vinntec Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 My director has decided that the Dr Dolittle island flower is going to be projected using a gobo which changes colour (using Selecon LED profile) rather than the physical flower originally planned. Making the flower gobo is easy enough, but what on earth do I project it onto? It needs to be black so only the petals show but at the same time reflect only the colours coming from my LED profile! The cyc will be the sky so can't be used as it will have appropriate blues on it. Whatever I use I can position so it has no other direct light on it. Anyone got any ideas? Black background with gauze in front? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jevans Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 How about sticking white vinyl or something onto a black surface cut out to the exact shape of the gobo projection( ie. stick too much on, turn the lamp on and go around cutting non lit bits off) , so that the colour changing light falls on white and so is visible but nothing else is? Obviously that's only going to work well if the set piece goes back to exactly the same place each time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 How about sticking white vinyl or something onto a black surface cut out to the exact shape of the gobo projection( ie. stick too much on, turn the lamp on and go around cutting non lit bits off) , so that the colour changing light falls on white and so is visible but nothing else is? Obviously that's only going to work well if the set piece goes back to exactly the same place each time.... That could look very good, but you wouldn't really need the gobo then... just colour wash a white shape with the LED profile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jevans Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 That could look very good, but you wouldn't really need the gobo then... just colour wash a white shape with the LED profile. Indeed - I've previously done exactly that with a couple of "palm trees" cut out and lit with one yellow and one green profile for trunk and leaves. Very corny, but that's what it was meant to be like. :)I did get a bit of spill onto the black surface they were on but it wasn't too noticeable overall - it didn't seem to matter what surface they were on, we had them on bricks, wood and drapes at various points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 That could look very good, but you wouldn't really need the gobo then... just colour wash a white shape with the LED profile.Sorry - missed out one of the complications that the cyc is directly behind it (and lit in blue) ! So light beam has to be stopped by whatever it shines on which was one of the complications of having a set flower. I am not sure making it a gobo instead solves anything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 That could look very good, but you wouldn't really need the gobo then... just colour wash a white shape with the LED profile.Sorry - missed out one of the complications that the cyc is directly behind it (and lit in blue) ! So light beam has to be stopped by whatever it shines on which was one of the complications of having a set flower. I am not sure making it a gobo instead solves anything... How close? If you can get a foot or so of separation you should be able to get the angle right so the spill hits towards the bottom of the cyc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 How close? If you can get a foot or so of separation you should be able to get the angle right so the spill hits towards the bottom of the cycTim - not with a gobo of course. The flower will be 2m diameter or so (it's a giant flower). If I projected the gobo onto a circular target white or off-white, then we could paint around the petals in black or dark green. But in that case, why not just paint white petals (or whatever) onto a black or dark green circular background and I colour wash it without a gobo (although even with a LED fresnel is too big to get at an angle). Dress the edges with a little greenery - and we are back to my original suggestion... Maybe we go back to the drawing board because a gobo makes it more difficult by the looks of things. Although in this case the gobo acts like a super shutter, so might be a good option if target can consistently go back to exactly the same place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 No, not with a gobo unless you want to get very clever with distorted images. I meant, you wouldn't need a gobo if you can lose the spill light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thanks for all the feedback. This is the summary I sent to the set designer and director - have I missed anything? The flower petals need to be arranged in a circle, but the background [below and to sides] need not be if it can be made into some context that makes sense (vegetation, fence, stalk etc). I am assuming a flower of 2m diameter: Make a circular white target of about 2m diameter (as accurately in same place as possible). Dress the edges in greenery which can make it slightly bigger. I project flower gobo onto it but note that as I am not straight on, the shape will be wider towards the bottom.As above but - if we can figure out how - we could make a distorted gobo to make it more regular?More precise version of above two, with gobo projected on target at the theatre, paint between petals with dark green or black (but positioning of target must be consistent for this to work). In this case, gobo is acting like a super shutter to shape the light to fit the flower.Even more precise version of option 3, cut out the edges so the shape of the flower shows through to the cyc.Paint (or whatever) a white flower onto a dark green or black circular background, dressed like before. I then only colour this, rather than project onto it (so need not be quite so accurately positioned). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Since you are working with an led profile, could you print onto acetate and experiment with photo shop or similar to distort the image? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinntec Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Since you are working with an led profile, could you print onto acetate and experiment with photo shop or similar to distort the image?Yes that's what we will do, although get-in week after next... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 The best way to produce the gobo is to take a photograph from the position of the lens of the light. If you overlay this on the gobo shape in photoshop or whatever this will show you the exact shape the gobo needs to be.(Unfortunately, you can't do this in advance though - maybe a bit of clever work with Sketchup would do it if you know the dimensions?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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