Chris Lee (Li Yuchun) is the biggest pop star in China! She’s outsold Drake and Beyoncé, holds Tilda Swinton as a style icon and is becoming one of the most sought-after ambassadors in the fashion industry. We partnered with her to create her Rainy Days music video; the first music video based on Artificial Intelligence (machine learning) technologies—From concept to creation.
Directed by Timothy Saccenti, we put Intel's state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence to work in this pop music video, using it to create cinematic effects on Chris Lee's face in real time. The complex VFX sequences normally take months to build, but with Intel's machine learning, Chris Lee's face was reconstructed in 3D and her movements and expressions were tracked on set, without the need for tracking markers.
We listened to this track approximately 1,000 times and surprisingly did not grow tired of it.
We created a behind-the-scenes experience film too that breaks down the complete experience of how art and technology meet seamlessly to create a small piece of culture.
Below are some BTS shots of the shoot itself, the amazing set designs and the artist herself in and out of character.
Below are some quick breakdowns of the AI at work—how the face is tracked, mapped and then graphics applied to each and every movement of the face.
The Chris Lee music video was just part of a larger partnership we had with the artist. We also helped to launch her latest album and did that with an event (Beijing) that invited all of her fans to experience how the machine learning technology worked and to create their own AI face mapping graphics that they could share on wechat.
And last but certainly not least we had a full integration into one of Chris Lee’s live shows that was aired on mainstream media.
