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Michael Jackson hologram - amazing

DarthTom

DarthTom

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At the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night MJ was resurrected from the dead - well sort of. To perform this amazing feat a dancer prerecorded his steps into a computer and then they generated a hologram that was displayed on stage. It was nothing IMO short of utterly amazing.

Here are my questions:

1. What type of projection technology is used on doing this? I've never seen a hologram that looked so - and for a lack of a better way to describe it - "Star Trek real," type of hologram. And they did it without the gas vapor that heretofore they've needed to create the projection.

2. How long until Michael - or anyone else for that matter - will be performing in your house? I'd think sports enthusiasts among many other group would pay huge $$$ to have this type of projection.

As an aside- the Jackson Family estate has just found their second bigger pot of gold in the technology. Holograms unlike Michael - don't do drugs, go on expensive shopping trips, or ask 13 year old boys over for the night only to later sue - draining the fortune. Also holograms unlike Michael could with a compliant perform 6x a day - 7 days a week - FOREVER.



Michael Jackson was resurrected from the dead in hologram form, singing and doing his famous moonwalk in front of a star-studded Las Vegas audience.
Jackson performed his new hit “Slave to the Rhythm” off his posthumous album “Xscape” — which debuted last week at No. 1 in 50 countries.
In a show-stopping act produced by the Estate of Michael Jackson and broadcast on ABC, the “Thriller” singer appeared on stage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to wild cheers and more than a few tears.
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I haven't read any info on where the source video comes from. This is an outtake song. Why would MJ have shot a video for an outtake and had it sitting in the vaults all this time? To my eyes, it's an impersonator. I can tell at the end of it right before he sits on the chair. The face doesn't look quite like him (even factoring in all the plastic surgery changes).
 
Yeah it's interesting, thought kind of hard to get enthusiastic about unless seeing it with one's own eyes. I've only ever seen a 2D Mike Jackson. I'm guessing the holo recording is limited to the dimensions of the stage where it's played back? Or the stage itself would have special specifications?

Oh man... once they start beaming M Jackson holograms into our homes it'll only be a matter of time before some kids start suing him for holo-molestation. Maybe they should have tried someone safer first like Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.
 
billcosby said:
Yeah it's interesting, thought kind of hard to get enthusiastic about unless seeing it with one's own eyes. I've only ever seen a 2D Mike Jackson. I'm guessing the holo recording is limited to the dimensions of the stage where it's played back? Or the stage itself would have special specifications?

Oh man... once they start beaming M Jackson holograms into our homes it'll only be a matter of time before some kids start suing him for holo-molestation. Maybe they should have tried someone safer first like Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.
Click to expand...

I'd pay $50 just see the technology in action -forget about his music.
 
I saw the performance. I was good, but limited. It felt like watching a robot, technically correct, but no soul.

The technology is very interesting, but it doesn't work well standing in for a performer like MJ.
 
Jedi_Master said:
I saw the performance. I was good, but limited. It felt like watching a robot, technically correct, but no soul.

The technology is very interesting, but it doesn't work well standing in for a performer like MJ.
Click to expand...

How exactly does this technology work? Unless I'm missing something this is an amazing breakthrough in hologram projection technology than I'd think could be applied to taping and re-broadcasting live performances?
 
DarthTom said:
Jedi_Master said:
I saw the performance. I was good, but limited. It felt like watching a robot, technically correct, but no soul.

The technology is very interesting, but it doesn't work well standing in for a performer like MJ.
Click to expand...

How exactly does this technology work? Unless I'm missing something this is an amazing breakthrough in hologram projection technology than I'd think could be applied to taping and re-broadcasting live performances?
Click to expand...

I have no idea. The camera angles were only from the front and the two sides, so I am think it was projected from the bottom of the stage. There was a big immobile screen behind the performance. I can't find any details as to the tech, and there are many who are claiming it was an impersonator. Until the company who designed the hologram and the people who developed the show start talking, all we can do is guess.
 
Jedi_Master said:
I have no idea. The camera angles were only from the front and the two sides, so I am think it was projected from the bottom of the stage. There was a big immobile screen behind the performance. I can't find any details as to the tech, and there are many who are claiming it was an impersonator. Until the company who designed the hologram and the people who developed the show start talking, all we can do is guess.
Click to expand...

It seems unlikely that the hologram claims were faked since a competing company was in last minute litigation against his estate claiming they violated copyright.
 
This was basically the same thing as the Tupac hologram from a while back. There's a film pulled over the stage at a 45 degree angle onto which an image is projected via a mirror. The image is strictly two-dimensional. Not really a "hologram" but still a cool illusion.
 
EDIT:

Bob beat me to it above.

I haven't read enough about this particular performance, but I'm guessing it is Musion's "hologram" system, which is not really holographic at all (meaning "whole image" or 3D). Musion's projection system was used to put CGI Gorillaz on stage with a live Madonna. It is also used in Japan for "live" performances from Hatsune Miku. (See examples on YouTube.)

Musion's system (again, not certain if it was used for Jackson, but likely) is a high-tech variant of Pepper's ghost, a stage trick from 1862. The Musion system uses high definition projectors casting an image onto plastic, rather than glass. If the plastic happens to be a narrow column, then a live performer can "walk around" the projected image, further enhancing the effect that it is 3D. (Look for Madonna and Gorillaz on YouTube.)

Obviously, this system will not work if a viewer is "too close," but is effective for big stages.
 
Robert Maxwell said:
This was basically the same thing as the Tupac hologram from a while back. There's a film pulled over the stage at a 45 degree angle onto which an image is projected via a mirror. The image is strictly two-dimensional. Not really a "hologram" but still a cool illusion.
Click to expand...

They did a pan shot around the stage and it appeared as if the image had some depth. Was the column that the image was projected on rounded in some way?
 
I haven't found any new technical articles on Holograms USA, Inc. However, that company and Musion were mentioned in the same article. So I'd guess that they are using the same technology. (A flat, 2D projection.)

"Panning" around the stage is no amazing feat. Panning is simply pointing a camera left or right from its fixed pivotal position. However, if a camera orbited a holographic image, and that image appeared to present a different view as the camera moved, then we'd be looking at a totally new kind of holographic system.

If you see some sort of "holographic" image on video, take it with a grain of salt. Modern VFX technology has all kinds of ways to track and composite images together. Live holograms are something entirely different.

From what I've read, the only "novelty" about the Michael Jackson performance is that Jackson's head/face were tracked onto someone else's performance. And that's not entirely "new," either. Movie VFX have been doing that for decades. For example, there is a shot in JURASSIC PARK where a stunt performer made a fall through a drop ceiling, and the VFX artists tracked Lex's face (Ariana Richards) onto the stunt double. Motion tracking systems are widely used in the character animation industry. For example, you can hire Jet Li to do some amazing fight choreography, then "map" the recording onto a cartoon character.
 
We've seen the technology before. I'm a fan of Hatsune Miku, and that's how they do her tours. Still, I think it was well done.
 
Pondwater said:
That was cool. Forgot that he's been gone 5 years now. :(
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No way. Think about it this way, instead: He, Elvis, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Tupac, and Marilyn Monroe are all really hiding out in the White House basement, planning the ultimate comeback tour and recording and choreographing together. :cool:

My superego and ego know the truth, this is just what they tell my id until he's old enough to handle it all. ;)
 
^During high school my brother and his friends jokingly claimed that the missing members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were hiding out on an island somewhere for tax evasion. After the statute of limitations, they'd be back. It's been a while now...
 
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