. This film enters the first stop by cutting open a whole melon, moves to the next stop with a rolling melon that blocks the lens, and opens onto the district with a shot that skims past the flesh, with almost no hard cuts.
How long did Watermelon Longgang take, and what was delivered?
Started in late June 2025, first cut in early July, and finalized July 9 after the place-name captions were checked. Delivered as a 34-second 1912×1080 landscape film with place-name captions, music and melon-cutting sound effects, published on WeChat Channels.
Approach
Red and green watermelon details tie together a stroll through the city.
The film selects parks, sports venues, campuses, a plaza and corporate buildings, and arranges rind and cut faces to fit each one's shape. The opening melon cut states the theme, then the camera alternates between wide shots of buildings and close-ups of rind; forward motion and sweeps past the foreground link the different landmarks into one stroll.
In production, we treated the opening sound as a priority, choosing sound effects around the cutting action and then balancing them with the music; the place-name captions were separately checked for names and alignment. Sound cues the action and text cues the location: one serves the fantasy transformation, the other helps viewers recognize the city.
