How To Make Young Jordan Play Old Jordan

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the not-so-easy dept

During the Superbowl back in January (just like every year) many people tuned in only to see the commercials. One of the most popular was the “23 vs. 39” or “Mike vs. Mike” Gatorade commercial, where a modern day 39-year-old Michael Jordan is seen playing one-on-one against a 23-year-old Michael Jordan. Many people wondered how they did that. Popular Mechanics now has the scoop on how you make someone play one-on-one with themselves… 16 years ago. You can’t do the whole thing as a computer generated image. That’s too noticeable with today’s technology. Instead, they found a basketball player who could match the body type (and at least simulate the basketball moves and swagger) of a young Jordan. Then, they scan Jordan’s head with a 3D scanner, and “take it back in time” using some artists to make adjustments. Then, let the two men play one-on-one – but with sensors on the fake young Jordan’s face to track his movements. Finally, you carefully erase the Jordan imposter’s head in the computer, and replace it with the computer generated young Jordan. Pretty complex for a sixty second ad spot. As a random aside, it’s really too bad that both ads.com and adcritic.com have either gone away or charge fees. Tracking down a video of the commercial wasn’t so easy, but here’s a set of all of the Super Bowl commercials in Windows Media format. The Jordan ad is about one third of the way down on the left, and is referred to as “The Aging Star”.