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How the Weather Channel Made That Insane Hurricane Florence Storm Surge Animation (wired.com)
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." More on this here.
[...] 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." More on this here.
*Green screen/chroma keying
*camera tracking
*Fluid simulation
*3D modelling and rendering
All this can be done in Blender
Looks like the same engine that is used by Fortnite and other video games to me.
They're probably closer to the truth than whatever you're thinking.
For the record: A storm surge is primarily caused by the relationship between the winds and the ocean’s surface.
There is another source that basically says the same thing. To wit: As winds swirl around a hurricane or tropical storm, seawater is pushed into a mound at the storm’s center. Faster wind is able to pile up more water.
Also, per UCAR, about 5% of the storm surge is due to low pressure within the hurricane; the majority of the effect is from wind.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
I don't get my Weather information for the Weather channel anymore. Their web pages are filled with over hyped click bait headlines meant to get you to click. Were talking a category 2 storm not the storm of the century. Yes, it will cause damages because its a highly populated area it is affecting. No surprise there, but most people have evacuated and the ones that stayed mostly are hunker down or too foolish to seek shelter. Your always going to have those idiots and thrill seekers. Storm surges are created from violent winds in the storm and the high tides amplifier this issue. Yeah too bad The Weather Channel became such a tabloid for weather headlines.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They're not special. That's the point - it's a non-article. This is stuff Hollywood has been doing for so long it's not news anymore. That it's affordable to the Weather channel might be new.
"...produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds," according to the National Hurricane Center.
So even they're ignorant as to what causes storm surge... or they've got a young, dumb intern who took a guess... and failed.
What part of anything they said is wrong? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Mechanics
At least five processes can be involved in altering tide levels during storms:
The atmospheric pressure effect
The direct wind effect
The effect of the Earth's rotation
The effect of waves near the shore
The rainfall effect.[11]
I don't know anything about it, but NOAA agrees: "The impact on surge of the low pressure associated with intense storms is minimal in comparison to the water being forced toward the shore by the wind."
What I found pretty much equals what you posted. "One major cause of hurricane damage is storm surge. Storm surge is the rising of the sea level due to the low pressure, high winds, and high waves associated with a hurricane as it makes landfall. The storm surge can cause significant flooding and cost people their lives if they're caught unexpected."
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
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.
Um, the National Hurricane Center is actually part of the National Weather Service. They're responsible for issuing hurricane watches and warnings for most of the United States. They issue hurricane forecasts for the North East Pacific and the North Atlantic. NHC is very credible.
As for the on-air meteorologist discussed in the article, she has a PhD in meteorology from the University of Washington. They have a large and well-respected meteorology program. So, no, not some young dumb intern.
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).
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
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....)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hugo#South_Carolina
Hurricane Ike also topped a 20-foot surge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike
Katrina was 28 feet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Mississippi
Not sure why this is newsworthy. It's an embarrassingly rudimentary animation created by a novice working with off-the-shelf modeling and rendering tools.
It used to be weather forecasts and science. Now, it is bullshit reality TV. I am tremendously annoyed at the direction it has taken.
"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....
I guess GP hadn't heard the rules:
A) It's okay to be wrong. None of us knows everything.
B) We'll tolerate being an asshole when you're pointing out something stupid.
BUT you have to pick one or the other. Don't be an asshole and be wrong at the same time. Calling someone dumb while "correcting" their true statement with your own goof isn't a good look. Don't be an asshole when you don't know what you are talking about.
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.
That's what I tell your mom.
the most notable part from TFS to me was that the Unreal engine was used
Storm surge is also hugely dependent on the underwater topography along the hurricane's path.
Think of if this way: it's a lot easier to blow water across a table top than it is to blow water up a wall.
Hurricane Andrew hit Miami as a cat 5 and outside of a few isolated cases caused only about 4-6 feet of storm surge because the ocean off Miami gets really deep really fast. (And the Bahamas likely blocked a lot of it, too).
But mere Cat 2 Ike generated a 20+ foot storm surge across huge areas because the ocean off Texas is flat and shallow for a long ways, giving the hurricane the ability to move a lot of water horizontally.
"Run-up" before making landfall matters, too. Florence is hitting NC/SC coast at an angle after making a "left turn". It's causing 9-foot surges - and that's only in isolated areas. Hugo hit almost the same area, was pretty much the same strength as it approached, yet caused a 20+ foot storm surge across a wide area. The difference? Hugo came pretty much straight in at a right angle to where it hit, crossing a long stretch of pretty shallow ocean water where the bottom is really flat, allowing the storm to blow a lot more water into the coast.
So even they're ignorant as to what causes storm surge.
What do you think causes a storm surge?
What do you think causes a storm surge?
Puberty or menopause
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
you forgot the gravitational pull of the moon... sun and other planets
That is called the TIDE.
A storm surge is the water rise ABOVE THE NORMAL TIDE LEVEL.
Shitpost.
shitpost
You also have to look at the shape of the land/sea interface. If you have a storm blowing directly along the long axis of a shallow, funnel-shaped estuary, you're going to get some spectacular effects at the narrow end, especially combined with rain-driven rising river levels.
This is one of the reasons the fact that the fact that you rode out a storm in your house in the past doesn't necessarily mean you're safe from a similar storm later. Minor changes in wind heading could result in very different effects. That's also why large storms can be more dangerous than smaller storms, even when the smaller storms are more intense. A geographically larger storm is more likely to intersect ideal conditions for causing damage.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
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 storms where reporters aren't able to report on are where the really dangerous ones.
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!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You have to hand it to the people who made similar analog effects back in the "old days". Scissors, mirrors, paints, and lots of late nights in the dark-room.
Table-ized A.I.
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.
Except CNN tried exactly the same thing and it was light blue and pathetic compared to this.
Maybe Hollywood with a budget of millions and people lined up who know what to do could whip it out, but CNN did struggle, and Weather Channel should have done even worse, not way better.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Sounds like Weather Channel spent more. I doubt it's any more than that. Either way, those are the methods that any company would use - whether they execute it successfully is a different issue.
But can you do it in real time? You seem to have missed the essential part. This can be altered live if needed.
shitpost
Problem with peeps these days. A sense of humor of a chapped ass.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Soon as I saw it, I thought - Did they use the Unreal engine? :)
Thanks for that example. That's exactly what I mean - saying that would be both wrong and you'd be a jerk, plus you threw in stupid as well. Perfect example of how to sound like a loser.
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...
http://www.newbernnc.gov/news_...
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 - 10.5 foot storm surge.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/583...
More annoyingly, storm surge doesn't happen in your backyard unless you live on a river. Showing this in some random neighborhood is not accurate in any way.
"Donald Trump, Global Warming, or Hurricane Florence--Which Will Get To Your Kids and Kill Them First?" Stay tuned to find out!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Can people not read and understand anymore. Does everything have to be visual?
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.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Some people are idiots.
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.
-Styopa
Man, the mods have it out for you today. :( Keep up the good work.
Forget all that weird tech AR goggle stuff, 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!
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Ah, so storm surge is merely horizontal case of intelligent falling!
Slight correction. That should be His Noodly Appendage.
Most people missed that. I can see flexible rendering coming away from the studios and getting closer to the customers, in the form of consoles, and VR.* Now all that's needed is gen-locking to other sources for a smooth experience.
*Multiplayer games, in a way is a form of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_studio
Virtual studios is this tech confined to the producer end. Now moving that to the other end is where the possibilities emerge.
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.
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.
Puberty, posts of shit and chapped asses. You hit the Trifecta!
"This year, it partnered with content and technology provider The Panic Group and its impressive Oh God Oh God technology, which uses Desperate for Clicks and Views software."
No mod points, so here's a "Virtual +5 Funny".
#DeleteFacebook
Puberty, posts of shit and chapped asses. You hit the Trifecta!
Shitlord status in two posts! I am humbled 8^)
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
The car I saw was green and it was a Buick.
Just sayin' for a friend in S.C. (who's under water right now).
But, why do I get the disappointed feeling from the W.C. when things don't
turn out to be the disaster they predict...
CAP === 'saucepan'
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.
I only know this because I had my Coast Guard certifications even before my driver's license.
The longer the list gets, the less meaningful the term becomes. People are reading this and thinking "wind-induced waves" but the term used to specifically refer to the dome-shaped columnist of water sucked-up by the low-pressure center of the storm. Wind direction can - and will - change constantly.., but you won't find storm surge fluctuationing the same way.
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.
Just another second banana
Given who you're quoting, the statistical liklihood of them being wrong would obviously be fucking miniscule... which leaves me as the asshole who's (as someone already observed) not only an asshole, but also apparently wrong... which, at least according to my own system, is actually far worse.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary taught that it was primarily due to low pressure. Perhaps they were wrong; it certainly wouldn't even be the first time that I bent over and talked out of my ass. Ace Ventura style.
Not necessarily spent more. I have observed superior results in the graphic design and animation field when you get enough hungry artsy interns working on the right pieces and with just the right balance of amphetamines and sleep deprivation.
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.
I know you already addressed me once, but I have to answer this one.
Do you know what makes wind? A differential between high and low pressure. The "sucking" is wind.
1. You didn’t read the summary.
2. Even acknowledging the Blender features you mentioned, no it can’t.
3. You don’t need a fluid simulation to achieve the effects in this video.
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.
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'm not that surprised the Weather Channel beats CNN, because few with skills, sense or class would still work for CNN.
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!
The only people using those overblown terms are the idiots like you - and your dismissals are exactly the reason why over 350 people ignored the warnings and had to be rescued, stretching emergency services still further. There have already been deaths.
And it's not just coastal - storm surges can get *worse* miles inland when they're funneled up rivers, as these "reporters" have been trying to get through your thick skulls.
Yeah, the video of the woman deep underneath 10 feet of water wasn't as photogenic, so they went with the firefighter.
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 the cloud....and you are watching of 5K screens....hah!... maybe somewhere other than the backwater USA....
Cecil B. DeMille did this 62 years ago.
I thought it looked kinda amateurish and silly, like something a child might do.
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 exaggerating but they made it seem like the Armageddon of weather had arrived, and it worked because my husband and I were concerned about flooding where we live though it had never happened before. After a series of subsequent stupid bad decisions that my husband made related to the storm because he wanted to listen to his friends instead of his wife (still currently pissed off at him ðY¥S) I decided to sit down and do some research. First, I reached out to friends and family members who had not evacuated to find out what the weather was really doing back home and they all said that it was drizzling on and off but life was carrying on like normal. Second, I pulled up FEMA's flood layer map and found that our apartment was in an area of minimal risk, so there actually was no reason for us to evacuate to avoid flooding although it was still technically possible. Third, I researched if it's possible that meteorologists are just hyping up the weather and why they would callously play on people's fears, which lead me here. Several websites said that metrologists practically have a professional oath to hone in their inner actor when delivering the weather forecast to keep viewers tuned in so they can make money on the sponsors. That must be why I was expecting a second worldwide deluge after viewing so much of CBS 17's weather forecasts. The question is where do I get the truth about the weather? Sometimes people do need to evacuate an area when extreme weather is expected like those living on the coast of NC and SC for Florence, head to the basement for tornados, or grab the survival kit (which actually is a good idea to have anyway), but is it possible that most times we just need to keep trees away from the home, avoid living in flood zones, and stay indoors away from windows? How can I get the truth about the weather forecast without all of the hype? How am I supposed to make informed decisions about steps I need to take if every event is the world War III of weather? How can I kick my husband's butt without sacrificing the integrity of my shoe? I'm still researching the answer to these questions but I think that empowering oneself with knowledge is the best thing that we can do so that we are not taken on an emotional and monetary ride on the forecast machine.
It can be done in Blender? OK...
But how long does it take to do in Blender? Can I have such an animation created from scratch and production ready for air in 24 hours or less?
It has long amazed me, the quality and realism of (live) TV special effects and graphic overlays that we totally take fro granted. The television industry seems to do in a day what Photoshop pros and Blender fanatics take months to accomplish. Poorly!
Look at just about any car commercial on TV. How can you not be amazed, even if it did take them weeks/months to create and render.
Big Buck Bunny SUCKS DONKEY DICK!
Damn, that would be awesome!
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...
"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...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...