February 20, 2019

Japanese fireworks.



IN THE COMMENTS: Unknown said:
I think it's actually computer generated. No, I'm not kidding. I don't see smoke - it's low res, the sound is exactly synced (they could have altered it afterward, but...). As a software developer with a lot of experience in computer generated images, it looks totally fake to me.
Aw, too bad! I looked it up and found, at Hoax-Slayer, "'Japan’s Fireworks Best in the World' Video is A Digital Simulation."

34 comments:

RMc said...

Gee, it's almost like fireworks were invented in Asia or something...

mockturtle said...

Wow!!!

JAORE said...

Oooooh - - ahhhh - - oooooowwwww.

traditionalguy said...

That is just right for End of the World. The new world starts now.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Makes me proud to be an American!

Geoff Matthews said...

Do they go sideways out or out like a globe?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

it would be cool to have something like that written in our national anthem

Unknown said...

I think it's actually computer generated. No, I'm not kidding. I don't see smoke - it's low res, the sound is exactly synced (they could have altered it afterward, but...). As a software developer with a lot of experience in computer generated images, it looks totally fake to me.

Fernandinande said...

Cool.

I hear they're working on miniaturized fireworks that you can carry in your wallet.

Ann Althouse said...

"I think it's actually computer generated. No, I'm not kidding. I don't see smoke - it's low res, the sound is exactly synced (they could have altered it afterward, but...). As a software developer with a lot of experience in computer generated images, it looks totally fake to me."

Oh, no!

Was I duped?

Michael E. Lopez said...

I, too, think this looks CGI'd.

rhhardin said...

The trick is to keep them from all going off at once.

Ann Althouse said...

Yeah, it is fake.

Will do an update.

Mark Nielsen said...


I agree. Fake. Spheres are too perfect, with edges too crisply defined, and they grow to a certain size and remain there. I wish they could make real ones like this, though.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

fake, but Acura

madAsHell said...

Turning Japanese-a!!

mockturtle said...

Well, they actually do have some awesome fireworks.

MadisonMan said...

Was I duped?

You, with your new eyes!

GRW3 said...

Not a very good fake. At a minimum the author should have calculated the effective distance of each explosion and included a delay between the flash and the report based on the speed of sound.

Leland said...

The sudden, perfectly symmetrical, fades of rings is a good sign of a fake too.

Achilles said...

That was pretty obvious.

I have some friends in the CGI class. It is really hard to do shadows and smoke.

There are some video game developers that did a much better job than this.

Achilles said...

Leland said...
The sudden, perfectly symmetrical, fades of rings is a good sign of a fake too.

The best CGI stuff lightly randomizes the fade effects.

Fernandinande said...

I think it's actually computer generated. No, I'm not kidding. I don't see smoke - it's low res, the sound is exactly synced (they could have altered it afterward, but...)

Good catch. I watched with the sound off but wondered what they'd have to do to make heart shapes rather than ovals, and thought they might have had chips in each rocket ... while falling for it.

Fun fact: the guy who started Adobe was an early researcher into simulating particle systems.

Wince said...

"'Japan’s Fireworks Best in the World' Video is A Digital Simulation."

As far as oohs and aahs go, a digital stimulation is more in my wheelhouse.

Yancey Ward said...

Now do WaPo.

Unknown said...

Hey I made it on Althouse! Now I can retire. :)

Yancey Ward said...

This is actually a terrible fake- it is possible to do this better.

Leland said...

Hey I made it on Althouse! Now I can retire. :)

You didn't get a tag. Back to work.

Virgil Hilts said...

What a bunch of crap. 2012 San Diego fireworks display was the GOAT and will likely not be matched in our lifetimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndVhgq1yHdA

StephenFearby said...

This is exactly what happened to me when I was introduced to my now wife (AKA the Princess of Uisneach) after she spoke a few innocuous words.

Tachycardia.

Then my head started exploding. A once in a lifetime experience!

The feeling wasn't reciprocated.

But, as my mother was wont to tell me when I was young, "You're a persistent bugger".

Unknown said...

You didn't get a tag. Back to work.

I have low standards. Except when it comes to digital fakery...

jaydub said...

When I lived in Japan in the late 80's/early 90's the city of shimoda held the Shimoda Black Ship Festival which celebrated the arrival of ADM Perry's "black ship fleet" to Japan and the opening of Japan to Western civilization. Shimoda held the Black Ship Festivali in May, and its fireworks spectacle served as a demonstration/advertisement of what might be available for the other Japanese fireworks displays in the summer and the fall, i.e. it was spectacular because the fireworks companies were showing off their wares. To this day I believe Shimoda had the most amazing fireworks of all, and the spherical fireworks depicted in the video are likely a continuation of the Shimoda event. No one does fireworks like the Japanese.

Leland said...

Well look at that, a new tag! Unknown

Congratulations on the retirement! Now go out there and fill that tag!

DavidD said...

Very one-dimensional; obviously fake.