● ● ● Photography Work

04 AI Animated Film

Nanjing
April 2026

An AI mockumentary short where stigmatized female characters from Journey to the West speak for themselves, exposing gender bias and reclaiming their subjectivity.

Project Description

Their Names is an AI animated short film in a mockumentary style.
It places stigmatized female characters from Journey to the West — including the Queen of the Women's Kingdom, the White Bone Demon, and the Spider Demons — directly in front of the camera.
Through their self-narratives, the film exposes the gender bias behind labels such as "calamity" and "disaster," ultimately culminating in the declaration: "I will name myself."

Technically, the film employs AI-generated characters, depth maps, felt textures, and composite lighting to construct a visual world that balances authenticity with emotional rupture.

part1 Character Design

Bai Gujin

Design Core:

The design of the White Bone Demon is more than a visual appearance; it is a narrative language.

Her refined makeup is the armor she uses to face the world, while her bare face after removing the makeup is the "self" obscured by history and stigma.

Through her external transformation, the audience directly experiences the pressure of gender discipline and the difficulty of subjective awakening.

Queen of the Women's Kingdom

Design Core:

The Queen of the Women's Kingdom's design constantly oscillates between "majesty" and "softness," "wholeness" and "fracture."

The crown, the stiff fabrics, the high coiffure are the shell imposed on her by external expectations; the stray strands of hair, the bare face, the crack on the teacup are the real her before she was defined as an "emotional ordeal."

When she finally stands on the city tower, the wind messing up her hair, her makeup smudged — at that moment, all the "imperfections" of her design together form a rebuttal to the label of "calamity": she is not an obstacle to be overcome, but a woman with a name, with desires, with wounds.

Princess Tie Shan

Design Core:

The design of Princess Tei Shan constantly swings dramatically between "strong one" and "mother," "pride" and "dishevelment."

Her exquisite formal attire represents the "Rakshasa Woman" identity she once took pride in, while the loose old robes, messy hair, and exhausted bare face are her daily reality after being robbed and stigmatized.

When she points to herself excitedly and says, "They call me a tigress," her collar askew, eyes reddened, knuckles white from gripping her fan — all the indignities of her design together refute the label of an "unreasonable woman": she is merely protecting the only thing she has ever possessed.

Xing Xian

Design Core:

Xing Xian's design deliberately rejects any traditional "demon" signifiers of seductiveness or viciousness.

She is plain, soft, fond of reading poetry, and speaks in a gentle whisper — precisely because she "doesn't look like a demon," she is absurdly labeled as "a pretentious wannabe intellectual demon."
Her clothing offers almost no protection, and her body is as thin as felt, shattered by a single rake blow.

The design intends to ask: why must a woman who merely wishes to recite a poem with a passing traveler pay with her life? Her "transformation" is the abrupt rupture from elegance to sudden death; her "unmasking" is all the social disguises peeling away after she is killed — revealing a soul that loves poetry purely, yet has never been truly heard.

five Spider Demons

Design Core:

The design of the five Spider Demons rejects any spectacularized imagining of "monsters." They are sisters sharing a home, ordinary women who wash clothes and cook, vulnerable beings who set traps only to protect themselves.

Their everyday old T-shirts, loose sleep dresses, and damp hair are what they truly look like; the "seductive spider spirits" in the eyes of the outside world are nothing more than a stigma forcibly smeared onto them.

When they sit side by side on the bed of their rented room and say, one after another, "We were just taking a bath, and then we were beaten to death," all the simplicity, shabbiness, and indignity of their appearance together form the most powerful counterargument to the logic that "monsters deserve to die" — they never harmed anyone, yet simply because they are "turned from spiders," they are deemed worthy of death.

part2 Scene Design

01

The bedchamber is dominated by warm gold and deep red tones.

The scene of the Queen of the Kingdom of Women is not merely a display of her personal identity, but a visual response to the way women are structurally framed as 'calamities' in historical narratives.

Every space, every beam of light, every silence asks the audience: Is she truly nothing more than a “calamity”?

02

The dressing table is dominated by cold white light and fragmented mirror surfaces.

The scene of the Bone Demon is not merely a performance of her multiple identities, but a visual response to the way women are reductively framed as 'shapeshifting monsters' in narratives.

Dominated by dusk and dawn.

The Bone Demon's outdoor setting is not merely a revolving stage for her multiple social roles, but a visual response to the way women are forced to transform between different identities in order to survive.

03

Warm but crowded.

The rented room is dominated by cool tones.

The Spider Demons' scene is not merely a presentation of the seven sisters' daily lives, but a visual response to the way a group of women is demonized as a whole due to their origin or identity.

04

Warm and fiery.

The balcony is dominated by the afterglow of sunset and the silhouettes of a running child.

Princess Iron Fan's scene is not merely a presentation of her identity as a mother and protector, but a visual response to the way women who defend their property and dignity are stigmatized as 'unreasonable and domineering'.

05

An artistic and warm evening atmosphere.

The Thorny Ridge is dominated by dappled tree shadows and scattered rays of light.

Apricot Immortal's scene is not merely her longing for poetry and a kindred spirit, but a visual response to the way women's expressions of emotion and cultural pursuit are violently erased.

part3 Storyboard Design

01

The bedchamber scene is dominated by side lighting combined with warm gold and deep red tones, while the city tower adopts the backlight of dusk, creating a sense of solitude within power and solemnity in parting. The color palette is built on the strong contrast of deep red, dark gold, and cool blue, metaphorically representing the fragmentation of identity and emotion.

In terms of sound design, quiet passages amplify the sounds of breathing and the rustling of clothing to enhance realism and a sense of oppression. Flashbacks incorporate white noise, wind, and shutter sounds to create rhythmic ruptures, while during the climactic questioning, low-frequency ambient noise is layered in to push the emotion to its peak.

02

The dressing room scene is dominated by cold white light, fragmented mirrors, and the chilly light of early morning, while the outdoor scenes adopt the gray-blue tones of dusk and dawn, creating a sense of exhaustion and alienation amidst the constant shifting of multiple identities. The color palette is built on the strong contrast of cold white, gray-blue, and dark red, metaphorically representing the self-fragmentation and emotional repression of the character under the pressure of survival.

In terms of sound design, quiet passages amplify the sounds of makeup removal, breathing, and the rustling of clothing to enhance realism and a sense of oppression, while flashbacks incorporate shutter sounds and morphing audio effects to create rhythmic ruptures.

03

The rented room scene is dominated by soft warm light, the intimate composition of seven women sitting side by side, and the dappled afternoon sunlight, while the outdoor scenes adopt the dark gold tones of dusk, creating a sense of crowding, warmth, and inescapable helplessness in the seven sisters' daily lives.

The camerawork alternates between fixed-frame group interviews and rapid black cuts, deliberately creating a sense of narrative rupture and heightening emotional impact. In terms of sound design, quiet passages amplify the sounds of laundry, breathing, and the rustling of clothing to enhance realism and a sense of oppression, while flashbacks incorporate water sounds, crying, the sound of a falling golden cudgel, and shutter sounds to create rhythmic ruptures.

04

The balcony scene is dominated by the afterglow of sunset, the silhouettes of a running child, and the warm fire-colored clouds, creating a sense of noise, warmth, and anger at being wronged in her daily life as a mother and protector, while metaphorically representing the identity fragmentation and emotional repression of a woman stigmatized as a "tigress" for defending her property and dignity.

In terms of sound design, quiet passages amplify the sound of the fan spinning, breathing, and the child's footsteps to enhance realism and a sense of oppression, while flashbacks incorporate the sound of fanning flames, mocking laughter, Sun Wukong's laughter, and the morphing sound effect of the fan being shrunk and stuffed into the mouth, creating rhythmic ruptures.

05

The Thorny Ridge scene is dominated by dappled tree shadows, scattered rays of light, and the warm yellow tones of dusk, creating a sense of tranquility, solitude, and longing for a kindred spirit as she reads poetry alone, while metaphorically representing the poetic disillusionment and innocent fate of a woman whose expressions of emotion and cultural pursuit are violently erased.