Wuxia Animation Cup of Snow Scheduled for Release on August 25, 2026

Wuxia Animation Cup of Snow Scheduled for Release on August 25, 2026: 3Dto2D Rendering Brings ChaoticEra Chivalry to Life

Cup of Snow, a Chinesestyle wuxia animation produced by iQIYI and produced by 2:10 Animation, directed by Li Yun, officially announced its release date. It will premiere at 9:00 a.m., August 25, 2026, with filing approval number: (E) WebAnimation Review No.015 (2026). Adapted from the classic wuxia novel of the same name by prominent neowuxia author Xiao Duan, the animation features its slogan: “Draw the sword for a thousandmile journey; raise a cup for a true friend. Await the snowwind opening; meet the chivalrous souls in troubled times.”

Project & Story Background

Originally planned as a longform animation consisting of three chapters with 18 episodes in total, the project has been adjusted and will be released as a singleepisode animated feature (final format subject to actual release).

The story follows Luo Han, a young warrior from the desert. Keeping his three-yea-old promise, he travels all the way to the Central Plains to deliver a medicinal cup for his close friend Yi Lian, leader of the rebel army. During this journey, Luo Han throws himself into danger to rescue his trapped friend and accidentally gets involved in a huge silvertheft case. The case stirs up both the martialarts world and imperial court, bringing forth wandering swordsmen, outlaws and highranking nobles, triggering nationwide political turbulence and telling a legendary wuxia tale intertwined with loyalty, friendship and national fate. Core characters including Luo Han, rebel-army leader Yi Lian and Huaishang merchant Lu Kuangchao appear in the official trailer, setting the tone of a turbulent ancientChinesestyle martialarts world.

3D-to-2D Rendering Technology & Its Value for the Animation

Cup of Snow adopts 3Dto2D rendering (NPR nonphotorealistic cartoon rendering) as its core art technique. Built upon 3D character models and 3D scene assets, the workflow applies special materials, outline strokes and postprocessing to generate visual effects resembling handdrawn 2D animation.

This technology combines flexible camera movement, accurate spatial perspective and powerful actionscene performance from 3D animation, while preserving the freehand-painting aesthetic of traditional Chinesestyle 2D art. For this wuxia title, it enables smooth groupscene shots and multiangle combat sequences, and matches the freespirited, classical literary style of the original novel. It balances industrial production efficiency and oriental artistic aesthetics, delivering immersive martialarts atmosphere and striking visual impact for audiences. Released preview materials show how this technology supports character design, environmental atmosphere and combat specialeffect sequences.

About Production Studio: 2:10 Animation (Wuhan Two Points Very Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.)

The producing studio 2:10 Animation is one of China’s leading fullchain animation enterprises. It covers the whole industrial workflow including project planning, script writing, animation production, technical R&D and distribution & operation, with more than 500 team members and nearly 300 finished animation works in its portfolio.

2:10 Animation works across Chinesestyle original animation, game CG, virtual idols and animated feature films. Its representative works include I’m Jiang Xiaobai, Giant Soldier Great Wall, Secret Treasure Kingdom and Guwei Nanting. The studio took part in visualeffects production for blockbuster movie Ne Zha: The Devil’s Sea, and has created CG animations for top-tier games such as League of Legends, Onmyoji and Honor of Kings. Its selfdeveloped crowdsimulation software Miarmy won the 70th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Award. As a rare Chinese animation studio with both highlevel artistic capacity and proprietary core animation technology, 2:10 Animation keeps advancing the industrialization of domestic Chinese animation.

Release Information

• Premiere Time: 9:00 a.m., August 25, 2026
• Production Studio: 2:10 Animation
• Director: Li Yun
• Art Style: 3D-to-2D Rendering
• Genre: Chinese-style Wuxia
• Filing Approval No.: (E) WebAnimation Review No.015 (2026)