Tianjin explosions stabilised

Aug 16, 2015 11:44 PM

GoddamnitClown

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We're so used to seeing things like this in slow motion but look at the cars in the bottom of the frame for a sense of scale.

Stabilized GIF of the Tianjin explosion

First explosion.

Second explosion. Not sure about leaving frames in the background but that stabilisation was *painstaking* and it wasn't showing up enough. Anyone with ideas or techniques, hit me up.

Official death toll is now at 112. A more believable figure than early on. PizzaThrowingWalterWhite beat me to the big informative album: http://imgur.com/gallery/NzXrb but later I thought I might as well finish these stabilised versions and upload them anyway.

edit: a lot of people are wondering what it was that exploded.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-33900306 has a bunch of info.
Tl;dr: It's not known for sure at the moment, but calcium carbide was known to be on site and the working hypothesis is - firefighters add water which makes acetylene. Uncontained acetylene in a huge fire surrounded by potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate is a recipe for disaster. If there's ever a definitive answer, I'll try to remember update this.

Final Promised Edit: The investigation concluded, in February 2016, that an overheated container of dry nitrocellulose was the cause of the initial explosion. The second explosion, about 30 seconds later, was far larger. In addition to vast quantities of sodium cyanide and calcium carbide, paperwork was discovered showing that 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 500 tonnes of potassium nitrate were being stored on site.

The casualty report was 173 deaths, 8 missing, and 797 non-fatal injuries.

tianjin

stabilization_genius

current_events

Good job @OP.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgurTdK0PTA Here you can see a bunch of the videos synced up. You get to hear how long the shock wave takes.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Great work OP. Must've been tough.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Damn. That's nuts

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Did a bit of math -- the explosion that levelled Halifax in 1917 was over 138 times more powerful than the second blast.

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

So sad. I cry everytime I see a post about it. All those people :(

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

So what happened?

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

At first I saw the frame bouncing around and thought 'he's made it worse' then I saw the footage itself wasn't moving - nice

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Fantastic job, OP!! Nice work!

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

20 ton mein arse.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Excellent work OP. News networks should be doing this, premium stuff

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh fuck me.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That's incredible

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Thank you for taking the time to stabilize this. Wish I could upvote you more than once

11 years ago | Likes 262 Dislikes 2

you can tag me and i'll always deliver a second upvote, i'm being honest, look at my comments, also you can read my bio for info on it.

11 years ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 1

Nice! I'll definitely keep you in mind

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

That's a curiously imgur service you provide :D

11 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

it's a fun side job, imgur has good posts but not enough upvotes!

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Did anyone else see the car being knocked off the road by the shock wave in the first gif?

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I was more focused on the one that spun around completely from the shock wave. Powerful stuff.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Wow, thank you for making this. It really helps but this disaster in perspective.

11 years ago | Likes 87 Dislikes 3

With all the building next door to me, the fact that that crane keeps standing through that is quite comforting, actually!

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

heres a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgurTdK0PTA the audio is truly terrifying

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

holy fuck

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Upvoting because that last one is a fantastic way to stabilize a very shaky video.

11 years ago | Likes 1508 Dislikes 2

Rightfully so. People seem to forget the shockwave during explosions. I'd likely be in the bathtub once I saw the flash.

11 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

It's actually brilliant.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

So since you're top comment I'll ask this so people will see it; why were they people recording this in the first place? How did they know?

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

They were probably recording the fire and the responders.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Oh didn't know there was a fire before hand. Didn't read the article. Thought they were just randomly recording this building. Thanks :)

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Agreed! That technique gives a true sense of still vibrating/ remembering what just happened, while more stuff keeps happening! Fabulous!

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yeah, that was some great work. I still jumped at the explosion, lol.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

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11 years ago (deleted Oct 21, 2024 11:44 PM) | Likes 0 Dislikes 0

Seriously OP, I can't think of a better way, the camera goes all over, thus so does the frame. Fucking well stabilised.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Pfft. Just hire the CSI folks. ENHANCE

11 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

But seriously, Stef was right, that was really well-done. Not sure what else you'd do without doing some CG mockup or something

11 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Honestly the ghosting does the best job possible giving a sense of the area and what was actually seen. You can tell where the action is.

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

For the curious, the site housed potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate and calcium carbide. And possibly sodium cyanide on site too.....

11 years ago | Likes 23 Dislikes 1

The nitrates are something you don't want to get near an ignition source, they go boom. Calcium carbide is not something you want to....

11 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

get wet, it produces acetylene gas which burns real well. Given that, the site was doomed as soon as the initial fire kicked up.

11 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

That's just so fucked up, and to say "only 100 people died" is def a lie

11 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 3

Considering that blast was large enough to probably completely vaporize a body, they're likely going based on bodies.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well, there was a huge fire and evacuation beforehand. And it was night in a workarea. But yes, numbers are still going up :(

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Yeah, the official figures have been low, but the number is still rising. Perhaps there's a lot of work before someone gets declared dead.

11 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

by the devastation there's no way to believe only 100 people have died, China is just a fucked up place!!! :)

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 6

What the hell was in that building.....

11 years ago | Likes 92 Dislikes 1

*containers

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

And why the HELL would they store anything like that anywhere NEAR a city or any other buildings???

11 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

In order to ship it. Take a look at where the New Jersey, or New York dock are. Tianjin is a city built around the docks for 1/

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Beijing, the capital, so much of the products and needs of the nation flow through it.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

THIS INFORMATION IS IN THE DESCRIPTION

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Chinese.

11 years ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 8

touche....

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Aw. Aw no. No, man. No :(

11 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 1

Too soon, man. No, really. D:

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 1

Ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide apparently. Oh and apparently sodium cyanide is still present on site. Good times.

11 years ago | Likes 71 Dislikes 0

Well at least no bad cancerogenous and long-term toxic shit.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Basically explodey items

11 years ago | Likes 28 Dislikes 0

That's a recipe for a "Just-Add-Water" bomb.

11 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

And Calcium carbide + water = acetylene.

11 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

This is also calcium carbid with water only on a smaller scale v This small and still so powerful!

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Good thing they weren't drunk and used a bowling ball.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Of all thr places, it HAD to hit the table and the beer

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

TIL that explosions in films really are realistic

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

I hate that you hear a distant explosion instantly in movies. I hate it so much.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Detonation velocity is often up to 10 times faster than the speed of sound though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detonation_velocity

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well you can clearly tell from the videos on YouTube of explosions that the sound is not instant.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well no, it's never instant. But it does travel faster than the speed of sound

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It travels from one side of the C4 to the other faster than sound, sure, but not through the air.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

It's a film/psychology trick, the same reason you get cuts to different scenes every 3 seconds or so. Drama is somewhat based on immediacy.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They generally use actual explosions not cg, so yeah they are!

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

To be fair, this is a chemical explosion, which makes pretty fire and embers. True explosives like C4 and TNT look nothing like this.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

It's crazy how atomic bombs are even more explosive than this.

11 years ago | Likes 24 Dislikes 0

I was in the Hiroshima Peace museum around the a-bomb anniversary. It was dark times man, really bone chilling.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Little boy was about 762 times more powerful than this...

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Even a small nuke would have leveled all those buildings around the explosion.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

For reference: This is reported as equivalent of 21 tons of TNT. The Nagasaki Bomb was 21 kilo(!)tons.

11 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

And that was pretty puny as they go, the largest test detonation was 50 mega(!)tons. 2 million times as powerful as this explosion.

11 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

What's the point of comparing it with TNT? I have no fucking idea how big a TNT explosion is.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

It's a weight comparison and general standard. TNT was the first and long-standing industrial explosive. What else would you compare to?

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Modern aircraft launched nukes are 1.5Mt so they are 57,692,307.7 times more powerful

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

No they aren't. 21 tonnes X 57,596,307.7 = 1,211,538,461.7 That's 1,200 Mt, which is 24 times bigger than the Tsar bomba.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

What, you didn't hear about the 1.2 gigaton bomb they're using now?

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I'm using the combined figure of 26t. That's the total of both blasts

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

1.5 Megaton. Mega = Million. 1,500,000 / 26 = 57,692. You compared it to a 1.5 gigaton bomb, which isn't a thing. (yet)

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Whoops my bad! And there was project sunshine which was a 10Gt ton bomb. Thankfully it was never realized

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

A nuke is to this as this is to a firecracker.

11 years ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

Almost literally, yeah, typical nukes would be 5 or 6 orders of magnitude larger. 5 or 6 smaller would be firework sized for sure.

11 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 1

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about 1000 times larger. Most nuclear warheads are several times larger or have multiple warheads of that size.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

5-6 orders of magnitude != 5-6x larger. One magnitude is 100x stronger than the previous.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 3

Magnitudes are factors of 10, not 100. 5-6 orders of magnitude larger would be the largest nukes ever tested.

11 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

how did you stabilize these videos? sorry I'm a complete noob when it comes to editing

11 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 1

cut out the morning coffee binge for one... helps to be a neurosurgeon also.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Generally you pic a point of reference and then put it in the same location on your screen frame by frame.

11 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

There are stabilization algorithms in software as well. Just not as good as frame by frame manual sometimes.

11 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

With a simple job like the first gif, there are tools that will track (with some coaxing) fixed points in the world, I used two points /2

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

on the skyline. Once you have those the tool will shift each frame of video so the points stay in the same place. That's the idea, it's /3

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

never quite that simple though. The last gif took many points handing over between each other and a lot of manual tweaking. Oh the tweaking.

11 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

What software do you use? For the tracking and the tweaking and all that jazz? After effects? Custom software? I must know!

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

All those were in Aftereffects. Boujou's good for proper 3d tracking.

11 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0