2019 TED Conference ("TED2019") came to an end in Vancouver, Canada. At this conference, Mr. Doug Roble, head of the software R&D department of Digital Kingdom Group Co., Ltd., one of the world's largest virtual reality (VR) experience service providers, and his virtual stand-alone "DigiDoug" jointly delivered a wonderful speech with the theme of "How to create virtual person ". DigiDoug is one of the achievements of the Digital Kingdom in the industry, and is built by the virtual human department. Led by visual effects industry veterans, Mr. Darren Hendler and Mr. Doug Roble, the department is committed to tailoring virtual people, creatures and roles for film works, large-scale live events and cutting-edge applications.
Doug Roble and his virtual human DigiDoug demonstrated the virtual human creation process on TED2019 on-site
Doug through real-time and seamless independently developed by Digital Kingdom, and supports the generation of facial animation system with lightweight single cameras. Combined with machine learning, DigiDoug more intuitively demonstrates the possibility of photo-realistic virtual people being used in real-time performances and virtual social interactions. During the speech, DigiDoug transformed into another virtual character "Elbor", demonstrating the speed of changes of virtual people in detail.
DigiDoug transformed into another virtual character Elbor, showing the rapid change of virtual people
"Virtual human technology was originally pioneered for entertainment purposes and was highly respected for gradually becoming a practical tool for film and television practitioners. Since then, a variety of application scenarios around this technology came into being." John Fragomeni, Chairman of the North American Region of Digital Kingdom, emphasized: "The deep cultivation of the digital kingdom in the territory of virtual people will permanently change the way humans communicate and interact." Mr. Xie An, CEO and Executive Director of
Digital Kingdom, said: "The changes brought about by machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence to the visual effects industry are emerging one after another. The advent of the 5G era has effectively accelerated the pace of breaking the walls of virtual people and related technologies, and this ever-mature interaction model has brought more business choices to the fields of entertainment, socializing, and education."
Live audiences can interact with DigiDoug in a virtual reality environment
Since its establishment in 1993, Digital Kingdom has helped thousands of movie, TV and entertainment experiences to achieve amazing visual effects; at the same time, it continues to lead the pioneering and innovation of virtual people. Based on the performance of actor Josh Brolin , Digital Kingdom used this technology to successfully shape the emotional villain "Thanos" in " Avengers 3: Infinity War". For this, the Digital Kingdom won nominations for the "Best Visual Effects" category of the 91st Academy Awards and the 72nd British Film Academy Awards, and won the "Best Live Film Visual Effects" and "Best Live Film Animation Role" awards at the 17th American Visual Effects Union Awards.
Previously, Digital Kingdom first applied virtual human technology to the movie " Rejuvenation " in 2008, and the "reverse growth" process of the male protagonist Brad Pitt moving from aging to youth was presented delicately. In 2012, the virtual image produced by the famous American late rap singer 2Pac was launched at the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival. The vivid and realistic performance caused heated discussion among fans. Since 2013, the charm of Teresa Teng, the "Genius Queen" has been reproduced with the help of this technology, and Chinese people around the world have the honor to recall the graceful and sweet voices that have influenced generations together.
