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Death Star over San Francisco watch!

current.com — So bummed I was summering in Endor that weekend. Would have loved to see the Tie-fighter flyover at a AT&AT park.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 16, 2008

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369 Comments

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  • WallnutBoy, on 08/16/2008, -6/+331Videoshopped!
  • pointpointclick, on 08/15/2008, -14/+306It's a trap!
  • inactive, on 08/16/2008, -20/+265"Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station! "

    . .
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    I Fail :(
  • Namco, on 08/16/2008, -5/+211How the hell to they get the camera motion synced with the 3d rendering so perfectly. Amazing work!
  • MattNF, on 08/16/2008, -0/+189That's no moon...
  • mysn239, on 08/16/2008, -28/+193. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It’s a trap!
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_ . . . . ._________/
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ : : : :::: :::: :: : : : : :º ‘-, . . /. . . . . . . . . .
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  • Stuie2107, on 08/15/2008, -3/+133That was soooo cool, better hunt down those ewoks quick if we're gonna win
  • calebhawk, on 08/16/2008, -0/+122its star wars meets cloverfield and i effing love it
  • hotsexybaldness, on 08/16/2008, -3/+123Quick, someone get me my Admiral Ackbar Cereal!
  • inactive, on 08/16/2008, -15/+126FAKE!
  • PhoenixAvatar2, on 08/17/2008, -0/+105The ***** was that?
  • neuens07, on 08/16/2008, -2/+101I can tell by the Death Star...
  • manima, on 08/15/2008, -3/+101wow, this is awesome.
  • JaysonthePirate, on 08/16/2008, -0/+90What?! What do you mean they "blew up" the Death Star!?
  • BossKey, on 08/16/2008, -0/+80Motion tracking FTW.

    You pick a point in the video and tell the software to lock another layer's position to match the motion of the point you locked to.
    After Effects is one app that does it but there are many others. Gotta be good at mattes, too.
  • Guitarzan, on 08/16/2008, -1/+80Starfleet is gonna be pissed.
  • inactive, on 08/16/2008, -1/+77Coolest thing I've seen on the internets in a long time.

    Badass.
  • MaruLono, on 08/16/2008, -0/+75Magic, got it. thanks!
  • forzafruth, on 08/16/2008, -0/+70What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?!?
  • Namco, on 08/16/2008, -5/+74It ain't a trap until I see some ASCII art :P
  • Culero, on 08/16/2008, -1/+68No such place as "San Francisco" is how i know it's fake.
  • shibbz, on 08/16/2008, -2/+61It appears like the footage was shot with out the intention of adding Imperial Vessels to it, which in a way made it seem a bit more realistic. Its as if the people of San Francisco have accepted Imperial rule and its a common place thing to see Tie Fighters and AT-AT's around the city. Very cool.
  • P1um, on 08/17/2008, -0/+57Deathstar debris?
  • inactive, on 08/17/2008, -0/+53Its a... its supposed to be a... deathstar :'(
  • Black6x, on 08/16/2008, -1/+52We got Death Star [Death Star]!
    We got Death Star [Death Star]!
  • Rainemaker, on 08/16/2008, -0/+51That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! Do you have any idea what this is going to do my credit?
  • Mejari, on 08/16/2008, -0/+51Actually they can; they have repulsors on the bottom, basically like a high-powered landspeeder, for when their main flight engines aren't in use.
  • mikehorn, on 08/16/2008, -1/+51Woah! Made it to the front page of Digg, thanks for the diggs everyone! Thanks to Joe Brilliant for posting (my post didn't go anywhere).

    Some info on how I made the video:
    I shot it on my crappy DV camera, and did motion-tracking, roto and comping in After FX. The vehicles are all 2D stills or roto'd footage from the movies (thanks Lucasfilm!). I wish I new 3D, hoping to learn Maya at some point. The tracking was difficult and has problems due to my source being interlaced and DV-compressed, it was hard to remove all the jitter. I got better tracking results using a demo of Silhouette, but couldn't figure out how to get it to work in AFX.

    I worked on it off and on since last October and got lazy and abandoned the project (when GTA IV came out). But I got inspired to finish it again when I saw the trailer for Clone Wars. It's not viral marketing, but I did try to finish just in time for the Clone Wars release... (phewy bad reviews, I'm gonna see it, DLP mang!).

    Mmm, BBQ Oysters ... my girlfriend and I were on our way to Tomales Bay.

    As for the parrots, aka "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" ... they live around Coit Tower, where I live as well. People say the flock started from a couple of escaped pets in the early 90's. I recommend watching this amazing film about them:
    http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/wildparrots/
  • SpeedSteamBoat, on 08/16/2008, -1/+50Actually it worked fine since it's a movie quote referring to the Death Star.
  • VelvetoneFusion, on 08/16/2008, -5/+52Why is it every time a picture/video of something out of the ordinary lands on the front page, diggers always claim it to be shopped? Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it isn't real!
  • benstl, on 08/16/2008, -1/+48http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuROs5qtR_s
  • elephantay, on 08/16/2008, -9/+56Yeah this is shopped, I can tell by the pixels.
  • Mejari, on 08/16/2008, -0/+44I'm very proud of my nerddom. Finally, after all these years all that Extended Universe reading pays off! :)
  • Mejari, on 08/16/2008, -0/+42Oh god, he's crying
  • ivosilva, on 08/16/2008, -0/+40What After Effects does is simple motion tracking (as in Pixel Tracking), doesn't work very nice with moving 3D.

    I think he used a lot of motion tracking, but there's one or two shots where it appears to be done in another way.

    The best way to do it is by "camera matching" or "match moving". There's a lot of apps to do so, like boujou or syntheyes. They analyze a set of points on a given video, and "guess" the 3D of the scene (x, y and z). It then translates the movement of the coordinates to a camera track, that you can export and then import into a 3D program. You animate the CGI, render it and export it as video, and then import it back into a composition software, like After Effects. You do a lot of mattes and masks, color correct it, add bells and whistles, and there you go!

    (ps, sorry for my not so good english)
  • WallnutBoy, on 08/16/2008, -0/+38I think it's safe to say he's 'kidding you'. -_-
  • vickers500, on 08/16/2008, -0/+37I can tell by the parrots.
  • rheaume, on 08/16/2008, -5/+41Motion control I think its called

    Camera movements are recorded somehow then that info is relayed to the
    rendering program that tell the cinematic camera the matching moves.
  • Ohnodonho, on 08/16/2008, -0/+35Now get your 7 foot 2 asthmatic ass back here, or I'm gonna tell everyone what a whiny bitch you were about padamame or panda bear or whatever the hell her name is!
  • elephantay, on 08/16/2008, -5/+38thats pretty awesome...

    loved the death star and everything but I'm pretty sure tie fighters cant just "hover" like that
  • napk, on 08/16/2008, -0/+30Finally applicable?
  • BigCheezy, on 08/17/2008, -0/+28I dugg it for unintended irony.
  • Benji521, on 08/16/2008, -0/+26haha "BBQ Oysters!"
  • matterk, on 08/15/2008, -8/+29No, it's a tarp!
  • neverender, on 08/16/2008, -0/+20exactly, its not like they have landing gear...
  • otto989, on 08/17/2008, -0/+20@ ivosilva

    i know it's unrelated, but if it weren't for that last sentence, i wouldn't have been able to tell you weren't a natural english speaker
  • Yeknom, on 08/16/2008, -0/+19It's not the east or the west side...
  • 3uphoria, on 08/16/2008, -1/+19*presses the [Well Duh, sarcasm...] button*
  • leejarratt, on 08/16/2008, -2/+20NAPPY TIME
  • ALink2ThePast, on 08/16/2008, -1/+18That thing's operational!
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