Desiderium

Inspiration

This AI short film is adapted from my short story Desiderium, which is part of the Computational Universe series. Desiderium is a story about the regret of loss—the Arithmian civilization became itself, yet lost so much. The mother-daughter relationship between Shu Ling and Shu Lixi is also a focal point of this story.

What it does

Shu Ling, whose mission was to destroy other civilizations, became the most destructive captain of the Arithmian civilization, but she was ultimately assimilated into the Arithmian collective memory, becoming an eternal existence. Shu Lixi, on the other hand, was exiled for her rebellious actions against the Arithmian civilization. She attempted to save scientists from the Gula civilization and was ultimately branded as a traitor. Through the fates of this mother and daughter, the story reveals the self-loss, technological abuse, and moral dilemmas that the Arithmian civilization fell into in its pursuit of perfection.

How we built it

We used Midjourney and Flux for image design, and used Veo3, Kling, Hailuo, and Vidu for AI video generation. I also trained LoRA models for each character.

Challenges we ran into

The Arithmians in this story are not human, so I needed to design unique alien features for them. I ultimately chose to add blue circuits beside their eyes—a design that is both elegant and serves as a reminder to viewers that these are aliens, not humans.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The overall design is very grand, and this story contains numerous large-scale scenes. In this short film, we can see war sequences, exquisite designs, and varied lighting effects. I feel this film has a unique cinematic beauty.

What we learned

I learned a more solid AI film production workflow that balances both grand spectacles and dramatic scenes. This is a balanced work that doesn't rely solely on drama or action sequences. It has a breathing rhythm, an epic interstellar story quality. I believe Desiderium is truly beautiful.

What's next for Desiderium

I have 25 computational universe short stories to adapt into AI films, and "Desiderium" is the 4rd one.

Built With

• flux
• hailuo
• kling
• midjourney
• veo
• vidu