Xiao Xuan, a hyper-realistic digital human, became the world's first digital astronaut and established communication with young people in the fields of aerospace news reporting and knowledge popularization; The "Forbidden City's Largest Naked-Eye 3D Cultural Relics" has achieved 22 times high-definition magnification of cultural relics, allowing the audience to experience rich details that are difficult to feel in physical exhibitions even thousands of miles away; The "Light and Shadow Rejuvenation Intelligent Repair Engine" technology allowed Leslie Cheung to hold a high-definition concert "across time and space"... The digital media sector is in the midst of rapid development and change.

In the future, with the continuous innovation and development of technology, the digital media field will show a more diversified, rich and innovative development trend, bringing richer audiovisual experience and business opportunities to mankind. According to a report released by Tencent Research Institute, in 2022, the application of cultural technology as a whole will show new trends such as virtual and real symbiosis, audiovisual multi-dimensional, and cross-border applications.

Highlight 1

The field of AI painting was detonated

Generative AI technology has injected new momentum into AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) and changed the paradigm of mass content production and interaction.

AIGC stands for "AI-generated Content" and represents the transition from AI technology to creativity. 2022 is undoubtedly the "highlight moment" of generative AI: for example, the quality and richness of AI-generated content have been greatly improved, and the diversity of AIGC content has been further improved, and application types such as text-to-image, text-to-video, still image to 3D dynamic scene, and 3D content creation continue to emerge. For example, OpenAI's DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, MidJourney and other AIGC models that can generate pictures have detonated the field of AI painting, accelerating AIGC into the public eye, and mainstream Internet companies have also launched their own image and video generation models.

At the same time, the development of AI large models can "improve quality and efficiency" for mass content production, and AIGC applications provide creative auxiliary tools for cultural and artistic creation, and even lower the threshold of cultural and artistic creation, or will further "popularize" cultural production and consumption. Game designer Jason Allen's Space Opera using the Midjourney model became the first award-winning AI generative art.

Highlight 2

Virtual production technology is widely used in variety shows and parties

The American drama "The Mandalorian", which was launched in 2019, adopted a breakthrough virtual production method during the filming process, which has revolutionized the field of content production. Virtual production mainly uses LEDs and game engines to create virtual scenes, and integrate them with real people on the shooting scene in real time.

In 2022, with the decline in the cost of virtual production hardware and the maturity of technology, the application of virtual production in China will accelerate, especially in variety shows, gala and other fields. For example, in 2022, Henan Satellite TV's "Wonderful Tour" series of programs will combine stage and virtual scene special effects through "5G+XR" technology, combining the most dazzling elements of Henan's history and culture with wonderful artistic performances such as song and dance, opera, and martial arts.

On the other hand, virtual production technology enhances the real-time interactive experience and shapes the content live broadcast effect of "virtual presence + real-time interaction". The 2022 Tencent Winter Olympics program "Winning the Battle for Ice and Snow" invited the digital human "Star Vision" to participate in the event commentary in the studio, and with the help of remote motion capture technology and self-developed "interactive connection system", "Star Vision" interacted with real guests on the same stage for up to 8 hours, enriching the traditional studio content effect.

Highlight 3

Digital human social service scenarios have been widely expanded

With the improvement of the production efficiency of digital humans, the application of high-fidelity digital humans, hyper-realistic digital humans, and AI digital humans in multiple directions will further mature in 2022, providing humanized tools for industry efficiency improvement and service upgrading, and triggering a new outbreak of digital human social applications.

In 2022, with the improvement of digital human production efficiency, the "digital human content" in social life and service scenarios will achieve explosive growth.

On the one hand, high-fidelity digital humans and hyper-realistic digital humans enhance the immersion of information interaction, providing innovative business forms and attracting breakthroughs for young people in the fields of news reporting, live broadcasting, and variety shows. For example, Xinhua News Agency and NExT Studios created the world's first digital astronaut Xiao Xuan, as a hyper-realistic digital human to achieve realistic and delicate shape shaping, in the field of aerospace news reporting, knowledge science popularization and other fields to establish communication with young people, becoming a typical case of digital humans helping media integration.

On the other hand, AI-driven digital humans can provide services close to real people in various scenarios, becoming an "accelerator" for digital transformation in industries such as media, cultural tourism, and finance. In 2022, digital humans will integrate AI capabilities such as voice interaction, natural language understanding, and image recognition to become "digital employees", entering the media, cultural tourism, finance, e-commerce and other fields, and assuming diversified roles such as information broadcasting, cultural tourism guides, and agent customer service. For example, CCTV AI sign language anchor "Lingyu" participated in international ice and snow events, realizing the live broadcast of AI sign language commentary events for the first time, and can express more than 160.<> million words and phrases in sign language. In the field of enterprise services, combined with the industry knowledge graph, digital humans can improve service capabilities through continuous self-learning and adaptive improvement, helping enterprises to achieve digital transformation, and more and more "digital employees" have begun to enter thousands of industries.

Highlight 4

3D digital modeling helps traditional culture "digital immortality"

The digital generation of cultural heritage through 3D digital modeling, the true reproduction or restoration of relics that have disappeared in the long river of history, this path of cultural digitization will enter the application explosion period in 2022. The 3D restoration of cultural heritage is more elaborate, realistic and immersive, opening up a new path of "digital immortality" of traditional culture, and further narrowing the distance between the public and cultural heritage.

The immersive digital experience exhibition jointly hosted by the Forbidden City and Tencent showed the public the "largest naked-eye 3D cultural relics of the Forbidden City", allowing the cultural relics to be enlarged in 22 times in high definition, allowing the audience to experience rich details that are difficult to feel in the physical exhibition, while breaking the limitations of physical space, "transporting" the exhibition of the Palace Museum to Shenzhen, Guangdong, more than <>,<> kilometers away from the Palace Museum, and using digital technology to help cultural heritage revitalize.

Highlight 5

Ultra-high-definition video for "classic rebirth"

In 2022, the concert reconstructed the way of content supply and distribution under the "cloud model" and explored a relatively mature market model. Among them, the combination of "ultra-high-definition video technology + social recommendation technology" restores the three advantages of immersion, real-time and sociability of offline performances, and also triggers a phenomenal hot spot in the performance market.

On the one hand, the maturity of ultra-high-definition video technology ensures the supply of high-quality content for online concerts and provides users with a near-live viewing experience. At the same time, intelligent UHD video restoration technology further enriches the supply of UHD content. In the production of ultra-high-definition content, there have long been pain points such as high cost and low efficiency of ultra-high-definition content production, classic old films and video to high-definition, and through AI video restoration technology, a large number of classic cultural works with poor picture quality can be "reborn".

For example, in 2022, Leslie Cheung's "Hot Love" concert launched by WeChat Channels in cooperation with Tencent Multimedia Lab and TME live adopts the "Light and Shadow Renewal Intelligent Repair Engine" developed by the Multimedia Lab, and uses the engine's four modules of intelligent analysis, image quality repair, picture quality enhancement, and intelligent coding to repair scratches, noise, distortion, color and other problems caused by the large time span, increasing the resolution of the concert content by 6 times.

On the other hand, the combination of live broadcast technology and social recommendation technology improves the online distribution efficiency of concerts and further restores the real-time and social advantages of offline performances. Live streaming can give audiences a sense of "participation" and "sharing" through real-time performances.

Highlight 6

Game Engines Grow into "New Industrial Software"

In 2022, with the blessing of hardware and software breakthroughs, the game industry will move towards achieving a larger, smoother, and more realistic real-time 3D experience, and also promote the realization of a wider range of cross-border applications of game engines.

On the one hand, game engines can support cultural and creative activities, enrich immersive experiences, and are expected to build universal and open technical capabilities in the cultural field. For example, the performance ideas of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics were first simulated in the game engine, previewed and adjusted, and then landed in the real world, effectively improving the efficiency of content production and performance collaboration.

In the cultural preservation scene, the Dunhuang Academy and Tencent launched the "Digital Dunhuang" project, which reproduces the grandeur of the Dunhuang Scripture Cave and its more than 6,2024 precious cultural relics stored in its 6-year-old chamber with millimeter-level precision through digital scanning, game engine, cloud gaming and other game technologies, vividly interpreting the thousand-year cultural story behind the cave and cultural relics. The "Digital Axis" project initiated by the Beijing Cultural Heritage Bureau restores the cultural heritage of Beijing's central axis through the combination of high-definition digital scanning and a variety of game technologies. The "Digital Axis Small Universe" product will be launched in June <>, creating a new immersive viewing experience, allowing the public to experience the rich history and culture behind Beijing's central axis without leaving home.

In 2023, the "Digital Scripture Cave", guided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and jointly built by the Dunhuang Academy and Tencent, uses game technology to digitally restore the details of the Mogao Cave and its cultural relics and murals for the first time with millimeter-level precision, creating a stylized immersive and in-depth interactive experience, allowing users to "travel" to Dunhuang in historical periods such as the late Tang Dynasty, Northern Song Dynasty, and late Qing Dynasty with one click, and personally "participate" in the entire process of the cave from the excavation of the cave, the storage of thousands of scrolls, the reappearance of the world, the dispersal of cultural logistics to the reunion.

Text/Reporter Chen Si