All Eyez On Virtual Me

April 16, 2012 7:10 AM

Tupac performs at Coachella 2012. (in hologram form)
posted by empath (112 comments total)

Science fiction just became science reality; also, It would have been cool if he covered Notorious B.I.G's "Who Shot Ya?"
posted by Renoroc at 7:13 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

What I'm confused by is this -- did they actually project him on stage or was this something you could only see on the video screens?
posted by empath at 7:16 AM on April 16, 2012

Though I walk through the uncanny valley of death.
posted by frenetic at 7:17 AM on April 16, 2012 [36 favorites]

I wonder if the holographic Tupac gets the same cut as a real performer? And if so where do they send the check?
posted by three blind mice at 7:17 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

This has done this before; Gorillaz tried it to mixed success at award shows and on tour. (The first tour, they just performed behind screens synched up and that seemed to work best.)

Japan does it better, of course.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:20 AM on April 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

I wonder if the holographic Tupac gets the same cut as a real performer? And if so where do they send the check?

Holo-Tupac doesn't need a check with a one and a bunch of zeroes, he is a bunch of ones and zeroes.
posted by chambers at 7:22 AM on April 16, 2012 [14 favorites]

Minutes later, he started tweeting.
posted by knile at 7:23 AM on April 16, 2012

There was a certain uncanny too-fastness to him. I kept thinking of the velociraptors and wouldn't have been surprised if he had sprang out and chomped into Snoop.
posted by ignignokt at 7:24 AM on April 16, 2012

Snoooooop... you must go to the Degobah system...
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:27 AM on April 16, 2012 [35 favorites]

"Coachella 2012: Snoop Dogg Resurrects Tupac Shakur Via Hologram"

The moment we figure out signal transmission via tachyon, I am sending that headline into the past just because.
posted by griphus at 7:28 AM on April 16, 2012 [16 favorites]

I, for one, welcome our new holographic overlords.

Talk about commodification run wild… Internet reshapes the record industry by shifting profitability from albums to touring. Record industry responds by literally waking the dead. Hologram Tupac, appearing in Las Vegas… forever...
posted by nickrussell at 7:29 AM on April 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

I wonder at what point this starts to be irritating for his friends and loved ones.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:30 AM on April 16, 2012 [8 favorites]

Note, this is not a hologram. It is a projection. Probably done with Musion Eyeliner.

It's still very, very impressive technically though. I bet there were a few people in that audience absolutely tripping balls when this thing fired up and made their evening a whole lot weirder.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:31 AM on April 16, 2012 [22 favorites]

There was to be a projected Nate Dogg on stage too, according to news reports.
posted by mkb at 7:36 AM on April 16, 2012

The initial plan, disinterring his corpse and stringing him up to dance as a grisly puppet for our amusement was ruled out when they remembered he'd been cremated. Maybe they can do another projection of him pissing on his own ashes.
posted by howfar at 7:37 AM on April 16, 2012 [11 favorites]

Hologram Mariah Carey played five European concerts at the same time. Kind of ruins the point of seeing live music when the artist isn't there and the music isn't actually being performed. Might as well just take shrooms at home and watch a livestream, same experience without being elbowed in the face.
posted by a debt owed at 7:38 AM on April 16, 2012 [10 favorites]

The Future! S1m0ne or Idoru?
posted by DigDoug at 7:38 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Being elbowed in the face is the only experience unique to live music. Sometimes I turn up the stereo and have my neighbors come over, elbows flying. I also water down my drinks.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:39 AM on April 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

Hey, wow, according to Wikipedia, S1M0NE had a post-credits scene. How does anyone know that?
posted by griphus at 7:44 AM on April 16, 2012 [20 favorites]

So this is why UNATCO wanted that universal constructor...
posted by codacorolla at 7:45 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hey, wow, according to Wikipedia, S1M0NE had a post-credits scene. How does anyone know that?

Shakespeherian's Rule.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:45 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Kind of ruins the point of seeing live music when the artist isn't there and the music isn't actually being performed.

I dunno. I could care less about live music performance really. I want loud electronic beats and a crowd full of people dancing. I don't even need to see the performer. As far as I'm concerned they could be doing it remotely from their apartment and it wouldn't matter to me.
posted by empath at 7:46 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

OK, I am confused. According to wikipedia, a similar appearance by anime character Kitsune Miko is specifically non-holographic.

So what is the deal? Pseudo-holo or real deal?

Also, my goodness, that was like watching a life size GI Joe self-animate. No breathing! Somebody alert the Robot Chicken guys, they gotta step up their game.
posted by mwhybark at 7:46 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

My two thoughts:

1) Coachella started in 1999; Tupac died in 1996. While all's well and good that you can regurgitate raps he actually performed, is it not hella creepy they basically invented speech of his to shout out to the festival? My brain goes straight to some 1984 shit right there.

2) Holograph Tupac probably involved less computer processing than whatever it takes to get noise out of T-Pain.
posted by Rodrigo Lamaitre at 7:47 AM on April 16, 2012 [14 favorites]

on preview, thank you HappyDave. well, not on preview.
posted by mwhybark at 7:48 AM on April 16, 2012

They should have had him dance with a Dirt Devil vacuum.
posted by sonascope at 7:48 AM on April 16, 2012 [9 favorites]

Kind of ruins the point of seeing live music when the artist isn't there and the music isn't actually being performed.

I saw Fischerspooner play live during the tour of their first album. Their show was a stage show: no instruments, just dancers and effects. It was awesome. It was also so blatantly a "show" and not a "concert" that, at some point, Casey said "we're going to do 'Emerge' now, so turn off my mic and hit 'play'." At another point, where he was supposed to sing on a rotating platform while bubbles descended, he instead sat down on it and had a beer while the rest of the effects and the vocal track ran. Sometimes there's more to "live music" than seeing people sing and play instruments.
posted by griphus at 7:48 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Why don't you see Tupac? You are worth more dead than alive.
posted by pianomover at 7:51 AM on April 16, 2012

There is a transparent screen made of holographic lenses that allows the rear projector to be positioned off-axis so you don't see light coming out of it.

Flat projection. The image lighting is coordinated with the stage lighting, and the perspective is consistent with the scene, that's what creates the illusion.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:53 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm still waiting for holographic Elliott Smith.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:53 AM on April 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

At another point, where he was supposed to sing on a rotating platform while bubbles descended, he instead sat down on it and had a beer while the rest of the effects and the vocal track ran.

When I saw Infected Mushroom, they had some technical problems with their live PA and ended up just putting on a mix cd and drinking vodka behind the decks and bullshitting with people around the stage... It was still a great show....
posted by empath at 7:53 AM on April 16, 2012

Looked great, although at a few points in the video, like at 3:50, when the camera is pointed at an angle, Tupac looks 2d and skewed as you'd expect from being projected onto a screen on the stage.
posted by bobo123 at 7:56 AM on April 16, 2012

Someone should start a beef with the HoloTupac on Twitter for not being a real hologram.
posted by mwhybark at 7:58 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Does this mean I am allowed to like Ashlee Simpson again?
posted by Nomyte at 7:59 AM on April 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

They ought to have the hologram rip off its own face and then with its naked skull howl "Let me die!" over and over again.
posted by Segundus at 8:06 AM on April 16, 2012 [46 favorites]

Of course, 'Pac just performed songs he wrote a long time ago.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 8:08 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Segundus: No, that's holographic Elliot Smith.

too soon?
posted by leotrotsky at 8:09 AM on April 16, 2012

Every generation gets the Hologram Tupac it deserves.
posted by naju at 8:10 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

(Ray Dream) Studio Gangsta
posted by SharkParty at 8:16 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

And meanwhile, on the secluded beach of some Carribean island privately owned through a series of shell and holding companies, the real Tupac is shaking hands with Elvis on a bet on what's going to bring in more income this quarter, Graceland Tour admissions, or holographic concerts.
posted by radwolf76 at 8:24 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

At the record company meeting
On their hands a dead star
And, oh, the plans they breed
And, oh, the sickening greed
posted by Sys Rq at 8:36 AM on April 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

*waits for Tupac fans to notice I fucked up those Smiths lyrics*
posted by Sys Rq at 8:39 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I dunno. I could care less about live music performance really.

Good for you, but many people do care.
posted by John Cohen at 8:41 AM on April 16, 2012

I will pay all my money for a tour of Graceland given by a holographic Tupac, entirely in verse.

GET ON IT, PEOPLE.
posted by griphus at 8:41 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

Good for you, but many people do care.

Yes, different people have different opinions. I'm glad we established that.
posted by empath at 8:48 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

The White Walkers have been gone for centuries!
posted by cman at 8:53 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

nickrussell: Hologram Tupac, appearing in Las Vegas… forever...

HologramTupac: @SnoopDogg & I are going to hit the road together. It is going to be called the 'Pale Imitations of Our Former Selves' Tour.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:54 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't understand why they don't try to be more creative with this technology. Even the Gorillaz and that Japanese anime singer were nothing more than animated characters, doing just what a live performer would do. They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?
posted by orme at 8:57 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't understand why they don't try to be more creative with this technology. Even the Gorillaz and that Japanese anime singer were nothing more than animated characters, doing just what a live performer would do. They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?

I don't think it can drive a bus or make me an omelette or anything. I'm not sure what you think else can be done with the technology right now. It's just a system to project an image in a very realistic way. What exactly is the "anything" you are suggesting "they" do with it?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:59 AM on April 16, 2012

They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?

Well, it's not the rebellion high command keeping an eye on their Death Star attack, but it's still pretty spiffy.
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:01 AM on April 16, 2012

That was pretty cool. And exploitative. I'm confused.
posted by flippant at 9:01 AM on April 16, 2012

What exactly is the "anything" you are suggesting "they" do with it?

Just think of any amazing CGI scene from a movie. Did they use it to have a person just stand there and sing? How about some explosions or wild visuals?
posted by orme at 9:04 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?

They'll never make a convincing Hologram GG Allin.
posted by naju at 9:06 AM on April 16, 2012 [12 favorites]

The upside to this is that I can go back to working on the script for a performance piece where Mama Cass is my one-woman greek chorus. I got the idea for it while being strangled for the benefit of Placido Domingo, but what works on a big stage with a scrim and tons of sophisticated lighting doesn't work so well for two-bit one man shows on little Baltimore stages, so I put the idea aside. Getting the glam right on Cass Elliot's early seventies frocks is going to take a hell of a lot of CGI, though.
posted by sonascope at 9:09 AM on April 16, 2012

griphus: I saw Fischerspooner play live during the tour of their first album. Their show was a stage show: no instruments, just dancers and effects. It was awesome. It was also so blatantly a "show" and not a "concert" that, at some point, Casey said "we're going to do 'Emerge' now, so turn off my mic and hit 'play'." At another point, where he was supposed to sing on a rotating platform while bubbles descended, he instead sat down on it and had a beer while the rest of the effects and the vocal track ran. Sometimes there's more to "live music" than seeing people sing and play instruments.

I saw them play at Coachella, with a very similar experience. It was really a stage(d) show, with the same reference to playing the next track on the CD. Also, there was an amusing disconnect between the live voice of the singer on stage talking between songs and the pre-recorded voice that sang the songs. It was a helluva show.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:12 AM on April 16, 2012

And every time she sees me, she squeeze me, lady take it easy! I'm a hologram.

shows self door
posted by phaedon at 9:16 AM on April 16, 2012

They'll never make a convincing Hologram GG Allin.

You just need some pneumatic tubes firing turds (official GG Allin Choco-Turds!) into the crowd.
posted by orme at 9:16 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

mkb: There was to be a projected Nate Dogg on stage too, according to news reports.

This recording of the show (53 minute show, ripped from the Coachella live stream) starts with Snoop invoking the name of Nate Dogg (then playing Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None) ).

YouTube user Spaceship Robinson has a bunch of full Coachella videos up, but they'll probably disappear or get blocked within the day, like the Explosions in the Sky set got blocked. Until then, enjoy!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:18 AM on April 16, 2012

How about some explosions or wild visuals?

I think the wilder and more out-there it looks, the less likely you are to suspend your disbelief and more likely to concentrate on how the technology hasn't exactly reached its apex. Not that anyone (short of people on a lot of good drugs) think that's actually Tupac, back from the dead, but the technology is primitive and the more complex things you do with it, the faker it looks. If you want a comparison, take a look at any CGI-heavy live-action movie from the early-90s where the CGI is meant to be something real.
posted by griphus at 9:19 AM on April 16, 2012

That and simulating the aural/visual effects of anything more impressive than a dude singing is probably really expensive. An explosion done in that style, except with no wind, or sonic booms, or heat, or ground-shaking seems like an enormous waste of time and money for everyone involved. Fireworks would be cheaper and actually produce an effect.
posted by griphus at 9:22 AM on April 16, 2012

Yeah but if Tupac had a rap battle with a t-rex
posted by shakespeherian at 9:24 AM on April 16, 2012 [12 favorites]

Maybe this is what the Olympic committee had in mind when they asked for Keith Moon to perform.
posted by BishopFistwick at 9:25 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?

The point of the effect was that it appeared that Tupac was live on stage, performing with Snoop Dogg. The real Tupac wouldn't fly through the air, repeatedly explode, or anything like that.
posted by eriko at 9:27 AM on April 16, 2012 [6 favorites]

Wil I Am did it first.
posted by ODiV at 9:28 AM on April 16, 2012

beaucoupkevin: "Japan does it better, of course. "

Worth noting that the fundamental difference here is that the Japanese singer is totally virtual - even the vocals are done by computer. Hatsune Miku is supposed to be only 10-years old too, if that matters.


Vocaloid is an incredible technology, from a geek's perspective, but a terrifying vision of things to come from an artist's...
posted by benzo8 at 9:28 AM on April 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

'Splosion Pac
posted by griphus at 9:36 AM on April 16, 2012

Good for you, but many people do care.

They're gonna be pissed when they find out Tupac's dead then.
posted by inigo2 at 9:36 AM on April 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Japan does it better, of course.

That is pretty impressive for being so far away from Krieger's van.
posted by birdherder at 9:52 AM on April 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

1) Coachella started in 1999; Tupac died in 1996. While all's well and good that you can regurgitate raps he actually performed, is it not hella creepy they basically invented speech of his to shout out to the festival? My brain goes straight to some 1984 shit right there.

All I can think is Tupac must have signed the worst record deal in history.
posted by frenetic at 10:07 AM on April 16, 2012 [8 favorites]

Yeah but if Tupac had a rap battle with a t-rex

Totally off topic but one of the best things about teaching second grade is taking a field trip to the Museum of Natural History and being asked, quite seriously, how many zombies it would take to beat a T-Rex in a fight.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:14 AM on April 16, 2012 [16 favorites]

Can the zombie virus be spread to t-rexes? Because: One.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:19 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

IS THIS GOING TO BE ON THE TEST MRS. PTERODACTYL?
posted by griphus at 10:20 AM on April 16, 2012 [9 favorites]

The set should have ended either with Snoop Dog shooting Tupac or a T-Rex eating him. Maybe both.
posted by Davenhill at 10:29 AM on April 16, 2012

It's got to be weird on some level for Snoop to be up there with a dude he used to know who hasn't aged since they were kids, acting like things are still the same but actually being like a decade-and-a-half older and with a lot more mileage under the belt. I mean apart from the whole "he's actually dead and it's a hologram WTF" thing.
posted by freebird at 10:30 AM on April 16, 2012

Thoughts:

1. Kraftwerk did it first. They weren't even present at some of their own shows.
2. I like music and not "effects" or "dancers," and I am hardly alone. If there is a tidal shift from "music on my terms" to "music on their terms," where "them" is Ticketmaster and venue owners, I and people like me will start to tune out and the musical world will be poorer for it.
3. When I saw Infected Mushroom the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, they had some technical problems with their live PA and ended up just putting on a mix cd and drinking vodka behind the decks string section and bullshitting with people around the stage… It was still a great show. I mean, I understand that "live vs. recorded" is an ongoing debate, but this position basically says "only the kind I like."

posted by Nomyte at 10:32 AM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

I like music.

If you like music, then who cares how it's being performed, or even if it's being performed. Obviously you care about stuff that's ancillary to the music itself if you need to see the performer up there plucking strings or singing.
posted by empath at 11:06 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yes, but I'm talking about this in the context of music going from being about albums to being about concerts. Except that now you're proposing that it'd be a perfectly acceptable alternative that even performances should be free of performers. Basically, "pay money to go to the allocated music-listening area where we can inflate the price of admission by throwing in some gratuitous light show and dancers." I mean, what is that if not taking a slash-and-burn approach to most kinds of music out there?
posted by Nomyte at 11:12 AM on April 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Performance is what I'm paying for at a concert. I'd be disappointed if the performers weren't there or didn't bother to, you know, perform. Which is interesting, because I don't care about the audience...when I perform, I could care less about audience response. But to have a dead man dancing, I feel it's wrong, since he can't grant permission, and worse, it's lazy and boring. Here's a dead star, look at this! We couldn't be bothered to come up with something impressive that doesn't lean on this dead performer's fame!
posted by agregoli at 11:13 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've just realized that "pre-recorded music with dancers and a light show" is called a circus. We're going from music to circuses.
posted by Nomyte at 11:16 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

In Focus covers Coachella. (Don't miss #5.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:18 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nomyte, I sort of thought circuses involved clowns and performing elephants; the only circus I can think of which sort of vaguely resembles your description is Cirque du Soleil, which uses live musicians. (And is awesome.)
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:19 AM on April 16, 2012

Jem was backed up by the Holograms thirty years ago. Meh - what's the big deal?
posted by Muddler at 11:29 AM on April 16, 2012 [7 favorites]

... and you know who should be the one to start that beef? Arnold Rimmer, that's who. If he had a twitter account.

which he does not that I could find
posted by mwhybark at 11:59 AM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

it's baffling to me that they would go to all the trouble of conjuring up a virtual Tupac and not have him perform California Love. That's just poor showmanship.
posted by billyfleetwood at 12:00 PM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I cannot wait until the first hologram is hacked and goes off script.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 12:05 PM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I guess there's a question of what the component of live music that makes it live music is. People who think of music primarily from the rock paradigm -- and I'm including myself there -- often judge live performances of other sorts of music (e.g., dance or hip-hop or any other music that doesn't rely on instruments) by criteria that don't really make sense outside of the rock paradigm. At some point, we actually have to look around and notice that much of popular music has moved on.

I mean, I understand that "live vs. recorded" is an ongoing debate, but this position basically says "only the kind I like."

I think the "bullshitting with people around the stage" session kind of sounds like fun, though it's not something I'd actively seek out on purpose. It sounds a lot like these "DJ sets" that musicians -- including some rock musicians -- are starting to do.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:20 PM on April 16, 2012

The way the projected Tupac kept slipping around the stage completely ruined the illusion, for me. It made me appreciate how well-anchored to the physical stage all of Hatsune Miko's animated movements are, in comparison. Also, the idea of a completely synthetic performer is more appealing to me than resurrecting a dead one.
posted by gilrain at 12:20 PM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

PLEASE let the headlines next weekend be "Holographic Tupac malfunctions, goes on rampage".
posted by neuromodulator at 12:26 PM on April 16, 2012

How does this actually look in person?

Also, that Maria Carey thing would have just sucked. A big surprise! Oh, a video of Mariah Carey?!
posted by smackfu at 12:27 PM on April 16, 2012

People who think of music primarily from the rock paradigm -- and I'm including myself there -- often judge live performances of other sorts of music (e.g., dance or hip-hop or any other music that doesn't rely on instruments) by criteria that don't really make sense outside of the rock paradigm.

The best way to understand what kind of show you're at is to look at where most of the light show is directed -- at the performer or the dance floor? If it's pointed at the crowd, then the show IS the audience, and people are there to watch each other perform, and the musician or DJ's role is to make being in the crowd as interesting as possible.
posted by empath at 12:27 PM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

All things being equal, I generally prefer a concert where the music is not exactly what you hear on the record, but I think that it's possible to do that in a variety of ways, not just by playing it live on traditional instruments. Also, I would probably go to a Flaming Lips show even if they weren't playing anything live.
posted by snofoam at 12:36 PM on April 16, 2012

Just for the record, can I just state the obvious here?

It is simply mind-blowing to imagine that for the very first time, thousands of people witness a man coming back from the dead. And apart from up-ending all known laws of physics, and revealing that we exist in a fundamentally spiritual universe, he then proceeds to shout 'what the fuck is up coachella' and rap with Snoop dogg, before disappearing again into the ether. The transition from awe to absurdity. The medieval peasant in me just can't get over it.
posted by leibniz at 12:38 PM on April 16, 2012 [16 favorites]

Horace Rumpole: In Focus covers Coachella. (Don't miss #5.)

For a few years, I was a Coachella fanatic. I went to the first event in 1999, when there were still merch tables run by the bands after they played their gigs. After that, there was one Virgin Music Store tent. Anyway, I went to 6 of the first 7 years it was held, and #5 was kind of what you came to expect. That guy wasn't everyone, but there were plenty of that guy. I wonder how he looked on day 2, after shunning sunscreen. He looks tan enough that he probably wasn't too bad off, but there were always a few pasty dudes who didn't realize what pain they'd be in after baring themselves to the sun for six hours.

What I'm trying to say is, I miss Coachella.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:00 PM on April 16, 2012

Because I didn't go, not because I wish it was how it used to be. Well, a bit of that, too.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:01 PM on April 16, 2012

One thing Coachella does well is bring back audience favorites that aren't necessarily active at the time for a reunion show or something to that effect. Many in the audience may have seen the artist before, but there is a big demand for seeing them at Coachella. What struck my mind last night as I heard the set from the campgrounds (not a big rap fan, oops), was if you want to see Tupac at Coachella, I guess you're gonna need a hologram.

It's not that weird. Paul McCartney played many songs in 09 as a tribute to John and George (and Linda), for instance. It wasn't as tacky as a hologram, but when did we ever look at hip hop as a source of classiness? People in the audience weren't too worried about issues of respecting the image of the dead; they enjoyed a simulated Tupac performance because they respected him.
posted by malapropist at 1:47 PM on April 16, 2012

How far to the side can you get before it's disconcertingly fake? What's the no-complaint angle, as it were?
posted by jiawen at 2:29 PM on April 16, 2012

Obviously you care about stuff that's ancillary to the music itself if you need to see the performer up there plucking strings or singing.

Jesus, man, we get it. You really like disco.
posted by anazgnos at 2:31 PM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Necrophilia goes high tech.
posted by narcoleptic at 3:59 PM on April 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

How does this actually look in person?

Pretty much as it looks here. The image doesn't have stereoscopic depth, but it is apparently in front of the back of the stage - so your brain creates a sense of three-dimensionality to make sense of that. There's a moment in the video where it cuts to a different angle, and you can see that it's the same image, but your brain assumes that you are seeing a slightly different angle of the shoulder.

The images tend to be recessed, which is why it works well on stages - if the screen is some distance back from the front of the stage when the light hits, pretty much everyone is looking at it from some value of straight on, and by the time the angles get awkward other issues are affecting the view of the stage anyway. Whereas it would be harder to do "in the round", for obvious reasons.

The images have a glowing quality, which you can see on the video - the light shining onto the film has to be strong to make the image opaque - so, a bit like a Force Ghost... less light means a more translucent image.

As for explosions - you can do that, I think. Your limits are the size of the foil, obviously, and also detail and brightness. Also, this is all preprogrammed - they were playing a tape of pre-rendered Tupac, I assume, and the real Snoop was keying off preset time cues. You can do it live, but you need a really big pipe (and a living subject, of course). Or you can do it procedurally - have someone standing on the stage and e.g. have starbursts and flowers appear around his hands. The more complex the effect the more processing power you'd need, though - so, for example, having a photorealistic dancer who actually danced _with someone - who reacted to positional and gestural cues - would take a lot of processing grunt, and would be far more likely to go wrong. It might be easier to have the live dancer follow cues, or just to have them both as a projection.
posted by running order squabble fest at 5:19 PM on April 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was there Sunday, it was pretty cool. Though frankly I was too far away to get a good look at the hologram / projection directly (could mostly only see detail on the video screens).

Overall it was a great show -- Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Wiz Khalifa, 50 Cent, a couple others besides the ghost of Tupac. The crowd went pretty crazy when the Tupac thing happened.

Kind of ruins the point of seeing live music when the artist isn't there and the music isn't actually being performed.

Well, it depends on why you're going. A lot of what made this set fun was the crowd -- high energy / high participation compared to a lot of Coachella acts. Was definitely my favorite show of the weekend (although partially because I've been listening to Dre and Snoop for a very, very long time and never seen them in person before).

And the Tupac stuff was only 1 or 2 songs out of the whole set, most was actually live.
posted by wildcrdj at 6:55 PM on April 16, 2012

Eh. Call me when it's hard light.
posted by droplet at 8:27 PM on April 16, 2012

Totally off topic but one of the best things about teaching second grade is taking a field trip to the Museum of Natural History and being asked, quite seriously, how many zombies it would take to beat a T-Rex in a fight.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 1:14 PM on April 16

They didn't ask you that question because you're a teacher, they asked you that question because YOU ARE A PTERODACTYL. This is the closest thing to an expert they could find.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:20 AM on April 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

Cyrus Farivar on H-pac at Ars.
posted by mwhybark at 7:23 AM on April 17, 2012

I wonder at what point this starts to be irritating for his friends and loved ones.

His mother says she's thrilled. And why not? Thousands of people are (basically) watching a video of her child performing more than 15 years after his death, and screaming with joy. Ideas of what is a welcome or appropriate way to love and remember (and fine, make heaping piles of cash off) the dead are culturally determined. Like, if Tupac were my brother or something I think I would find his continued cultural presence comforting, not irritating.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 7:24 AM on April 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

orme: "They can do anything with this, but they just settle for singing and dancing?"

What makes you think they limit this to singing and dancing? Maybe Barack Obama doesn't even exist!
posted by charred husk at 8:57 AM on April 17, 2012

You can do it live, but you need a really big pipe (and a living subject, of course).

This sentence is so full of comic possibilities, it's brought my mind to a virtual standstill. I can't decide whether to make a joke with Snoop Dog sex reference, Snoop Dog drug reference, or... or... recalculating...

Best visual representation of my mind now.
posted by chambers at 9:36 AM on April 17, 2012

I'll lol if hologram Tupoc releases a new album that's entirely owned by the record company without even the usual metaphorical shade of royalty obligations.
posted by jeffburdges at 2:00 AM on April 18, 2012

I once bought a Tupoc concert VCD from a street vendor.
posted by ODiV at 1:32 PM on April 18, 2012

Tupoc sounds like the name of one of those South American-sounding bands that busk in the subway and always have a dude on pan pipes.
posted by griphus at 1:52 PM on April 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

That's because Tupac is named after one of the the last leaders of the Inca, the second of whom led a rebellion against the Spanish, or possibly after the eponymous 1980s Peruvian revolutionary movement.
posted by mwhybark at 5:26 PM on April 18, 2012

Holographic Tupac shot in CA. Hologram Biggie Smalls brought in for questioning.
posted by inigo2 at 12:37 PM on April 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah but if Tupac had a rap battle with a t-rex

...riffing on 'Nijinsky Hind'...
posted by ovvl at 7:52 PM on April 24, 2012