Two examples of visual effects designed by German company Pixomondo for Attraction, a sound and light show for visitors to the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing.

By inviting well-known international companies and top Chinese directors, stadium authorities aim to produce the best outdoor show in Beijing as well as one that global audiences are able to recognize.

The stadium's resident show, which combines music, dance, acrobatics and high-tech visual effects, was launched in 2012, when it was directed by Lu.

The show was also made to gauge how well the stadium operated after it had held the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games. In the past two years, more than 400,000 visitors have watched Attraction in the summer.

According to Christopher Zollinger, a producer at Pixomondo, this year's project was undertaken partly in China and partly at his company headquarters in Frankfurt, mainly through Skype, involving about 30 artists and designers from across the world.

The settings were fashioned after the mountains and the landscape of Guilin, in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Unlike some clients from Hollywood, who usually told Pixomondo to finish what they wanted within two weeks, Zollinger says that the company had many prior meetings with Attraction's team to discuss the work so that it satisfied both sides.

"Actually, we like doing our work in this way in China. We feel involved," Zollinger says, adding that the Chinese side walked them through the production process. It is also the first show on which Pixomondo has worked in China, offering them a potential foot in the door to the country's show business, he says.

In the coming years, Pixomondo hopes to keep working on resident shows at the Bird's Nest.

Since setting up its office in China in 2006, the German company has worked for Chinese movies such as The Breakup Guru, director Jiang Wen's latest film Gone With the Bullets and the 3-D version of Wolf Totem.