Artists under the Rebirth of the Coal Boss

Chapter 303 Xsens's Markerless Face Capture

Da Peng poured Li Xiong a full glass of wine and said, "Brother Zhuo has always had a lot of personal charm."

“Some time ago, his fan club held a support event at the bar on the third floor of No. 1 Fudi Capital.”

Li Xiong drank most of his glass of wine and reminisced about his youthful days, saying:
"The earliest fan club... was in 86, when Cui Jian went to Peking University to perform at the invitation of Li Guoqing, the vice chairman of the student union of Beijing University, and was a great success."

"Later, this group of Peking University students spontaneously formed the Cui Jian Peking University Support Association... I was the leader of the support group at the time, responsible for decorating the flower wall and distributing support items..."

"Back then, fan clubs in mainland China were still quite niche organizations; only superstars of a certain caliber would have fan clubs."

"When the 'Super Girl' show became a hit in the year 2000, fans started forming support groups for the contestants in order to win SMS votes..."

"In the blink of an eye, three or four years have passed, and every celebrity has their own fan club."

Da Peng said, "The fan clubs nowadays are different from the ones you had back then, Brother Li. In a sense, they now serve as a bridge connecting the idol and the fans."

"Zhuo Ge's fan club is of extremely high quality! There are two fan club leaders, one named Lu Tiantian and the other Zhang Qige, both of whom are top-notch in terms of looks and physique!"

"Among them, Zhang Qige is estimated to be 1.8 meters tall, with long legs and a mature, sophisticated look. She even cosplayed Mai Shiranui for Lin Xingzhuo."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiong asked, "It's so tall? Can you even play with it?"

Da Peng said, "Brother Zhuo said that center alignment is enough, there's no need for justification..."

"I plan to have them make a guest appearance in an episode of the new season of 'Men's Diary'."

Li Xiong downed the wine in his glass in one gulp, sighed, and before Da Peng next to him could react, he picked up Chivas Regal 12 Year Old, mixed it with green tea, and filled his glass himself.

Seeing producer Li Xiong's drinking manner, Da Peng said, "Brother Li, our company is reasonable. You don't need to take the fighting to heart; it won't affect the recording of the show."

Li Xiong drank more than half a glass of wine, ate some spicy dried tofu, and said, "I can tell that everyone in your company is a man of strong character, and I know you won't hold it against me. That's not what bothers me."

Da Peng ate a potato chip and asked, puzzled, "Why is that? If we switch from live streaming to recording, we have more time and can edit and modify the footage, so it should be easier."

Li Xiong explained, "You've seen that the smile recognition system keeps malfunctioning during every rehearsal..."

"The reason why the station changed from live to recorded at this meeting is not only due to the conflict between your two groups, but also largely due to the problems with this system."

"The original intention was to increase the audience's sense of novelty and participation, and to objectively judge the comedic level of the contestants' performances... but it turned out to be inaccurate in various ways, with one blunder after another..."

"The most outrageous thing is that when Angela Chang went on stage to sing 'Bai Bai De', the system showed 85% of the faces smiling."

"When the chorus comes... you are an invisible wound, you bite me for no reason... no amount of love is enough, not enough, not enough, a perfect wound..."

"At this point, the number of smiley faces even surpassed the three-gun segment during the interaction between Xiao Shenyang, Ya Dan, and Cheng Ye..."

"According to the scoring rules, this song became the funniest one of the night... Damn it, it's a sad song! It's just ridiculous!"

Da Peng pulled out a pack of Hongliqun cigarettes, handed one to Li Xiong, lit it, and said, "Is the supplier of this system very powerful? Is it impossible to replace them?"

Li Xiong said, "She was originally quite strong, Xu Maiyong's sister-in-law, but unfortunately she got into trouble this year."

Da Peng lit a cigarette and said, "Then why don't we change it?"

Li Xiong exhaled a puff of smoke and said helplessly, "Our station likes to play games. This Xu's sister-in-law is having an affair with the station director."

"Alas, lust is a double-edged sword, and now we're caught in a dilemma."

"I chatted with the station director in the restroom last time, and he admitted it too! Lust is a deadly poison; from today onwards, I'm canceling all social engagements and giving up alcohol!!"

"The station director means that I should find some reason to replace this smile recognition system."

Da Peng said, "Isn't this kind of thing very common in the entertainment industry?"

Li Xiong flicked his cigarette butt in the ashtray and said, "There's no technologically superior alternative in China, so it's not good to directly turn against them..."

"Da Peng, you know what the level of facial recognition technology in China is like. It's just a way to scam subsidies!"

"This year is particularly special. Normally, there would be no harm without comparison, but now there is Avatar."

"All the major cinemas in Lin'an have gone crazy, and they are all urgently installing 3D projection equipment worth two or three hundred thousand yuan per set."

"Qingchun Cinema World has gradually increased from the initial 2 3D halls to 7, and West Lake Cinema has also undergone emergency renovations to open a second 3D hall."

"These troublemakers have had their fill of good food; it'll be hard to get them fed up with this now. I told you long ago we shouldn't import Hollywood movies; they've ruined us industry professionals..."

Da Peng knew immediately that business was in, and enthusiastically recommended:

"Our company, Tiger Vision, has a really powerful product called Xsens!"

"This year, John Woo's 'Reign of Assassins' and Tsui Hark's 'Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame' both used our company's motion capture technology." Li Xiong raised his glass and toasted with Da Peng, saying, "Great! Director Woo and Director Tsui's movies both use this technology, it's definitely more reliable than some weird smile recognition system!"

"It used the technology of this big-budget film, as well as promotional gimmicks."

"There's still one problem..."

Da Peng took a sip of Chivas Regal 12-year-old. He thought the matter was settled, but then he realized there was still a problem and asked, "What?"

Li Xiong leaned close to Da Peng's ear and whispered a few words.

Da Peng's eyes widened, and he said, "This...you and the station director have become kindred spirits? And you've both been recorded?"

Li Xiong said with a mournful face, "If your company can help resolve this matter, the contract for special effects support for this gala will be yours..."

"From now on, anything related to Zhejiang TV that requires my help is no problem at all!"

"By the way, you should be careful how you act when you meet her!"

"Even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse; the station leaders still treat her with courtesy and respect!"

…………

After the nightclub dinner, Da Peng took producer Li Xiong to Lin Xingzhuo's Hummer H2 and explained the situation.

The next afternoon, the marketing manager of Tiger Eye Vision Group arrived at Lantai from Shanghai.

The two sides quickly reached a consensus on cooperation.

Xsens will provide "markerless facial capture" technology support for Zhejiang TV's "China Blue 2010 Happy Ceremony - Zhejiang Satellite TV 2010 New Year's Eve Gala".

Markerless facial capture technology is not limited to judging only one expression, unlike smile recognition systems.

Instead, it can capture and reconstruct every subtle movement of a face with high precision through a camera, thereby generating a complete facial motion data stream.

Then, through three-dimensional motion data calculations, the audience's emotions are accurately reflected...

A complete technological annihilation!

…………

As for the matter of that sister-in-law.

Ding Ye called Lao Yue, the director of the Lin'an City Internet Supervision Bureau, who then contacted his old classmate who worked at the procuratorate.

The group set up a meeting at Tingtaoju Clubhouse, No. 1-1 Nanshan Road, Xihu District, invited a few boat girls from West Lake, and got the matter settled.

…………

In the early 2000s, magazines like "Yilin" and "Reader" often liked to exaggerate the status of public officials.

So much so that they fabricated a story about a clerk making things difficult for the big boss.

In the real world, capitalists of different ranks and officials of different ranks deal with each other.

It's common for officials who are clearly a level below you to show you no respect.

Conversely, if the two sides are of vastly different social standing, it's just a matter of a phone call.

…………

The director of the case management office of the procuratorate made a phone call to the other party.

He casually mentioned the progress of Mrs. Xu Maiyong's case, his tone full of contempt and disdain, yet he still managed to get the matter resolved.

The other party was completely unaware of Ding Ye's existence from beginning to end, so Li Xiong's concerns about meeting and respect were entirely unfounded...

Afterwards, Ding Ye mentioned this incident at the three giants' regular meeting, and his explanation was...

She used to receive respect because of power, but now she receives contempt because of her own nature.

…………

For the next two days of rehearsals, Zhejiang TV utilized the VIP technology service package purchased from TigerVision Group and the support of Xsens markerless facial capture technology.
After several rehearsals, the technical flaws of the gala were perfectly resolved, and the effect was excellent. The audience's reaction was far better than the previous smiley face system.

The station also specially arranged for Yi Yi to deliver a stack of guest seat tickets to Lin Xingzhuo, totaling about eighty tickets.

Lin Xingzhuo was busy rushing to Yuezhou Media College to grab food, so he asked his executive agent, Xiao Ma, to hand it over to Ding Ye to handle.

(End of this chapter)