Overnight, ABC News obtained exclusive video and photos of Holmes. The video was recorded six years ago when Holmes was 18.
In the video, he is standing among his peers at a science camp at Miramar College in San Diego talking about "temporal illusions."
"Over the course of the summer I've been working with a temporal illusion. It's an illusion that allows you to change the past," Holmes said in the video.
He appears slightly nervous speaking to the group but also extremely intelligent.
By most accounts, Holmes lived the life of a normal teen – with a particular interest in science.
This was how he was introduced at the seminar: "His goals are to become a researcher and to make scientific discoveries. In personal life, he enjoys playing soccer and strategy games and his dream is to own a slurpee machine."
Though Holmes was apparently a gifted scientist who had received a federal grant to work on his Ph.D. at one of the most competitive neuroscience programs in the country, he was a loner who -- oddly for a young scientist -- seemed to have no Internet presence.
Officials Saturday said they now have "evidence of calculation and deliberation," in the way he allegedly planned and prepared for the shooting, beginning to buy weapons and ammunition two months ago.
Holmes is originally from San Diego, where he once reportedly worked as a camp counselor for underprivileged children. He was an honors student at Westview High School, but did not walk in his graduation ceremony.
Holmes, 24, is currently in custody for Friday's massacre in Aurora, Colo.
Dressed in full riot gear, Holmes allegedly entered from an emergency exit in the front right corner of the theater before releasing something that witnesses identify as tear gas or a smoke bomb. From there, he allegedly sprayed the sold-out theater with a storm of bullets, injuring and killing both adults and children.
Among the dead include: Micayla Medek, 23; Alex Sullivan, 27, who was attending the movie for his birthday; Ohio native Matt McQuinn; Alex Teves, 24; Alexander J. Boik, 18; Rebecca Ann Wingo, 32; and Gordon W. Cowden, 51.
Two other people died at the hospital, including 24-year-old aspiring sportscaster Jessica Ghawi. Police said 30 people remained hospitalized with 11 of them in critical condition. Bullets from the shooting spree tore through the theater and into adjoining theaters, where at least one other person was struck and injured.
John Larimer, a member of the Navy, was also confirmed by his family to be among the dead. The family said they were notified at their Illinois home around midnight today by a Navy notification team that Larimer was dead.
Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress was an Air Force reservist assigned to units at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado was killed in the shooting. He was 29. Air Force Lt. Col. Pat Walsh said that Childress was respected in the 310th Force Support Squadron.
Military veteran Jonathan T. Blunk of Aurora, Colo., was killed as he threw himself over a friend to keep her from getting shot. The 26-year-old worked at a hardware store.
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, was killed, according to The Associated Press. The girl's mother, Ashley Moser, 25, is in critical condition after she was shot in the throat and abdomen, said her aunt, Annie Dalton.
Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates announced Friday that Holmes had purchased four guns at local shops and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the Internet in the past 60 days.
Inside James Holmes' Apartment
Overnight, new pictures have emerged of several explosions in a Colorado field where investigators took chemical materials recovered from Holmes' apartment.
Crews reportedly transported the materials by dump truck to the field so that they could be ignited -- and determined if they were in fact explosives.
Federal authorities and local police have now pulled all of the potential explosives from Holmes' apartment after gaining entry and eliminating potentially explosive traps Saturday.
The apartment, about 800 square feet contained several trip wires rigged to trigger explosions.
Scattered throughout the living room were 30 explosive devices - including jars with chemicals and 30 shells with explosive powder - similar to large fireworks.
Bomb squads carefully neutralized the two main threats at the entrance of his apartment using a "water shot" and remote-controlled robot.
Oates said the suspect's intentions were clear.
"What we're seeing here is some evidence of calculation and deliberation," Oates said. Holmes was an honors student and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He was enrolled in the graduate program in neuroscience until he voluntarily withdrew from the program in June.
He was one of six recipients of a Neuroscience Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health, which funds pre-thesis Ph.D. students in the neuroscience program at the Anschutz Medical Campus.
According to the university, the focus of the program is on "training outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology."
He reportedly failed a preliminary exam before pulling out of the program, according to ABC News' Denver affiliate KMGH-TV. It is unclear if the exam was related to his decision to leave the program.
KMGH was told that even if Holmes did fail the exam, he would not have been kicked out of the program because students have an opportunity to improve their grades with an oral exam.
"I don't know any of that and I don't know that we have any of that information on him," Anschutz Medical Campus spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery told ABCNews.com.
The university said Holmes gave no reason for asking to withdraw from the program.
Last year, Holmes applied to the University of Arizona, according to statement by the school, but was rejected, KPHO-TV in Phoenix reported.
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