911-SYNTHETIC CROWDS

SYNTHETIC CROWDS CROWDS

"THE TOURIST VIDEO" This animation video was released on Youtube on April 2, 2008 - author anonymous. It is meant to look like real footage by 'a tourist'- witnessing the WTC2 strike. It turns out to be just another computer animation manufactured for reasons we may easily surmise; Since there are no real videos of the morning's events, simulations such as this serve one important purpose : to convey the idea that "scores of people witnessed the events unfold before their very eyes". To be sure, no known real video artifacts may generate the 'pixel madness' observed in this clip. Watch the full, original version (youtube) . The 'face mutilations' seen in this clip are consistent with glitches occuring in multi-layer video compositing. The image below is from a virtual-reality video tutorial. LEFT: Here is when WTC2 is seen exploding: the intent of creating a dramatic,"as if you were there" effect is all too evident. The "Man in Black Box" and the "Elephant Man" are yet two more digital glitches, but it is the overall contrived nature of the whole scene which ultimately exposes this video for what it is: a poorly executed exercise in virtual-reality imagery. Learn more about Virtual Reality imagery.

"JUMPING JACKET FLASH" This is from a "running crowd" scene in the Naudet brothers' feature film "9/11". Here we see another glitch typical of masking problems encountered in digital animation composites. Such fleeting glitches are likely to escape the attention of its very creators - unless much time is spent double-checking the 'final product'.

"FLEEING CROWDS" Here's another scene from the Naudet movie. This time we have no glitches - the question here is more mundane and involves no technical issues: does this 'panic scenario' look natural at all? Or does it resemble something out of a Godzilla/King Kong movie? In my opinion, it seems to be entirely staged - yet the reader should decide for him/herself. Please note that this scene of the Naudet 'reality documentary' "9/11" is meant to take place at the time of the 2nd strike on WTC2 - not during the tower collapses: So what are these people running away from? An explosion in the top floors of the WTC?

MORE GLITCHES Having said that, the original high-resolution Naudet "9/11" movie does contain several tell-tale signs of image compositing. In fact, oddities abound in that scandalous, seethingly contrived propaganda film - as extensively analyzed by Hoi Polloi: Super Not-it Bros.

IMPOSSIBLE SHADOWS When performing photo analyses, lighting issues may sometimes immediately determine whether or not the video material is authentic. Here is a classic case of such a straightforward determination: the unequal shadows (in both lenght and orientation) of the people in this scenery cannot originate from sunlight. This is a good example of how people (probably pre-filmed in studio lighting) were inserted into the video composites with digital manipulations.

Now, consider this; These two last images are extracts from a high-resolution DVD that a Swedish friend obtained from the official SVT (Swedish state television) archives. Quite frankly, the very texture of these images (blurred and color-saturated) have no relation to normal video quality. Moreover, this vantage point of the towers is a very familiar one - to anyone who has spent some time looking at the available 9/11 imagery. This picture would easily qualify as another candidate of the first batch of shots discussed here: ASSEMBLY LINE IMAGERY