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'Giant footprint' fireworks revealed to be computer magic

Few of the 4 billion spectators dazzled by last Friday's opening ceremony would have been aware that the spectacular 'giant footprint' fireworks seen in the live broadcast were composed with computer graphics.

The footprints, representing the 29 Olympic host cities of the modern Games, proceeded in sequence across the city's landmarks, including the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The fireworks were fired on the night, but viewers at home or watching the 'Bird's Nest's' giant screens were seeing computer graphics; only the last footprint was captured live, the Beijing Times reported.

The report said organisers feared it would be too difficult to capture all 29 footprints live from the air, given technical difficulties and strict aviation controls in Beijing. Therefore, the computer graphics were inserted into the broadcast.

Gao Xiaolong , head of the visual-effects team, said the main problem with filming the fireworks live was how to align the helicopter so that the 'footprints' would be seen in a row. Mr Gao said this would have been difficult to manage and could have put the helicopter at risk.

Lu Zhenggang , chief executive of the computer-graphics company Crystal Digital Technology that worked with the visual-effects team, said it took more than 100 engineers and 13 months to create the 55- second sequence.

'We have processed 50,000 gigabytes of computer graphics with 500 servers, the largest in the Games' history,' Mr Lu said in a video clip posted on his company's weblog.

Mr Gao said that to create a realistic effect, his team had considered advice from meteorological experts, and had mixed special effects so that viewers would think the sequence was filmed from a helicopter.

He was worried that technologically literate viewers would work out the secret, but complimentary comments online suggested the computer graphics had worked.

'It was still a bit too bright compared to the real fireworks. But we believe our mission has been accomplished, since most people would have thought it was live shooting.'

Other computer graphics included a high-definition scroll projected in the centre of the stadium floor and another scroll projected on the roof before gymnast Li Ning lit the cauldron.

A spokeswoman for the visual-effects team said yesterday that they were busy preparing computer graphics for the closing ceremony on August 24.

Team director Yang Qingsheng said he had slept only three to four hours a day for the past 20 months preparing two hours of computer graphics for both ceremonies.

The number of engineers involved in producing the 'giant footprint' computer graphics exceeded: 100

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