U2 - City of Blinding Lights - Virtual Backdrop Film

This is a segment from a full length video "backdrop" that I created for U2inSL, which is a group in Second Life that does a very realistic virtual recreation of U2 concerts. Theyve put alot of time and work into it, and the results they have achieved are truly admirable for those who appreciate that sort of virtual art form (and I do consider it to be art).

Unfortunately, their video screens over the virtual stage are texture-based and dont have nearly the impact they should for the viewing audience, and so last month, I offered to create a full length video backdrop and stream it to the screens above the stage. I put it together (over two hours total), and it worked flawlessly for me and several others during a test run of it over their stage (to the extent that it was often truly astounding looking in conjunction with their virtual lighting effects surrounding it).

Then, due to the nervousness of members of the management and band about some problems with their ability to get the video stream to work properly on their computers (not to mention their demonstrating complete cluelessness about the importance of perfect video/audio synchronization to the realism and power of the effect), they decided not to go with it ... or more accurately, I strongly disagreed with them on the proper method of streaming it, but they apparently couldnt accept that I might be RIGHT (after years of online streaming experience) and that they could be wrong, hence the reason they still have a lame texture screen above their stage instead of this video. ;)

So I assume they went on with the show that weekend as usual (360 tour - Soldier Field, Chicago) and its worth catching anyway. Then imagine this video being projected on the screens over the virtual band instead of the laggy static textures they are currently using, and youll get some idea of how cool it would have been.

But there are a few parts of this that Im very proud of and want to show, so Im posting them here. Enjoy! :)

(parts of this I grabbed from the searing "Koyaanisqatsi", and even though Im not a big fan of this particular U2 song, I do love how this turned out!)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• u2
• in
• sl
• bono
• edge
• adam
• clayton
• larry
• mullen
• virtual
• reality
• recreation
• simulation