Here’s something to get you in the mood while you leave milk and cookies for Santa (no wonder he’s so fat!). This video, showing a Christmas-themed drone show, was posted only five days ago, but has already accumulated 3.4 million views.
The YouTube notes:
This Christmas season, Sky Elements attempted two GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ titles with ur 1,500 drone Nutcracker Christmas show. Will it be enough to set the new records for Largest Aerial Image and Largest Fictional Character (Nutcracker)? All while telling the story of the famous Nutcracker ballet? This record-breaking Christmas drone show is one you don’t want to miss. The show features a beautiful Christmas tree and lights, as well as the famous battle between the Nutcracker and the Rat King. Finally, there is an appearance from the lovely Sugar Plum Fairy, and the jolly Santa Claus.
Fireworks are now obsolete when you can do something like this.
Spectacular. It is a combination of technical and artistic expression.
“I have seen the future — and it is Lite-Brite!”
(Absolutely No One , 1967)
> Fireworks are now obsolete when you can do something like this.
Not if I have my way! (which I won’t of course). While I am in awe of the technological achievement, for me, drone shows lack what makes fireworks so awesome and exciting – namely, the booms, bangs, and explosions!
These drone displays are becoming very clever.
R. Dawkins said drone shows could replace fireworks for celebrations. We see here they can!
His argument was about the pets. Hard to take seriously until you have a dog or cat who are driven bonkers with fear at, say, the frequent fireworks explosions (in Manhattan).
Exhibit A in happier, less firework-y times. :-
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/
“Aussie” and a lot of other dogs/cats are terrified of fireworks.
People – myself included – love fireworks but the argument is a good one.
D.A.
NYC
Looks like the early days of computer graphics; what will come in the future?
And Brooke ONEILL is correct – sort of like watching an airshow on TV, it’s not the same.
But for holiday viewing my current favorite is the new-to-me 2010 Annie Lennox – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlsJD8RlhbI
The corresponding album – A Christmas Cornucopia – has long been my favorite for holiday listening.
Wonderful and awe-inspiring, though there is an unavoidable technical challenge: the larger the figures represented, the harder it is to convey movement, since the distances the drones have to move to do so increases, so we are left with very slowmo movements (as in the sword fight). This could be overcome by filming the display and speeding it up until the movement appears naturalistic at scale, though that wouldn’t work for a live audience. But even as a series of essentially static tableaux, it’s still mightily impressive.