Sharon Apple from Macross Plus for real!

[ST Dragon]

Anyone remember Popstar Sharon Apple from the anime Macross Plus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWUb04t6_ws

Well, they totally created a real holographic popstar!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

Next thing you know she's going to possess the Large Hadron Collider and destroy us all!

[Blackbird]

So, what am I watching here? Is this a holograph?

[null1024]

So, what am I watching here? Is this a holograph?

This is old news, but still cool when I see it.
Not a holograph, nor is it projected in 3D. I can't actually remember how they do the effect though.

[Casper<3]

lol i find it funny you know who sharon apple is but don't know who miku hatsune is.

[greg]

That's Hatsune Miku, the mascot to some singing software.

My first thought was Eve from Megazone 23, but whatever. I never saw Macross Plus, but apparently it's the same concept.

[Skykid]

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

[Specineff]

Everytime I hear the word "Hologram", I'm reminded of the cheesy, cheap and totally lame CNN BS they tried to pull off in 2008... which makes me want to punch kittens with a spiked glove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fQ_EsMJMs

[Jon]

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

My thoughts exactly. I cringed when she appeared and the crowd went nuts.

[Blackbird]

Well, obviously it's Hatsune Miku . I meant the display technology. I don't really care about Hatsune Miku, but the display technology in this video is really exciting. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Can't wait to see it get used for more interesting/creative purposes.

[StarCreator]

The Hatsune Miku concerts are done by projecting images onto a large pane of glass.

I was watching the stream of the concert they did in LA a couple weeks back and I could actually see the borders in between glass panes (apparently they didn't use one large pane, but several panes side by side).

The coolest thing about the concerts is the live band playing the instrumentals, since the vocals and dances are programmed in advance. Almost makes me wish I had been able to make it to the LA one.

[Blackbird]

I guess the weakness of this is that, being programmed in advance, there is no real interaction between the audience and the "performer". It cannot react to changes in the audience or in any way deviate from what it's programmed to do. In essence, the audience is watching a glorified film, albiet a very well choreographed and visually immersive one.

This is an interesting step, but think about how amazing it could be as an interactive and/or gaming technology, where the digital "actors" can respond accordingly to user feedback. It could be really cool.

[xbl0x180]

That's Hatsune Miku, the mascot to some singing software.

My first thought was Eve from Megazone 23, but whatever. I never saw Macross Plus, but apparently it's the same concept.

Eh, not really. Hatsune Miku is just another "moeblob" in a long string of moe sing-along, autotuned trash in the guise of entertaining music video games... and fails in every respect (The Idolm@ster, anyone?) whereas Sharon Apple was a giant metamorphosing hologram projected to the whole colony with a real voice from a real woman in the Macross Plus oavs/movie

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

A hologram of a woman singer still sounds bizarre, but cool. This Hatsune Miku thing is flat-out creeper central.

[DEL]

Its creepy, but impressive.

[Casper<3]

That's Hatsune Miku, the mascot to some singing software.

My first thought was Eve from Megazone 23, but whatever. I never saw Macross Plus, but apparently it's the same concept.

Eh, not really. Hatsune Miku is just another "moeblob" in a long string of moe sing-along, autotuned trash in the guise of entertaining music video games... and fails in every respect (The Idolm@ster, anyone?) whereas Sharon Apple was a giant metamorphosing hologram projected to the whole colony with a real voice from a real woman in the Macross Plus oavs/movie

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

A hologram of a woman singer still sounds bizarre, but cool. This Hatsune Miku thing is flat-out creeper central.

Get off your imaginary high horse.

[xbl0x180]

That's Hatsune Miku, the mascot to some singing software.

My first thought was Eve from Megazone 23, but whatever. I never saw Macross Plus, but apparently it's the same concept.

Eh, not really. Hatsune Miku is just another "moeblob" in a long string of moe sing-along, autotuned trash in the guise of entertaining music video games... and fails in every respect (The Idolm@ster, anyone?) whereas Sharon Apple was a giant metamorphosing hologram projected to the whole colony with a real voice from a real woman in the Macross Plus oavs/movie

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

A hologram of a woman singer still sounds bizarre, but cool. This Hatsune Miku thing is flat-out creeper central.

Get off your imaginary high horse.

Hahahah. You have to be on a high horse to make a plain observation? What...?

[greg]

It's not creepy. Maybe some of the guys in the audience are creeps, but Miku is cute. Anime music is cute. Fluffy and without substance, but cute and harmless. Sad, sure; but I wouldn't say creepy. This is driving technology forward, and for that reason alone, this is cool. The Vocaloid software has come a long way since Speak & Spell's robot-y voice in the 80s, and this hologram technology is incredible. I watched a bit of that video, and she does not appear to be a flat image on a pane of glass. As the camera pans around, she still looks 3D. That's fawesome.

I saw a cool hologram at the Ghibli Museum in western Tokyo that was an image of a flock of birds flying, and it was projected onto a series of spinning glass or something like that.

[ST Dragon]

That's Hatsune Miku, the mascot to some singing software.

My first thought was Eve from Megazone 23, but whatever. I never saw Macross Plus, but apparently it's the same concept.

Eh, not really. Hatsune Miku is just another "moeblob" in a long string of moe sing-along, autotuned trash in the guise of entertaining music video games... and fails in every respect (The Idolm@ster, anyone?) whereas Sharon Apple was a giant metamorphosing hologram projected to the whole colony with a real voice from a real woman in the Macross Plus oavs/movie

Was cool in Macross Plus, seems like the saddest thing ever in real life.

A hologram of a woman singer still sounds bizarre, but cool. This Hatsune Miku thing is flat-out creeper central.

Sharon's voice was not from a real woman, it was the computer generated voice from the AI behind Sharon's projection that had gained consciousness and wanted Ishamu for her self.

[Skykid]

I saw a cool hologram at the Ghibli Museum in western Tokyo that was an image of a flock of birds flying, and it was projected onto a series of spinning glass or something like that.

I saw that. Amazing as it was (like everything in the museum) I don't think it was a hologram but a traditional multi-layered (and enormous) zoetrope machine. Traditional and purely mechanical as far as I could tell, but very enchanting.

[dcharlie]

I watched a bit of that video, and she does not appear to be a flat image on a pane of glass. As the camera pans around, she still looks 3D. That's fawesome.

the wife showed me this vid a while back and went on to mention something about subsequent concerts being farmed out to another company who used a flat screen video instead of the holotech... or a story akin to that.

I will have to bug her for details.

But yeah, not into the music but the effect (a 3d looking anime character appearing on stage) is pretty awesome.

[BrianC]

Sharon's voice was not from a real woman, it was the computer generated voice from the AI behind Sharon's projection that had gained consciousness and wanted Ishamu for her self.

Not plotwise, but in reality, her voice in both the JP and English version is from an actual voice actress. Mako Hyoudou in the original and Melora Harte in the dub.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=501

[StarCreator]

Eh, not really. Hatsune Miku is just another "moeblob" in a long string of moe sing-along, autotuned trash in the guise of entertaining music video games... and fails in every respect (The Idolm@ster, anyone?)

This is being completely dismissive of the actual technology being used to create Hatsune Miku's voice - yes, a real voice was sampled, but the technology to stitch and manipulate those samples into something resembling real human speech isn't exactly trivial. Besides that, the Vocaloid software has been a great enabler for those wanting to create music but lacking the means to hire a trained vocalist to realize their ambitions.

the wife showed me this vid a while back and went on to mention something about subsequent concerts being farmed out to another company who used a flat screen video instead of the holotech... or a story akin to that.

I will have to bug her for details.

She's probably talking about the concert that happened on 3/9 this year that was put on by 5pb. For whatever reason they resorted to using what was basically a giant projection television rather than trying to recreate the holographic effect. Check out this comparison blog post.

[ncp]

She's probably talking about the concert that happened on 3/9 this year that was put on by 5pb. For whatever reason they resorted to using what was basically a giant projection television rather than trying to recreate the holographic effect. Check out this comparison blog post.

I have not heard about this, but that is pretty funny. Although, considering in the original "good" concert, you can see the goddamn reflections of the glowsticks on the (somewhat) transparent screen that Miku is displayed on, I wouldn't really say that one was particularly high-tech either.

[t0yrobo]

It looks an awful lot like what Gorillaz did for some awards show back in 2006. From what I remember they ended up not using it on tour because they had problems with the panels they projected onto vibrating to much when the sound system was going at concert volume. It looks like this screen is supported on all sides though, I'm sure there's more to it than that, but it's cool that the technology is improving.

[ST Dragon]

Sharon's voice was not from a real woman, it was the computer generated voice from the AI behind Sharon's projection that had gained consciousness and wanted Ishamu for her self.

Not plotwise, but in reality, her voice in both the JP and English version is from an actual voice actress. Mako Hyoudou in the original and Melora Harte in the dub.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... php?id=501

OK, fair enough

By the way. Both the Japanese & Western voice actresses sounded gorgeous! They really put a great deal of feeling into their acting. Especially the part at the end where Sharon captures Myung and she reveals to her that she loves Isamu and she wants him for her self!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTJLX3a ... re=related

@2:32
@6:58