Everyone Has Their Own Pilgrimage

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OVERVIEW

An AI-assisted animated short that parallels an art student’s search for direction with episodes from Journey to the West. I was the primary creator, responsible for story and script, storyboarding, AI-assisted image and video generation, editing, music selection and restructuring, and sound assembly.

FOCUS

Visual storytelling · Shot continuity · Editing and sound

TOOLS & METHODS

Midjourney · Image2 · Nanobanana · Seedance 2 · ACE Studio · Jianying / CapCut

STATUS

Published

THE CHALLENGE

What needed to become clear.

Make the student’s emotional changes readable while maintaining character, setting and shot continuity across generated clips. The mythological episodes needed to support her personal journey rather than become disconnected spectacle.

THE APPROACH

How the idea was tested.

I structured the story around frustration, rediscovering purpose, commitment and an admission milestone. Character and environment references, storyboards and selected keyframes guided generation. Matched close-ups, sketchbook transitions and a water transition connect the two worlds. A silent rough cut shaped the pacing before music, dialogue, ambience and effects were assembled.

CURRENT OUTCOME

Where the project stands.

The completed film runs approximately 2:58 at 1920 × 1080. It received the National Second Prize in the 2026 14th NCDA national finals, undergraduate category. Xiao Xiao created the competition poster; Zhu Yuan supervised the project. Video-generation credits were jointly funded by Wu Yihao and Xiao Xiao.

PROJECT MATERIALS

Documents &
moving images.

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