Houyi Shoots the Sun

Evaine Sun

B.S. Integrated Design and Media
minor in Anthropology
(about to graduate though)

Houyi Shoots
the Sun

academic course, individual

1 week + 2 weeks, continuous, 2024

#virtual production, #world building, #show control, #style transfer, #LoRA

Unreal Engine, Max, ComfyUI, Pinokio

Houyi Shoots the Sun is part of a collaborative project that combines world-building in Unreal Engine with AI-driven style transfer. The concept is inspired by the ancient Chinese myth of the same name. I created Scene 1, which depicts the moment when ten suns rose into the sky simultaneously. The unbearable heat left people in despair. In the world-building part, I constructed the scene in Unreal Engine and used Max to orchestrate the show controls. In the style transfer part, I trained with LoRA and applied ComfyUI to perform style transfer on both the environment and the character design.

Storyline

(My Part) Ten suns appeared in the sky at the same time, scorching the land and drying up the crops. People were overwhelmed by the heat, collapsing to the ground and losing consciousness.
Some fierce beasts and monstrous birds fled from the dried-up rivers and lakes and the fiery forests, causing the villagers to run away in fear.
Hou Yi descended from the heavenly palace under the orders of the Heavenly Emperor.
Hou Yi shot down nine of the suns with his bow, leaving only one. The villagers cheered in celebration.

illustration of the myth by Chinese Learning

Scene Construction

Mountain in the back where Houyi will descend on, forest on the right where beasts will run out of, and village on the left. Show control triggers fire and people falling on the ground.