Summary
A three-person team of graduates from Yongsan District’s practical AI-content training program won the top prize at Seoul’s “2026 Creative Athletes: The Next Creator” hackathon. Kang Min-seok, Park Saem-ina and Bae Ji-hye, working as DIDIT, created “Haechidan_Prologue,” an animated reinterpretation of Haechi, Seoul’s symbolic character. The September 18–19 event at Dongdaemun Design Plaza asked emerging creators to express memories, imagination and feelings about Seoul through generative-AI content. DIDIT received 10 million won. The team had completed 200 hours of instruction over 50 days at the Yongsan Women’s Human Resources Development Center, covering content planning, generative-AI tools, portfolio development and mentoring.
Hana’s perspective
I find the training-to-production link more important than the prize itself. These creators moved from a 200-hour practical course into a deadline-driven animation brief, which is closer to real creative work than a tool demonstration. The project also shows why local symbols can be useful material for AI storytelling: the technology matters, but a recognizable point of view gives the work its identity. The unanswered question is how much of the final animation came from each tool and from the artists’ own craft—detail that would make the result more instructive for other teams.
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