Gaussian Splatting – A$AP Rocky "Helicopter" music video

Tech + hip‑hop crossover

• Many commenters are amused and pleased to see an A$AP Rocky music video on HN, seeing it as a rare but “cool” collision of developer tools and mainstream culture.
• Some question why that’s desirable; others respond that craft and care in any domain are worth appreciating, and that HN is one of the few places these worlds intersect.

Reactions to the video & music

• Strong praise for the video’s energy, surrealism, and camera motion; several compare it to early MTV, demoscene/tech demos, or older Rocky videos with lo‑fi/retro aesthetics.
• Others dislike the music or find it derivative, but most agree the visuals are notable regardless of musical taste.
• A number of people report motion sickness or headaches from the frenetic camera moves and low framerate feel.

Gaussian splatting explained

• Multiple “ELI5” style explanations:
  • Capture many images/depth views; represent the scene as millions of fuzzy 3D blobs (Gaussians) that blend together.
  • Optimize blob position/shape/color via gradient descent so re‑rendered images match the original footage.
  • This yields a radiance field that supports arbitrary new camera paths after capture.
• Clarifications: splats are a radiance‑field method but distinct from NeRFs; 3DGS excels at static scenes, with 4D variants for motion.

Why not just drones / Unreal / meshes?

• Several argue a drone and preprogrammed paths could do much of it; others counter:
  • Safety and feasibility of extreme paths (e.g., locked to spinning blades) would be prohibitive.
  • Volumetric capture lets you choose and iterate on camera moves entirely in post.
  • The glitchy, artifact‑embracing look is an intentional aesthetic, not just a tech limit.
• Discussion compares Gaussian splats to voxels and textured meshes: splats handle thin structures, reflections, and semi‑transparency better and scale more efficiently than dense voxels.

Pipeline, tools, and maturity

• The production used a ~56‑camera RGB‑D array (e.g., RealSense) and tools like Houdini GSOPs and OctaneRender for manipulation, relighting, and final rendering.
• Creators present in the thread describe splats as now “production‑ready”: integrated into familiar DCC tools, fast enough to render, and flexible for creative workflows.

Aesthetics, art, and ethics

• Some find the splat texture inherently off or “uncanny,” like an old game engine or TikTok‑bait visuals; others see it as a rich new artistic language.
• Side discussions cover artistic intent vs audience expectations, leaks affecting the album, and whether one should work with an artist given past legal/ethical issues.
• Commenters expect volumetric splats to spread first in experimental/creative work (music videos, art, sports replays) before more conservative “serious” film use.