Creating Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis

[rshakespeare]

We're doing a production that takes place in the North - I'm going to have to recreate the Northern lights. One idea I've had was maybe using a hazer and multi-colored lights just slightly off-parallel to the stage floor. Any suggestions? I'm really excited to hear!

[ishboo]

What production are you doing? I just saw a production using a rep plot do a fairly decent job of northern lights using cyc lights, they only had red blue and green but they used the blue to do a nice looking sky and then mixing in the red and green looked good, that could be a good starting point possibly.

[shiben]

We had a production that involved the Northern Lights at Calvin, and used a few FilmFX units on the cyc, along with what if I remember correctly were non-uniform gels incorporating the colors that the designer wanted. It looked fairly good. Just a question, how did you intend to use the haze? It sounds like an interesting idea.

[NickJones]

Is projection an option? It could make your flickering at the bottom look more realistic, and I'm sure you could get HD footage of the Northern Lights.
Nick

[ishboo]

That sounds like it would work well, I did a wuick search on istockphoto and they have plenty of northern light videos like this one: Northern Lights

[NickJones]

Yeah, projection would be far easier and safer, hire yourself a nice big projector, and you could even use lights as well to add to the effect. If projection isn't an option maybe consider LEDs?
Nick

[Dionysus]

I really like the idea of projecting video of the Aurora Borealis either with or without haze. Could look really sweet.
Then again you can totally make some amazing effects on a white cyc, with a black scrim in front. Maybe a little haze or fog between. With a combination of cyc lights and some LED pars or some lekos at various angles across the cyc, changing the colours contrasting against the cyc-lights.

[IndigoFire]

Kjetil Skogli has created some amazing video of the aurora borealis that would work wall with projection through haze.

[starksk]

I would also look at something like Rosco's Colorizers and Colorwaves on a cyc or scrim. With some haze and the right instrument placement, could be a cool effect as well...

~Kirk

[highschooltech]

I personally like the idea of film fx they could create some really cool moving patterns. The cyc lights and LED pars could be cool as well if you want to spend time creating some interesting effects.

[BillESC]

If projection or budget doesn't allow for fancy items, a prism and a sheet of mylar stretched across a frame can do a pretty good job. Put a small speaker right under the mylar for vibration.

[midgetgreen11]

What production are you doing? I just saw a production using a rep plot do a fairly decent job of northern lights using cyc lights, they only had red blue and green but they used the blue to do a nice looking sky and then mixing in the red and green looked good, that could be a good starting point possibly.

Almost, Maine at the International Thespian Festival?

[xander]

I MEed a production of Almost, Maine. The designer and I worked together to come up with a really cheap solution that I think came out quite well. You need a cyc to start with, unless you can get an extremely thick cover of haze to project on. I used 2 Source4s, each with a color wheel and an I-Cue. Using this combination we were able get the undulation of color and movement. By placing the instruments extremely low shooting up you get the most intensity at the "horizon" and then it dissipates up the cyc. Add some nice deep blue cyc lights and some stars and you have a beautiful night sky. If you have the money I would recommend a dichroic color changer because the shifting will be much smoother and cleaner. I would do some serious research on the Northern Lights to figure out what colors you want. I think you will find some colors in there that you may not have thought of.
Good luck,
-Tim

[ishboo]

Almost, Maine at the International Thespian Festival?

That's the one! I take it you were there?

[venuetech]

For a production of King Island Christmas I had on each side of the cyc 3 or 4, 36dg ERS all with linear breakup gobos, oriented vertical. the focus was a series of vertical streaks across the cyc. each unit had it own color from the palette i was working with.
The cyc was then then gently waved from one end by the deck electrician as an cue effects loop ran.
as the waves rippled across each touched a beam.
the deck elect was the one in real control, as the size and freq. of the waves made the effect. she was able to easly cordnate the effect with the action onstage.

This looked very nice and i receved many positive comments on it

[midgetgreen11]

That's the one! I take it you were there?

Yes I certainly was.

"Rep plot," "Cyc Lights," "Red, Blue and Green" made the connection.

That was probably one of the best shows we saw this year. I enjoyed last year's shows better overall though.

[MNBallet]

Here is the video from my version of doing the northern lights that several people have been asking for. This was done by using a scrim-like material (white sport jersey type fabric) and a cyc. Behind the scrim was hung strips of thin painters plastic, the type you get on a roll at your hardware or painting store. Then behind the plastic was hung 24 LED parcans (6 3watt units, and 18 10mm colorkey units.) Fans were placed (on low) in back to move the plastic around

I had issues with the plastic and static cling to both the cyc and the scrim. It was solved by having two crew members (one on each side of the stage) to direct the fans to keep the plastic from sticking. I would have prefered to have more space between the layers so the plastic couldn't stick, but as we all know space is limited.


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5dOEikkraQ[/media]

Kenneth Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet

[derekleffew]

The post above has been moved here from another location.

For more, see also: Aurora Borealis.

[cvhstech]

Hello i am a light designer for my high school, and we a re doing a production of Almost Maine, and we also want to do a northern lights effect. We were planning on using LED light racks that go on the floor, and a fog machine. The racks are controlled by a computerized software that i still have to program. Would you recommended this way to get a good Northern Lights effect? Thank you for your help!

[jfetter]

If you have some available pipes, you could take some 20' x 3' panels (or similar cheap fabric) and cut the bottom edge in a gentle, random wavy pattern and hang 3 or 4 of these a few feet apart at center stage. When they are flown in, it would give a 3D layered appearance (you could also add a gentle breeze to give movement) that when light by perhaps several LED bars hanging on the same pipes (with deep colors), give a pretty good simulation of the Northern Lights. Add a few moving heads down stage, one on each wing panning back and forth very slowly on the panels and you could add some more movement (maybe add a gobo), perhaps slowly rotating to hit the panels and allow some light to spill onto the next panel. Assuming you have the lighting, the panels are cheap to make...

Jack

[shiben]

I wonder if you could use lasers effectively, some sort of fog effect hanging about 3-4 feet off the floor and end it in a trap or something? Also, what are these LED Racks you speak of? Are they controlled by the lighting console? Or are you writing custom software for this?

[azylka]

I've totally done this! 8x ETC Selador Vivid-R 11", black scrim, star drop, fans...
Video here.

EDIT: Original attempt w/ painter's plastic instead of two scrims here.

[cvhstech]

The led light racks we are using is controlled by a computerized software which I will have to write the program for.

[shiben]

The led light racks we are using is controlled by a computerized software which I will have to write the program for.

I guess I just dont know what an LED Light Rack is... Im envisioning a 48 space server rack with LEDs crammed onto the front...

[Pie4Weebl]

I've totally done this! 8x ETC Selador Vivid-R 11", black scrim, star drop, fans...
Video here.

Woah, that's awesome.

[cpf]

I've totally done this! 8x ETC Selador Vivid-R 11", black scrim, star drop, fans...
Video here.

That looks really great. Too bad the ripples couldn't really run more slowly, but I can't think of a way that would work.

[chausman]

I've totally done this! 8x ETC Selador Vivid-R 11", black scrim, star drop, fans...
Video here.

That's great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cvhstech]

I guess I just dont know what an LED Light Rack is... Im envisioning a 48 space server rack with LEDs crammed onto the front...

The LED light rack looks similar to this.


I don't remember the actual company that created ours, but i know it says LED Wall Washer. Also off topic question, but how do you quote someone on here? I spent 30 mins trying to quote someone but it i couldn't figure it out

[chausman]

. Also off topic question, but how do you quote someone on here? I spent 30 mins trying to quote someone but it i couldn't figure it out

With the "Reply with Quote" button on the lower right side of each post. Or a harder, less effective way is to just add [quote] and [/quote] tags and copying and pasting the text.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cvhstech]

With the "Reply with Quote" button on the lower right side of each post. Or a harder, less effective way is to just add tags and copying and pasting the text.

Got it!!! Thanks!!!

[derekleffew]

The LED light rack looks similar to this.

I don't remember the actual company that created ours, but i know it says LED Wall Washer. ...

Okay, now you can STOP calling the unit an "LED light rack". It's an "LED wash fixture" (as opposed to the other standard shape--the LED PAR), not terribly dissimilar from the Selador Vivid-R 11", as discussed in post #22:

Selador Vivid/Paletta/Lustr by ETC - Electronic Theatre Controls

Your LED Wall Washer should take, at a minimum, three DMX channels (one each for R, G, B). More advanced units add an Amber and/or White circuit. The Selador fixtures use 7 colors of LEDs. None of that is really important right now--your fixture is what it is. How many of them do you have? Note that the video used 8 fixtures.

In any case, if your unit does not have a user mode that enables it to be controlled by DMX512 from your lighting console, there's not a lot we can do to help you.

[Les]

I'm curious as to why you need to write software to control them, and how you plan to achieve that? I mean, it took USITT years. What are you expecting this software to do, and how will it interface between the operator and the fixture(s)? I guess I just want to get a feel of your proficiency with DMX. I'm a little confused given the rest of the terminology you use.

These days, it hardly makes sense to write your own software for something so simple, given so many off-the-shelf options (some of which may be built right in to your lighting console). By the way -- what console are you using?

Now, when I was a kid, we ALWAYS had to write the software for our fixtures -- uphill both ways!

[cvhstech]

We have about 10 we can use. The thing with this fixture is that it connects with a 3 pin dmx cable, microplex? If I'm not mistaken, and we dont have that tupe of board, whic brings us to the software I don't mean write software but I meant to say was write the show. We are going to be using light-o-Rama because with this software we can control the fixtures with a computer, and we can create a lot of colors with this software.

[josh88]

you can get a 3pin to 5pin adapter to go to a board. How are you going to control the lights? you say they are 3pin and that you're using that software but do you also already have the hardware for a connection to the computer?

[cvhstech]

Yes, we have a 3 pin to computer connection adapter.

[shiben]

Yes, we have a 3 pin to computer connection adapter.

You sure its Microplex? A lot of DMX gear uses the Non-Standard 3 pin XLR connector these days, Im almost positive any LED unit out there today will run on DMX.

[cvhstech]

You sure its Microplex? A lot of DMX gear uses the Non-Standard 3 pin XLR connector these days, Im almost positive any LED unit out there today will run on DMX.

Honestly I'm not 100% percent sure if it is microplex or dmx. Our board only take 5 pic dmx or microplex, so I might need to get an adapter to see if it will work on dmx.

[derekleffew]

99.44% certain it's not Microplex. All you need is an adapter, 5-3.

Besides Light-O-Rama, what console do you have? Even a two-scene preset could control the fixtures, but to do a ripple effect like in post #22 probably requires a memory system, Express or better. Certainly easier on, but not exclusive to, consoles that have an Effects Engine or package.

[azylka]

... but to do a ripple effect like in post #22 probably requires a memory system, Express or better.

Actually, all eight of our Vivid-R's were set on a static color, with four fans blowing one of two scrims for the ripple effect.

Your logic is certainly sound though, but if the LEDs were set to one color (doesn't always require a memory board, fans could be used to blow either some sort of translucent plastic, or scrim like we did to get ripples).

[cvhstech]

We have a ETC Ion Light Board, but our LEDs, for some reason, doesnt work wit it.