After 16 years of resting in peace, hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur was resurrected at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with the help of his old friends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg -- and a bit of magic from effects powerhouse Digital Domain. The two MCs tapped the creative direction of Chief Creative Officer Ed Ulbrich, along with director Philip Atwell of Geronimo Productions and Dylan Brown of The Yard Entertainment, to bring the rapper back to life for thousands of festival attendees (and another million or so, judging from the online video counts).

Clearly technology has advanced a long way since then. On his way from the Coachella madness, Mr. Ulbrich spoke with Creativity about the interpretation of Tupac and how it affects advertisers, marketers and other creatives interesting in using this type of tech.

Creativity: Were you at the performance? What was the crowd's reaction when the hologram appeared?

Ed Ulbrich: The crowd went nuts. They went crazy. There was a little bit of a leak late last week, but no one was able to figure it out before the show. You could see people going "whoa." I don't think at first people realized...