This page details the conceptual intent and design strategy of Layers In History as part of an MFA research project.
Please click the thumbnail ->
to check the Overview first!! 😊
Inspiration
Scientific Features Into My Artistic Interpretaion
Story
The Background music ‘Danse Macabre’ is inspired by a poetry written in the Black Death, showed people cheerfully accepting mortality rather than fearing it.
Inspired by this cheerful acceptance of death, this animation turns a geological event into a simple, imaginative story.
SCENE 6 : Paleozoic ocean
The ants with Ammonites drift through the waters of the Paleozoic ocean.
SCENE 5 : Dinosaur
They rouse the skeletal remains of dinosaurs, and playing a symphony by tapping upon the bones.
SCENE 3 : Cave Mural
In the top layer of earth, Cenozoic Era, the ants discover cave paintings made by early humans.
SCENE 2 : Ant Next
Group of ant going on a field trip to an fossil exhibition hidden deep within their tunnels.
SCENE 7 : Collapse
A massive quake collapses the ground, and the ant colony became fossils written in the history.
SCENE 4 : Ancient Ant
Ants wake an ancient ant deeply preserved in amber.
Harvester Ants builds grandiose ant nest with dozens of chambers and tunnels.
Directed like a labyrinth with randomly tangled structure and organic texture, which is enveloped by natural light source from the top.
When insects trapped in tree resin, it becomes amber fossils. Sphecomyrma had an angular body, curved antennae, and wings.
A fantastical world with massive, multicolored geological layers and tall cacti, while the tiny ants themselves are barely visible.
Multiple fossils embedded together in a single layer reveal their forms and cross-sections.
The layers of rock are made of different materials, so cliffs show many colors
I used to build physical clay models to use as references for my previous animations.
Crafting Handmade Reference
Clay, fossils = Earth Material
Fossil and Ancient Creatures
Sharp cactus
A fuzzy felt toy you want to touch
Matching Subject Matter with Visual Medium
3D Result using Blender (Click to See this Project)
Highlighting the panicked appearance of the suddenly fossilized ant, within a arm and classic feeling of the amber.
A cross-section of the strata reveals characters from each period at a glance, visually showing timescale.
Can we turn heavy geological information into a fun, animated story?
Why Handcrafted aesthetic?
How I made a Clay style reference for 3D animation before?
Material Metaphor
Audience feel as if they can physically touch characters
Tactile Intimacy
Before you read….
Stylized design makes it feel more approachable
Reducing Fear
So this time, I experimented with Generative AI to create visual references
Sketch
3D Production
Visual Reference generated with AI
You might be wondering,
Why not just use full AI instead of 3D modeling?
CONCLUSION
At least until the summer of 2025, image-to-video models still had consistency issues. That's why I built every scene in 3D first and used AI mainly for refining.
Still, using full AI is highly effective for specific scenes that require a sudden stylistic shift, and it significantly reduces production time.
I Successfully merged analog clay aesthetics with 3D animation workflows, creating engaging Earth History narrative.
For independent creators with physical art background, collaborating with AI tools in 3D production can reduce technical barriers while still maintaining a strong artistic identity.
Recognitions
This animation has been actively screened and presented across various international film festivals, educational events, and conferences, demonstrating its value across multiple domains:
Recognized for technical excellence through official screening at SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival
Pitched production workflow as a selected speaker at Annecy Festival - Mifa Student Pitch
Utilized as an educational screening resource for schools in Science Film Festival & Australia's National Science Week
Spoke at a seminar for design students at Kindwolf Design Class, Seoul
Won the "Best 3D Animation" award in New York Short Animation Festival
Awarded an scholarship and exhibition opportunity in Edith Fergus Gilmore Scholarship Exhibition
Shape Keys for Expressions
Deforming the mesh to mimic physical clay shaping, rather than using traditional facial rigging.
Bendy Bone Rigging
Following the form of flexible wire armatures used in real stop-motion puppets.
3D Techniques applied for handcrafted aesthetic
Prop-Inspired Design
Using craft materials like toy marbles for the octopus's eyes, inspired by traditional puppet making.
VR Sculpting
Using VR sculpting, I created more organic forms as if carving with my hands. Rough models created in VR were refined using advanced modeling tools such as ZBrush.
Thanks to AI, I experimented with a new visual reference pipeline. I fed my hand-drawn storyboards into a Gen-AI model to generate clay-style references, which guided my 3D modeling process. This was much faster than the traditional physical puppet-making process described above.
However, a key limitation (as of late 2025) was applying multiple distinct clay materials within a single frame—for example, all clay elements in the image below share a uniform look.
My technical Improvement
Style frame in July
3D modelling for base
AI image Generation
Final cut in November
Generative AI has grown along with me
This work was built on my 3D foundation and further refined by engaging AI during post-production.
Production began before the release of advanced Gen-AI models like Nano Banana and Kling, so AI could not be utilized across the entire workflow.
Generative AI is also developed
But I genuinely enjoyed learning this, my 3D skills has been rapidly improved.
Surprisingly, Generative AI has been also significantly developed together just in 6 months while I am on production, what was impossible in mid 2025 is now working seamlessly in February 2026.
Prompt : Make them look like handcrafted clay, with parts of their bodies buried in the clay. The clay color is a light mix of light green and yellow. Don't let the shadows be too dark.
Collaborating with AI tools in 3D production
While maintaining a core 3D production workflow, AI was heavily leveraged in specific areas detailed below, earning strong recognition in early 2026 as a showcase for effective AI application in 3D pipelines.
Scene Transitions
Matte Painting + Compositing
Set a cave scene and an underwater scene as the start and end frames, then used prompts to fill the cave with rising water—creating a transition between the two environments.
Applied an AI-generated collapsing effect for the background and blurred the focus. The 3D actors were then composited in front of it to complete the scene.
FX Simulation
To capture intense FX like collapsing mountains and rising dust clouds, I initially ran several Blender physics simulations. Ultimately, the AI-generated results were chosen for the final cut as they better achieved the desired aesthetic.
AI-Generated Turnarounds
Creating multi-view references for 3D modeling.
Image-to-Video AI
Generating Animation from keyframes and manually refining distorted frames following traditional stop-motion composition
Targeted Detail Enhancement
Using Photoshop's partial image editing AI tools to meticulously correct scenes lacking detail.
Dream Stage!
Back in 2018, when I first started learning 3D, I wanted to quit so many times. 3D animation felt like an impossibly high barrier to entry compared to the physical art I was used to. Standing here, seeing my work screened at the world's top computer graphics conference... it’s just the most overwhelming gift to give myself ! I was so deeply grateful to my past self for not giving up.
Presenting the project’s creative direction and production at the world's largest animation festival was an incredible experience. Some audience members noted how rare it is to see a student thoughtfully integrating AI into production pipelines rather than simply relying on it. They said my work was a great example.
Official Selected at Computer Animation Festival
A comment on my blog
SIGGRAPH 2026
Annecy 2026
Featured Student Presenter at MIFA Student Pitch