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  • Fake Clouds

    Anyone know of the best way to make fake realistic 3-d clouds?

  • #2
    we have done a pretty cool cloud display for a themed party.
    We sculpted cloud shapes out of wood frames and covered with chicken wire.
    then shoved polyester quilt batting and then placed black lights behind the clouds treated with rit brightener. They looked pretty good without the light but when used in the dark and lit from behind it was a striking presentation.
    Kevin R. Alvey
    info at gore-galore.com
    www.gore-galore.com
    www.halloweenmusicgalore.com
    www.youtube.com/goregalore13
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    • #3
      Originally posted by Gore Galore View Post
      we have done a pretty cool cloud display for a themed party.
      We sculpted cloud shapes out of wood frames and covered with chicken wire.
      then shoved polyester quilt batting and then placed black lights behind the clouds treated with rit brightener. They looked pretty good without the light but when used in the dark and lit from behind it was a striking presentation.
      I have done something like this too, and it did work well. We put a strobe light inside and synched with a thunderclap audio clip to make a storm cloud.
      Jeff Martin

      Owner/CEO
      True Adventures, Ltd.

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      • #4
        That depends very much on what is your budget and your talent. The best way to paint nice, fluffy clouds is with an airbrush. You don't even need a special airbrush pattern mold to do the borders (unless you want really small clouds) if you want light effects for your sky you should use candy tones on plexiglass, this will allow the light to go through your sky and give realistic effects (do not use glass imitation plexiglass, use the white one)

        If you don't have an airbrush or don't have the skill to paint clouds then your second shot is a regular brush; buy a hard bristle brush and cut it to a shorter size, so the bristles aren't that long. Then use small ammounts of paint and first get rid of the excess on a piece of fabric, then tap your canvass with your brush till you get a nice and smooth 'brush-less' effect.

        Use a sponge... same technique as with the regular brush or you can do little circular movements if you are depicting some cummulus or nimbus clouds.

        The colors? that's mostly up to you, depending on the mood of your picture, depends on the day time too (day or night, sunset or dawn) you should take a picture of your sky scene first and use it as reference. I know this don't help, but it'll take me for ever to explain the principles of color mixes and how they interact with light and all that boring crap that no one want to here.

        Anyway, if you don't have talent at all, then you might take a digital photo, an image from internet or even a special custom sky designed specially 4 your haunt, and you can print it on a vinyl canvas. Currently there are lots of places where you can print one of those, they usually print commercial banners, but you can print your stuff aswell. If they don't have the size you request for your ceiling (normal comercial vinyl printers ain't bigger than 12 ft long) you can split your image and print it in pieces to fill your room.

        Avoid using cotton, fabrics and paper doing your clouds, 3D clouds in your sky doesn't look 'cool', they look plastic and artificial, because you aren't far enough to let the perspective and eye resolution do their work, so all you see is a prop, not an illusion. Plus, those elements add fuel to your room, which will cautch on fire if anything go wrong.
        http://www.redcrowdesign.net

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        • #5
          Lycra fluff behind blue spandex

          We tried this three years ago, with mixed results. Overall I'd say it worked OK. We got the idea from one of the haunt instruction videos, the name escapes me now...

          We stretched dark blue spandex fabric across the background. Behind it we spray-glued Lycra fluff (not real cotton). We treated the fluff in our fireproofing, not so much to fireproof it, but to make it fluoresce in UV light. Above and behind, we put a blacklight.

          From the front side, it looked pretty good. You have to be careful to balance the room light just right, so put it on a dimmer pack.

          Perhaps someone else can remember the video that showed this. They had it in a small Gothic window in the video.
          ----
          Your Pain, My Thrill...
          Steve
          Haunted Mines - Colorado Springs
          http://HauntedMines.org

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          • #6
            If you have a rounded ceiling area or make like a dome in your ceiling. Say using chicken wire. Make a somewhat flat surface and get a good artist. Paint your clouds on this. And then use a light with a dimmer to cast like a sun or moonlight glow. Whichever you prefer. It could end up looking like the ceiling at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas? The first time I saw that I was impressed.
            Damon
            Damon Carson

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            • #7
              That is a good idea, the spandex will blurr the lycra stuff and it will generate artificially the illusion of distance. But I foresee a problem with this thing: the spandex and other fabrics tend to have minor/major density fiber areas, this is made evident when you light the fabric from behind, that plus the fabric texture, the tissue of the fabric. Doesn't this ruin the effect?
              http://www.redcrowdesign.net

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              • #8
                Originally posted by damon carson View Post
                If you have a rounded ceiling area or make like a dome in your ceiling. Say using chicken wire. Make a somewhat flat surface and get a good artist. Paint your clouds on this. And then use a light with a dimmer to cast like a sun or moonlight glow. Whichever you prefer. It could end up looking like the ceiling at Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas? The first time I saw that I was impressed.
                Damon
                That is a really good idea, way better and cheapper than backlights.
                Also you can use 3 different light hues with the dimmer, that will asure diferent types of light situations, use blue, yellow and red light to create virtually any day hour light situation.
                I never been at Caesar's palace or las vegas, but I saw this effect on TV once at a las vegas decoration program and I tought it would look amazing in a haunt. If I ever have the money, I would like to do a room like this at my own house, as a matter of a fact I know how to do the dome in a cheap way, I designed this method to be used in a house, but I think it may also work for a haunt:

                First get a second hand parabolic anthena (satelital dish) the military and other institutions throw the old ones in the garbage, there are even places where you can get one that's broken, after all, what you actually need is the structure, not the functionality, just make sure it's a mesh dish. After you get it place it where you want and spray portland cement on it. Notice I didn't say 'pour', the dish must be placed face down, and the cement goes on the face that faces your haunt. How to spray it? well, there are several ways you can do that, the best and cheapper is with one of those cilindric things with a crank that masons use to do some plaster works, it has some little metal sheets that 'spit' the plaster/cement on the wall, I don't know what it's called, but it's mostly used to do finishing on walls.
                Anyway, after aplying several layers on the mesh smooth the face of the dome and do the art.

                And oh yeah, hide the lights behind the border that 'holds' the dish.
                http://www.redcrowdesign.net

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                • #9
                  "What are rolls of toilet paper doing hanging from the ceiling?"
                  "You obviously don't know "White Cloud" from the lesser brands, do you?"

                  Pure terror when so many of these "White Clouds appear at once!
                  The evil Mr. Whipple can't be too far away!
                  hauntedravensgrin.com

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