AitorEcheveste

Short film · Mundos Digitales 2026

Generating is easy.Directing is hard.

An AI-assisted short by Aitor Echeveste, created for Mundos Digitales 2026.

Watch the film — 2:03

The film is one version of a much larger world.

Event
Mundos Digitales 2026, A Coruña
Talk
Beyond the Hype
Film
Cantina sequence, 2:03
Role
Direction · Visual development · Selection · Compositing · Finishing
Supported by
Freepik
  • 22City environments
  • 59Story keyframes
  • 32Character designs
  • 51Reference sheets

Counted in the project's own library. One film on screen.

A city of pagodas and walkways built into a giant tree on a rock spire, wrapped in cloud

01The world

The film you see. The film that could have been.

The cantina is two minutes of a much larger world: cities grown into trees, bridges over canyons, crowds in the rain, a dragon.

Bridges and lit houses strung between the roots of a vast tree
A lone settlement on a mountain spire above mist and waterfalls
A small figure crosses a high bridge between dark towers
A lone ronin in a wide-brimmed hat stands in a wet street under towering wooden buildings
The ronin under a lantern in a rain-soaked alley
Over the ronin's shoulder, creatures rush towards him through the rain
An attacker leaps across the cantina above the ronin
The ronin and another figure cross the cantina floor beneath the aquarium
A sword slash in motion blur in front of the aquarium
The ronin draws his sword beneath the aquarium
Two figures face each other across the empty cantina floor
The ronin drives his blade past an opponent
Inside the cantina: six of the story keyframes.
Extreme close-up of a dragon's eye, a figure reflected in it
The ronin walks through a crowd as an immense dragon coils over the city behind him

What do you keep?

The cantina's aquarium tank behind brass-framed glass, lit green

02The cantina

A world has to hold together.

One image becomes a place a camera can move through.

The cantina: a circular bar under a long green aquarium tank
The cantina seen from a new camera position, lower and further back
Bartender, patrons, booths: who sits where.
Bartender
Inside the bar
Patrons
Around the room and at the bar
VIP area
Private booths at the edge
A private booth with a round table, lanterns and a curtain
A pale octopus bartender leans across the bar, a glass of whisky in the foreground

03The cast

A character is not a prompt.

The same identity has to survive the next shot.

  • A robot with a porcelain face and blue-and-white glazed armour
  • A small grey-blue creature with enormous amber eyes
  • A crustacean warrior in a shell of plates and claws
  • A long-headed insectlike patron leaning on a table
  • A figure in a wide hat with red tentacles for a face
  • A hulking white-furred creature with tusks
  • A pale hooded alien with a cluster of black eyes
  • A tall cylindrical service robot on thin legs
  • A ronin in a straw hat and a faded orange robe
  • A grinning skull-faced character with a mane of white hair
  • A cephalopod in a blue flight suit
  • A squat pink creature with many red eyes and a wide mouth

Twelve of the 32 designs. Then one of them, followed through.

Reference sheet
Turntable
In shot
One identity, many contexts
The cyclops's eye fills the frame; the ronin stands tiny below it

04The shot

A beautiful frame is not a shot.

Framing, scale and eyeline have to hold in every representation.

Four storyboard panels: the cyclops, the ronin under his hat, bared teeth, the eye
The same four panels as untextured grey layout images
The same four panels as photographic frames

Now change one thing.

An almost final frame, and one small note.

The same frame with a handwritten note: “Can we keep this frame, but make him a little more menacing?”
  1. Version one: a snarl and a cut on the nose
    01
  2. Version two: a new framing with a raised fist
    02
  3. Version three: the single eye is gone, replaced by two
    03
  4. Version four: two eyes again, bloodshot
    04
Same frame. Same note. Four answers — two of them lose the eye.

The last part is control.

05The finish

Generation is not the finish.

Separate the image. Recover the decisions.

  • The ronin isolated on a green background
    Character
  • The cantina background alone, in sharp focus
    Background
  • The same background defocused
    Focus
Assembly: a second breakdown, the fish character. Pause and scrub it.
A tentacled card player in a wide hat holds his cards in a green, smoky light

06The decision

More possibilities. More decisions.

The prompt directs. The references lock. The edit decides.

Aitor Echeveste · Mundos Digitales 2026 · Supported by Freepik.

Let’s talk about the process
Aitor Echeveste on stage at Mundos Digitales, a frame from the project projected behind him
Mundos Digitales, A Coruña, July 2026