2Pac Hologram Might Be Going on Tour with Snoop and Dre

[The_Ripper]

The biggest buzz at Sunday's Coachella music festival in California wasn't for a hot new DJ or indie-rock band. It was for Tupac Shakur, the rapper who died more than 15 years ago and "performed" Sunday night alongside Snoop Dogg and producer Dr. Dre.

Internet video of the Sunday evening show became an instant sensation on Monday morning. That response is helping push the possibility of a virtual Tupac tour in coming months.

The rapper's ghostly image was created by Digital Domain Media Group Inc., DDMG +13.59%the visual-effects house responsible for making the virtual versions of Brad Pitt that populated 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." The movie won the Oscar for visual effects.

Representatives for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg plan to discuss logistics for a tour involving the two performers and the virtual Tupac, according to a person familiar with the discussions. One option would be a tour in stadiums, involving other hip-hop stars, including Eminem, 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa. Alternately, they could stage a more limited tour, featuring only Dre, Snoop Dogg and the virtual Tupac, in smaller arenas.

Digital Domain is a publicly traded company that reported revenue last year of $98.6 million. The thinly-traded company has a market capitalization of $211 million. Its stock is down 15% year-to-date.

"To create a completely synthetic human being is the most complicated thing that can be done," Digital Domain's chief creative officer, Ed Ulbrich, said in a phone interview Monday.

He said that the performances of the rapper's hits "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" weren't simply old ones captured on film and repurposed: "This is not found footage. This is not archival footage. This is an illusion."

"This is just the beginning," Mr. Ulbrich said. "Dre has a massive vision for this."

Spokeswomen for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg declined to comment.

Mr. Shakur was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996, at age 25. Because the shooting has never been solved by authorities, it has become grist for conspiracy theories akin to the "Elvis lives" rumors a generation earlier.

Dr. Dre and his production team first approached Digital Domain a year ago to discuss the possibility of creating a virtual Tupac. They began work in earnest on the Coachella performance around four months ago.

First, the image was created on a computer, using physical characteristics and movements captured from recorded performances.

Advances in computer graphics and video projection allowed Sunday night's illusion to be far more lifelike than other recent efforts.

For the projection aspect, a San Diego company called AV Concepts used a variation of a visual effect that was discovered in the 19th century, known as Pepper's Ghost.

Though the projected image has been widely described as a "hologram," it is a 2-D image and not a hologram, which is 3-D.

The effect was first used in an 1862 dramatization of Charles Dickens' novella "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain," staged at the Royal Polytechnic Institute in London, according to Jim Steinmeyer, an illusion designer who has written extensively about the history of his craft, including Pepper's Ghost.

The effect relies on an angled piece of glass in which a "ghostly" image is reflected. "A piece of glass can be both transparent and reflective at the same time, depending on how it's situated relative to the audience," said Mr. Steinmeyer, pointing out the secret.

In the Victorian version of the trick, the glass reflected an actual actor, situated out of sight in near the orchestra. On Sunday night, the image was projected on a piece of Mylar—a highly reflective, lightweight plastic—stretched on a clear frame.

"What's happening in Coachella is virtually the same thing that was happening in 1862," Mr. Steinmeyer said. One difference: In the Victorian era, Pepper's Ghost was normally used to reflect actual, physical objects or actors, making them appear "dimensional" in ways that the projected or computer-generated imagery typically used today do not.

Mr. Steinmeyer used similar technology to create an illusion in which Frank Sinatra appeared at a 2003 concert.

A London-based company called Musion Systems Ltd. owns the patent for using a Mylar screen in the illusion. Musion said it licenses its technology to around 30 companies around the world, including AV Concepts. Its technology was also used for the 2006 Grammy Awards, when an animated rock band called the Gorillaz appeared to perform live on stage with Madonna.

AV Concepts President Nick Smith says that his company typically uses the technology for corporate events.

Tupac Shakur is the first dead entertainer the company has presented "live."

But Mr. Smith said the company has used the same technology to resurrect several late executives.

"We've brought past CEOs and things that like that back to life," Mr. Smith said, without getting more specific, citing non-disclosure agreements.

A tour with the virtual Tupac is likely but not guaranteed, said the person familiar with the situation. The nascent plans could fall apart for any number of reasons.

If the tour were to proceed, it would take many months of creative and technical planning, this person added.

[doggfather]

 

[Jimmy H.]

Good God. It scares me that I knew something like this would happen. I'm already tired of this idea. If it bothered you to watch all these rappers making fake collabos with Pac and Big, just wait until Rick Ross and Soulja Boy start touring with them. I'll remain unimpressed until a hologram Marvin Gaye shows up.

[Hack Wilson - real]

Good God. It scares me that I knew something like this would happen. I'm already tired of this idea. If it bothered you to watch all these rappers making fake collabos with Pac and Big, just wait until Rick Ross and Soulja Boy start touring with them. I'll remain unimpressed until a hologram Marvin Gaye shows up.

fuck that its all about the Elvis hologram

[TraceOneInfinite]

Good God. It scares me that I knew something like this would happen. I'm already tired of this idea. If it bothered you to watch all these rappers making fake collabos with Pac and Big, just wait until Rick Ross and Soulja Boy start touring with them. I'll remain unimpressed until a hologram Marvin Gaye shows up.

Fuck man. Talk about being fucking cynical.  What the hell did life do to you to make you so damn negative?  This is the biggest thing to happen to hip-hop in a long time.  Dre just made history and you still find a reason to bitch and complain.  Your like those dudes that said Eminem was wack when he came out and cited some obscure underground artist as being better.  Or when Dre came out with his album you complained that Dre had sold out or some shit like that, lol.

...Anyway, very interesting how the technology was put together.  Also great to hear that Dre was behind a lot of the ideas for the show.   I still wonder whether or not 2pac's estate (or Afeni) have to give approval or have to receive compensation for something like this.  I hope the tour happens and that it provides a springboard for Dre to take the lead once more in the industry, and save the game once more.   I was even thinking the Outlawz had more songs with Pac so they would be better fit to pull off a tour with a digital Pac; but then again, if you want something done big it should be done through Dre.

[KURUPTION-81]

I don't get why people would want to watch a hologram of someone, you go to a concert to see someone perform not watch what is basically a video.

[Hack Wilson - real]

I don't get why people would want to watch a hologram of someone, you go to a concert to see someone perform not watch what is basically a video.

what, seeing Dr. Dre and Snoop isn't enough for ya??

[KURUPTION-81]

I don't get why people would want to watch a hologram of someone, you go to a concert to see someone perform not watch what is basically a video.

what, seeing Dr. Dre and Snoop isn't enough for ya??

snoop and dre r def worth seeing, that's what Im saying.

Why add this pac gimmick to the show.

[da chronic]

I cant wait to see Hitler getting stomped by Bruce Lee in a wrestling battle.

Nah seriously, i thought the "hologram" was realistic enough to open an infinity of insane possibilities.

Soon there will be no limits at all to the imagination of movie directors and for music shows.
 When the technology becomes cheaper we'll be able to have anyone in our living room doing virtual personnal shows.
Marylin monroe anyone ?

Cool and scary at the same time...

[Hack Wilson - real]

this is how we can bring back new episodes of Sanford and Son 

[EriMakaveli]

Am I the only one who looked at the face and instantly knew it was a look-alike? Pretty wack and limited if you ask me. I thought they would use actual 2pac footage and map his movements from there instead of getting some guy that looks like him to (poorly) act him out [except the little westside dance he did - that was awesome] and CG his body and face to look more [but not enough) like Pac.

People are getting waaay ahead of themselves. The only novel thing they did was possibly making the lookalike look more like Pac.

[Spoonie Luv]

I don't get why people would want to watch a hologram of someone, you go to a concert to see someone perform not watch what is basically a video.

what, seeing Dr. Dre and Snoop isn't enough for ya??

2Pac is bigger than the both of them, thats why!
i want to go but fuck being in the middle of that croud standing all day waiting to see a performance at the end of the day.
i'll wait till they do one at staples center or some shit where i pay for my front row seat and i wont have to battle my way to the front!
ive been to many concerts and let me tell you, if you dont have the good seats in the house, your just gonna be there live but watching the big screen anyways cuz you cant see shit!

[slickrik2002]

hologram is cool but damn, makes me miss real performances like this.  pac hologram needs to be throwin up the W more and yellin "westside in this mutha fucka right here" and Snoop askin the crowd if the gangstas run this muthafucka!

[slickrik2002]

"now do the gangstas run this muthafucka? heeellll yeah"

[Jimmy H.]

Fuck man. Talk about being fucking cynical.  What the hell did life do to you to make you so damn negative?  

It's the joy of free will. I'm sorry if my dick gets hard over attractive women instead of rapper lookalike CGI at a concert I didn't even attend.

This is the biggest thing to happen to hip-hop in a long time.  Dre just made history and you still find a reason to bitch and complain.  Your like those dudes that said Eminem was wack when he came out and cited some obscure underground artist as being better.  Or when Dre came out with his album you complained that Dre had sold out or some shit like that, lol.
 

I'm one of the biggest Dr. Dre fans out there and it's cool that he came up with this concept but puppets like you have already dick-rode it into the ground. You're geeking out over a computer graphic. It might make for some fun moments at a few hip-hop shows for the live crowd but it's a gimmick. Call me cynical if you will but I fail to see the long-term excitement in it. As a technological advancement, it's pretty cool but that's not the issue here. Instead of looking at it like a cool little piece of this show, you're all looking at as some way to recreate a moment that can never be captured again. Tupac is dead. If I need to explain to you why having a CGI hologram image of him headlining a tour with the Outlawz is a silly-ass idea then there ain't much I can say. I wouldn't pay to watch a whole show of a pitch-perfect impersonator doing his songs either. I'm beginning to wonder about some of y'all.