So I am working on a Tower of Terror recreation in my home, and part of the set consists of an approximate 13' x 9' photo of the Tower of Terror Boiler furnaces printed on a semipermeable vinyl banner. In order to increase the realism and illusion of depth, I have been adding lighting effects as shown in this video. I will also be adding some faux steam pipes shortly. The lighting effects were created simply placing small LEDs behind the vinyl banner where there are two overhead lights seen and an illuminated green
instrument panel light. The boiler furnace fire effects were created by placing some commercially purchased LEDs made to simulate flame and mounting them in a thin styroform mold with a light-blocking
screen to only allow the flame light to be seen in the open holes in the grates and not through solid areas of the grates or the boiler structure.
@Tower of Terror Theater I'll speak to your flame effects through your boiler's grates.
I'm not describing an existing commercial product.
Consider multiple colors of LEDs or
incandescent sources behind each slot spaced back a few inches behind thin sheets of
Rosco, or other, difusion
gel.
Consider generally darker colors (reds and dark ambers) towards the bottom, medium ambers in the centre, and light ambers, heavy yellows and one or two light blues towards the top.
Power your approximately 12 to 20 circuits from 12 to 20 separate
DMX controlled dimmers, then program pseudo random
chase sequences with varying intensities between ~5 to ~90% over a variety of pseudo random
fade rates ranging between approximately .5 to 5 seconds with NO steadily on or off states. Various controllers from
ETC and
Strand can be programmed to output these types of chases, not as
stock pre-programmed effects but by putting more and more time into finessing their basic
stock effects.
I'm long retired from
current technology, I still think in terms of lighting consoles from the early 1990's.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard