In December 2011, the 12th quadrennial Arab Games took place in Doha, Qatar at Khalifa International Stadium. As part of the planning process for the Doha games, the world-renowned event production agency, David Atkins Enterprises (DAE), was commissioned to conceive and produce the opening and closing ceremonies. Following this commission, DAE contracted Australian digital design and video production specialists, Digital Pulse, to produce the animated visuals for the opening ceremony including the athletes’ parade and cultural segments. Far from a conventional production canvas, the animated visuals that the Digital Pulse team were to produce for the event would have to play seamlessly across the stadium’s two different playback systems: a contiguous LED system installed behind all stadium seats and an 86-projector projection system that covered a world record 12,600 cubic metres of on-field projection space.
In less than three months, Digital Pulse produced the Journey to Light animation. The performance of Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro were key factors in the team’s ability to meet such a tight timeline. The final animation included 450,000 individual (2D and 3D) video files, which grossed over 28TB of data.
The final animation, Journey to Light, received widespread acclaim from attendees and viewers alike for its celebration of Arabic culture and message of unification, peace, and freedom for the 21 participating Arab nations. Adding to the depth of the experience, the animation produced by Digital Pulse was supported by a cast of more than 3,250 dancers, musicians, athletes, horsemen, and falconers and presented to an audience of 40,000 people.
For details of how DAE and Digital Pulse use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, see this PDF document.
The video captures some of the show’s highlights:
