On the afternoon of October 28th, the launching ceremony of the "Digital Mei Lanfang" Master Reproduction Project was held at the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater in Beijing. The project is jointly initiated by the Central Academy of Drama and Beijing Institute of Technology, funded by the Outstanding Young Scientist Program of Beijing Universities, the overall overall co-ordination and system planning of the Central Academy of Drama's Traditional Drama Digital High-precision Research Center, responsible for art control and supervision, the expert team of Beijing Institute of Technology provides key technical support such as optoelectronic imaging, digital performance and creative simulation, Tencent Group provides part of the technical support, and at the same time has received the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Central Academy of Fine Arts and other units and the strong support of Mr. Mei Lanfang's family and disciples. The project aims to reproduce Mr. Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera, through high-fidelity real-time digital human technology, and form a "Mei Lanfang twin digital person" who is close to a real person in appearance, shape, voice, performance and other aspects, and strive to create the first "digital Peking Opera person" in China that can be interacted with in real time in real time, and use this as a model to build a "Chinese" digital asset library.
Zhao Qinping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of the Academic Committee of Beihang University, chief scientist of the State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, librarian of the Central Research Museum of Literature and History, former vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, chairman of the first session of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, former convener of the Art Discipline Review Group of the Degree Committee of the State Council and distinguished professor of the Central Academy of Drama Zhong Chengxiang, President of the National Peking Theatre, Zhang Shuwu, head of the Cultural and Technological Expert Group of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Liu Zhen, director of the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall, and Fan Meiqiang, grandson of Mr. Mei Lanfang, Li Hongtu, head of the Peking Opera Troupe and Peking Opera performing artist of Peking Opera House, Dong Yuanyuan, disciple of Mr. Mei Baojiu and Peking Opera performance artist, Li Zhongqiu, vice chairman of the International Animation Association and chairman of Beijing Disheng Digital Entertainment Technology Co., Ltd., and Mei Wei, great-grandson of Mr. Mei Lanfang, attended the launching ceremony. The launching ceremony was presided over by Weng Si, a famous Peking Opera scholar and the main speaker of the "Hundred Family Forum" column "Mei Lanfang" of CCTV.
Ceremonial speech
Professor Hao Rong, Dean of the Central Academy of Drama, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Convener of the Discipline Review Group of Drama and Film and Television of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, and Professor Zhang Jun, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, President of Beijing Institute of Technology and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, delivered speeches in the form of pre-recorded video.
President Hao Rong delivered a video speech
In his speech, President Hao Rong said that in the face of the rapid development of virtual reality, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other related technologies, how to revitalize the excellent traditional Chinese culture such as Peking Opera through technology is the common mission of our generation. Art is people-oriented, and digital human technology is able to unify the presentation of "people" with the innovation of "technology". It is expected that through the digital reconstruction of Master Mei Lanfang, the master can be truly reproduced from various dimensions such as sound, shape, god, rhyme, etc., and witness the development and innovation of Chinese opera in another form, inheriting traditional Chinese culture.
President Zhang Jun delivered a video speech
President Zhang Jun said in his speech that science and art are unified and promote each other, jointly leading the development and prosperity of human civilization, the digital Mei Lanfang master reproduction project is cooperated by the two universities, bringing together the high-level expert team with strong scientific research strength of the two universities, to achieve the cross-border integration of art and science and technology, aiming to reproduce Mr. Mei Lanfang's style in digital form, inherit the spirit of Chinese civilization and the national culture of Peking Opera, Beijing Institute of Technology will fully support the project to promote, restore the master's style as soon as possible, and interpret the memory of the times. In the on-site speech session, Professor Zhong Chengxiang, Director Liu Zhen and Zhang Shuwu group leader delivered speeches successively.
Professor Zhong Chengxiang delivered a speech
Professor Zhong Chengxiang pointed out that grasping the world in a scientific way is intended to seek truth; grasping the world in an artistic way is intended to seek beauty. Peking Opera is the essence of the country, it is one of the important components of China's excellent traditional culture, and Master Mei Lanfang is the most outstanding representative of Peking Opera art. Today we stand at the height of the new era, cherish the classics, cherish the masters, mobilize modern scientific and technological means, reproduce the style of the masters, better inherit the excellent traditional personality spirit of the masters, make the traditions left by the masters adapt to the contemporary culture, coordinate with modern society, and strive to achieve creative transformation and innovative development, which is a great thing of great significance and practical significance of the times.
Group leader Zhang Shuwu delivered a speech
Zhang Shuwu, group leader, said that this year is the first year of the meta-universe and twin digital people, and all kinds of digital people are emerging in an endless stream. If you compare the creation of twin digital people with winemaking, the team of China Opera and North Polytechnic is a winemaker who uses grain to elaborate wine, rather than a bartender who uses base wine as a blend. The team took on the most challenging tasks in twin digital human technology, and they were doing the noisiest things with the quietest minds. It is believed that this team will stand on the commanding heights of twin digital human technology and create a new world for the integration of culture and technology.
Researcher Weng Dongdong made a speech
Weng Dongdong, a member of the doctoral supervisor group of the "Traditional Drama Digitization" of the Central Academy of Drama, the technical leader of the project, and a researcher at the School of Optoelectronics of Beijing Institute of Technology, introduced that the core goal of the project is to create a highly realistic digital character through the twin digital human solution based on visual measurement, with digital human production technology as the core. The goal of the project at this stage is to create two character digital assets of Mr. Mei Lanfang, one is to create a digital asset of the character of the young Mei Lanfang in casual clothes based on the 26-year-old Mr. Mei, and the other is to create a costume version of the character digital asset with the shape of Mu Guiying as the prototype.
Teacher Chen Chao personally drove Vicon to move the capture
Teacher Chen Chao, a specially appointed teaching practice guidance expert of the Central Academy of Drama, provided a large number of valuable pictures and video materials of Mr. Mei Lanfang for the project, and guided the use of the data many times, he wrote the debut script, tutored the "voice actor" in mandarin in the early 20th century, and personally drove the digital reconstruction of model expressions and body postures.
The launching ceremony reproduced the "Plume Dance" clip of the premiere version of Mr. Mei Lanfang's "Xi Shi"
At the launching ceremony, young actors Zhang Xin and Wang Xiaoxi reproduced the "Plume Dance" clip of Mr. Mei Lanfang's original "Xi Shi" premiered in 1923. The reproduced "Plume Dance" clip is an uncut version of Mr. Mei's 1923 premiere, which premiered for more than ten minutes, with complicated stage scheduling and novel design of the dance body. Later, when Mr. Mei got older, the lyrics of "Plume Dance" were reduced from nine sentences to three sentences, and the dance was reduced from more than ten minutes to five minutes. The Chinese Peking Opera audio and video collection project version and the current stage popular performance method are both deleted versions. The original version of Mr. Mei Lanfang was learned by Mr. Li Jinhong from Mr. Mei in Shanghai in 1947, and in 1994, Mr. Li Jinhong passed on this play to Chen Chao, who in turn passed it on to two young actors. It is worth mentioning that the costume of the character Xi Shi in the play was personally designed and produced by Mr. Li Shutang, the fourth generation of the 100-year-old Beijing Embroidery Intangible Cultural Heritage, who made clothes for Mr. Mei in that year.
At the same time, Professor Zhang Wei, director of the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, presented the project team with a 1:1 bronze statue of Mr. Mei Lanfang's head designed for project research; Mr. Mei Lanfang's grandson, Mr. Fan Meiqiang, specially gave a poem for the project: "Long regret the wind and flow, empty years have passed." Now is the time of the world, and from now on the waves are saved. Heaven has heard songs, and people have sung songs. A hundred years is still immortal, and the neon sleeves are competing with each other", and the Mobao Vertical Axis was presented to the project team.
At the end of the launching ceremony, the guests of honor were stamped on the 3-meter-long project theme hand scroll, and expressed their encouragement, encouragement and expectations for the project in the form of "Idle Chapter" with Chinese characteristics, such as "Miaohe Tiancheng", "Think 10,000 Thoughts just in Case", "It Works", "Head Horn Zhengrong", "Beauty" and so on.
The new liberal arts digital construction platform behind "Digital Mei Lanfang"
The Central Academy of Drama Traditional Drama Digital High-tech Research Center (hereinafter referred to as the Research Center) is a scientific and technological innovation entity platform based on the construction of the Outstanding Young Scientists Program of Beijing Universities, and is a special zone for the construction of "new liberal arts" and interdisciplinary development of the Central Academy of Drama.
Taking beijing's "four centers" and cultural power strategy as its starting point, the research center is committed to the digital protection, preservation, inheritance and dissemination of traditional drama and innovative development. The research center has a motion capture laboratory and an expression capture laboratory (jointly built with the Beijing Polytechnic Optoelectronics College) to provide a maker space for students, and is currently building a hilbertspace drama lab.
At the level of doctoral training, the research center has two doctoral research directions, the direction of "traditional drama digitization" is jointly built by the Central Academy of Drama and the School of Optoelectronics of Beijing Institute of Technology, the Institute of Chinese Art and Technology, and the School of New Media Art and Design of Beihang University, and the direction of "Drama Artificial Intelligence" is jointly built by the Central Academy of Drama, the School of Computer Science of Beijing Institute of Technology, and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the level of master's training, there are two directions: "Drama Digital Research" and "Drama Digital Application". At the postdoctoral training level, there is a research direction of "Digital Actors and Future Drama".
Since its establishment in January 2019, the Research Center has actively explored the following aspects:
The first is to rescue the collection of endangered and lost repertoire and its key technical data, and provide human-machine collaborative solutions for the high-level inheritance of traditional drama.
The second is to release and exhibit digital art works in the world's most important art exhibitions, innovate display methods, and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
The third is to explore and set up an interdisciplinary research direction of "drama artificial intelligence" with the School of Computer Science of Beijing Institute of Technology, which effectively drives the construction and development of first-class disciplines of "drama and film and television studies".
The fourth is to work with the School of Optoelectronics of Beijing Institute of Technology, the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China Institute of Arts and Science and Technology to promote the cutting-edge exploration and forward-looking layout of digital actors and future dramas.
The fifth is to promote the in-depth integration of "government, industry, study and application" and provide strong support for serving the economic and social development of the capital and localities, the Beijing Winter Olympics, and major national cultural projects.