Holograms may seem like a bold new frontier for the entertainment industry. But for Lady Gaga, the envelope-pushing performer in all things audio-visual, holograms are already passé. Hence her mind-bending Grammys homage to David Bowie on Monday night, which paid tribute to various phases of the icon’s five-decade career, courtesy of Intel computer graphics, interactive video, and robotics. Given that Bowie passed away only a month ago, though, how the hell did Gaga pull together such a feat in a matter of weeks?

“Lady Gaga had been speaking to Intel as early as September, brainstorming ways in which she could use technology to express herself in a way that had never been done before,” explained Paul Tapp, Intel’s director of technology, by phone last week. “She’s an amazing dancer and she really pushes boundaries with fashion. She said, ‘Help me to go beyond these standard constraints.’” So, this past fall, a team of engineers began working on the technology that Gaga envisioned using. But when Bowie passed in early January, Gaga began re-imagining her multi-media performance as a tribute to the icon.

“Bowie had tons of iconic looks throughout his very rich career,” Tapp said, “so Lady Gaga was curious how we could pay an homage to that. We introduced ‘living canvas’ technology to her, which allows her to basically have what we call digital skin—which has been used in tech art installations, but never before for a live performance.” The digital skin is projected onto Gaga as she performs so that it looks like her “makeup” is changing instantaneously throughout her six-song performance.

To create the makeup animation—essentially C.G.I. done live—Intel’s team created a 3-D scan of Gaga’s face by capturing her in about 12 different poses with complex scanning technology. The team then created 3-D motion graphics based on Gaga’s facial measurements and the Bowie looks she wanted to replicate.

During the performance, those graphics—essentially “replacement skin”—are projected onto her face live, like a mask, thanks to real-time face-tracking. (Five infrared-sensing cameras pick up on infrared markers placed discreetly on Gaga’s face.)

“Once we’ve got the tracking in place, those cameras and markers are telling the computer exactly what angle and rotation and axis her face is and her facial expressions,” explained Tapp. “Are her eyes opened or closed? Is her mouth happy or sad? Are her cheeks up or down? We have to track all of that with very intricate detail and then in real time we have to adjust that digital makeup that we’ve computer generated, get it sorted according to how her facial position is, and project it exactly to the right place at the right time.”