Comments on: Election night holographic interviews

By: thompsonjem

thompsonjem — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:42:51 +0000

really too good, I like it

http://www.lasersec.in

By: Dracc

Dracc — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:01:36 +0000

Unfortunately the video linked to in the article is a much more elegant and REAL technology. The Gorillaz concerts were created using the Musion Eyeliner technology, a variation on Pepper’s ghost. The images are still 2D, but are projected onto a meshed projection screen that is nearly invisble under dark lighting conditions, so that they appear to exist 3Dimensionally suspended in space. The Gorillaz are actually visible to the live audience. CNN’s crap is no more complicated than drawing lines on a football field in realtime. For slightly more information check out http://www.eyeliner3d.com/musion_eyeliner_mechanics.html for the real deal.

By: JohnJ

JohnJ — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:34:21 +0000

They described 30+ high def cameras in the tent, but the quality was seriously low as we saw.

If anyone caught the (one time?) demonstration of the house of representatives on the holographic table an hour before the Princess Leia demo, it reminded me of ARToolkit and a video overlay with tracking.

Then I spotted that ARToolkit already has something along the Leia lines called 3D-Live, which runs at QVGA (PAL) res of 352×288 using 15 cameras. Demo videos online already look better than what CNN came up with.

I suppose the problem was that they were feeding all of the video input from offsite back to HQ to render the angles, which is a terrible waste of bandwidth IMHO.

It likely would have worked much batter if they shot from waist up and placed the virtual actor behind a desk with a single angle. Obviously, still utilizing the imagination of the actor sitting next to them, but they could be looking at an off-set screen like weather folks usually do.

By: neelster

neelster — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:12:03 +0000

Worst stunt ever. It’s not THAT technologically advanced they just the resolution of the digital image (on tv…obviously there’s nothing in the studio) is horrible.

By: RWL

RWL — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:11:31 +0000

@gian: no, the fact that the image did *not* appear in the studio with blitzer means that it’s fake. it was just video effects, nothing more. not even cutting-edge effects, either.

so that blitzer would know what they were doing, the guests’ images were displayed on a monitor in the studio. and there was a bright painted circle on the stage, so he’d know where to face so it appeared he was looking at a real image.

I call *fake* on cnn!

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:17:55 +0000

My favorite part was how Wolf described her being inside some complicated tent that took three weeks to assemble. They must have the same tent I have…. man that thing is impossible to set up. I rarely even bother attaching the hadron collider, not to mention the holograph module.

Cheesiest effect ever, for sure. They should have actually had ILM come in and do it right instead of just making the star wars jokes and looking stupid.

By: gian

gian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:44:36 +0000

Of course there was greenscreen involved. How do you think they separated the ones being interviewed from their background? This does not mean it’s fake!!!

By: Gosh

Gosh — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:25:31 +0000

there is a great disturbance in the force! someone has stolen our technology! send in the tie fighters!

By: klecu

klecu — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:07:20 +0000

I wonder if they made it look worse just so people would think it was a real hologram.

By: fartface

fartface — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:15:31 +0000

What they did was a very poor Green screen effect.

what Gorrillaz did is based on real tech…
http://www.eyeliner3d.com/

and having seen it in person it’s not as good as you think it is, but way more impressive than the really lame CNN trick from the 70’s.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:58:17 +0000

The Emperor will now sit still for this.

By: Iv

Iv — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:34:15 +0000

Gorillaz used a semi-transparent glass at a 45° angle between the public and the scene. The projection is made from the bottom. It is not holographic. You only get only one POV

By: Xeracy

Xeracy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:15:45 +0000

Seriously though, when I saw this on TV, (after all the ‘help me wolf blitzer, you’re my only hope’ jokes) Its really just 3 cameras that capture him from the front, back and a side. This is what I equate to Wolfenstein 3D’s Ray-Casting…

By: Caleb Kraft

Caleb Kraft — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:42:30 +0000

@jake of all trades
you get a cookie, good call.

Yeah, this looks just like compositing with matched camera angles. Very similar to what we do in the 3d animation industry.

By: Jake of All Trades

Jake of All Trades — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:16:09 +0000

What do I win for calling it?