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i have started planning for halloween 2008 i will be using the song thriller
any suggestions for effects i think i have about 10 channels left im using strobes many floodlights
and a question has anyone used the cheap blacklight bulbs
just the like regular house bulb see my plan is in my cemetery to light up my tombstones with a bulb each and each is on a different channel
what is the best color besides the blackight bulbs not floodlights for this and i do not want to use white
i will also have three werewolfs that will have floods should i put all red or should i use a different color for each this will be for the wolf howling parts
i also have a coffin that will have a small fogger in it should i keepe it barely open or should i have it on a motor
i will post pics of what i have to work later
Last edited on Wednesday February 13th, 2008 03:14 pm by kristykristmas1
____________________ merry christmas from Michigan,
Incandescent blacklights don't really put out any blacklight. The CF blacklights are great, but many of them have annoying side effects with LOR. Basically if any of my CF lamps were on, any channels that were dimmed went to full brightness. This year I may dedicate a controller to the CF bulbs...
Personally, I think green floodlights can have an eerie chilling effect, especially on red brick, but definitely check to see if you like the effect before planning on it..
-klb- wrote: Incandescent blacklights don't really put out any blacklight. The CF blacklights are great, but many of them have annoying side effects with LOR. Basically if any of my CF lamps were on, any channels that were dimmed went to full brightness. This year I may dedicate a controller to the CF bulbs...
Personally, I think green floodlights can have an eerie chilling effect, especially on red brick, but definitely check to see if you like the effect before planning on it..
- Kevin
im not looking for black light effect have plenty of flourescents
i was asking for how bright they are i actuall dont think they are bright enough
i think i will use green and blue incadescents on the tombstones
____________________ merry christmas from Michigan,
You could use a thunderstorm track and mix it with your song using Audacity. Then use your spare channels for the lightning. Use strobes on one channel and use several blue floodlights in trees to light the place up light lightning. I did this with three songs, 6 floods, and 12 strobes this past year and it turned out great.
The incandescent black lights don't put out much light, but if is close enough it would put an erie glow on a tombstone. I've used it for that purpose. I'm putting them in north pole lights I've painted black. Glad to see I'm not the only one working on Halloween already.
Toymakr000 wrote: You could use a thunderstorm track and mix it with your song using Audacity. Then use your spare channels for the lightning. Use strobes on one channel and use several blue floodlights in trees to light the place up light lightning. I did this with three songs, 6 floods, and 12 strobes this past year and it turned out great.
i wish everyone could see what ive done so far i have 6 strobes planning to get more but i put them all on twinkle which is a great tool for lazy people or catching the beats
____________________ merry christmas from Michigan,
kristykristmas1 wrote: i have started planning for halloween 2008 i will be using the song thriller
any suggestions for effects i think i have about 10 channels left im using strobes many floodlights
and a question has anyone used the cheap blacklight bulbs
just the like regular house bulb see my plan is in my cemetery to light up my tombstones with a bulb each and each is on a different channel
what is the best color besides the blackight bulbs not floodlights for this and i do not want to use white
i will also have three werewolfs that will have floods should i put all red or should i use a different color for each this will be for the wolf howling parts
i also have a coffin that will have a small fogger in it should i keepe it barely open or should i have it on a motor
i will post pics of what i have to work later
I went for this type of thing last year. I used red, blue, green, and yellow. I positioned the lights in such a way that some had a dedicated tombstone, some were a little more to the side so it would partially light the tombstone, some it could hit two tombstones, some so the shadow of one tombstone would partially block another, etc. I did some lights sideways so they'd hit the tombstones funny, even some behind tombstones pointing directly at the grass. Others at the front and sides pointing into the graveyard. I put some bright lights really close the rear tombstones to get some scary house shadows. If you have enough channels, definitely put in some different colors. It's amazing how the color really affects how the graveyard "feels" if you do the right colors during the right portions of the song. I also found the "unusally" placed lights generally had better effects that the lights directly in front of the tombstones. The sideways lights and lights that would light up some tombstones partially had the best effect. I wanted it so I could use many LOR channels and mix and match many effects, colors, shadows, washes. It worked out really well. I found that turning on "random" combinations of these lights really produced some amazing effects. Don't limit yourself to one light in front of each tombstone unless that the effect you are going for. Probably half of my tombstones did NOT have a light directly in front of them. Sorry, I didn't take any video of the halloween setup. I'll see if I can find some pictures.
Last edited on Thursday February 14th, 2008 04:11 pm by contactmike1
My halloween show for this year, is actually two shows in one
the right side of the yard will have the graveyard scene, gaint spider, and the scarier stuff with 2 10minute musical sequences to a horrow sond track that I've used for years
the left side of the yard will be the singing pumpkins who will belt out 6 different halloween themed songs, each with 3 songs per 10 minute track on the other side of the yard
in between the large sequences will be two other sequences that involve the entire yard, these will be the Halloween movie theme song and Thriller
so far, I've got all of the singing pumpkin songs and the Halloween theme song finished, and am now half way through with Thriller
of course all of this will be usings about 30 of my 48 channels, which involves red and blue spot lights, lightning lights, orange and purple minis, 2 strobe lights, and of course the fog machine with the chiller
should prove to be more work than I anticipate, but the finished product will ensure that I'll end up passing out several bags of candy
This may give you some floodlight ideas. They are camera phone pictures, so they are not the best. It's also daytime, so the wires and boxes are showing.
This first shows layering: Note how the cross tombstone is partially lit with some great shadows. This type of partial effect was extremely effective in my display. Also note the color layering. I have a soft, eriee blue on the house behind the yellow tombstones. The effect is much stronger at night.
Same layering shot without the blue.
Don't forget about your intensities. Note the soft red on a single tombstone:
From the front door looking out: Notice how few tombstones actually have a light in front. Some stones are lit sideways (7, 5, green 4); some from close (10, 5, little tomb at 2); some from far away(11, 9, 6, red 4); some behind tombs lighting grass(3, 1); some close to tomb to partially light close tomb and create shadows on tomb behind (10, 5, 2);
Same thing but front view. Notice how the lights are intentially off kilter to cause unusual shadowing/light intensity on tombstone #2. Light #3 creates a shadow on the RIP tombstone to the right. Light #4 is angled and creates an odd pattern on tombstone #5. Light #5 (behind tombstone 5) is red and doesn't point at anything! It gives the grass a red tint and dimly lights the rear tombstones in general. Light 6 is blue. The angle lights the tomb funny as well as puts a shadow on the RIP tomb behind. Light 9 is green. It is so close to the tomb that it barely lights it, but create a huge hotspot on the left of the tomb. Eerie! Light 8 is another red not pointed at anything. When used in conjuction with #5, will produce stronger red on the rear tombstones. Light 10 is so close it will light the right side of the tomb, but not the left. If a brighter light was here, it would give a good shadow on the house. 11 lights the same tomb. When used with 10, most of the tomb is red with the right being an intense green. Light 12 (barely visible behind small tombstone) is the bight yellow that lights the medium tomb and partial lights the cross (tomb 13) in the first first few photos. Note there is actually a second yellow light to the right of 13. I can use this to fully light tomb 13 yellow instead of partially from light #12. It also casts a large, crooked cross shadow on the house. 14 are some angled lights pointed at the house for additional effects.
Lighting all the lights at once is not very effective, but if you pick and choose only a couple (or even one) at a time, the shadows and lower intensities on the back can create powerful effects. For Halloween, I did not plan the light locations. In the animator, I just said "generally, a green light is here and blue is here" etc. I sorted the tombstones into small, med, and large, and drew in locations for small, medium, and large in the animator. This helped me sort of place the lights at the angles to get the effect. When I set it up, i just followed the animator. I put the tombs in the approx. animator positions. Then, I positioned the lights wherever I had the general color locations. Some I set really close to the tombstone, some medium, some far away, and some angled. So if I had a random light on the right side pointing into the grave scene, I put a light randomly on the right side. I just wanted to illustrate that the positions were not carefully planned. I put lights in the general area they were in the animator. As I was placing the lights, I intentionlly placed them in more "unusal" ways than just in front of the tombstones. I honestly didn't have any clue what it would look like or if it would even work while I set it up.
So, drop some random lights in your animator and go to town! You don't really need much planning to get the angles to work. Just look at it when you set it up and use your best judgement. I kept adjusting the light locations until the light did something interesting.
This was my first year at Halloween, so I don't proprose to have all the answers. All I know is the "unsual" light placement in the graveyard really stole the show and was the display favorite. The pumpkins on the roof, spider web made of ropelight, and pumpkin triangle were all great PC ideas that I thought would be crowd pleasers, but nothing beat the graveyard.
In my Halloween display (static), I have always used blue flood lights. The blue seemed to provide enough light while keeping it nighttime. You might consider using an always on blue at low voltage as a palette to your display.
I will also echo what others have said that the incadenscent black lights are not worth much. (Mine seem to be essentially dark purple light bulbs.)
Last edited on Thursday February 14th, 2008 07:49 pm by ChristmasJim
ChristmasJim wrote:
I will also echo what others have said that the incadenscent black lights are not worth much. (Mine seem to be essentially dark purple light bulbs.)
Yes, this is true. My front door light in the pictures is a blacklight. You don't even notice it during the display.
kristykristmas1 wrote: thanks for all the ideas mike do you have video of your house i think it would look awesome
and where did you get those tombstones in the back
Sorry, but I don't have real video of the display. I do regret not taking any. However, I do have the next best thing -- the animations.
If you have trouble figuring out the animation window, check out the animation explanation video. The first 3 mintes of it is based on pictures of the display, and the last 3 minutes shows how the animation relates to the pictures. I hope it's enough to get an idea for what I did.
Halloween was an afterthough that I threw together in 2-3 weeks. All the sequences I pulled off my site for starters. I did 3 "real" songs: Thriller, This is Halloween, and Tubular Bells. I also did 3 effect songs: Darkness Descends, Footsteps in the Dust, and Mansion in the Mist. There are 2 copies of every video: One high resolution and one low resolution. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
My website isn't ready in case you're trying to view it.
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