Olympic fireworks digitally faked

World of tech Olympic fireworks digitally faked Giant, stomping footsteps were created by digital trickery

Beijing Olympics puts its best feet forward

The opening to the Bejing Olympics featured a staggering fireworks display, but those watching at home were tricked into thinking what they saw was real. Some of it was actually CGI.

The fakery was unearthed by a local Chinese newspaper, The Beijing Times, which revealed that a 55-second sequence was created by a visual effects team, which included a series of giant footsteps made by fireworks.

Confusingly, this actually took place in the real ceremony, but the organisers felt that the sequence of 28 footprints would not be accurately captured live, so they faked it.

Risk assessment

Speaking to The Beijing Times, an advisor to the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) defended the decision: "It would have been prohibitive to have tried to film it live," he said.

"We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route."

To emulate the shot, the visual effects team actually put a slight camera shake on to the image, and even spoke to the Beijing meteorological office to ask them how to recreate the Beijing smog.

I wasn't able to see the opening ceremonies on TV. I'm sure it was a spectacular display. Did anyone who saw it on television suspect that this part was computer generated?  

no, not at all..

Ryo, it's not just suspected that part of the show was computer generated, the Chinese Olympic Committee said they did it. 

I didn't notice during the ceremony, amazing what technology can do…

The giant footsteps that we saw on the screen were faked.

29 footsteps only the last one is real..

Though I can saw the real firworks on my balcony, but only part of it.

I don't think the faking of fireworks for TV is so bad, they should have just said that it was computer graphics. It was a spectacular effect that everyone should appreciate. What is bad is that they cut the little girl, Yang Peiyi, because she wasn't "cute enough"! They used her voice and had Lin Miaoke lip-sync it. This is a very bad thing to do to the psyche of girls in China or anywhere in the world. To say a girl is "not cute enough" to be seen singing is just terrible. Shame on the Party and whoever made that bad decision.

I agree that the images inserted into the television coverage is not so bad, but it does illustrate how desperate the chinese government is to appear "perfect" to the outside world. This thing with the little girls shows that even more so and I think it's quite shameful.

Don't they both look cute? Kids are like that. They should have just let Yang sing. If Yang were an American kid, she'd be heartbroken. In China, I think kids are taught to be so competitive, they just accept being "cut" as an everyday thing. I bet the government never considered the PR backlash. I guess it will all work out. They'll both be famous now. Wish for a life of wealth and happiness to go with their fame. 

i heard the big sound of the fireworks that day