Visited representative American technology and cultural companies such as Digital Kingdom, Snapchat, Netflix, Warner, and CAA, and launched a series of articles on the American West with Qingtenghui.

Lei Jianping, founder of Leidi Touch.com, recently visited the Western World of the United States with Qingtenghui, visited the Digital Kingdom, Snapchat, Netflix, Warner, CAA and other representative American technology and cultural companies, and launched a series of articles with Qingtenghui into the Western United States.

This article is the second chapter of the series "Along with Qingtenghui" in the American Western Conference - Dialogue with Xie An, CEO of the Digital Kingdom.

Lei Jianping reported on September 7

For Chinese audiences, Hollywood movies "Titanic", "Iron Man 3", "Transformers" series, "Fast and Furious" series, " No. 1 player ", "Avengers 3: Infinity War" and so on are familiar.

These Hollywood blockbusters have a large number of special effects services, and the digital kingdom that has been established for 25 years is the special effects company behind these movies.

Digital Kingdom CEO Xie An

Just recently, Qingtenghui led China's founder to exchange three topics with Digital Kingdom CEO and Executive Director Xie An core: the development of special effects companies, the transformation of bankrupt companies, and the application of emerging technologies such as virtual reality , revealing the story behind special effects.

Xie An showed off many special effects from Hollywood to many Chinese entrepreneurs, including Lei Jianping, the founder of Lei Di.com. Among them, Chinese entrepreneurs can personally experience and practice how the scenes of Thanos, the villain in Marvel animation, were developed.

Marvel villain Thanos

For example, in "Avengers 3", one scene is that Thanos throws his adopted daughter off the cliff and gets the soul gem. Thanos does not love his daughter, but turns his daughter's life into a kind of power and continues to fulfill his great and uncomprehensible mission.

Live experience of VR technology

In real shooting, people wear VR devices and come out virtually in a laboratory full of cameras.

Digital Kingdom has a technology that directly migrates one person's actions to another person's video, thereby achieving the same action.

2015 Teresa Teng’s 20th anniversary of the death of , Taipei held a commemorative concert, using holographic imaging technology throughout the process to sing Teresa Teng’s “resurrect”.

Jay Chou and virtual Teresa Teng sing duet

Using holographic imaging technology, Jay Chou also performed his classic golden song " How do you say " with Teresa Teng, and felt countless people.

Behind this is the technology of the Digital Kingdom. The Digital Kingdom began to explore virtual human technology in 2013 and created Teresa Teng's virtual human in 2014. In August this year, the virtual human Teresa Teng's holographic concert "Teresa Teng·Legend of Teresa Teng" was officially launched in Hangzhou.

How to turn special effects from cost to assets

People have a popular impression of special effects, believing that special effects are a technology. For the digital kingdom, special effects are not simple technical jobs, but an asset; special effects employees are not technicians, but artists.

For the special effects industry, the biggest problem is the supply of production capacity.

When there are many work tasks, artists are willing to work; and when the project is over, they will have nothing to do, which is why it is difficult for special effects companies to develop independently and production companies to support a special effects team.

In the domestic environment, Party A is more likely to whip Party B to work; but when they become internal departments, companies cannot use these means to make them work more actively.

This is also the reason why "50 cent special effects" have always appeared in China: special effects are regarded as "latest stage". But in Hollywood, the special effects are early, mid and late.

"Player No. 1" Stills

For example, when Steven Spielberg got the script of "Player No. 1", the company he was looking for was the digital kingdom, which was first done to do scene design, character design, and storyboards. Only after it was done, the special effects stage would be entered.

The reason why American special effects are filmed better is because the director regards special effects as one of the key elements of the movie.

The difference between Chinese and American films is: one is the producer system and the other is the director system. The director system means that the work of special effects artists cannot be sustained.

Why is the digital kingdom developing relatively smoothly in the country? The approach of the Digital Kingdom is to "turn it upside down" and not to be in the downstream. Digital Kingdom is a special effects company and a capitalist. It signs a guarantee plan with the film and TV series companies, which ensures the safety of the principal.

How does a bankrupt company transform?

Hou Xiaonan, vice president of Tencent Mobile Internet Business Group, gave a gift to Xie An

Digital Kingdom is a company that has been established for more than 20 years and has participated in the production of special effects of Hollywood blockbusters, but it once faced bankruptcy.

After that, China Capital took over the company, and Xie An improved the company after becoming CEO of Digital Kingdom.

Xie An believes that first, there must be a reward mechanism. Judging from the experience of managing the Digital Kingdom in the past six years, without the reward mechanism, the company will not be able to move.

wants to let the team know that they are not only doing something with dreams, but they can get some substantial rewards even in the worst case.

In addition, there must be a severe punishment mechanism, "killing the chicken to warn the monkey", so that everyone knows from the bottom of their hearts what they cannot do.

Secondly, how to asset technology. There are many similar technology companies in Hollywood, but everyone is good at different sectors. Digital Kingdom is in facial technology, and some companies specialize in shaping animals and bodies.

After having the technology, we must find a way to let the capital market see the technology of the digital kingdom and introduce capital parties to collaborate. Since Xie An became CEO of Digital Kingdom, Digital Kingdom has received at least US$260 million in investment.

Former Youku Tudou BG Co-President Wei Ming

In July 2016, Digital Kingdom also introduced former HTC executive Zhou Yongming as the board of directors of Digital Kingdom. In July 2017, former Youku Tudou BG Co-President Wei Ming was introduced as executive director and vice chairman of the board of directors.

Xie An said that the transformation of any company depends on the determination of the leaders. It is actually very difficult for an old company to transform.

For some special effects artists, their lifelong dream is to win an Oscar. Companies suddenly say that they want to give up the Oscar and spend their time on virtual reality and virtual people, and they will not buy it.

If the life goal of a special effects artist is to win an Oscar, how can the company allow virtual human technology to enter the fields of gaming and social while displaying it in movies? It is necessary to find a middle point in the dreams of both parties.

In addition, we need to find new talents in the market to support new dreams. Overcommercialization will lose its core technical backbone.

Digital Kingdom is also constantly transforming. Recently, Digital Kingdom just held the "Oasis" annual strategy conference, and its business is divided into four sectors: visual effects, virtual reality, virtual people and IP content.

Virtual reality is one of the most important areas of digital kingdom. Digital Kingdom has a wealth of three-dimensional assets, which provides the basis for creating VR content without starting from scratch and producing high-quality content in a low-cost and high-efficiency manner.

Digital Kingdom also acquired 3Glasses, a virtual reality headset device manufacturer. Digital Kingdom VR Cinema has opened more than 40 experience stores nationwide. Digital Kingdom VR business has extended to hardware + content + distribution channels to build a closed loop of the VR industry.

Silicon Valley VR craze has not subsided

In recent years, the domestic VR industry has not been as popular as before. This is just a normal technology cycle.

But when you go to Silicon Valley, you will find that the VR craze has not subsided. Any technology company that can imagine is doing VR, including Google , Apple, Facebook, Microsoft , and Amazon.

Moreover, there may be no VR in the future, because VR is still very narrow, but AR, MR and XR may appear in the future. It may not be called any R in the future, but there is something that cannot be avoided - the virtual world.

Human beings may develop in the direction of the virtual world. So, what will the virtual world in the future look like? The biggest problem with

VR is that the hardware is not very comfortable and the picture quality is not very good.But one day, VR glasses are the same size as human glasses, and you can wear them easily. They can be both AR and VR. Will they become mainstream?

There is a perception in the technology world that when 5G is open, VR will be the first to explode, and it will build a many-to-many world.

At the end of 2014, Digital Kingdom used virtual human technology to produce Teresa Teng and Jay Chou singing at the Dome. In 2015, Digital Kingdom became the first Hollywood film company to be listed in Hong Kong, China. Since then, Digital Kingdom has participated in the production of many Chinese movies.

In two years, the Digital Kingdom has handed over works such as "Wolf Warrior 2", "The Legend of the Demon Cat", "Evil Is Not Suppressing the Righteousness", and " The Richest Man in Xihong City ". Xie An revealed that Digital Kingdom will also participate in IP investment in order to determine the shooting cycle.

"We hope to do special effects in China to achieve our special effects process in North America. To be honest, domestic special effects engineers are not inferior to Hollywood."

Of course, the digital kingdom still has great challenges. Recently, Digital Kingdom released its semi-annual report, an announcement stating that as of June 30 this year, the company's revenue in the first half of the year was HK$342 million, a decrease of 18% from HK$416 million in the same period in 2017.

Digital Kingdom's loss expanded by 11% to HK$225 million. The share price of Digital Kingdom once hovered around HK$0.11 per share, with a market value of only about HK$3.2 billion.

The following is the transcript of the dialogue with Xie An, CEO of Digital Kingdom (refined and processed by Leidi.com):

Question: Digital Kingdom has had several CEOs. As the first Chinese CEO, how can a special effects studio that has experienced bankruptcy be built into a technology company that is currently operating well?

Xie An: This year marks my sixth year as CEO of Digital Kingdom. These six years have been a process of tempering oneself and constantly learning.

The current visual effects industry still faces huge challenges, and a single business often finds it difficult to support the good operation of visual effects studios.

So, when I just took over as CEO for asset inventory, I began to look for the core business value of the Digital Kingdom, the most unique content, and the most competitive and unique business.

Later I discovered that digital assets are the essential wealth of the digital kingdom, which is a point that is enough to excite people; coupled with exclusive technical virtual people, these contents and "weapons" give the digital kingdom the potential to enter the VR field;

In terms of capital, many capital forces such as CITIC, SoftBank , Poly , Hony, etc., provide favorable guarantees for the positive development of the group.

In addition to offices in North America and Greater China, we added an Indian office at the end of last year, with nearly 400 employees. While reducing labor costs, it has played a very good role in protecting the visual effects business of China and the United States.

Question: A series of strategically adjusted digital kingdoms continue to focus on virtual reality and virtual people. Why did they choose to shift from visual effects to these two fields?

Xie An: Digital kingdoms are not shifting from visual effects to these two fields, but to comprehensively upgrade their business segments.

Virtual reality has always been a very optimistic area for the digital kingdom - first of all, we have rich three-dimensional assets, which provides a solid foundation for creating VR content.

We do not need to start from scratch, but select the corresponding content from thousands of asset libraries to produce high-quality content in a low-cost and efficient manner;

In March this year, Digital Kingdom acquired 3Glasses, a manufacturer of virtual reality headset equipment, and the group's Digital Kingdom VR Cinema has opened more than 40 experience stores nationwide. The above strategic measures have extended Digital Kingdom's VR business to hardware + content + distribution channels, completing the construction of the VR industry closed loop.

Either be extremely real people or be cartoon

Question: How to lay out the future of the virtual human industry?

Xie An: The industry layout direction of virtual people can be divided into traditional movie applications and virtual idol .

Traditional movies can be said to be relatively mature in this regard. From the production of "Beauty and the Beast" to the production of "Avengers 3: Infinity War", we have achieved good results.

In the construction of virtual people, our future layout direction will be biased towards the "Unortal Valley Theory" that has been popular recently in Silicon Valley: either be extremely real people or just cartoons, and there will be no intermediate image, which will easily bring people a lot of discomfort.

In our virtual human image deployment, we not only have certain requirements for the virtual human image and sound, but also add complete personality design to the virtual human, including his constellation, accent, growth background and other information.

Recently, we have set up a virtual human design team, which is to better integrate and package virtual people in a comprehensive manner.

From the current market perspective, virtual idols are roughly divided into two-dimensional virtual idols and high-simulation (photoreal) virtual idols.

Perhaps many domestic interactive entertainment companies will be more interested in the cultural construction of the second dimension, but whether it is the second dimension virtual idol and the high-simulation (photoreal) virtual idol, I think the most basic and core key is technology.

Question: What is the potential of virtual human technology in building virtual idols in the entertainment industry?

Xie An: Although the virtual idol industry is still in a state of slow progress and high cost, from the perspective of the scarcity of the market, the virtual idol industry still has great potential and development space.

Digital Kingdom is not just about creating a virtual person, and then letting him stand on the stage to introduce himself to everyone.

What we do is to call all resources through the economic company + technology company model, so that virtual people can constantly appear in various film and television works, allowing his image and concepts to penetrate into the audience's mind bit by bit, and then pull him out and introduce this "virtual person" to everyone through entertainment.

Virtual people and virtual idols are the key points of Digital Kingdom

Question: How is the Virtual People Plan for Digital Kingdom currently implemented?

Xie An: Virtual people are an important direction for future development of entertainment experience and one of the core businesses of the digital kingdom.

Starting from 2014, Digital Kingdom and Teresa Teng’s Cultural and Educational Foundation signed a ten-year contract to create Teresa Teng’s virtual person.

At the same time, we have reached a strategic cooperation with Meitu on virtual people. Both parties will enter the field of virtual social and create a virtual social platform for end users. This will be a huge market.

In addition, virtual idols are also a focus of the future development of the digital kingdom. Here, I also hope to explore new models of virtual idol cooperation with all entrepreneurs.

asked: How do you view the gap between China and the United States in terms of visual effects, as well as the current situation of domestic 50 cents special effects?

Xie An: I don’t think there is a gap between technical and creative levels between Chinese artists and American artists. The key issue lies in the position of visual effects in the film and television production process.

In the United States, the movie has placed the visual effect link in a very important position since the beginning of preparation, and has given a clear cost proportion in the budget;

The current domestic production process still regards the visual effect as the "latest stage". When the total investment cost remains unchanged, the final budget of the visual effect is far lower than the production level in the United States.

visual effects, as an important part of film and television production, can greatly help directors and producers present their final works with the lowest cost and the most efficient way.

asked: In virtual technology, which is more important to sound or character design?

Xie An: Voice is important, but not only that, but character design is also important. Digital Kingdom has a personal character setting team, led by Wang Weidong from Taiwan, who is also responsible for the virtual person plan we will launch next year.

He will gradually separate the sound and movements from the virtual auditions. What is the biggest difference between this technology and Hatsune? Hatsune is a 2D cartoon thing, and the virtual person we created is photoreal (simulation).

How to set up virtual characters? What kind of virtual people should be launched? We hope to seek more collaboration to achieve this.

asked: If you really enter the virtual idol field, how would you plan to deploy it?

Xie An: I personally feel that there must be a market for the second dimension, especially young people from Japan and South Korea. However, technology still accounts for a very important part of this market, and I don’t quite agree with the view that technology is not important.

technology is important because no one has been able to make a virtual idol at present. The prerequisite for successfully building a virtual idol is to quickly commercialize it.

asked: How did the Digital Kingdom accumulate special effects materials for "New York"?

Xie An: Build and accumulate like Lego. It started out as an iconic building, like Central Station, enriching the entire New York City model with 25 years of hard work.

First of all, it is aerial photography, modeling the picture, and then doing the details. Each movie is made, the number of models is increased. Digital Kingdom has a huge modeling database of New York and Washington, which is why there are so many scenes of New York and Washington destruction in the movie.

Digital Kingdom can make 10 minutes in one hour movie assets

Question: In the field of special effects technology, how can Chinese companies better cooperate with Hollywood?

Xie An: When cooperating with Hollywood companies, you must pay attention to the following two points:

1, find technical support, rely on your abundant connections and strong strength to gain a foothold, rather than relying on your "funding identity".

2. In terms of technical production, we must understand Hollywood's "rules of the world" (cooperation rules) and take a good sense of responsibility.

asked: The cost of special effects is still very expensive. How to reduce the "high cost" of special effects?

Xie An: The topics we are talking about have always been centered around the "high cost". Of course, if the special effects were not high cost, there would not be these topics today.

Digital Kingdom reduces special efficiency and high costs so much: through more than 20 years of technological precipitation, there are already some core technologies similar to game engines that can realize mechanical independent learning.

These technologies can ensure efficient and high-quality production completion while greatly reducing production costs.

Daily, a special effects engineer can only complete a movie with 0.5 seconds of special effects output in a day, but in the digital kingdom, it can make 10 minutes of movie assets in one hour.

Take the movie "The Number One Player" for example. Although there are a lot of virtual scenes in it, we can still achieve efficient production with technical means, which is not only fast, but also guarantees accuracy.

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