On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics was held. In the core session of the opening ceremony, "Ice and Snow Five Rings", a group of ink animations full of "Chinese style" revealed the development of the Winter Olympic Movement. Professor Gao Yanmei, head of the ink animation team and a high-end innovation center for new media art at Beijing Institute of Printing and Printing, revealed that this group of ink animations was finalized after 6 revisions on the basis of nearly 1,000 paper effects and nearly 30,000 frames of digital animation.
On November 12, 2021, 84 days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the digital ink animation innovation design team led by Professor Gao Yanmei received an important task: to draw ink animation for the "Ice and Snow Five Rings" rising design of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games.
"How to highly comprehend and understand the creativity of the general director, make it present more perfect, make the work both fashionable and modern, and have the charm of Chinese style, how to fully display the unique artistic concept and aesthetic style of the Chinese nation in front of the world, it is very difficult." Gao Yanmei said.
In order to deeply understand the director's scientific and technological design of the original sports humanoid, and put forward the requirements of giving the characters traditional texture and life spirit in the form of ink, the ink animation team tried the effect through two ways: rice paper ink hand painting and digital ink brush.
Through the hand-drawn attempt of nearly 2,000 pieces of paper, the team used the method of "visual image taking meaning" in traditional Chinese culture to realize the extraction of the inner "look" and "wonderful meaning" of the movement of the humanoid, grasp the traces of the humanoid movement, and transform the calligraphic brushstrokes into a form of expression of life. In order to improve the production efficiency, the team applied the experience and effect reference of brush hand painting to the digital ink brush drawing, and strengthened the tactile momentum transformation from paper to digital by strengthening the pen movement, pen connection, dry pen, dun pen, etc. of calligraphy. Through intensive development in a short period of time, the ink team achieved a breakthrough in drawing with two new ink digital brushes, thus presenting a Chinese-style ink animation effect in a full sense of digital technology.
"Drawing human figures is different from writing brush characters, we understand the feeling of brushes through the touch of digital brushes, not only to ensure the high degree of fluency of animation movement rules, but also to clarify the life rhythm of ink humanoids." Gao Yanmei said.
On the basis of the "dry brush" presentation effect, the ink team modified the animation humanoid frame of the past 23 Winter Olympic Games, optimized the moving humanoid, strengthened the rhythm and rich changes of life presented between strokes and strokes, and strengthened the simulation and dynamic display of life.
How can such an abstract concept make the audience unforgettable? Gao Yanmei introduced that in order to achieve the effect of "blockbuster" at the beginning of the animation display, the team tried to draw the first stroke and the first important part of the human figure of the animation by hand drawing through brush rice paper, and recorded it completely through digital shooting. In the subsequent technical optimization, the moving humanoid is rendered into an animation effect, highlighting the digital calligraphy texture from "momentum" to "rhyme", and realizing the high-quality, artistic and Chinese presentation of the digital ink painting style.
In just over 80 days, the team made six modifications to the ink animation, tested nearly a thousand paper effects, and drew nearly 30,000 frames of digital animation. In January 2022, according to the observation opinions of the International Olympic Committee and the revision requirements of director Zhang Yimou to "highlight the texture of calligraphy writing", the team strengthened the sense of power and writing of ink humanoid production. At this point, the core link of the opening ceremony, the Chinese feng shui ink animation that amazed the world, was finally completed.
Looking back on the creation process of ink animation, Gao Yanmei said that the tight production time and heavy tasks of ink animation are a test for the ability and willpower of team members. "In these 84 days, we have experienced too much, there is the frustration of failure, there is the joy of success. From the initial plan to draw 2,000 frames of animation, to the final modification of nearly 30,000 frames of digital animation, all these difficulties have not been able to overwhelm us. Through the form of digital ink painting, with traditional Chinese culture as the soul, we have shown the life dynamic and fighting spirit of sports to the world, and realized the wish of using digital technology to promote the art of ink painting and tell the Chinese story to the world for many years! ”
Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Wang Qipeng
Editor: Wang Haiping
Process Editor Tai Shaofeng