Source: News Network
On the evening of the 23rd, the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games lit the main cauldron, and hundreds of millions of online digital torchbearers "small flames" gathered on the Qiantang River, gradually forming an image of a digital human in the process of movement.
Holding the Asian Games torch, the digital man walked on the waves to the sky above the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, and walked to the torch platform with the sixth torchbearer on the scene to light the main cauldron together. This scene made countless viewers shout shocked.
Where did the idea of hundreds of millions of people lighting the torch come from?
As the core idea of the opening ceremony, this year's Asian Games changed the original way a single torchbearer lit the main cauldron, and used the form of mass participation and digital interconnection to allow more people to participate in it.
Sha Xiaolan, chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Hangzhou Asian Games, introduced that the main creative team completed the lighting of the main cauldron in the form of "digital and real integration", creating the first digital ignition ceremony in the history of the Asian Games. "This time, we want to go back to sport itself. If more people participate in the ignition, this ignition method is a subversive and world-first, called the participation of all people in digital interconnection. ”
During the 100-day countdown to the Asian Games, with the successful collection of Asian Games torch at Damojiao Mountain in Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park, the first online torch relay activity "Passing on the Torch" with the participation of the whole of Asia was also launched.
Netizens around the world can become digital torchbearers by clicking on the online torch relay in the "Asian Games One-stop Pass" mini program. "Our goal was to have tens of millions of people participating, and in fact there were hundreds of millions of participants, which supported us in bringing this idea to life."
On the evening of September 23, a particle symbolizing hundreds of millions of digital torchbearers gathered on the Qiantang River, eventually forming the image of a digital human. The digital man stepped on the Qiantang River, stepped over the main venue of the opening ceremony, and lit the cauldron tower together with the sixth torchbearer.
"First, it is the first in the world, second, it is to maximize the participation of the whole people, and third, it reflects the concrete practice of the concept that the world is in Asia and the world, and ultimately a community with a shared future for mankind." It is also the highest embodiment of our digital technology, breaking through great difficulty. ”
How do digital humans "run" in front of a live audience?
Although the digital man running on the Qiantang River can only be seen through the broadcast, when the digital man enters the Great Lotus Stadium, the audience can also really see him running and lighting a torch.
How do virtual digital humans "run" in front of the live audience? The Great Lotus Stadium is equipped with a 185-meter-wide and 20-meter-high super-large IMAX stereoscopic screen screen, and the super-combustible picture of the digital human passing the torch is transmitted to the audience through it.
Diao Jingsheng, head of the video hardware team of the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games, introduced that this large network screen is composed of 9 IMAX screens side by side, which is a new attempt of the Hangzhou Asian Games and the largest screen in the world. The first feature of this screen screen is transparency, and the designers fully consider the 30,000 spectators behind the screen, satisfying their naked eyes to watch the suspended performance. The network screen has 3 million pixels, ensuring that the audience can immerse themselves in the grand and beautiful opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The ignition ceremony of "digital and real fusion"
How to achieve zero errors?
As the first "digital and real integration" ignition ceremony in the history of the Asian Games, the digital human and the real torchbearer on the scene must achieve zero second error and ignite together, which is the countless polishing of all the behind-the-scenes staff.
Wu Yan, producer of the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games, introduced that the digital person and the real torchbearer ran to the main torch at the same time, which was actually the real torchbearer running, and the director team was controlling the frequency and speed of the digital person's broadcast. "Sometimes the position of the digital human plays a little bit faster, and the real torchbearer is a second slower, and the two can't match, so they need to be very accurate."
Cui Yongjiang, the virtual executive creative director of the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games, is the "styling designer" of the digital torchbearer, witnessing the creation of this avatar from scratch. He introduced that at the moment of ignition, the digital person also has to activate an ignition device on the spot, and these links are integrated together, which is very difficult. "We need to repeatedly adjust the angle, size, movement, and ignition posture of the digital person."
In order to save the mystery until the moment when the cauldron is lit at the opening ceremony, each rehearsal ignition session has to wait until after the clearance, mostly in the middle of the night.
When the digital people who combine the elements of strength, culture and technology step by step from the Qiantang River to the sky above the "Big Lotus", and light the cauldron together with the on-site torchbearers, this moment is the best presentation of the hard work of all the people behind the scenes.
Main station reporter/Cao Yan