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How the Weather Channel Made That Insane Hurricane Florence Storm Surge Animation (wired.com) 144

The Weather Channel's 3-D, room-encompassing depiction of the Hurricane Florence storm surge took many by surprise on Friday (Second video). It doesn't tell, it shows, more bracingly than you'd think would be possible on a meteorological update, writes Wired. Here's how they did it. CNET: In one video, meteorologist Erika Navarro demonstrates what a progressive storm surge would mean at a human level. (Storm surge is simply the "abnormal rise of water generated by a storm" that is "produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds," according to the National Hurricane Center.) "Storm surge is going to be potentially life-threatening for some areas along the US coastline," Navarro says. Then she demonstrates what's described as a "reasonable, worst-case scenario for areas along North Carolina." Here's where the video gets heart-in-throat scary. As Navarro stands and speaks, the weather maps behind her dissolve away, and she is shown standing in a computer-generated neighborhood. The CGI water rises behind her, setting a red car afloat and flooding homes.

[...] The Weather Channel has been using augmented reality since 2015. This year, it partnered with content and technology provider The Future Group and its impressive Immersive Mixed Reality technology, which uses Unreal Engine software. The tech debuted on TWC in June, when meteorologist Jim Cantore used it to walk viewers through what would happen if a tornado hit the channel's own studios. A demo showing the power of lightning followed in July. Reaction to the hurricane explainer has been overwhelmingly positive, said Michael Potts, Weather Channel's vice president of design. "It was created to evoke an automatic visceral reaction, to imagine that this could be real," Potts said. "And people are sharing it with friends and family as a warning tool. The amount of engagement across all of our platforms has been some of the highest we've ever seen." The neighborhood Navarro is standing in looks real, but it's all virtual graphics created in a new green-screen studio built at the channel's Atlanta headquarters. "All the graphics you see, from the cars, the street, the houses and the entire neighborhood are created using the Unreal Engine -- they are not real," Potts says. "The circle she is standing in is the presentation area, it's a 'safe' space that is not affected by the weather. ... The maps and data are all real-time and the atmospheric conditions are driven by the forecast."
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How the Weather Channel Made That Insane Hurricane Florence Storm Surge Animation

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  • by suso ( 153703 ) * on Friday September 14, 2018 @09:09AM (#57313546) Journal

    *Green screen/chroma keying
    *camera tracking
    *Fluid simulation
    *3D modelling and rendering

    All this can be done in Blender [blender.org]

    • Looks like the same engine that is used by Fortnite and other video games to me.
    • by alexhs ( 877055 )

      You sure are raining on their parade...

      But you're right, of course, though you forgot the sound effects (unless this comes with fluid simulation).

    • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @11:32AM (#57314406) Journal

      You have to hand it to the people who made similar analog effects [youtube.com] back in the "old days". Scissors, mirrors, paints, and lots of late nights in the dark-room.

    • But can you do it in real time? You seem to have missed the essential part. This can be altered live if needed.

    • by ortholattice ( 175065 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @03:06PM (#57315846)
      Here's how to make it even better. Make a slit in the greenscreen and put a bucket of water on a chair behind it. She plunges her arm into the slit, and her arm disappears into the wall of water video. When she pulls her arm out, her arm is dripping wet, and she's holding a rubber fish (flopping as she subtly shakes it) that was at the bottom of the bucket.
    • by Shinobi ( 19308 )

      You can't do it in real-time with Blender, not with that detail level.

      So no, you do NOT know how they did it.

    • It was almost 25 years ago they did the same animating and morphing people in T2. And while it wasn't doable in realtime then, modifying video in realtime has been possible for at least 10 years, likely more. Anyone remember the upset when one network paid for a building tall billboard ad that would be seen in New Years backdrops, and some other network modified it in real time to make it look like their own logo had been put there instead. Oh the upset.

      Now just try that when all your computers are in th

  • Hype Hype Hype (Score:2, Insightful)

    by DatbeDank ( 4580343 )

    Sitting here in Wilmimgton and this storm is a BIG nothing burger.

    These idiot goverent officials and news sources really need to stop with the hype. CNN is now Cat Null News. You can view webcams from the Baldhead Island Ferry out of Southport which is 30 minutes away.

    And what does it look like? A bad thunderstorm.

    The more they hype the wolficane, the more people will ignore these storms until the real deadly category 5 storm hits. This is negligence bar none.

    • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @09:48AM (#57313784) Homepage Journal
      I agree. I am here in my house in Corolla, NC and everything is fi
      • by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @10:06AM (#57313930)

        You forgot to add the "{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER" part at the end.

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward

          He can't do that now, you insensitive clod!

      • Re:Hype Hype Hype (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @10:07AM (#57313938)
        Went through the devastation of Andrew in Florida. If you were where the eye crossed the state, total devastation. If you weren't, It wasn't a really bad storm. Count yourself lucky the worst part hit somewhere else.
        • Re:Hype Hype Hype (Score:5, Informative)

          by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @11:24AM (#57314362)

          We were in Boca Raton when Andrew came through (about 80 miles or 130km north of the worst damage, for those who don't know), and you're spot-on. We were geared up for the worst in the days leading to Andrew's landfall, since they didn't know exactly where it would land. By the time it was all said and done, however, the most that we had to deal with were some screens that popped out over our screened-in pool. A neighbor of ours had some flooding in a part of their house that was below the groundwater level, and a few people who didn't have shutters had to replace their windows, but that was about it around us.

          But we had friends in Homestead (i.e. where Andrew hit the hardest) who rode the storm out by hiding in the interior bathroom of their home as their house collapsed around them. They crawled out from under the rubble after the storm was over and then had to live out of the half of their house that was left for the next several weeks. I recall them talking years later about how it was actually a really amazing experience, since the community came together in incredibly positive ways in the aftermath, with everyone helping everyone and the attitude staying really upbeat.

          Anyway, yeah, just because a hurricane doesn't do much damage in one area that was ready for impact doesn't mean that the storm is, as the OP put it, "a BIG nothing burger". It just means they were fortunate.

          • by pots ( 5047349 )
            This is a really common problem, unfortunately, that shows up in all kinds of places. A lot of people deny the existence or seriousness of allergies, because they don't have any personal experience with those allergies. A lot of people deny the existence or seriousness of pollution or other environmental impacts because they live in areas with a lot of flourishing wilderness, or near a place where a particular endangered species still has some population, so they don't see anything wrong.

            Ultimately, it's
        • Went through the devastation of Andrew in Florida. If you were where the eye crossed the state, total devastation. If you weren't, It wasn't a really bad storm. Count yourself lucky the worst part hit somewhere else.

          I have relatives near Surf City NC who told me that the eye wall came and went. Winds weren't anything that bad at all and the amount of water falling is typical for a bad storm.

          Flooding is just as over rated. Just like Sandy, might as well call this a Category 5 Hypicane. !

          But yes, let's keep hyping up these storms so people get underwhelmed and then don't leave for the really dangerous ones.

          • by Anonymous Coward

            Went through the devastation of Andrew in Florida. If you were where the eye crossed the state, total devastation. If you weren't, It wasn't a really bad storm. Count yourself lucky the worst part hit somewhere else.

            I have relatives near Surf City NC who told me that the eye wall came and went. Winds weren't anything that bad at all and the amount of water falling is typical for a bad storm.

            Flooding is just as over rated. Just like Sandy, might as well call this a Category 5 Hypicane. !

            But yes, let's keep hyping up these storms so people get underwhelmed and then don't leave for the really dangerous ones.

            Grow a brain.

            Then GFY.

            I went through Hugo.

            Some places? Not too bad. Other places? If you've never seen it, you wouldn't believe it. Pictures of swing bridges blown off? Boats on roads? Trees and power lines down? Buildings with windows blown out and roofs blown off? Oh, you've seen those? Really? You've seen places where that's ALL you see?

            What about that whole little strip mall that's literally GONE, leaving nothing but flat mud? Can't even find the fucking foundations. That flat spot over ther

          • Just like Sandy, might as well call this a Category 5 Hypicane. !

            Sandy did $70 Billion in damage. I don't think it's the storm you meant to refer to as a "Hypicane".

          • by DamonHD ( 794830 )

            So are you OK? The flooding seems to be fairly bad, looking at news reports from outside.

    • Arthur: "What, behind the rabbit?"
      Tim: "It IS the rabbit!"

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      Yes, and your meteorological degree is sufficiently up to date so that you accurately predicted it was to be a nothing-burger? Could you please point to where you predicted this? And no sneaky covering up the details. We'll want research papers referenced and prior storm behavior properly cited and actually used. Lay it on us!!!

    • Sitting here in Wilmimgton and this storm is a BIG nothing burger.

      Good luck, keep your feet dry... I have friends in New Bern 100 miles north of you and I can tell you it's not a pretty sight there with the water backing up in the river which is over it's banks more than 5 feet and rising. It's going to be a mess down town and along the river. If you are above the water level, I guess it would be just a stormy and windy afternoon in Wilmington, it's mostly that in New Bern if you are on higher ground.

      Also, remember this storm is only a cat 1 now, having dropped in intens

    • by elrous0 ( 869638 )

      Every time I see these meteorologists on TV waving their metaphorical "THE END IS NIGH!" signs on the latest "This one is going to kill us all!" weather event in another shameless bid for ratings, I'm reminded of that video of the news "reporter" reporting on a hurricane as if he was about to be blown away by the ferocious winds at any second, only to see a bunch of elderly couples calmly walking around behind him, enjoying the beach.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Re:Hype Hype Hype (Score:5, Informative)

      by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater@gmai l . c om> on Friday September 14, 2018 @01:08PM (#57315082) Homepage

      Sitting here in Wilmimgton and this storm is a BIG nothing burger.

      I have friends in New Bern whose houses have a foot of water in them. I have a friend in Jacksonville who has likely lost his business because the building lost it's roof. I have friends on Oak Island whose houses are almost certainly heavily damaged...

      These idiot goverent officials and news sources really need to stop with the hype. CNN is now Cat Null News.

      Fuck you. There's enormous damage and the storm is nowhere near over. You got lucky, but you have to be abysmally stupid and self centered to believe that you represent everyone across a hundred miles of coast and a hundred miles inland.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Hurricane Hugo hit that same area with a storm surge of more than 20 feet in some areas. (I lived in Mt Pleasant SC at the time - it was, umm, interesting post-hurricane to see pieces of some of the Shem Creek shrimp-boat piers leaning on the McDonalds a few miles inland by the hospital... [goo.gl].)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hugo#South_Carolina [wikipedia.org]

    Hurricane Ike also topped a 20-foot surge.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike [wikipedia.org]

    Katrina was 28 feet.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Mississ [wikipedia.org]

  • by PuddleBoy ( 544111 ) on Friday September 14, 2018 @10:08AM (#57313940)

    "The neighborhood Navarro is standing in looks real..."

    Seriously? So there are people out there who will view this animation and will need to be told that it is not real? They'll think someone 'filmed reality'?

    No wonder we have the government that we do....

    • So there are people out there who will view this animation and will need to be told that it is not real?

      There are (supposed to be) people who view 3rd person satellite video action around Jupiter and Saturn and the actual landings on Mars and think they're real. I don't know if they're being a troll or not -- but I don't THINK so. :-(

      NOT the first person in-view scene, but a 3rd person view far away. (Listen to all of the sounds -- this is obviously a faked launch!)

  • When the camera zooms out and shows more of the neighborhood at the end, and the presenter becomes this little bug in the middle of it all - wow, that really drives it home. I also liked how the storm intensified, stronger winds, water color changes. Geez, it all looked real (I've been near big storms and have seen the water & sky change). How big is this friggen stage?!

    That is an amazing marriage of technology and reality.

  • Fear certainly increases with visuals like that.

  • Yes if you live on the beach, you should go inland. That's just common sense for a big bad thunderstorm.

    However, the strength of this storm especially near the eye is pathetically weak. Don't let your anxieties run high because you
    let the weatherman on TV told you how bad it was live from the dead center.

    Here's a better metric to go off of for the true strength of the storm: if a reporter is able to travel to and stand near where the eye wall is while shouting how bad it is, the storm isn't that bad.

    The st

  • I've seen some pretty impressive shameless exaggeration and exploitation of weather events for ratings over the years, mind you. But the Weather Channel has really stepped it up a notch here in a graphics department. Kudos to them!

    • It's not just the Weather Channel, it's every news outlet available. Every storm is "the storm of the century!!!!" and "more dangerous". This is part of a larger approach to hype *everything* far beyond its rational danger or importance, due to the need to fill 10 different 24-hour news channels with content, and the more shrill and unrealistic you are the more people want to watch. Same with the ever-escalating hype associated with global warming, Trump, child kidnappings, etc.

    • I've seen some pretty impressive shameless exaggeration and exploitation of weather events for ratings over the years, mind you. But the Weather Channel has really stepped it up a notch here in a graphics department. Kudos to them!

      Fear mongering? How so? Mandatory evacuation orders are not a joke. Even a three foot storm surge is not a joke.

      Ten feet of water, 150 plus people in New Bern that did not head the MANDATORY evacuation warning. That is a foot higher than the example they showed in the animation.

      https://weather.com/storms/hur... [weather.com]
      http://www.newbernnc.gov/news_... [newbernnc.gov]

      Maybe if people see what a storm surge could actually do with animations like this, less people would ignore the evacuation orders.
      Mayor of New Bern interview - 10.

      • by elrous0 ( 869638 )

        The video shows the firefighter walking a woman to safety and the water isn't even up to her waist. That doesn't look anything like the animation to me.

        But yes, people should evacuate on the coast when a hurricane approaches. But that still doesn't make it the end of the world or the SUPER DEADLY STORM OF THE CENTURY the way these "reporters" always hype it up these days.
         

        • That's because the surge isn't the same uniform height everywhere. It is up to the second floor of some houses in lower lying areas.

          If someone willfully ignores the evacuation orders, then they should be charged a fine if they later need rescuing.

    • by orgelspieler ( 865795 ) <w0lfie.mac@com> on Friday September 14, 2018 @01:38PM (#57315282) Journal
      As somebody who lived through Harvey, please fuck off. The more people who can be made to understand the effects of storm surge, the better. This is not hype. This is trying to educate people who might otherwise "hunker down" and end up dead, or spread emergency resources needlessly thin in an attempt to rescue their ass later.
      • Typical liberal schill. All real American patriots should hunker down in the basement with their prepped rations and guns. Evacuations are a democratic plot to take your guns and force you into FEMA gay camps!

  • Can people not read and understand anymore. Does everything have to be visual?
  • "Oh I get it now! A 3 foot storm surge means there could be 3 feet of water on the road! Thank you weather network for explaining this with excessive graphical representation, because my mind could not possibly comprehend height of water."

    Some people are idiots.

    • "Oh I get it now! A 3 foot storm surge means there could be 3 feet of water on the road! Thank you weather network for explaining this with excessive graphical representation, because my mind could not possibly comprehend height of water."

      Some people are idiots.

      you say that but some people hear storm surge and they don't know what that means. Honestly it's an overwraught term anyway. But it does have a specific meaning and most people who don't live in typical hurricane pathways don't always know what it is.

    • And yes, we have residents in this country who are indeed that stupid.

  • Pretty cool visualization, although I'd argue that their first 'stop' at three feet really looked more like four, but that's certainly quibbling. It was quite well done.

  • Forget all that weird tech AR goggle stuff [youtube.com], I want to buy that protected silver circle she's standing in! It looks like it's indestructible! *ALL* homes near the coast should have one.

    MAN -- I could even go scuba walking with that!
  • I just read through some of the YouTube comments. It's like 10% whackadoodles claiming god knows what. Everything from climate deniers to HAARP something-or-other. I'm hoping most of it is people just being silly, but I don't know. Some of them have made similar comments on other videos. I can't decide if I'm disappointed it's that many or surprised it isn't more. I wonder if Alex Jones had a link on InfoWars or something.
  • I didn't think it was all that impressive after all it wasn't, for instance, live weather or anything. But if it convinces people in the hot zone to actually leave then more power to them.
  • How the Weather Channel Made That Insane Hurricane Florence Storm Surge Animation

    Really? Fucking really? Slashdot, have you forgotten how old your audience is? We are not dickhead kids who think the word "insane" has to be used in every second sentence. And of all the words misused and abused for hyperbole, that one has to be among the worst.

    And get off my lawn!

    Asshats...

  • I see exactly what you mean and it is infuriating. Case in point: Hurricane Florence. After listening to the media circus about it on CBS 17 which provided 24/7 coverage on the storm, my husband and I decided to evacuate Central North Carolina and head north to Virginia. All we heard about from their meteorology team and that of WRAL is that this is a life-threatening storm which will drown you, knock trees on you, steal money from your bank account, eat your firstborn, and give you a bad haircut. Okay, I'm
  • Who hasn't seen the (usually live) video of long-suffering weathermen standing out there in a shiny wet rainjacket or suit, being blown away (and the godz alone know how the cameramen manage).

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/a... [buzzfeednews.com]

    "Twitter user @gourdnibler captured a Weather Channel reporter struggling to stand upright and seemingly holding onto dear life — until the camera pans out a bit and captures two people casually strolling in the background."

    https://twitter.com/twitter/st... [twitter.com]
    https://www.youtube.com/ [youtube.com]

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