Global Monopoly of Technology

"Mr. Luo, we have sent some samples of Hatsune Miku's sound source data to our office in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It's up to you to decide which one to choose."

He Chao, the person in charge of the virtual idol project, came to Luo Sheng's office, and after speaking, he took out a mobile data disk and handed it to the table.

After confirming the official establishment of the virtual idol, Bluestar Technology quickly acquired the company's electronic music production speech synthesis software VOCALOID from Yamaha Corporation. On this basis, Luo Sheng led a team of engineers from the company to further develop from the bottom. Optimization.

In fact, Luo Sheng can completely start from scratch, because after buying VOCALOID, he almost overturned the redevelopment, and gave Yamaha a sum of money in vain.

But this is not the point. The purpose of Luo Sheng's purchase of this software is to stifle Japan's development in the field of virtual idols to a certain extent, and he has also acquired a sound production company called Crypton in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The foundation established the operation department of Bluestar Technology's virtual idol in Japan.

There is a flaw in China that Luo Sheng has to accept, and that is the general environment.

In 2007, there was no such market as virtual idols in China, unlike foreign countries, especially Japan.

In China, most young people can't accept the existence of virtual singers, let alone the elderly.

Due to the circumstances, Luo Sheng couldn't reverse it, and pushing hard would only pay a heavy price and a high cost.

Of course, Luo Sheng will not be stubborn, and he must take advantage of the situation according to local conditions.

Therefore, in the early stage of the launch of the company's "virtual idol", the focus was on overseas markets. In this field, a "first export and then domestic sales" routine must be played.

Do it overseas first.

The focus is on the Japanese market, which is the easiest to get up.

The domestic market is just following up slowly. People need a process of acceptance, and they will naturally be invincible after a few years.

Luo Sheng took the USB flash drive handed over by He Chao and connected it to the port of the work computer, opened the internal files, played a few sampled audio sources and listened, and after a few minutes, he immediately made a decision: "That's it. , Folder Six."

This time, 20% of the sampled sound sources sent to the headquarters from Japan are all female voice actors there. I have to say that,

The seiyuu of Xiaobenzi are all monsters. Here "monster" is not a derogatory meaning, but an expression of amazement.

The sampled sound source of File No. 6 is a female singer and voice actress from Japan, whose real name is Sakiko Fujita.

Luo Sheng unplugged the USB flash drive and gave it to He Chao again, and asked, "By the way, what's the progress of Anno Xiuming's promotional film? I didn't screw it up. If it screwed up, you can do it. Anno has to go back to Japan. I'm not joking about getting through some local ruthless people to buy his hands and feet."

He Chao: "..."

This is what he is more concerned about. The budget is 450 million US dollars, which is 3.4 billion yuan at the real-time exchange rate. If that guy from Anno dares to screw up this film, Luo Sheng will definitely buy his hands and feet.

Losing money is a trivial matter, and the time and cost spent is unbearable for Luo Sheng. If something goes wrong here, the entire project will be delayed, and it will even affect WRPO.

The linkage properties of the major plates are strong, and it also means that the whole body is affected by one move, one step is fast and one step is fast, one step is slow and one step is slow.

He Chao was sweating violently when he heard Luo Sheng's words. The boss's words were light and calm. If An Ye was here, he might be stupid.

Too cruel!

Immediately, he quickly replied: "I didn't smash it, it's fortunate, the director Anno Hideaki is really good, the project progress has reached 70%, the sample has been completed, but the post-editing and dubbing are still intensified, and the next two months will be able to make Everything is done in the later stages, and everything is going according to plan.”

Hearing this, Luo Sheng nodded with satisfaction, and said casually, "That's good, An Ye's hands and feet are saved. I'll go see how the samples look in the afternoon."

"Okay!" He Chao responded immediately, secretly relieved for Anye. Now he finally understands why Anye Xiuming worked so hard, often staying up late until the early morning. He thought he was doing it for the sake of fame. Also to save hands and feet.

The boss had definitely threatened him, and he was very frightened. Since taking over this project, Anno Xiuming has no ruffian anger at all.

For Anno, it was definitely the most difficult project in his career that he took over the guide tube for this promotional film. The production was extremely difficult. To a certain extent, it was also the first time that he made a pure CG film, which is similar to 2D animation. big difference.

However, in the end, it is a talented director, and under the threat of being a buyer, this time he almost released his talents to the extreme, and all of them were squeezed out without reservation.

Not a drop was left.

Just kidding, try it for you to hear that you are being bought by someone?

...

In the afternoon, Luo Sheng, who had nothing to do, came to the production department for a walk. At this moment, the set-up on the set was full of green cloths.

There was a slender girl actor on the set, but she was not an actress in front of the screen. She was wearing tight-fitting clothes, and her facial features were all dotted with dense dots. She also had some special electronic equipment on her body.

This special effects team is the top motion capture team that Anno invited from Hollywood, and the "Gollum" of the "Lord of the Rings" series is the work from this team.

What is going on at this moment is the shooting of several unsatisfactory shots that Hideaki Anno asked to reshoot. It is a real pursuit of perfection. Anyway, the funds are sufficient, and if it is not enough, an additional budget can be added.

Not long after Luo Sheng came here, the motion capture scene for this supplementary shot was completed, which finally met Anno Xiuming's expectations. After a while, he also noticed Luo Sheng, and after a while, he quickly greeted him and said, "Your Excellency President (Chairman), why didn't you notify me when you came early?"

"I'll come over to see how the project is going?" Luo Sheng said with a smile, as long as he didn't talk about buying hands and feet, he was still a harmless, handsome and easy-going EVA fan.

Listening to Luo's question, Anno Xiuming led Luo Sheng to another office hall with an uplifting mood and even a show-off. There are more than 100 animators scattered in the cubicles, all busy with their work. Some of them are from Japan, some are from Hollywood, some are from Blizzard's CG department.

All in all, that's a lavish lineup with a $450 million budget.

"Look, Your Excellency, the president. The team's animators have continuously improved Hatsune's hair animation to a whole new level. I can assure you that this is the top level in the world. No one will shock the entire industry. Anno Hideaki said with oath, and then motioned to Luo Sheng to watch the animation on the screen.

Anno continued to introduce: "The animator has completed my request, and must make 470,000 hairs for Hatsune, which requires a brand-new animation program. 'Tonic' is our name for this animation program. Just a The images were rendered in 30 total hours based on the time each team took, and the longest design took 132 hours of work.”

"You know, in an animated film, one second of time can be weeks of work, of course because of your strong support, we have a sufficient budget, and the team can expand to such an exaggerated level that money is exchanged for time. You Looking at this shot, it took a total of 132 hours of work."

"To provide more context, the entire scene is a 218-frame field, so 1/128 of a frame would take 132 hours, which is incredible, including Hatsune's 470,000 strands of hair, her movements and the reactions of her surroundings, etc... …”

Although it is really scary to be threatened to buy hands and feet, Anno Hideaki, who took over this task, is now extremely excited, and he has devoted himself to this project.

Because he realized that there may only be such a chance in this life, and this work will be recorded in the history of film forever, and his name will be recorded in the history of film like this work.

In terms of visual effects, the industry's leading Industrial Light \u0026 Magic provides technical support. The entire promotional film was produced by nearly 20,000 computers and a total of 300 million hours.

Hatsune Miku in the film made more than 1,500 versions of a short scene of eating snacks, and the heat emitted by 20,000 computers was quite exaggerated.

It's no exaggeration to say that the behind-the-scenes production of this promo film is enough to use a thick manual to describe how Hatsune Miku was born in modern digital technology.

Some data are the most intuitive.

The film used motion capture, performance capture and CGI techniques, and was shot using a fusion camera system, facial motion capture instruments and co-working cameras.

The entire production team has an exaggerated 5,700 people. This number exceeds seven or eight times that of all Hollywood blockbusters so far. Of course, it is mainly to hurry up. Luo Sheng, who does not regard money as money, uses money to buy time.

There are a lot of close-ups of Hatsune's eyes in the film. One iris is made with 5 million pixels, while "The Lord of the Rings" only uses 150,000 pixels. The details of the eyes alone are unmatched; Hatsune's head has a 470,000 hair strands, 1,500 eyebrows, 335 eyelashes.

In character modeling, Hatsune made 42 types of hair styles including eyebrows and eyelashes, and nearly 600,000 "peach-colored fluff" on the face and ears. Engineers realized a new pore growth technology, in each Individual hairs are placed in each pore, making Hatsune's skin more delicate and firm, even in close-up shots, it looks amazing.

In addition, the production team also designed 77 digital special effects costumes for Hatsune, using a total of 139 different ways to wear them.

The production cycle of this promotional film is only half a year, but the total working time of the entire team is equivalent to five years of production time for a Hollywood A-level production team.

This is all 450 million U.S. dollars used for promotional films. Unlike traditional commercial film budgets, a Hollywood A-level production usually has a budget of about 100 million U.S. dollars, and the actual budget for filming is about 60%. Pay actors.

Because the positioning of this promotional film is not to make money, it is just an advertisement, but because of Luo Sheng's magic operation, he just made a big movie as an advertisement. Anyway, every team still can't figure it out, An Ye can't figure it out. , the cooperative Industrial Light and Magic can't figure it out either.

"Not bad, good work."

Luo Sheng watched a few sample shots and praised him with satisfaction. The complete story still needs to be edited and edited later. This will only be known later, but with the technical pictures that he has seen so far, Luo Sheng is already very satisfied. .

In terms of the visual effects presentation of the film, even after fifteen years, no Hollywood animated film can surpass it. Luo Sheng did not interfere too much with the filming of the film, but he still interfered in part, that is, the embedding of advertising elements. , is to highlight Bluestar Technology and the future, after all, this is a theatrical version of a commercial in a movie skin.

There are also many untraceable easter eggs, which are prophecies for the future, such as full-screen mobile phones, the prosperity of virtual e-sports, virtual reality VR technology and other technological elements.

Luo Sheng's request is actually very simple, that is, to embed these elements into the film, whether it is a flash or a background board, how to show it specifically gives director Hideaki Anno great freedom to play.

Luo Sheng has only one request, that these elements should appear in the film.

...