Radiohead's 'House of Cards' video gets 3D, interactive, and extremely trippy

Leave it to Radiohead to do something twisted, innovative, and defiantly futuristic to the art of the music video. Instead of going with underwater singing, fully animated epic, or a mysterious series of "blips," the band decided to forgo the use of cameras altogether for their latest single, House of Cards. Using 3D video acquisition systems from Geometric Informatics, and 64-element, 360-degree LIDAR from Velodyne, the band was able to create a clip that eschews traditional video recording for haunting, complex data visualizations. You can watch the video after the break, or you can get your hands dirty with a real time, interactive version you'll find by following the read link. Either way, your mind should be thoroughly blown.

[Arbert @ Jul 16th 2008 1:09AM]

i can do just the same with my pinhead artsculpture. look!

[Josh @ Jul 16th 2008 1:20AM]

That is really cool. I really love the whole thing, not sure if it really relates to the lyrics but i really didn't care because the song was good and the the video was great too.

[ErikLindemann @ Jul 16th 2008 1:42AM]

That was awesome.

[Jerod @ Jul 16th 2008 11:51AM]

It's really cool. Kind of reminds me of that one Nine Inch Nails video.

[bilal @ Jul 16th 2008 1:53AM]

WOW!

[ddub @ Jul 16th 2008 1:57AM]

I suggest you guys try out the interactive video version, its really cool.

[Fred @ Jul 16th 2008 6:04AM]

Why is it 'really cool'? You can rotate a couple of 3D models. Incredible!

I mean, hasn't anyone ever played voxel based games? Why is everyone so excited about this? Astroturfing?

[ddub @ Jul 16th 2008 1:57AM]

Reverse psychology fails again.

[slackercow @ Jul 16th 2008 2:15AM]

works well with the house of cards title

[collegekid13 @ Jul 16th 2008 4:07AM]

add to list of things to do before i die:

do acid and make music video

[Danbo @ Jul 16th 2008 4:12AM]

lovely stuff. good grief, this is a geeky comment I'm about to make; the girl at about 1m 5secs looks like the princess you rescue from the castle in Defender of the Crown (Amiga version). Sorry, I haven't any friends.

[Alex Knutson @ Jul 16th 2008 5:41AM]

this reminds me of some old school music videos from the late 80's early 90's that incorporated what was probably the new type of CGI back then. Think "Lawnmower Man" meets music by "Trans Siberian Orchestra" Anybody have any idea what im talking about? It was like, things floating in space that morphed into a metallic figure that started making out with itself? lol.

Anyway...cool concept. Didn't really impress me much sadly.

[Fred @ Jul 16th 2008 5:52AM]

Wait, I'm missing the appeal. They did some neat motion tracking and made a bunch of cool 3D animations, and everyone is blown away? What is this, 1992?

[gunboatdiplomacy @ Jul 16th 2008 9:01AM]

i think you miss the point. it isnt "motion tracking" in the gollum sense. besides, turn on MTV and tell me what video is playing (if they even do that). chances are radiohead are taking more risks than any other popular band out there. easy to do when you have time and money, but lots of bands have time and money and still make CRAP.

[Michael Ray @ Jul 16th 2008 9:41AM]

Yes, but this is Radiohead's whole shtick, to make artsy media. The song is boring. They are not taking a risk at all with this video when it is what people expect from them and they know it.

[Evan @ Jul 16th 2008 6:27AM]

OK so I wasn't fully blown away until I followed the link and then had a play with the immersive 3d stuff.. and then pressed play. Wow.

[Evan @ Jul 16th 2008 6:39AM]

Also, awesome quote from Radiohead.com regarding their pro net neutrality stance:

"we didn't put ' in rainbows ' out on the internet so that the next time A T & T would be releasing our music"

[Rob @ Jul 16th 2008 6:48AM]

On A Friday does it again....if only we ALL could continue to break the mold....what an interesting world it would be !

[Didou @ Jul 16th 2008 7:02AM]

Video no longer available.

[Snooze @ Jul 16th 2008 7:12AM]

That is pure art.
Beautiful.

[VeganPower @ Jul 16th 2008 7:44AM]

Radiohead are awesome! and Thom Yorke is vegan too.

[distordz @ Jul 16th 2008 8:26AM]

you can see the video in Google viewer, you have more controle and more quality

link : http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/viewer.html

http://www.ilogan.info/

[Karl Hackswell @ Jul 16th 2008 9:09AM]

How awesome is Radiohead. One of the greatest bands of the last 10 years. Sheer brilliance.

[silverblackvoid @ Jul 16th 2008 9:16AM]

best music video ever!

[Zeek @ Jul 16th 2008 9:57AM]

Money for nothing, and your chicks for free.

[Zeek @ Jul 16th 2008 9:59AM]

We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen delivery.

[Alex R @ Jul 16th 2008 10:02AM]

I thought this video might have been cool but after viewing, I no longer have functioning eyes.

[huh @ Jul 16th 2008 10:15AM]

I have to admit I found it a bit gimmicky. It does make you think about pov-free media, which is neat, and I guess for Radiohead it does draw attention to their song. But it's all artifice.

[kma @ Jul 16th 2008 10:38AM]

Geospatial users are playing with it .... now in Google Earth .... http://thes.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/radiohead-gis-2/

[Jeff @ Jul 16th 2008 11:17AM]

weaksauce.

the only thing remotely interesting about the video is the technology, and it would have come out better using a poser head used as a particle flow source.

no expresion/emoting thanks to low res mapping used
early 90's looking imagery
dull song.
poor editing
hell, they didn't even use interesting subjects.

[paul @ Jul 16th 2008 11:50AM]

Title should have read: "Radiohead's new video is revolutionary, music still sucks"

[tim @ Jul 16th 2008 12:31PM]

or "Awesome Video. music still too sophisticated , deep and complex for monkeys to comprehend" yeah, that would've been better.....

[jeff.zim @ Jul 16th 2008 1:55PM]

Takes me back to the days of watching scrambled porn late at night.

[nadi @ Jul 16th 2008 3:16PM]

i am on the team that generated the 3D head models for this mv :D

[Casey @ Jul 16th 2008 5:19PM]

yep, radiohead still blows. video was cool though.

[fiezi @ Jul 16th 2008 5:31PM]

There's a super-low-tech and inexpensive way to get data like this, at least in still frames with a pool and some ink and a webcam.
You can find pics and more info on that on http://inkscanner.moviesandbox.net or there's a vimeo video where you can see the scan in action here:
http://www.vimeo.com/1190405
It looks super-similar!

[dothedrewtoo @ Jul 20th 2008 4:53PM]

awesome. reminds me of the batman cell phone thing. don't wanna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.