Toshiba's "timesculpture" ad is bullet time meets Feist, or something equally impressive

Yeah, we confess we're nerds and watched all that behind-the-scenes stuff on the Matrix DVD -- when it's the only DVD you own, you gotta get your money's worth. If you'll recall (don't try and deny it), the much-lauded "bullet time" effect was accomplished by surrounding the leather-bedecked Keanu with dozens of digital still cameras to capture every millisecond of his limbo moves from every angle. Commercials aplenty soon co-opted the technology to push their wares, but Toshiba is flipping that formula here, hiring an ad agency with its very own bullet time variant called "timesculpture" to plug Toshiba's XDE technology. A circular rig with 200 Gigashot HD camcorders and 20,000 gigabytes of data later, they created this little number, which mixes full motion video, Matrix camera moves and a healthy dash of hipsterism. Check it out after the break.

[noyp @ Nov 11th 2008 10:25PM]

Holy cwap that's so cool!

[Iceman @ Nov 11th 2008 10:30PM]

Cool but kinda made me a little dizzy.

[hazard @ Nov 12th 2008 12:30AM]

tré cool .. but the irony is that we only get to watch this downscaled shitty version ..

[Chuck @ Nov 12th 2008 3:51AM]

@hazard

It's kind of like those emails I get from computer companies advertising a "crisp, clear HD screen" and then a photo below to show it off. If it looks good on my screen, I guess there's no need to upgrade.

[j_g_puff @ Nov 12th 2008 4:41AM]

It is very cool, but don't be fooled into thinking that it has anything to do with the quality of their XDE engine. If you are then the advertisers have won!

[enki @ Nov 12th 2008 8:39AM]

Sorry Engadget, there is no such thing as a 'healthy dash' of hipsterism. Just like there is no such thing as a 'healthy dash' of AIDS.

[athousandleaves @ Nov 12th 2008 9:21AM]

Canadian band, not Feist, Crystal Castles...

[Simon @ Nov 12th 2008 6:22PM]

@ athousandleaves:
Fiest do video clips like this, http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Z-DIAthbM

[Mitch @ Nov 13th 2008 6:27AM]

This is a huge comment hijack, but:

Crystal Castles FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bayard @ Nov 11th 2008 10:25PM]

huge waste of time, that was...

[Saad Rabia @ Nov 11th 2008 10:54PM]

extremely lame person, you are...

[Bayard @ Nov 11th 2008 11:17PM]

So, Saad Rabia, I am a extremely lame person because I comment that I think a piece of commercial art is not an interesting nor successful piece... by a guy who makes a sanctimonious blog criticizing other peoples work. Wow, that was a succinct piece of hypocrisy on your part. Well played, Sir.
I reckon what you need is a wordy, 'thoughtful' critique.
I'll be brief.
The piece looked like a working rehearsal of the process. For my withered, old sensibilities it was a visually un-interesting piece. There was no content, just a 'proof' of a CG/ live action effect idea. As for the technology, it looked like a fine compositing job done with a set of video loops. It really didn't excite the little lame creative visual artist in me who has been working as a creative professional for the last 31 years, just didn't impress me.
So, extremely lame I be, thanks for pointing that out.

[Saad Rabia @ Nov 11th 2008 11:25PM]

Bayard, couldn't you say all of that on your first comment instead?

I wasn't judging you as much as showing you how really useless your first comment was. Your comment was nothing but a working rehearsal of the process. For my withered, old sensibilities it sounded like un-interesting talk. There was no content, just a 'proof' of a Trolling/ not cool action or idea.

But thank you anyways.

[vvtopkar @ Nov 11th 2008 11:26PM]

If it amazed even one person, it was worth it.
And it was.

[PM1 @ Nov 11th 2008 10:26PM]

That's actually really cool. Pretty neat stuff.

[Mike @ Nov 11th 2008 11:24PM]

Song is Air War by Crystal Castles.
Here's the CBC streaming player http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/band/Crystal-Castles/Air-War/

[EQB @ Nov 11th 2008 11:31PM]

Lol, you and I posted about the same time Mike. It's actually a remix, and you can download the original for free from http://music.download.com/crystalcastles/3600-8362_32-101111983.html .

[Bored @ Nov 11th 2008 11:31PM]

Yea i thought that was awesome as well, but even more awesome was the making of.
I'm a sucker for the numbers.
10 Actors
200 cameras
2.5 mill renamed frames out of 20 terabytes of film
all edited down to a 1 minute film
Wow. Isn't advertising fun

[NHAnimator @ Nov 12th 2008 8:15AM]

Wow. Guess it was just me. But I found the music so annoying that I muted it the second time I watched the video.

(Did like the arcade game Crystal Castles, though.)

[Dragod @ Nov 11th 2008 10:26PM]

There's nothing after the break... I feel lied to and betrayed...

[Dragod @ Nov 11th 2008 10:30PM]

Whoops, I guess there must have been a page error or something, I found it.

Pretty cool, but I don't see how it makes me want to buy a new computer.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Nov 11th 2008 10:38PM]

XDE technology runs on their TVs and DVD players, too. It's not all about buying their computers.

[adam @ Nov 11th 2008 10:40PM]

i didnt find anything after the break either. damn engadget
and i hate following links....
...
...
who knows what creepiness lies in the world of internet outside of engadget's kingdom.

[Gabe @ Nov 11th 2008 10:44PM]

Perhaps this so called "life". I wonder if life offers a matte display? Nevermind, I won't bother.

[Othello @ Nov 11th 2008 10:58PM]

There is no break at all. There is a link to an external page, but that isn't a break.

[Dragod @ Nov 11th 2008 11:14PM]

@Othello

Yeah, that's what I thought too... I clicked the read too and didn't see it either. Went in to IE instead of FF and I found it on the Read link...

[Benson @ Nov 12th 2008 1:04AM]

Your current computer choked on their video first time around, and it doesn't make you want to buy a new one?

[Dave Jerrard @ Nov 11th 2008 11:33PM]

"Commercials aplenty soon co-opted the technology to push their wares"

Actually, it's the other way around. Commercials were using this for quite a while before The Matrix.

[Osman @ Nov 11th 2008 10:46PM]

I had to re-watch that 2 times to understand how INSANE that is!!!!

for people looking for a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYPn1BrTNCE&feature=related

[Mike @ Nov 11th 2008 10:49PM]

Paul, I hope The Matrix isn't the ONLY DVD you own! :)

[Darkroom @ Nov 12th 2008 12:28AM]

the matrix box set are the only dvds i own... after this article i feel like a walking cliché... thanks engadget...

[drnick664 @ Nov 11th 2008 10:49PM]

That was so E-P-I-C I had to spell it out.

[dark star @ Nov 11th 2008 10:58PM]

ok, where did they hide the cameras???
i dont see any!

[Jeff @ Nov 11th 2008 11:33PM]

yeah i wanna know the same too, its impressive

[Luis A. @ Nov 12th 2008 12:10AM]

most likely they paint out the cameras in a program like after effects or some other compositing software. This project is made to look simple, but it takes lots of man hours. If i was going to paint out the cameras, the easiest way would be to take a picture from all 200 cameras with an empty set (no actors) and make a clean plate. Then for every frame a camera is visible, just use a masked layer to bring in the clean plate. Once you have this little system set up. the removal of the cameras is simple (still very time consuming)

[EdgeOne @ Nov 12th 2008 12:12AM]

I know, totally! I couldn't see any cameras in The Matrix either! WTF?!

[Greg @ Nov 12th 2008 12:33AM]

Actually, it is quite impressive; what they did, that is. For every frame of every person/object/scene, they recorded it with one camera using the smallest increments in a circle, the camera was attached to the ceiling and had a motor to spin it fast, it captures quite a lot of frames per second, then using automation they cut out the people/objects in the scenes and merged them, finally using back-breaking animation they animated them to make a sweet effect. A hell of a comercial..

[Shawn @ Nov 12th 2008 12:31AM]

They explain a bit of how they did it in this 'Making of.." video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKAfsyoCmI

[ethan @ Nov 12th 2008 2:32AM]

@greg

Nope. 200 cameras used. To "brush" out the cameras, they cut the circular rig in half, and filmed the blank canvas room without the rig 360.....genius, really.

I can't believe this ad wasn't done by Gondry.

[Name: @ Nov 11th 2008 11:05PM]

Disturbing, but it opens new avenues of artistic impression....through PORN.

[iEye @ Nov 11th 2008 11:11PM]

money shot in bullet time... so wrong...

[takamaru @ Nov 11th 2008 11:21PM]

...but worth seeing...once...

[Mr.Ironic @ Nov 12th 2008 1:25AM]

*seeding*

[Tom @ Nov 12th 2008 5:27PM]

.. exactly ..

[Jeff @ Nov 11th 2008 11:26PM]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who's first DVD and original reason for buying a player was the Matrix movie. Hehehe. In fact I actually had the DVD in hand before the player due to pre-ordering the DVD and indecisiveness on my part of which player I wanted. Ended up with a 2nd gen 2-disc Toshiba. And yes, I probably watched that movie and all it's content throughly.

MAN!! I am a geek.

[Tony @ Nov 11th 2008 11:46PM]

The Matrix DVD was the reason my father upgraded his sound system to surround sound. The lobby scene...*drool*.

Anyone else know of any really cool surround sound sequences in films?

[kumquat @ Nov 11th 2008 11:21PM]

Very cool, but as expected the tie-in is pretty weak. Shouldn't we constantly redefine how we watch things... because a bunch of people are prancing in a room? Why, yes!

[EQB @ Nov 11th 2008 11:27PM]

I so want the remix of Airwar (by Crystal Castles) they used in that commercial. For anyone interested in the original, check out http://music.download.com/crystalcastles/3600-8362_32-101111983.html

[Matthew @ Nov 11th 2008 11:44PM]

Crystal Castles FTW.

[eric @ Nov 12th 2008 12:50AM]

More appropriate meme: "Crystal Castles are massive fail."

They take other chiptune artists songs, lay some very basic preset 8bit synth parts over it, and try to pass them off as their own.
They have been caught on many occasion and always try to weasel out of it.

http://gameboygenius.8bitcollective.com/wordpress/2008/05/06/crystal-castles-and-chip-music-copyright-infringements/
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/05/05/chiptune-music-theft-continues-crystal-castles-abuses-creative-commons-license/
http://www.pileup.com/babyart/blog/?p=130