Cobalt Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Hi, Having gotten the green light to replace our non-DMX dimmers, we're now in the process of giving our lighting rig some much needed TLC in preparation for the school's Christmas show. One of the requests from the Drama department is to create some sort of snow effect with light. We've got a projector mounted in front of the stage which allows us to project an image on to the back wall so it is possible to create some sort of Flash image and have that "playing". However, ideally we would like to have the snow effect across the whole of the stage which means projecting on to the flats either side of the stage as well as the back wall. As the production is indeed called "Snow" it's fairly crucial to it working I suppose! That got us looking into using lanterns with rotating gobos as there seem to be some pretty nice effects available from this setup. However, as for what kit I would need to create this effect and how much it would cost is something I'm not so sure about. I looked at some Rosco rotating gobo holders (which are an addon) which would appear to do the job, though they are around £315 each from the one stockist I found and that is before we've purchased a suitable fixture to use it with. Has anyone got any advice on how we could achieve this? We are on a fairly tight budget so would be more than happy to rent given that we probably won't use these enough to warrant buying outright. For an idea of the scale of the problem, the stage is around 8m wide with around 2m worth of flats either side and the back wall to be covered. There is somewhere to rig fixtures (potentially) around 3-4m in front of the stage at ceiling level which also have power. Thanks in advance and let me know if there's anything else I've missed. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Mirror ball mounted horizontally and a narrow beam profile. And if you want to get clever, different sized mirror segments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted October 18, 2010 Author Share Posted October 18, 2010 Now THATS an idea... thanks very much. Mirror ball mounted horizontally and a narrow beam profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mar Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 The method I have used in the past is a Gam film/FX - it is a continous ribbon of steel with holes cut in that fits into a profile. They can be found here http://www.gamonline.com/catalog/filmfx/index.php Speak to your usual/local hire company to see if they stock them and a matching fixture - I know you can get them to fit Source4s so combined with a wide lens you will be heading the right way. You may need 2 to cover the area, I'll leave calculating angles and coverage to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 Now THATS an idea... thanks very much.In case you missed my edit, see the photo I've added. That ball quite happily fills a 5,000 seat venue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted October 18, 2010 Author Share Posted October 18, 2010 Mar, looks interesting, might be worth a courtesy call to a local rental outfit to see how much we'd be talking. Brian - I had missed your photo but that's certainly encouraging in terms of coverage given our hall only seats about 350! It looks like a fairly inexpensive method and looking at one or two images on the web you don't seem to get a bad look at all really. My only question is did you purchase that mirrorball as-is or is that a bit of a DIY mod? Thanks,John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_the_LD Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 What about an effects projector? Something like the Strand Toccata with a snow disc. Around £85 for unit, drive, disc and lens. You could then use two PC projectors to project a snow animation on to the two flats. Providing you have a PC with 2 graphics outputs. Cheers! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 My only question is did you purchase that mirrorball as-is or is that a bit of a DIY mod?Not my ball - it's the one in the Royal Albert Hall. I'd imagine it was bought like that though making your own would be easy enough. Just start with a standard mirror ball and replace some of the small mirror pieces with larger pieces bought as mirror tiles from your local DIY store. You could do worse than giving Light Engineering a call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 If going down the mirror ball route make sure the motor rotates in the same direction every time its powered up,you dont want your snow going up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 18, 2010 Share Posted October 18, 2010 The use of a mirror ball was mentioned in a previuos thread.There was a link to a youtube(?) video showing it being used outside on a house.Extremely effective it looked. Nice and simple, fairly cheap, relatively quite and no mess to clean up.CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Another vote for the mirror ball trick or an effects projector. Remember though that snow dosent all fall at the same time in the same place!!- so using 2 mirror balls, for example, will give you a nice ''3D' effect. HTH Dom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sguy42 Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 What about an effects projector? Something like the Strand Toccata with a snow disc. Around £85 for unit, drive, disc and lens. You could then use two PC projectors to project a snow animation on to the two flats. Providing you have a PC with 2 graphics outputs. Cheers! Tom I'm a big fan of effects projectors, however for a full stage type effect you need a minimum of two, preferable more projectors . Multiple overlapping snow projections looks better as snow in the real world comes down at all sorts of different speeds and directions at the same time. Using a wide angle lens to cover the whole stage quite possibly won't work as the snow flakes can end up looking like tennis balls. If you can get them (& they are getting increasingly rare) use the high definition Dallmeyer lenses they give much sharper and smaller flakes. If you go down this route feel free to PM me for more advice. Shane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamtrb Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 VSFX effects projection system - speak to White Light or http://www.whitelight.ltd.uk/products/?p=vsfx Havn't used the new system but the old one is very effective if you use enough sources - as someone said above, you don't want your snow looing like tennis balls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 Any thoughts on using a rotating drum, with random mirror tiles, in addition to a mirror ball?I know the rotating drum will give snow flakes falling straight down but combined with those from a mirror ball might be effective.My thinking is it is easy to get various diameter drums, eg card board tube of different diameters, and stick tiles to them.CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted October 19, 2010 Share Posted October 19, 2010 My only question is did you purchase that mirrorball as-is or is that a bit of a DIY mod?Not my ball - it's the one in the Royal Albert Hall. We Will Rock You (touring version, at least) used two large horizontal balls to very good effect - not snow as such, but pretty dazzling!;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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