Nifty theatrical ghost effect. Howdtheydoit?
May 10, 2011 9:37 PM Subscribe
How did they do this theatrical effect I saw?
1. Basically, it looked like a jellyfish (or ghost, depending on your imagination), maybe about a meter total length.
2. It flew about 2-3 meters above the audience for a good 20-30 seconds.
3. It was very fast and very agile- it could make 90 or 180 degree turns instantly.
4. Occasionally, it stopped mid-air and began to sink towards the floor, but would return to its program of darting around the audience
5. It appeared extremely light, based on its agility and gentle descent.
6. At the end of its routine, it went straight back to a designated box at the front corner of the stage.
7. If there were wires, they were not visible after the lights went up.
8. There's almost no way it could have been self-propelled (certainly no propellers).
I started reading the instructions for a "flying crank ghost" on this page, and it looked promising until I saw the completed effect at the end which was nothing like what I saw. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't this (unless it was some much more interesting variation on this effect)
Does anyone know what this effect is?
1. Basically, it looked like a jellyfish (or ghost, depending on your imagination), maybe about a meter total length.
2. It flew about 2-3 meters above the audience for a good 20-30 seconds.
3. It was very fast and very agile- it could make 90 or 180 degree turns instantly.
4. Occasionally, it stopped mid-air and began to sink towards the floor, but would return to its program of darting around the audience
5. It appeared extremely light, based on its agility and gentle descent.
6. At the end of its routine, it went straight back to a designated box at the front corner of the stage.
7. If there were wires, they were not visible after the lights went up.
8. There's almost no way it could have been self-propelled (certainly no propellers).
I started reading the instructions for a "flying crank ghost" on this page, and it looked promising until I saw the completed effect at the end which was nothing like what I saw. So I'm pretty sure it wasn't this (unless it was some much more interesting variation on this effect)
Does anyone know what this effect is?
Not sure how the rigging was set up, but it is possible they used monofilament (perhaps painted black), or if it was truly light enough just stout black thread. Neither one would be easy to see.
Did it meander about in semi/circles, or mainly stay in straight lines 90 degrees to themselves?
posted by edgeways at 9:51 PM on May 10, 2011
Did it meander about in semi/circles, or mainly stay in straight lines 90 degrees to themselves?
posted by edgeways at 9:51 PM on May 10, 2011
5. It appeared extremely light, based on its agility and gentle descent.
Probably some variant of a the material in a juggling scarf. Very light nylon with an immense surface area among all its fibers, so it catches an enormous amount of air.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:19 PM on May 10, 2011
Probably some variant of a the material in a juggling scarf. Very light nylon with an immense surface area among all its fibers, so it catches an enormous amount of air.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:19 PM on May 10, 2011
Response by poster: The show was in Seoul, Korea. It's a limited run of a show for little kids: Dibo the Gift Dragon. The budget certainly wasn't Broadway, but it was also nothing like your average local community theater. They had the money for fog machines, rather lovingly-crafted props, and other stuff. The theater itself was pretty large (enough for a Broadway-scale production), but seating was limited to the floor.
For the most part I noticed the movement being extremely sharp, so I think it was mostly angles, although it could have had some more fluid left-right movement. When it did come out of its descents, it was basically jerked back into forward movement. The only thing indication tension on the thing was either forward or lateral motion. I should also note that it always faced the direction in which it was traveling.
posted by holterbarbour at 10:24 PM on May 10, 2011
For the most part I noticed the movement being extremely sharp, so I think it was mostly angles, although it could have had some more fluid left-right movement. When it did come out of its descents, it was basically jerked back into forward movement. The only thing indication tension on the thing was either forward or lateral motion. I should also note that it always faced the direction in which it was traveling.
posted by holterbarbour at 10:24 PM on May 10, 2011
Response by poster: I'm sure the material was similar to the juggling scarf stuff- it looked very much like that when it was descending. It also had some kind of simple frame inside it, a loop of about 25cm in diameter.
posted by holterbarbour at 10:31 PM on May 10, 2011
posted by holterbarbour at 10:31 PM on May 10, 2011
Best answer: The flying crank ghost (I have one on my porch every Halloween) looks the way it does because it's meant to be uncontrolled, built by amateurs and run on a single gear motor.
Somewhere I saw a page where two guys working for a haunted house described their three or four axis CNC ghost which descended a flight of stairs and purposefully moved around a room with the aid of multiple stepper motors and a micro-controller.
My guess would be multiple lines from the corners of its range of motion. Lengthen A and B and shorten C and it moves toward C. Lengthen everything and it goes down. Shorten everything an it goes up. Once you have that set up, you can just play around with your programming to get it to do what you want.
Hell, thanks to XBee radios, you could add some simple translation stuff to your program (what direction commands equal what motor movements) and limits on the amount of line you ever feed out so you can't crash it into the audience's heads and you could control the thing from the back row with a hacked Nintendo controller.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:44 AM on May 11, 2011
Somewhere I saw a page where two guys working for a haunted house described their three or four axis CNC ghost which descended a flight of stairs and purposefully moved around a room with the aid of multiple stepper motors and a micro-controller.
My guess would be multiple lines from the corners of its range of motion. Lengthen A and B and shorten C and it moves toward C. Lengthen everything and it goes down. Shorten everything an it goes up. Once you have that set up, you can just play around with your programming to get it to do what you want.
Hell, thanks to XBee radios, you could add some simple translation stuff to your program (what direction commands equal what motor movements) and limits on the amount of line you ever feed out so you can't crash it into the audience's heads and you could control the thing from the back row with a hacked Nintendo controller.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:44 AM on May 11, 2011
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What kind of theatre was it--professional? Regional? Community? Was it a spendy production or done on a budget? And was it a big house or a little house? Creating such an effect for an audience of 1,500 would be a lot more complicated than for a house of 100 in a black box.
posted by smirkette at 9:47 PM on May 10, 2011