The beauty of art meets the creative fusion of the power of technology
——Comment on the visual effect design of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kicked off on the day of China's traditional festival "LiChun", the opening ceremony was like a grand symphony of preludes, the use of new media technology and design language, the integration of typical Chinese symbols and imagery, while interpreting the theme of the Winter Olympics, showing the Chinese cultural spirit, embodying the vitality and vitality of excellent traditional culture "creative transformation, innovative development", highlighting the vision and concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is a countdown show. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ga
The visual effects design and production of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games was completed by the design team of The Black Bow led by the visual effects supervisor Wang Zhiou under the leadership of the general director Zhang Yimou. Wang Zhiou has participated in the visual effects design and production of important performances such as "Beijing 8 Minutes", "70th Anniversary of the National Day" and "SCO Qingdao Summit" created by director Zhang Yimou, and is committed to applying the concept of "art + technology" to live performances. The visual effects design team of the Winter Olympics led this time is composed of more than 100 "post-90s" and "post-00s" young people, covering art, design and digital engineering, and the level is comparable to the international top digital technology production team. As a young generation that grew up after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, its design and creation is not only the embodiment of the achievements of the national economy and culture, but also the embodiment of the development of education and talent such as science and technology, art and design. Adhering to the theme of "simplicity, safety and wonderfulness", the opening ceremony used the idea of traditional Chinese culture to flourish, see the big in the small, and accumulate the micro in the overall conception and narrative thread, from a piece of snow, a drop of ink, a group of households, a picture scroll into and unfolded, interpreting the spirit of the Winter Olympics in a simple and romantic way and expressing the spirit and realm of Chinese culture. From a snowflake invitation to the arrival of athletes from all over the world, snowflakes gather, thus becoming the world's ice and snow event; a drop of ink descends, transforming into the gushing Yellow River and the vast and ethereal landscape; a series of residential lintels and window lintels, colorful and splendid, interpreting the culture of life and conveying the vision of connecting the world; the opening and closing of a picture scroll shows the style and meaning of the people's main body and the life of the times. In the overall design pattern, traditional Chinese poetic thinking has been exquisitely applied, from the "material realm" of ice and snow and the "situation" of the Olympic Games to the "artistic conception" of human existence and development, which has profound meaning and embodies the characteristics of Chinese aesthetics.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the "Ice and Snow Five Rings" session at the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Jianwei
Judging from the specific visual symbol language, the Chinese time of the spring of ice and snow, the Chinese space accessible to the household, and the writing and creation of the people's picture scrolls express the value pursuit of the common world and the common destiny, and the vivid image is profound. The solar terms of "Li Chun" in the ice and snow skillfully present the traditional Chinese concept of solar term timing and the philosophy of life ecology. In traditional Chinese culture, time blends with spring, autumn, summer rain, and winter snow, and "heaven" and "man" correspond to each other, providing Chinese wisdom and Chinese experience in ecological development as a grasp of the relationship between nature and man. 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. Presenting landscape imagery and sports images with ink not only makes the ice and snow scene echo with the ink language, forming a unique visual style, but also makes the spirit of heaven and earth of traditional Chinese ink painting, the invisible life spirit of elephants and the spirit of the Winter Olympics echo, and the interpretation and expression of Chinese elements and Chinese artistic spirit of the Olympic Games in the way of ink painting, which is Chinese to see the world. During the athletes' entrance ceremony, the lintel and window lintel patterns projected on the ground are rich and vivid, and the "Gate of China" and "Auspicious Window" not only show the creation of folk wisdom, but also convey the open vision of communication and connectivity. The so-called "husband and wife, the wind from the place of communication", the portal connects the world and the soul, and the infinite space and time can be experienced in one door and one window. In the design of the people's picture scroll, in the form of conceptual behavior performance, the dynamic of walking is like the opening and closing of the picture scroll, and the magnificent picture of the people's unity of purpose is unfolded, and the ordinary and great life picture pays tribute to the people of the world. At the same time, the two sides of the scroll are the patterns of Chinese knots, which not only convey the meaning of auspiciousness, unity, happiness and peace, rich in Chinese characteristics, but also have the meaning of eternal and continuous, which contrasts with the picture scroll and forms a visual interpretation and expression of "together to the future". It should be said that the Ice and Snow Olympics are not only the enterprising and hard work in the cold, but also the friendship and exchange in the nature of ice and snow, and in the traditional Chinese culture and art, it is also the friendship of "benefiting and good me, hand in hand" in the traditional Chinese culture and art.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the "Ice and Snow Five Rings" session at the opening ceremony. Photo by Wu Wei, Xinhua News Agency
From the perspective of digital technology and design power, the opening ceremony is supported by new technology, combining the physical properties of ice and snow, the luminous characteristics of LEDs and the perspective effect of naked-eye 3D to create an ice and snow effect. Together with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, it is currently the world's largest ground screen. It is tiled in the center of the Bird's Nest, an area of about 10,000 square meters, composing more than 42,000 screens, extending to the runway, the Bird's Nest thus replaced the traditional ground screen projection, the first time to achieve full LED image, the picture quality has reached an unprecedented 16K, 50 frames per second, 16K50 frames of technical difficulty is also the first in the history of the Olympic Games; the use of naked-eye 3D technology to project three-dimensional images to the performance area, to achieve an immersive experience of viewing, in the artistic creation from naked-eye visual effects to physical space to the reality of brilliant fireworks, It realizes the construction of the relationship between heaven, earth and people; using AI real-time interactive technology, roller skating performances are combined with layers of snow landscape generated in real time, and the various winter sports shown by the silhouettes on the vertical screen are like all athletes fighting against the wind, conveying the wisdom and strength beauty of human beings. For example, under the direction of director Zhang Yimou, Wang Zhiou designed the core devices such as the snowflake guide for sports admission, the lighting of the snowflake torch platform and the glowing pigeon and the ice cube in the opening ceremony. "The Story of a Snowflake" runs through the opening ceremony with a Chinese-style "white depiction of snowflakes". From the guided tour, the ceremony, the performance, to the highlight moment when the big snowflake torch is lit. This time, the design of snowflakes makes full use of program calculations and numerical visualization, and integrates Chinese knots and olive branches, and the "snowflake" that everyone sees is born in hundreds of versions of the test draft. The large snowflake torch device is 14.899 meters wide, surrounded by 6 olive branches on the outer circle, and the inner part is closely connected by 96 small chinese knot snowflakes in the white painting style. In order to make each small snowflake shine independently, we have designed a program algorithm. In this way, the whole snowflake is full of changes every second, which is very romantic - both the crystal feeling of the snowflake blooming and the vitality of the olive branch. The design team absorbs the strength of youth, and the design ideas from teachers and students of colleges and universities and young designers reflect the growth, responsibility and innovation vitality of young people. These young generations, who were cardamom or new to university campuses in 2008, participated in the design and creation of the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which is the witness and vitality of the development under the opportunity of the times.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the "Build a Snowflake" session at the opening ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Lei
The creativity and design of the opening ceremony lasted for three years, and the general director Zhang Yimou, the visual effects supervisor Wang Zhiou and the chief production team of Black Bow Visual Effects realized the creative integration of artistic beauty and scientific and technological power, historical tradition and current reality, Chinese concept and world destiny, and Chinese cultural spirit and world sports events in a visual language full of creativity and long-lasting cultural implications. The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will be integrated into the spirit of Chinese culture, write the collective memory of the world, and will be recorded in the annals of human civilization. (Source: China Art News)
(The author is Pan Lusheng, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the China Folk Writers Association)