One cat, eight worlds
How it started
In September 2025, I typed a Midjourney prompt: a gray tabby cat walking through a metallic spiral tunnel with colorful reflective surfaces. The image came back looking like a portal into another dimension — the cat mid-stride, light bending around it, geometric patterns rippling outward.
I turned it into a short video. Posted it. People liked it. So I asked: what if the cat keeps walking, but the world around it keeps changing?
That became the concept. One cat. One continuous walk. A new world every episode.
這個系列怎麼開始的
2025 年 9 月，我在 Midjourney 寫了一個 prompt：一隻灰黑虎斑貓走在金屬螺旋隧道裡，周圍是五彩的反射面。出來的圖太好看了——貓在正中間走著，光線扭曲成幾何圖案，整個畫面像通往另一個次元的入口。
做成短影片發出去，反應不錯。我就想：如果這隻貓一直走，但世界一直換呢？
就這樣，一隻貓、一個步伐、八個世界。
The visual language
Building worlds from moods
Each episode starts not with a script, but with a feeling. I'd ask myself: what kind of world would feel different from last time?
Episode 1 — Time Tunnel was pure visual spectacle. Metallic surfaces, kaleidoscope geometry, rainbow reflections. It's the "wow" episode — the one that proved the concept worked.
Episode 2 — Journey Through Realms brought in narrative. The cat walks across an infinite chessboard, each square a gateway to a different universe. The black-and-white grid against surreal backgrounds gave it a more deliberate, almost philosophical quality.
Episode 3 — Cat of Time was the Dalí episode. Melting clocks, distorted space, the whole Persistence of Memory vibe. I'd been wanting to do something with surrealist time imagery, and a walking cat turned out to be the perfect anchor for that kind of visual chaos.
Episode 4 — Cat of the Future flipped everything to neon and steel. Cyberpunk cityscapes, holographic surfaces, LED-lit streets. After three episodes of organic surrealism, the hard-edged futurism felt like a natural contrast.
用情緒建構世界
每一集不是從劇本開始的，是從一種感覺開始。我會問自己：這次想讓觀眾走進什麼樣的世界？
第一集——時光隧道 是純視覺衝擊。金屬面、萬花筒幾何、彩虹反射。這是「哇」的那一集——證明這個概念行得通。
第二集——幻境之旅 加入了敘事感。貓走在無盡的棋盤上，每一格都是通往不同宇宙的門。黑白格子配上超現實的背景，多了一層哲學的感覺。
第三集——時間之貓 是致敬達利。融化的時鐘、扭曲的空間，整個《記憶的永恆》的氛圍。我一直想做超現實主義的時間意象，結果走路的貓變成最完美的視覺錨點。
第四集——未來之貓 完全翻轉成霓虹和鋼鐵。賽博朋克城市、全息投影的表面、LED 街道。前三集都是有機的超現實，硬線條的未來主義正好當對比。
Nature and darkness
The second half
The series shifted after the futurism episode. I started wanting worlds that felt more than dazzled.
Episode 5 — Forest Cat's Four Seasons was the gentlest one. Spring cherry blossoms, summer fireflies, autumn leaves, winter snow — all in one continuous walk. No surreal distortion, just nature cycling through its rhythms. After so many extreme worlds, the simplicity of seasons felt radical.
Episode 6 — Beneath the Moon went quieter still. Silver moonlight, mist, the cat barely visible between layers of fog. This one was about atmosphere over spectacle — a poem, not a poster.
Episode 7 — Halloween Odyssey and Episode 8 — Halloween Cat Fantasia were a two-part Halloween special. The first is candlelight, mist, and wandering souls — eerie but elegant. The second goes deeper: ghost fires, coffin bridges, mirror portals. Not horror, but dark fantasy where shadows dance instead of threaten.
下半場：自然與暗色
系列在未來之貓之後轉向了。我開始想做「感覺」而不只是「看到很炫」的世界。
第五集——森林貓的四季旅程 是最溫柔的一集。春天櫻花、夏天螢火蟲、秋天落葉、冬天白雪——一趟散步走完四季。沒有超現實扭曲，只有大自然安靜地循環。在那麼多極端的世界之後，四季的簡單反而很震撼。
第六集——月光下的貓 更安靜。銀色月光、迷霧，貓在霧氣之間若隱若現。這集講的是氛圍，不是奇觀——一首詩，不是一張海報。
第七、八集 是萬聖節特輯。 萬聖夜幻行 是燭光、迷霧和遊蕩的靈魂——詭異但優雅。 萬聖夜異境篇 走得更深：鬼火、棺橋、鏡中的門。不是恐怖片，是暗黑奇幻——影子在跳舞，不是在嚇人。
The Midjourney workflow
Prompts and re-rolls
Every episode was made entirely in Midjourney v7 (the first few in v6, upgraded as it became available). The workflow is simple in theory: write a prompt, get an image, animate it, edit in CapCut.
In practice, the hardest part is the cat. Midjourney doesn't remember characters between generations. Every prompt is a fresh start. Sometimes the cat comes back as a white cat, an orange cat, a slightly-too-realistic cat. I'd re-roll 10-20 times per scene to get a gray tabby that matched the rest of the series.
The second challenge is motion. A walking cat needs to look like it's actually walking — weight shifting, paws landing, tail swaying. Some of the best-looking images produce terrible animations because the pose is too static. I learned to prompt for mid-stride poses specifically.
But the biggest headache was something you wouldn't expect: the cat keeps stopping. AI-generated video clips almost always pause at the beginning and end of each generation — the motion ramps up, holds for a few seconds, then decelerates to a freeze. For a series built entirely on continuous forward walking, those pauses break the illusion instantly. The cat is supposed to never stop. The AI wants it to stop every five seconds.
The fix lives in the edit. In CapCut, I'd trim the first and last few frames of every clip — cutting right into the moment where the stride is fullest. When trimming wasn't enough (some clips had painfully long ramp-ups), I'd speed-ramp the sluggish frames to match the walking tempo of the middle section. It's invisible when it works. When it doesn't, the cat looks like it's walking through molasses, and the whole spell breaks.
Sound design matters more than you'd think for a 15-second clip. Footsteps, ambient texture, sometimes a Suno-generated soundtrack — these turn a pretty loop into something you actually watch rather than scroll past.
Prompt 和重跑的功夫
每一集都是用 Midjourney 生成的圖片，動畫有 Kling 與 Midjourney。流程理論上很簡單：寫 prompt → 出圖 → 做成動畫 → CapCut 剪輯。
實際上最難的是 貓本人 。Midjourney 不記得角色，每次 prompt 都是全新開始。有時候出來白貓、橘貓、過度寫實的貓。每個場景我大概要重跑數次，才能找到一隻跟系列其他集長得像的灰虎斑。
第二個挑戰是 動態 。走路的貓要看起來真的在走——重心轉移、爪子落地、尾巴擺動。有些最好看的靜態圖做成動畫反而很糟，因為姿勢太僵。我學會在 prompt 裡特別指定「mid-stride」的姿勢。
但最頭痛的其實是一個你想不到的問題：貓一直停下來。 AI 生成的影片片段，幾乎每一段的頭尾都會停頓——動作慢慢加速、走幾秒、然後慢慢減速到靜止。對一個「貓永遠在走」的系列來說，這種停頓直接打破魔法。貓不應該停，但 AI 每隔五秒就想讓牠停。
解法全在剪輯。在 CapCut 裡，我會把每個片段的頭尾幾幀剪掉——直接切進步伐最大的那個瞬間。剪不夠的時候（有些片段的起步慢到痛苦），就用變速把那幾幀加速到跟中間段一樣的節奏。做得好的時候觀眾完全看不出來。做不好的時候，貓看起來像在泥巴裡走路，整個感覺就碎了。
音效設計比你想的重要，加上腳步聲、環境音、有時候一段 Suno 配樂——就從「好看的循環」變成你真的會停下來看的東西。
What I learned
Eight episodes of the same concept taught me something: constraints are freedom. "A cat walks forward" sounds limiting, but it forced every creative decision into the world-building. I couldn't rely on plot or dialogue or character development. Every emotion had to come from color, atmosphere, and movement.
The series also taught me about pacing a body of work. The jump from Time Tunnel (pure spectacle) to Beneath the Moon (pure atmosphere) wouldn't have worked as episode 2. The audience — and I — needed to walk through those worlds in order.
八集同一個概念教會我一件事：限制就是自由。 「一隻貓往前走」聽起來很窄，但它逼我把所有創意都放在世界觀上。沒有劇情、沒有對話、沒有角色成長。每一種情緒都得靠顏色、氛圍和動態來傳達。
這個系列也教了我怎麼安排一組作品的節奏。從時光隧道（純視覺衝擊）跳到月光下的貓（純氛圍）如果放在第二集，不會成立的。觀眾——和我自己——需要按順序走過那些世界。
— TingYu's AI Art
Cat Walking · 2025 · Taiwan
