The poetic countdown design, the crystal clear "ice and snow five rings", the romantic and beautiful snowflake torch platform, the dazzling digital light and shadow, the unique environmental protection ignition, paint a magnificent audio-visual feast... On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the World-renowned Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was successfully held at the "Bird's Nest" at the National Stadium. Zhang Yimou, the general director of the opening ceremony, and other members of the main creative team were interviewed by Xinhua News Agency to explain in detail the little-known behind-the-scenes stories such as the creative concept of the opening ceremony, digital technology, and tinder ignition.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the Chinese delegation entering the opening ceremony. Photo by Wu Wei, Xinhua News Agency
From "I" to "We": the biggest foreshadowing is snowflakes
Zhang Yimou said that the opening ceremony was determined from the beginning of the design, no longer to present Too much of China's 5,000 years of history and culture, because the 2008 Olympic Games have fully demonstrated themselves, and this time hope to change from showing "I" to showing "we", showing the common emotions of mankind such as "together to the future", and depicting today's new era.
【"A snowflake" shows "together to the future"】
"Someone asked me what the biggest foreshadowing of the opening ceremony was, and I replied, 'It's the story of a snowflake.'" For example, he said, at the beginning, the audience received a gift package, a countdown short film, a guide board for the participating countries and regions, the costumes of the actors, the background of some performances, and the main torch, all of which had "a snowflake" running through it.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the "Build a Snowflake" session at the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xue Yuge
Zhang Yimou used two sentences to describe it in one Chinese and one West — Li Bai's poem "The snowflakes of Yanshan Mountain are as big as a seat" and the Western proverb "No two snowflakes in the world are the same." "This is a kind of penetration that we have carefully designed, and every snowflake, every country and region, gathered in Beijing will become the most brilliant snowflake."
"In the screen, AR (augmented reality) snowflakes fall and converge synchronously against the background of the earth, symbolizing the community of human destiny, and the big snowflakes flying in the sky, and finally flying back to the center of the earth screen. Under the spotlight, a snowflake-shaped tinder device containing the names of all participating countries and regions and measuring about 15 meters slowly rises, romantically pure and sparkling, shining in the center of the 'Bird's Nest', hitting the audience's heart, symbolizing the close unity of people all over the world. Wang Zhiou, visual effects director of the opening ceremony, explained, "Especially in this Winter Olympics held under the epidemic situation, this snowflake tells not only the story of 'I', but also the common future of 'us', highlighting the importance of a community with a shared future for mankind, and showing that the world must unite and help each other in order to overcome difficulties." ”
From "fire" to "micro-fire": why not "light" the main torch?
【The subversive design of ignition is unprecedented】
"The biggest innovation of this opening ceremony is the ignition method and the design of the torch stand, which is unprecedented in the history of the 100-year Olympic Games: transforming the burning Olympic fire into a snowflake-like holy and flexible small flame, this idea comes from the concept of low-carbon environmental protection." Zhang Yimou introduced that the Olympic fire is an important symbol of the Olympic spirit, as the concept of environmental protection becomes more and more popular, he firmly believes that the form of the previous raging fire will one day change, and the Beijing Winter Olympics just seize the opportunity. "This change is subversive, and sometimes I even ask myself if I'm out of the ordinary. In the end, this plan was supported by the International Olympic Committee, showing that no matter how big or small the flame, as long as the fire in everyone's heart is ignited, it is the most brilliant holy flame! ”
Previously, the ignition method of the previous opening ceremonies was to make a fuss about how to "point", and this time, the biggest change is "not to light", and the last torch is placed directly on the main torch platform. "Everyone's first reaction must be very unexpected, the audience has doubts is actually very good, I believe that this ignition method can well popularize the concept of low-carbon environmental protection." Zhang Yimou said.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the main torch of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Cao Can
"My Motherland and Me": the biggest performance art for the opening ceremony
"The opening ceremony was completed by ordinary people, volunteers and athletes from all walks of life, with a total of about 3,000 people participating." Zhang Yimou said, "The opening ceremony focuses on improving public participation and showing the spiritual outlook of today's Chinese people in front of the world. ”
【National Flag Hand to Hand】
The people who passed the national flag at the opening ceremony included representatives from all walks of life in China and representatives of 56 ethnic groups. They use hand-to-hand transmission to express the emotions and relationships between the people and the flag. At the same time, a child trumpeter blew the melody of "My Motherland and Me".
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the national flag of the People's Republic of China. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yichen
Zhang Yimou said that the International Olympic Committee allows the host country to have some elaborate designs in the important part of the national flag admission. "Ordinary people pass it down from hand to hand, and there may not seem to be any exciting performances, but they are most directly to the hearts of the people - the greatness of the people, and our country is made up of our people."
【Tribute to the people of the world】
In the tribute to the people, 76 young people from all over the world walked together and walked shoulder to shoulder, forming a long river of images composed of photos, showing the picture of solidarity and the fight against the epidemic in the world and the passionate moments when athletes fought for their dreams. "This is a tribute to the people of the world, the Chinese knots on both sides of the stage symbolize unity, and when they walk through the stage, they are transformed into the Winter Olympic slogan of 'Together to the Future'." Zhang Yimou said.
【People from all walks of life participate in the hot dance】
"In the hot stage, from 5-year-old children to college, middle and primary school students, and then to the elderly model team in their 70s, they used the square dance that the people liked to hear, showing the spiritual outlook of the Chinese people in the new era and the celebratory atmosphere of welcoming the New Year." Zhang Yimou introduced that according to the custom, the hot stage link is basically a "skewer performance". "But this time we broke the convention, the participants do not need to dress uniformly, but put on their favorite clothes to perform happily, express the sincere feelings of ordinary people, and let the world feel the joyful and peaceful Taste of the Chinese New Year and the passion of the Winter Olympics."
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the performance before the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng
【Mountain children singing Olympic songs】
After the Olympic flag was entered, children from the Fuping Mountains of Hebei Province sang the Olympic song in Greek and floated around the venue. Zhang Yimou said: "Fuping County was once a state-level poverty county. Under the leadership of the party, China won the battle against poverty as scheduled, the once poor mountainous areas now have a new look, and the children also wear the 'tiger head hat' designed by Hebei folk artists, stand on the Olympic stage, and interpret the Olympic concept of 'faster, higher, stronger - more united' with simple songs. ”
【Cute baby on the ice, the future champion】
At the opening ceremony, the video clip of the cute babies boldly trying and playing happily on the ice and snow was very infectious. "Since last November, we have been collecting these cute footage images and stepping up production to complete them." Speaking of the original intention of the creation, Li Zhiwei, head of the short film group outside the opening ceremony, said, "To drive 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, we must start from the doll, and the champion will be born in the cute baby, so the title of this short film is called 'Future Champion'." ”
"Chinese Aesthetics" Poetic: "Countdown to the Twenty-Four Solar Terms" shows cultural self-confidence
Zhang Yimou said that the opening ceremony of this Winter Olympic Games no longer focuses on the program of huge momentum and sea of people tactics, but shows the traditional Chinese romance and aesthetics through multiple creative highlights.
【Countdown to the 24 solar terms】
In the 2008 Olympic Games, the shocking 29 fireworks footprints and the spectacular countdown to the hitting made countless Chinese people remember it vividly. And this time, the countdown to the twenty-four solar terms also shows the Chinese style. "The opening ceremony coincided with the spring in the twenty-four solar terms, which is a perfect coincidence, implying that all things grow and a new beginning begins." Speaking of the source of creativity, Zhang Yimou said that the twenty-four solar terms embody the ancient wisdom of Chinese observing nature, showing the picturesque rivers and mountains in the change of spring, summer, autumn and winter, full of poetic rhyme of winter to spring and thriving, and containing Chinese outlook on life, values and cosmology.
"In terms of display methods, we will select a representative image of each solar term, accompanied by aesthetic or dynamic Winter Olympic and ice and snow pictures, which are closely in line with the Olympic theme, so as to achieve the communication between ancient and modern times and refreshing." Cai Guoqiang, chief designer of visual arts at the opening ceremony, said for example, "When it comes to Qingming, everyone will think of 'the rain during the Qingming Season', which has some similarities with the sweating rain when athletes train, and the image of the wind and objects of the festival is closely linked to the Winter Olympics." ”
As for whether the twenty-four solar terms can be understood by foreign audiences, Zhang Yimou admitted that he also had anxiety. "We have deliberated repeatedly and tried to explain the meaning of solar terms in a way that foreigners can understand. Art is universal, we must adhere to cultural self-confidence, and believe that foreign audiences can feel the aesthetic intention we want to convey. ”
【"Lichun" presents "the unity of heaven and man"】
Winter goes to spring. At the end of the countdown short film, a performance with the theme of "Li Chun" appeared brilliantly, with hundreds of actors holding glowing poles to create a sense of light and shadow interaction, implying that spring flowers bloomed on the pure ground screen "ice".
"Each glowing rod reflects the texture of the flowers blooming on the 'ice surface', symbolizing the vitality of spring. Green 'Li Chun' fireworks appeared in the sky, making the excitement and strength of 'Spring Coming, All Things Su' soar into the sky. The wicker swaying in the pane, in the naked eye 3D three-dimensional effect, the audience is like being in a green Jiangnan garden. Wang Zhiou explained in detail that at the end of the section, a dandelion slowly fluttered in the field, the children on the side of the venue gently blew, the seeds drifted with the wind, gradually lifted off into the air, transformed into brilliant fireworks, completed the perfect combination of the three from naked-eye visual effects to physical space to real-world performance, and at the same time linked fireworks performance, realizing the continuation of the concept from "earth" to "people" to "heaven".
【"Ice Sculpture Chinese Doors and Windows" open doors and windows】
"The approximately 50-minute Olympic entrance ceremony is essential. Without ingenuity, the audience is bound to feel lengthy and tedious. Wang Zhiou introduced that for this reason, the visual effects team specially designed ice sculpture Chinese door and window patterns on the "China Gate" of the vertical screen and the travel route of the athletes on the ground screen, which means to open the door to welcome guests, and the ground screen window rotates the great rivers and mountains of China all year round.
Zhang Yimou said: "Our door and window patterns have changed about thirty or forty times, reflecting the long-standing sense of fullness of Chinese culture. ”
The biggest light and shadow in the history of the Olympic Games: presenting a new visual feast
At the opening ceremony, digital light and shadow special effects such as giant "ice surface" ground screen, shining "ice and snow five rings", and AR effect snowflakes took turns to appear to achieve multi-dimensional visual effects. Sha Xiaolan, chief lighting designer of the opening ceremony, introduced that in order to achieve realistic ice and snow effects, the entire opening ceremony used real-time capture, naked-eye 3D and other performing arts equipment and technologies, many of which are the world's firsts, which can be said to be a huge and complex digital innovation project. Among them, the visual effects project covers 17 process links, including more than 5800 seconds of digital content, about 290,000 frames, and about 2430 machine hours of rendering time. The video resolution of the ground screen (ice surface) and vertical screen (ice falls) is extremely high, with a total area of about 15 IMAX sizes. ”
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. Photo by Wu Wei, Xinhua News Agency
【The largest "ice surface" in the history of the Olympic Games】
Throughout the opening ceremony, the stage of the performers is a giant light and shadow screen, creating a super "ice surface" visual effect, and every second the screen screen screen changes according to the adjustment of the program, or ethereal or romantic, presenting a unique aesthetic. "For the 2008 Olympics, I wanted to use this method, but the technology was not yet mature." Wang Zhiou said, "Today, this screen has become the largest 'ice surface' in the history of the Olympic Games, and it is also one of the biggest highlights of the opening ceremony, showing the rapid development of Chinese science and technology and performing arts technology." ”
【Visual effects team into a wisdom "brain"】
The production and performance of the ground screen involve many topics such as software and hardware, broadcast control and so on. We are almost like the wisdom "brain" of the opening ceremony, according to the creativity of director Zhang Yimou, constantly optimizing all aspects of the program. Wang Zhiou said that first of all, the visual effects team digitized all the creative content, so that all the main creators, choreographers, actors, etc. were clear at a glance, improving the efficiency of design and rehearsal; second, in terms of hardware, a lot of research was carried out on hardware parameters such as light and shadow screen clarity, color temperature, resolution, and attachment materials, so that it could achieve both the effect of glittering and the maximum closest to the texture of ice and snow; third, the performance under the 360-degree perspective of the "Bird's Nest" was continuously designed and studied, and mechanical devices were laid out. Meet the visual needs of the audience in the field and in front of the TV.
【More than 400 versions of "Ice and Snow Five Rings" design】
In the "Ice and Snow Five Rings" display link, a drop of ink fell from the sky and gradually transformed into the water of the Yellow River, gushing endlessly and running on the field. The combination of "landscape painting" and the concept of "Yellow River water" presents a picture of both traditional aesthetics and modern technology. The current flows straight down, rushing into "ice", and the "one side of the water" in the center of the field rises from the "ice surface" and solidifies into ice. When it rises to its highest point, it is lit up by a laser as an ice cube. The ink animation style of the sports humanoid and the names of the previous winter Olympics change and flicker in the ice cube. With the swing of the ice hockey player, the ice ball rushed out, the ice cube gradually shattered under the laser engraving effect, and a crystal clear "ice and snow five rings" gradually appeared in the ice cube, slowly lifting off into the air... Zhang Yimou commented on the creative design of this link: "There is a scientific and technological content, a cultural charm, and a cool modern sense. The 'five rings of ice and snow' and the 'giant snowflakes' of digital light and shadow shine together, which is the exchange and dialogue between human civilization and the Olympic spirit. ”
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows the "Ice and Snow Five Rings" link at the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Meng Yongmin
Recalling the design process of this link, Wang Zhiou lamented that it was "too tortuous and too difficult". "In the creativity, from the visual pattern design of the 'Yellow River Water', the screen splicing of the 'Ice and Snow Five Rings', to how to make the crushed ice 'jump' formed by the impact of the 'Ice Cube' more flexible, all require meticulous digital design and research." For example, Wang Zhiou said, "The team first formed a research group based on project management, visual design, multimedia design, installation design and other types of work, and produced more than 80 versions of the dynamic interpretation of the link, more than 400 versions of the design renderings, and completed more than 3,000 seconds of dynamic visual effects content." The water flow image in the screen is an image processing algorithm, and the machine 'learns' a large number of traditional Chinese ink paintings and establishes a model of ink texture characteristics to generate stylized landscape images. We convert three-dimensional animation into the point data required by the laser machine, and realize rapid effect iteration to meet the needs of creative updates, which is the deconstruction and reshaping of the traditional Chinese ink painting style by digital technology. ”
【Record-breaking large-scale real-time dynamic capture】
Sha Xiaolan introduced that in the "Flying Peace Dove" and the theme song singing session, the children held cute glowing little pigeons running freely and happily, and interacted with the sparkling "stars and snowflakes" under their feet. This romantic scene is all realized by artificial intelligence motion capture technology.
This performance was completed by a large-scale location recognition and real-time graphics rendering system based on artificial intelligence developed by the visual effects team in conjunction with the AI real-time special effects team. The system does not require performers to wear any equipment, based on video signals can complete the position tracking of more than 600 actors in the same time, its high precision, low latency and other characteristics make the live broadcast screen more natural, more realistic, more romantic. "Wang Zhiou introduced that it is the first time in the world that so many actors have been dynamically captured and interacted with each other with artificial intelligence technology on a venue of more than 10,000 square meters." This time, we succeeded! ”
Winter Olympic fireworks: "Double line and five rings" means "city of double Olympics"
【The amount of fireworks used is only 10% of the Beijing Summer Olympics】
"The opening fireworks display is simple and only about 3 minutes long. Although there are only 1800 rounds of environmentally friendly ammunition, the amount used is only 10% of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, but it is even more necessary to strive for excellence. Cai Guoqiang introduced that this time no longer use too much atmosphere fireworks, but for the Winter Olympics to develop a variety of fireworks varieties such as "snowflakes" and "ice flowers" to create a "northern scenery" in the air. At the same time, the special effect fireworks used this time are mainly produced in Hunan, Hebei and other places, all of which are high-tech environmental protection micro-smoke fireworks, and strive to be environmentally friendly and safe. After the improvement of the propellant composition, the fireworks are non-toxic and slightly smoke-free, which greatly reduces the impact on the environment when fireworks are fired. ”
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. The picture shows a fireworks display. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xin
【Double-line vertical five-ring meaning "City of The Two Olympics"】
"When the five-ring-shaped fireworks lit up, the audience recalled the passionate summer of the 2008 Beijing Olympics." Cai Guoqiang said, "But unlike the single-line horizontal five rings in 2008, the opening ceremony shines with double-line vertical five rings, which has the meaning of 'the city of the double Olympics', the color is better, and the shape is fuller." ”
【"Welcome Pine" reflects the level of fireworks design】
"During the opening ceremony, bonsai-like 'Welcome Pine' fireworks bloomed over the 'Bird's Nest', and the venue and fireworks were cleverly combined to symbolize welcoming athletes and spectators from all over the world, while also adding green embellishment to the Chinese New Year festival." Cai Canhuang, executive design and technical director of the opening ceremony fireworks, introduced that although the "Welcome Pine" was only a dozen seconds, it was the most tested of all fireworks varieties. "When the fireworks explode, they are originally three-dimensional scattered spray, but the 'welcome pine' shape requires that the fireworks can only be sprayed upwards to form a pine needle shape. In this regard, according to the proportion and height of the 'trunk' and the 'tree branch', we arranged the time point of ammunition launch and explosion, etc., transformed the traditional fireworks products, and after many tests, finally achieved success, reflecting a high level of fireworks design. ”
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Reporters: Zhou Jie, Zhou Ning, Ji Ye, Wang Lu,
Huang Kexin, Gao Meng, Wang Chujie
Editors: Wang Hengzhi, Wu Bowen, Cao Yibo