2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
从2021年4月开始，曹雨西工作室荣幸收到冬奥会导演组的邀请，开始参与到北京冬奥会开幕式的视效制作工作。从开始创意概念的提出，到7月至10月的设计深化，以及到最后11、12月的最终输出制作，我们用将近一年的时间去完成了整个项目的制作。
我们负责制作所有前期创意环节以及后面视觉的深入设计，包括仪式前表演，例如雪花汇聚，五环展示，冰立方激光互动等节目板块，也负责仪式前表演视频的完整后期制作。
Starting from April 2021, my studio was honored to receive the invitation from the Director Zhang Yimou team and started to participate in the visual effects production of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. From the beginning of the early concept to the concept detail from July to October 2002, and finally to the final output production in November and December, we spent almost a year to complete this project.
We were responsible for the production of all the pre-creative aspects and the in-depth design of the visuals, including the pre-ceremony performances, such as the snowflake convergence, the five rings display, the ice cube laser interaction, and other program segments, as well as the complete post-production of the pre-ceremony performance videos.
“一起向未来”是本届冬奥会的口号，包含了人们的美好梦想，表达世界携手同行向未来的憧憬向往，以此口号为题的开幕式仪式前表演，是开幕式盛会的暖场环节，是拉开冬奥会序幕的第一篇章。展现中国的热情，向全世界问好，为后面的各环节作铺垫，是这一环节表演的主要目的。
与2008年的北京奥运会开幕式不同，2022年冬奥会开幕式不采用“人海战术”，而是贯彻“简约、安全、精彩”的理念，以场地中央的上万平方米的巨幅地屏为此次开幕式所有环节的主体。《一起向未来》地屏视频内容作为为热场广场舞节目部分，营造过年气氛的效果环境视频，有着为观众们的第一印象所服务，要让观众第一眼就看明白地面是一块巨大的冰面。同时配合深埋周围的雪花来表达冰面的深度以及为后面的雪花汇聚等系列节目埋下伏笔，也为冰下世界福立方的动态走线和万花筒过年传统图形符号渲染过年气氛。
“Together to the future” is the slogan of the Winter Olympic Games, which contains people’s beautiful dreams and expresses the world’s aspiration to walk hand in hand towards the future. The main purpose of this performance is to show China’s enthusiasm, greet the world and pave the way for the next stages.
Unlike the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games does not use “crowd tactics”, but carries out the concept of “simplicity, safety and excitement”, with a huge floor screen of tens of thousands of square meters in the center of the venue as the main part of all the opening ceremony.
The main body of the opening ceremony. Together to the future” ground screen video content as a hot field square dance program part, to create the effect of the New Year’s atmosphere of environmental video, with the audience’s first impression of the service, to let the audience at first glance to understand the ground is a huge ice surface. At the same time with the deep buried around the snowflakes to express the depth of the ice surface and for the convergence of snowflakes and other series of programs later to lay the groundwork, but also for the dynamic alignment of the world under the ice Fu Cube and kaleidoscope New Year’s traditional graphic symbols rendering New Year’s atmosphere.
导演对地屏的设计提出了大胆的理念：用一个冰块讲故事。“要让观众看到的不是一块巨大的LED屏幕，而是一块巨大的冰，一块纯净无暇的冰，要空灵和浪漫。”张艺谋强调。这意味着这个冰块不是自然界中的冰，而是一个经过艺术加工的、满足人们想象的、美轮美奂的冰。
冰块的中央是一个巨大的“福立方”，由“福字”和剪纸万花筒构成，可以看作是吉祥福字剪纸的立体化和动态化。最初的创意是冰屏中心一张二十米的“福字”剪纸，四周大屏以万花筒覆盖，后随着创意的细化推进，“福字”与万花筒合二为一，重构为创新的“福立方”。“福立方”刻于冰块之中，但又是“活着”的，它既带有冰的质感属性，又需要给人以过年的热闹感，意味着“福立方”的设计是需要满足冰火相融、动静有常的要求。
The director came up with a bold concept for the design of the ground screen: to tell a story with a block of ice. “To let the audience see not a huge LED screen, but a huge piece of ice, a pure and flawless piece of ice, to be ethereal and romantic.” Zhang Yimou stressed. This means that this ice is not the ice in nature, but a beautiful ice that has been artistically processed to meet people’s imagination.
In the center of the ice cube is a giant “fortune cube,” made up of the word “fortune” and a kaleidoscope of paper cutouts, which can be seen as a three-dimensional and dynamic version of the auspicious fortune paper cutouts. The initial idea was a 20-meter paper cutout of the word “fortune” in the center of the ice screen, surrounded by a large screen covered with a kaleidoscope, and then with the refinement of the idea, the word “fortune” and the kaleidoscope were merged into one, reconstructed into the innovative “fortune cube “. The “Fu Cube” is engraved in ice, but it is “alive”, it has the texture property of ice, but also needs to give people a sense of lively New Year, which means the design of the “Fu Cube” is The design of “Fu Cube” needs to meet the requirements of ice and fire blending, and movement and stillness.
“福立方”工程文件与合成过程
“福立方”是一层层合成制作的，主要由福字和万花筒组成，每一层都单独赋予材质，同时渲染出来分别处理，然后再合成。过程可以总体划分为准备阶段和制作阶段。准备阶段主要是对“福字”、吉祥图案、吉祥剪纸万花筒的设计，需要大量的调研和资料收集，经过反复推敲，提炼出三十分钟表演的展示素材库。制作阶段主要是万花筒的动态化和视觉效果的设计，是考验技术与审美的难关。
“Each layer is given a separate material and rendered out separately for processing, and then composited. The process can be divided into a preparation phase and a production phase. The preparation stage is mainly about the design of “lucky characters”, auspicious patterns, and auspicious paper-cut kaleidoscope, which requires a lot of research and data collection, and after repeated deliberation, a library of display materials for the 30-minute performance is refined. The production stage is mainly the design of the kaleidoscope dynamics and visual effects, which is a test of technical and aesthetic difficulties.
万花筒是用GLSL TOP元件写的一个shader，我们把shader里的可调节参数都整合了出来，做成万花筒的Base元件，其对应的效果都进行的了一一研究，以严谨的态度去深入研究了万花筒。首先从图案设计的层面对万花筒图案进行了取材调研、造型特点分析、构图分析，我们将万花筒与传统吉祥剪纸联系起来，从中国传统文化的成果中提取精华；接着进行动态的设计，测试不同参数组合下不同的动态效果。我们做了相当多的测试，整理成提案，把多种万花筒动态的可能性都列出来让总导演选择，力求让“福立方”展示传统文化的内核，又体现现代中国的数字审美。
The kaleidoscope is a shader written with GLSL TOP components. We integrated all the adjustable parameters in the shader and made it into the Base component of the kaleidoscope, whose corresponding effects were studied one by one, and studied the kaleidoscope in depth with a rigorous attitude. Firstly, we researched the kaleidoscope pattern at the level of pattern design, analyzed the modeling characteristics, and analyzed the composition. We linked the kaleidoscope with traditional auspicious paper-cutting, extracting the essence from the fruits of traditional Chinese culture. We did a lot of testing and put together a proposal, listing out a variety of kaleidoscope dynamic possibilities for the general director to choose from, in an effort to make the “Fu Cube” showcase the core of traditional culture while reflecting the digital aesthetic of modern China.
我们利用了TD实时渲染的特性，把鸟巢和屏幕模型都导进去之后，就可以实时地看到效果。而且你可以模拟观景台位置的各个裸眼 3D 的视锥角度，来观测到的真实情况，不需要等待渲染，大大提高工作效率。并且TD能实时查看每个节点的效果，可以快速搭建动态和实现效果合成。
地屏的分辨率非常大，大于16k，相当于四块8k的画面，而光是在仪式前表演就有足足30分钟，视频内容帧率需要达到50Hz，在如此大体量的项目中，渲染压力是相当大的，而TD的渲染效率很高，并且当项目优化得足够好时，可以把没必要的动态动画帧变成静帧的合成，那我们就可以得到1秒/ 10 帧 ,1秒/ 5 帧 ,甚至1 秒/ 3 帧的输出节奏来维持高分辨率内容的快速输出。而且这个内容可以直接通过用英伟达的GPU编码，利用元件Movie File Out 就直接可以输出与官方文件匹配的HD264格式。
我们最终在TD中将项目文件整理成一个“雪花系统”，把流程大幅度简化和合并，实时完成制作、输出、切分、合成、合并、检查等多个环节，并能够灵活的修改和颠覆各种环节的方案和问题，实现模块化、程序化。我们使用这一系统针对《一起向未来》仪式前表演、《过年好》主席进场、《黄河之水天上来》、《构建一朵雪花》四个最重要的表演板块进行创作与制作。
We took advantage of TD’s real-time rendering feature, and once you import both the birdhouse and the screen model, you can see the effect in real time. And you can simulate the view cone angle of each naked eye 3D at the location of the observation deck to observe the real situation without waiting for rendering, which greatly improves the work efficiency. And TD can view the effect of each node in real time, you can quickly build dynamic and achieve effect synthesis.
The resolution of the ground screen is very large, greater than 16k, which is equivalent to four 8k screens, and just performing before the ceremony is a full 30 minutes, the video content frame rate needs to reach 50Hz, in such a large volume of projects, the rendering pressure is quite large, and TD’s rendering efficiency is very high, and when the project is optimized well enough, it can turn unnecessary dynamic animation frames into static frames of the composite, then we can We can get 1 second/10 frames, 1 second/5 frames, or even 1 second/3 frames to maintain a fast output of high resolution content. And this content can be directly encoded with NVIDIA’s GPU, using the component Movie File Out to directly output the HD264 format that matches the official file.
We finally organized the project files into a “snowflake system” in TD, which greatly simplifies and merges the process, completing multiple stages of production, output, cutting, compositing, merging, checking, etc. in real time, and allows us to flexibly modify and subvert the solutions and problems of various stages to achieve modularity and proceduralization. We used this system to create and produce for the four most important performance panels: “Together to the Future” pre-ceremony performance, “Good New Year” Chairman’s Entrance, “The Water of the Yellow River Comes from the Sky”, and “Building a Snowflake”.
我们所做的内容最终是在一块一万多平米的地屏上呈现，而在制作的时候我们只能在普通电脑显示屏上看，其效果是相差非常大的，导演最终是需要根据现场的情况来判断制作的内容。举个例子，我们在屏幕看到的一个像素粗的线条，放到地屏上可能就有一个人的手臂粗。因此所有制作团队和导演组都是边做边测试，测试后开会讨论修改方向，再根据会议中导演提出的需求转译成具体的工作安排，分配给负责不同部分的团队成员。
The content we make is eventually presented on a 10,000 square meters of ground screen, while in the production we can only see on the ordinary computer monitor, the effect is very different, the director ultimately need to judge the production of the content according to the scene. For example, a pixel thick line that we see on the screen may be as thick as a person’s arm when put on the ground screen. So all the production team and the director’s team are testing as they go along, meeting after the test to discuss the direction of the changes, and then translating into specific work arrangements according to the needs raised by the director in the meeting and assigning them to the team members responsible for different parts.
视效导演/制作人： 曹雨西
Visual Director / Producer : Cao Yuxi
视觉设计/特效合成： 刘苏晨 程琬焯
Visual Design/ Special Effect Composition: Liu Suchen, Cheng Wanzhuo
视觉设计/视效程序： 张俪
Visual Design/ Special Effect Programing: Zliii
三维设计/技术美术：谭文隽 苏明泽
3D Design/ Technical Artist: Tan Wenjun, Su Mingze
美术设计/图案创作：金帅
Art Design/Graphic Art: Jin Shuai
视觉程序：陈子健
Visual Programing: Chen Zijian
特别鸣谢：
Special Thanks:
视效导演 黄晨
Visual Director: Huang Chen
视效导演 柳迪
Visual Director: Liu Di
视效导演 王硕
Visual Director: Wang Shuo
