Gnomeo and the Unruly Magic Hat

Identity without realism. A statue that dreams, wishes, and fractures.

The goal of this project is to reimagine mass-produced identity through digital sculpture, animation, and storytelling.
Starting with a selfie, I created a character: a chubby, porcelain-skinned gnome boy wearing a floating lavender hat. This avatar—crafted through MidJourney, ZBrush, and 3D printing—becomes a vehicle to explore how visual culture, personal memory, and AI-driven tools collide in the construction of fictional selves.

In ZBrush, I fragmented the gnome’s body using deconstructivist logic—splitting limbs, twisting volumes, and layering symbolic artifacts. The figure evolved from a kitsch lawn ornament into a cinematic protagonist: flawed, naive, and unknowingly powerful.

The project culminates in a short animated film made with RunwayML and After Effects, following Gnomeo’s surreal journey through downtown Los Angeles. As the magic hat grants each of his innocent wishes—beautifying butterflies, silencing traffic, overfeeding stray cats—chaos unfolds. The narrative is both playful and reflective, navigating themes of consequence, self-control, and emotional maturity.

More than a technical workflow, this project is a study of how digital objects externalize identity.
It proposes that even the most mundane ornament can hold myth, malfunction, and meaning—when given a voice, a glitch, and a story to tell.

I started with a selfie — round cheeks, black-rimmed glasses, slightly sleep-deprived. From that, I created a porcelain-like gnome boy: chubby, cute, innocent, and wearing a floating lavender hat. Using MidJourney and Kling AI, I generated initial visual prototypes that felt both stylized and strangely sincere.

/prompt a modern porcelain Gnome asian skin with big eyes, skinny face ,(with black Korean Hair:1.5), chubby body, he looks innocent and cute, the lavender purple hat floating in the sky, the gnome is wearing black glasses, centered on the frame, (full body:1.5), on a white background

Next, I brought the gnome into ZBrush. Influenced by architectural deconstructivism, I fractured the body, segmented the form, and layered symbolic details — transforming a kitschy ornament into a character of narrative weight.

We then 3D printed the model at full scale using PLA, treating it as a physical totem of identity. Finally, I storyboarded a short film and animated the scenes using RunwayML and After Effects. The result is a cinematic trailer that follows Gnomeo through a surreal day in downtown LA — a story of wishful thinking, butterfly mishaps, and a magic hat that grants chaotic desires.

“Gnomeo and the Unruly Magic Hat” is a whimsical cinematic trailer set in the heart of Los Angeles. When a quiet garden gnome awakens from his statue state, he discovers that his inherited purple hat grants every wish he speaks aloud. From dazzling butterflies and silencing city streets to feeding a stray cat, Gnomeo’s innocent desires quickly spiral into magical chaos. As each wish becomes an exaggerated reality, he must embark on a heartfelt journey to reverse the unintended consequences—and learn responsibility, empathy, and the quiet power of self-control.

This project was more than just animation — it became a way to playfully externalize identity through code, clay, and narrative.