To celebrate the convergence of the worlds of sports and arts during the Olympics, Alibaba Cloud produced a short film, “Respecting History, Making History”, and invited Chinese visual artist Xiong Chao to bridge the worlds of art, sports and technology through film.
In this film, Xiong Chao embraces the notion of the Olympic spirit, taking audiences on a journey as ancient sculptures are transformed into living athletes in an arena made up of Parisian landmarks. No stranger to blending art and sport, this marks Xiong Chao's second collaboration with the Olympic Games; he previously served as visual effects director for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Xiong Chao used Alibaba Cloud's cutting-edge AI technology to create an imaginative and spectacular film that combines art, culture, sports, and technology. The technology is Alibaba's proprietary AnimateAnyone technology, which Xiong Chao uses to animate still images of athletes and sculptures. A good example of this in the film is the generation of a “beach volleyball spike.” By precisely controlling the movement through a series of input poses, Xiong Chao transforms still images of athletes into animated videos.
With this technology, Xiong Chao hopes to push the boundaries of creativity through an innovative narrative approach that combines technology and art, appealing to the emotions of audiences and capturing the Olympic spirit and the diverse cultural expressions of the Paris 2024 Games.
