A characteristic twinkle in his eye, Ronald Reagan waves to a crowd from aboard a rail car in a hologram revealed Wednesday at the late president\u2019s namesake library in Southern California. \u201cWe think we made a good beginning, but you ain\u2019t seen nothin\u2019 yet!\u201d the digital resurrection of the nation\u2019s 40th president says in his steady voice as a flurry of balloons falls in front of him. Reagan, who died in 2004 at age 93, was speaking about the nation\u2019s future during a 1984 campaign stop but easily could have been referencing the technology that brought him back to life in 2018. The audio used is edited from his real remarks. \u200b'A stunning experience' \u201cWe wanted to make President Reagan as lifelike as possible,\u201d said John Heubusch, executive director of the Reagan Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s a stunning experience.\u201d In two other holograms, Reagan appears in a suit and tie inside the Oval Office and in horseback riding pants, carrying a lasso alongside his dog, Victory, at his beloved ranch. All three holograms will be on display to visitors of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, west of Los Angeles, starting Thursday. They will be shown in a specially designed room that will be the first stop for guests. Seats are set up in front of a stage, and a curtain opens up to thunderous applause at Reagan\u2019s campaign stop more than three decades ago. How it was done The computer-generated imagery for the holograms was created starting with a silicone cast of Reagan\u2019s head that was photographed from various angles with 300 cameras. His head was then digitally \u201cplaced\u201d on the body of an actor portraying the president with full costumes and backdrops for the three scenarios. Reagan\u2019s face comes to life via specific movements of the mouth, nose, eyes, cheeks and hairline, all manipulated by computers. The library worked with the same special-effects technicians who helped bring singers like Michael Jackson, Billie Holiday and Roy Orbison back to life on stage. The Hollywood firm Hologram USA helped create the holograms and the stage on which they\u2019re projected. A lover of technology As a radio host, television star and movie actor, Reagan understood and appreciated new technologies, company senior vice president David Nussbaum said. \u201cHe always thought many steps ahead,\u201d he said. \u201cIf he was looking down right now on this project, I think he would give us his seal of approval. I think he would totally get this and support it.\u201d Seeing her former boss \u201calmost in the flesh\u201d was \u201ca little eerie, but at the same time, very comforting,\u201d said Joanne Drake, who served as Reagan\u2019s chief of staff after the Republican left office following his two terms from 1981 to 1989. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to think that he\u2019s standing in front of us,\u201d said Drake, who\u2019s now chief administration officer for the foundation. \u201cIntellectually, you know it\u2019s not him standing there, but you see his facial movements and his arm movements and his body and that twinkle in his eye and that little grin that he always got, and it makes you remember really what he brought to the office.\u201d Drake said future plans could include bringing the holograms on the road. \u201cI do think we\u2019re going to see Ronald Reagan back in Washington, D.C.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A characteristic twinkle in his eye, Ronald Reagan waves to a crowd from aboard a rail car in a hologram revealed Wednesday at the late president\u2019s namesake library in Southern California. \u201cWe think we made a good beginning, but you ain\u2019t seen nothin\u2019 yet!\u201d the digital resurrection of the nation\u2019s 40th president says in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}