Davey Winder
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 05:16
Business IT -
Networking
Page 1 of 2
Around 1 billion people around the globe are estimated to have tuned in to watch the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. I wonder how many of them realised that some of those fantastic fireworks they were watching had been created by a computer visual effects team?
The eyes of the world, it seems, were on Beijing last Friday for the
opening of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. It was without doubt a truly
stunning extravaganza.
It could be nothing else. What with more than
15,000 performers and nearly 11,000 athletes taking part on the night.
Or the estimated $300 million cost for that matter.
But what most people remember about any Olympics opening ceremony is
the fireworks display. In the case of Beijing, that meant some 30,000
fireworks. It's just a shame not all of them were real.
According to The Beijing Times, a key 55 second fireworks sequence was
actually digitally created many months in advance of the Games. Even if
you were actually there, right there in the Bird's Nest National
Stadium, you still would have been watching fake fireworks.
The problem, we are told, as with the giant firework footsteps that
walked their way from Tiananmen Square to the stadium itself. Each
footprint turned into falling stars and then Olympic rings.
The sequence of 29 feet was, without any doubt, truly something to
behold. For all but a lucky few it was also truly faked and the
Internet has not let that small fact slip past quietly.
An advisor to the Beijing Olympic Committee told the Beijing Times that
"we could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by asking him try to
follow the firework route" so the decision was made well in advance of
the games to use digitally created footage, excuse the pun, instead.
So while the giant feet were actually formed by real fireworks on the night, what the world saw was not.
To be fair, the quality of the CGI fireworks was such that it is hard
to feel cheated in an way, shape or form. Everything, right down to
their insertion in the broadcast stream at exactly the right moment,
was executed to perfection.
So what went wrong, how did the fake fireworks story get out and does it really matter? Find out on page 2...
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