Aurora Borealis Effect, Outside. No fog or haze.

Cadmium6855

Member
Hey guys it's been a while since I posted but I really need some advice. I'm designing an outdoor exhibit type thing, and the client needs an aurora borealis effect inside the fake "ice-cave" and outside. My idea was to use Rosco X-24 effect projectors with colorwave gobos, however, since there is no fog or haze allowed im having trouble figuring out how to get the effect to project in the middle of the room, and outdoors. Please give me some advice on ways I could solve this problem.

Thanks Much,
Lorenzo
 
Even a sheet of clear plastic, like thin painter's tarp, would reflect enough to project the effect onto.

Agreed - I just/am still doing this for a show of Almost, Maine. Plastic worked really well, with running crew wiggling it, as well as fans. We tried both of these, but ended up using two scrims instead because the plastic was diffusing our star drop way too much, making the stars look like light-blotches. One scrim waved (using 3 high powered fans on dimmers) while the other separated the playing area and Aurora Borealis/Star drop US. And, as an added bonus:
I found out during this show that scrims are amazing for making star drops twinkle without actually dimming your stars to simulate it.
 
I was going to guess this was for almost maine at first. We did this a few years back and pulled off a really nice effect using color scrollers pointed at a mirror in a flat water filled pan and fan blowing over it. There were a few of these set ups all aimed to reflect at a cyc and with moving water with color looked great.
 
Still open to suggestions though, they want the effect outside of the cave as well.
Ok, I'm just "pie in the sky"-ing right now But how about shoving the planet Mercury into the sun? The resultant flare should give off enough charged particles to create a real aurora all the way down in Cali ? Let's see, 8 minutes for the particles to get from the sun to here, at least a couple of seconds for the atmosphere to properly charge....... Figuring the point of impact on the surfae of the sun is going to be the difficult part as the flare and it's particles are going to maintain their angular momentum. You're only gonna get one shot and, I'm afraid, No rehearsals !
 
Ok, I'm just "pie in the sky"-ing right now But how about shoving the planet Mercury into the sun? The resultant flare should give off enough charged particles to create a real aurora all the way down in Cali ? Let's see, 8 minutes for the particles to get from the sun to here, at least a couple of seconds for the atmosphere to properly charge....... Figuring the point of impact on the surfae of the sun is going to be the difficult part as the flare and it's particles are going to maintain their angular momentum. You're only gonna get one shot and, I'm afraid, No rehearsals !

I don't think the rest of the world would be very happy about me destroying Mercury....
 
I don't think the rest of the world would be very happy about me destroying Mercury....

It's not like it does very much anyway...


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Ok, I'm just "pie in the sky"-ing right now But how about shoving the planet Mercury into the sun? The resultant flare should give off enough charged particles to create a real aurora all the way down in Cali ? Let's see, 8 minutes for the particles to get from the sun to here, at least a couple of seconds for the atmosphere to properly charge....... Figuring the point of impact on the surfae of the sun is going to be the difficult part as the flare and it's particles are going to maintain their angular momentum. You're only gonna get one shot and, I'm afraid, No rehearsals !

Quite the audience would be able to see and imagine the media coverage of a sun/planet collision.
 
It's not like it does very much anyway...


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Except go into "retro grade" and screw up everybody's horoscope. At least that's what Gafftaper tells me.
 

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