Eric 'n Ernie dance again

Last Friday Chris Moyles performed with comedy icons Morecambe and Wise at the fund-raising event for Children in Need. The late comedy duo were brought back as HOLOGRAMS to dance to their signature tune Bring Me Sunshine alongside the DJ.

SquareZero were called in by Musion to assist in getting the production of the holograms finished in time for the deadline which was slipping behind schedule. Putting together our expertise in holograms, vfx compositing, extensive resources and skilled team we rescued the project from a sticky predicament - finishing the project just 12 hours before the show.

As a long-standing Musion hologram content partner it was very rewarding to have worked on the visual effects to create this sequence. Our role included delivering and supervising/assisting Holomedia for the BBC on this project.

We are proud of our strategic partnership with Musion. Together we have now successfully delivered well over 50 holographic projects including previously the resurrections of Frank Sinatra and Saatchi's Paul Arden and many more.

Chris said: “When I was a kid Eric and Ernie were gods, so it’s amazing to be able to dance with them for Children in Need. The charity is one that’s always been close to my heart and I jumped at the chance to do something for it.”

click on the picture below to see the show on YouTube:

Here is a basic breakdown of the creative process involved. Original footage is located of Eric and Ernie performing the song. Sometimes this has to come from different archive clips which then need to be assembled into a whole performance and made to match. Then the the heads of our heroes are carefully cut out from the archive footage. 

Then body doubles of Eric and Ernie perform the song in a film shoot with the correct lighting and costume to maximise the hologram's effectiveness. Choreographing head and body is very difficult and at this shoot the actor's chin went over the collar area at the wrong time in many places - this required our team to paint and repair the section wherever the chin overlapped. Painstaking work.

The footage of the body doubles was then taken into After-effects and Nuke where the heads of the doubles were carefully cut out. Then the heads of the real Eric and Ernie were attached the bodies in a complex process involving tracking the parts together and adding missing sections of neck wherever needed.