This video shows a digital animation, not real drones playing volleyball
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 7, 2021 at 07:00
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The video was shared here on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo on March 3, 2021, where it has been viewed more than 19,000 times.
It purports to show two drones hitting a ball back-and-forth.
The simplified Chinese-language caption translates to English as: “Drone volleyball match”.
An identical video was also shared alongside a similar claim on Twitter here and here; on Facebook here and here; on YouTube here and here; on Reddit here; on TikTok here and here.
The claim, however, is false.
A reverse image search on Google found the video shows a digital animation.
Iran-based visual effects artist Hamid Ebrahimnia shared the original video on Instagram on February 26, 2021. He states in the post's caption: “I did all animations in Cinema 4D, tracked in Mocha and composited in [Adobe] After Effects.”
Ebrahimnia’s video has been mirrored in the misleading posts.
Below are a set of screenshot comparisons of the video in the misleading posts (L) and the video posted by Ebrahimnia (R):
Ebrahimnia told AFP he created the clip using digital animation techniques.
In an email on April 6, 2021, he said: “That video is not real. I made it with VFX as I did a lot of visual effects artworks. The video is a visual motion artwork and has messages inside it: spreading the message of COVID-19 and staying home.”
He shared a video that shows how the animation was created using raw footage and computer-generated effects.
Below are screenshots of select frames taken from this video:
The misleading post was also debunked by US fact-checking organisation site Snopes.
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