Stunning that we're so up and close to it. Still, one pixel does not make a "feature". It's like saying you can make out someone's face when their head is a grey box.

Something to keep in mind the next time you print out a ransom note.

He must be popular with the neighbors.

Now he just needs to make a red one. Because red doesn't ruin your night vision, right?

I'd also like to see the perspective of it shining from a mile away. Could you pick it out in a distant cityscape?

I'm sorry, I know they have a list of credits at the end, but I'm pretty sure that the diver is CG. It's in the uncanny valley with the body movements. I bet in a week they will come back and say, "See? We tricked you all. Hire us for your next animation." They cut away before the foot goes into the sand because not for cinematic purposes, but instead because of the complexity of such a simulation.

Nothing was moved or interacted with in the entire clip, so it leads me to believe that all of the lighting and shadows were simply pre-calculated and baked on as a texture. In the same manner, the reflections are most likely environmental cube maps, rendered in 3D animation software with all the settings turned up and then saved as an image. If something besides the camera were moving then I would be impressed.

Reminds me of foglets or "utility fog", something that futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts having widespread adoption in the mid 2040's. Essentially you could make any physical shape you can think of, almost instantly.