Asian Games 2022: Digital Avatars Light Torch in Historic Ceremony
The 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou made history with a groundbreaking torch lighting ceremony led by over a hundred digital avatars. This innovative spectacle was made possible by a dedicated team led by Fang Kai from Alipay, who spent 18 months on the project.
The team's crowning achievement was the digital ignition ceremony, a complex system comprising over 200,000 lines of code and over 100,000 tests. They implemented AI-based motion capture, enabling the digital avatars to perform intricate actions with minimal human movement data. The ceremony saw the avatars holding the torch, dashing across the Qiantang River, and circling the stadium, captivating nearly 100,000 spectators.
Before the ceremony concluded, the digital avatars had already sparked a trending topic on Weibo. Alipay further engaged participants in an online torch relay, providing each with a unique digital avatar and an exclusive blockchain-stored certificate. The avatars transformed into flickering flames, congregating along the Qiantang River before merging to form larger-scale digital personas that raced toward the stadium. The 3D digital avatar platform used was developed by Manycore, a Chinese 3D design firm. Initially, the team struggled to capture human expressions but resolved it using generative AI and 58 facial controllers.
The digital avatar torch lighting ceremony at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou marked a significant milestone in technological integration with sports events. It not only captivated spectators but also engaged participants through an online torch relay. The success of this project paves the way for future innovative uses of digital avatars in large-scale events.
