# Fog Projection Screen - Success - video



## Bentrod (Jul 26, 2004)

This was my big project for this year. I started working on it in July and didn't really know if it was going to come together in time for Halloween. I've been wanting to do it for years but never had the funds or the time, but when my brother got a new projector he gave me his old one. So I made time, and scratched my brain and made it happen. I rear projected "Big Scream TV" through a thin sheet of fog and onto the second floor of my house. I set up the candy table in front of fog projection screen so that the ToTs would see the fog image when they came in for treats, and when they turned around they would see a 9ft image projected on my house. It was a big success. I hope you enjoy the video, I'm not that great of a cameraman.

Bentrod

video 1 Fog Test
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video 2 Halloween Night 
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Pic


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## hacksaw42 (Sep 18, 2004)

Very cool,I like it.


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## maximpakt (Aug 11, 2006)

thats awesome


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

Love it too. I'm wanting to do something like this next year..... Do you have a how to ?


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## Bentrod (Jul 26, 2004)

Lynn,

I don't have a how to, but I think I have some pictures of it at different stages of it being built.
I'll have to download them off my wife's camera, and hopefully be able to post them soon.

Bentrod


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## Dr. Slickshill (Mar 15, 2005)

Great effect... how much fog juice did you go through?


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## Bentrod (Jul 26, 2004)

DR.

I used a Lite FX Constant Fogger. I had one three years and it worked great that year, but the next year the pump siezed up, so I found another NIB on Ebay for $40 and it has worked fine so far. I ran the fogger for about 3 hours and had to fill the small tank about 3 or 4 times, but I probably used less that 1/2 gallon of fog juice.


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## Dr Morbius (Jan 12, 2006)

Terrific! Congrats on getting that to work..Did you use any fans to guide the fog? I see the curtain goes up instead of down like the commercial version. I'm interested in how you did it too.


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## deveds2 (Nov 3, 2006)

Would love to see how you built that. Maybe there is away to lay that on its side to create a water effect.


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## pkh5695 (May 22, 2006)

wow! very cool i like the idea of being able to project from the rear cant wait to see the how to


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## mem22 (Sep 10, 2005)

That is so cool! Very similar to the effect at the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World. I can't wait to see the pictures of how you made it! Great Job!

Mike


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## Bentrod (Jul 26, 2004)

Man, I don't know what to do. I know a lot of people would love to see a How-To on this project, and normally I would love to spill the beans on how I did it, but on Halloween night, a subdivision neighbor was really interested in how I made the effect, and said that he had connections with local commercial haunted attractions and they might be interested in buying it. I didn't think too much about it, untill earlier today when I got an email from him saying that he talked to a friend and showed him my video and that he was very interested. All I know is that I put a lot of time, sweat, and money into making this thing, and I am just curuous what kind of offer I might get. So my wife (Boss), told me not to post any more pics until I hear back from my neighbor. I really don't recall meeting this neighbor before Halloween, but he said that he has been to my house for the last four years, and that he really admires my work. 

What should I do?

Bentrod


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## Dr Morbius (Jan 12, 2006)

Well, a fog curtain display isn't new, Helio displays have been around for a while now, but do what you feel is right. Is any part of your design based on the vapor video projection curtains used already?( Meaning it uses fans in a row front and back to keep the curtain contained). If it is, then you might want to beware selling your design if it is derivitive or you might get a law suit. If it is entirely new, and never before done, then by all means keep it close to your vest and make some dough from it!


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

Well, for personal gain ! Me that is . hehe.....After its said and done, then maybe you can give us some pointers. Unless you are thinking of marketing it. Then I agree, keep it close.


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## victor-eyd (Aug 13, 2007)

I too am interested but just by looking at the unit perhaps it was done this way

here is the top view of the unit









at the nozzle end affix a small diameter pvc pipe (one that snugly fits around the nozzle) with the other end closed. Drill multiple holes on the top of the pipe for the fog to come out. I'm assuming if there is sufficient pressure built up in the pipe you'll get that vertical fog just as it did in the videos.

I'm probably wrong but this seems to be the only cost effective way to create this effect


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## Dr Morbius (Jan 12, 2006)

Sounds like it would burn through fog juice like there's no tomorrow no matter how it's made, since you need a constant flow to maintain the curtain.


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## childofthenight (Aug 24, 2007)

I just want to know how the projection was done or type of projector. very nice work! looks cool!


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## TNBrad (Sep 12, 2007)

Very cool 
I had read another forum talking about a how to do this kind of effect from a well or curtain effect, like the image on Sea Quest and so on.

I would also like to learn about the projector 
and how they do the faces on the Haunted M. ride at Disney.


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

TNBrad
How have you seen this done ?
I dont know that I care about the fogger... but even just projecting it onto a very thin fabric, I suppose it would be a curtain effect or even onto a wig head type thing.


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## victor-eyd (Aug 13, 2007)

Just about any front projector (lcd, dlp, or crt) will be able to project a viewable image. Obviously, the higher the lumen, the brighter the image. For what was done here, the image seems pretty small, perhaps 50" diagonal or so, so any projector out there will be able to handle this will success. 

The faces at Haunted house ride also used front projection. The busts of the actors where placed precisely where they were filmed to achieve the effect. What is more interesting is how they did the Buzz Lightyear head at Disneyland. The interesting thing is that the head pivots from side to side so I can only assume the projector is inside the body pointing up projecting the facial expressions through an opaque face plate.


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## halloweenguy (Jun 20, 2005)

Great Job on your fog screen!!! If you decide not to market it I'm sure it wouldn't hurt our feeling if you posted a how to???

Here is a Link to This years Halloween Outdoor Movie Theater....I rear projected Pirates of the Caribbean movie from inside my garage on to a white $3 Walmart Shower curtain Liner $3 Looked incredible!!!

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c377/halloweenguy/?action=view&current=OutdoorMovieTheater.flv

The Projector was a Sony video Projector (1024x 768) which has the option to flip the screen left to right and I used a portable dvd player and some very good computer speakers.

Now the trick is to create a good fog screen...


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## victor-eyd (Aug 13, 2007)

Good use of the walmart curtain. Did you notice any hotspotting?


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## halloweenguy (Jun 20, 2005)

Nope!!! not ever waterspots. LOL This movie theater was a total after thought. If I was to spend more time I would have created a dedicated screen, but since there was no wind at night I was able to hang the curtain with the garage door open, and everthing worked out great!!! Inside the garage behind the screen I had a table setup with Hot and cold beverages, snacks etc.

We sat out front with the fire pit going...It was by far the easiest and most effective thing I did this halloween.


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

victor-eyd said:


> The faces at Haunted house ride also used front projection. The busts of the actors where placed precisely where they were filmed to achieve the effect. What is more interesting is how they did the Buzz Lightyear head at Disneyland. The interesting thing is that the head pivots from side to side so I can only assume the projector is inside the body pointing up projecting the facial expressions through an opaque face plate.


Would the projected image then have to be bounced off a mirror or something in the head ? Sounds interesting !


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## Freak 'N' Stein (Feb 14, 2007)

victor-eyd said:


> Just about any front projector (lcd, dlp, or crt) will be able to project a viewable image. Obviously, the higher the lumen, the brighter the image. For what was done here, the image seems pretty small, perhaps 50" diagonal or so, so any projector out there will be able to handle this will success.
> 
> The faces at Haunted house ride also used front projection. The busts of the actors where placed precisely where they were filmed to achieve the effect. What is more interesting is how they did the Buzz Lightyear head at Disneyland. The interesting thing is that the head pivots from side to side so I can only assume the projector is inside the body pointing up projecting the facial expressions through an opaque face plate.




I too was amazed by this effect when I visited the attraction at Disney World last year...

The face appeared to be projected, yet the head moved...My guess is as good as yours...


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

WOW!
Way Cool, Bent. Judging by the kids' voices in the video, they got a real kick out of it. Great job, and keep it up.


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## guitarist155 (Sep 25, 2007)

maybe they use a setup like a periscope or maybe they just use a micro projector (IN) his head like this http://www.amazon.com/Mitsubishi-PK20-Pocket-Projector/dp/B000I28EGC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1195187182&sr=8-1
or some combo of both 
I'm sure disney can probably make one better and smaller


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## guitarist155 (Sep 25, 2007)

or maybe they just make the projector move too using a moving yoke projector like this http://www.highend.com/products/digital_lighting/dl_1.asp or http://www.amptown-lichttechnik.de/ControLite/Moving_Yoke_Project2_e.pdf


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## crazybob (Apr 11, 2005)

Actually Buzz is a lot more sophisticated than that. I just found this out recently, but the face you see is actually projected into a bundle of fiber optic cables that carry the image up to the face. Here's the picture from the patent for this.


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## guitarist155 (Sep 25, 2007)

ahhhh fiber optics why did i not think of that


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## victor-eyd (Aug 13, 2007)

Is it all just fiber optic cables? I'm looking at the picture and #16 clearly shows a lens which fires the image through the face


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## TNBrad (Sep 12, 2007)

Lynn said:


> TNBrad
> How have you seen this done ?
> I dont know that I care about the fogger... but even just projecting it onto a very thin fabric, I suppose it would be a curtain effect or even onto a wig head type thing.


Sorry Lynn; I did answer right back, I was at work had to get back to it.
I have talked with someone on another forum and here also about this kind of screen before. One was about a figure rising up from a fogging well, and another was a figure on curtain of fog falling from a-top a door way. We talked about how this was like the screen they used in the TV-show Sea Quest.


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## TNBrad (Sep 12, 2007)

If I remember right we talked about the curtain effect the most.
The idea was to place a cup or small bowl of Dry Ice in a box suspended above the door way the Box would have a slot that ran the width of the door for the fog to poor out from. The Box would serve to fide the fog and let the fog smooth out, (as it comes out of the cup or bowl it would be very turbulent, and as it moved out the thin slot it would become more uniform. The problem was it wouldn't last long, and it wouldn't reach the floor.


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## Lynn (Aug 23, 2005)

TN, did you talk much about projecting an imagine on something like a wig head..... Doesnt seem like there would be a lot to it other than editing your video to fit on the head or what ever your projecting on... But then, I've never seen this done... So I'm probably wrong !


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## crazybob (Apr 11, 2005)

victor-eyd said:


> Is it all just fiber optic cables? I'm looking at the picture and #16 clearly shows a lens which fires the image through the face


I apolgise, my explanation skills aren't quite up to par. The fiber optics run to the lens, which focuses the light from the end of the cables onto the face. It's just like using a normal projector, but the cables are flexable so the head can move around.


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## victor-eyd (Aug 13, 2007)

Back to original topic, the diy fog screen. 

Does anyone have this lite f/x fogger and can comment on how strong is the fog dispersal?

Victor


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## REV (Oct 26, 2007)

Very Cool... I need to get the 'how-to-plans'! I have a projector jsut waiting to be used and something like that could really be the fun of the party. Share? Please! Share?


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## crazybob (Apr 11, 2005)

If you're talking about the "constant" fogger that is pictured, i would highly reccomend not getting one. For one, the smell these fogers put out is indescribable. They spit hot fog fluid out the front as well as smoke, are incredibly loud, the tank is tiny, and you must use a tiny included funnel to fill it. If you're looking for a constant fogger, I would save my money and get a higher quality one.


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## fearfair (Jun 17, 2005)

Bentrod said:


> Man, I don't know what to do. I know a lot of people would love to see a How-To on this project, and normally I would love to spill the beans on how I did it, but on Halloween night, a subdivision neighbor was really interested in how I made the effect, and said that he had connections with local commercial haunted attractions and they might be interested in buying it. I didn't think too much about it, untill earlier today when I got an email from him saying that he talked to a friend and showed him my video and that he was very interested. All I know is that I put a lot of time, sweat, and money into making this thing, and I am just curuous what kind of offer I might get. So my wife (Boss), told me not to post any more pics until I hear back from my neighbor. I really don't recall meeting this neighbor before Halloween, but he said that he has been to my house for the last four years, and that he really admires my work.
> 
> What should I do?
> 
> Bentrod



I would say that marketing this commercially would result in a call from these folk's lawyers: http://www.fogscreen.com/en/index.html

That said, I would love to see a how to!!


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## Bentrod (Jul 26, 2004)

Well, I have not had an offer yet, and I really wasn't planning to market this thing. So I probably post some of the pictures of what my screen projector looks like in the coming days. I took a few pictures of work in progress, but there is probably not enough to make a how-to. 

My whole concept was to make a fog screen from a regular fog machine. I figured, since the commercial versions of the concept were based on sonic atomized water vapor, that I would not be infringing on anyone else’s design. After experimenting a little I discovered that the fog could be projected upon with a single stream fog but that the resolution depreciated too much for anything over a 12 inch high image. I knew that I would have to increase the velocity of the fog steam and contain the curtain of fog. This is where the time and frustration comes in. I bought approximately 10,000 drinking straws and took approximately 40+ hours gluing them in my own design of an enclosure. I used two clean air streams to surround the single stream of fog. This helped contain the fog stream. I used 32 high velocity 4x4in fans for the clean air, and a blower fan from my son's Bounce A Round for the fog stream. The fog from the FX Constant fogger was sucked into the intake of the blower and injected into the fog chamber of my enclosure which blew through the straitening straws which created the thin stream of fog for the projection screen.

Hopefully I will be able to expand on to a How-To, but I can tell you that this is not a project for a beginner. This was my most time consuming, and complicated project since I finished my bottomless pit. With a conservative estimate I would guess that I have approximately 60 hours, and over $250 invested in this project. 

I appreciate all the compliments and hope to show you more soon.
Bentrod


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2006)

Wow, I'm impressed, I figured that you were probably using compressed air somewhere, but didn't realize that you would have gone to the extent of building your own laminar flow nozzle (the technical name for what you did with the drinking straws)

BTW the drinking straws don't work because they accelerate the smoke, actually they do the opposite, they work by converting the normal turbulent air flow from the smoke machine into laminar flow.

I think much of this design can be simplified if compressed air is used instead of the fans, but drinking straws for the laminar flow nozzle is an awesome idea.


FYI laminar flow nozzles are more often used on water fountains, the most significant example is the Bellagio fountain at Las Vegas.


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## fearfair (Jun 17, 2005)

Bentrod said:


> Hopefully I will be able to expand on to a How-To, but I can tell you that this is not a project for a beginner. This was my most time consuming, and complicated project since I finished my bottomless pit. With a conservative estimate I would guess that I have approximately 60 hours, and over $250 invested in this project.
> 
> Bentrod


Bentrod,

Please do expand and include any pictures you may have. This is a project I had planned on undertaking this year and I am not a beginner. We have a scene in our haunt that begins all of our movie scenes. It's a movie theater with real theater seats and a slanted floor. For the past two seasons we have just had a white wall movie screen with a doorway in it and the wall behind the doorway also painted white to simulate 'walking into the movie'. I had some discussions on the Hauntworld forum last season about building a fogscreen type setup for this scene but since no one had tried it, I was hesitant to invest the time and money if I couldn't make it work. Thanks so much for being the guinea pig  

The opening I would like to do is about 28" wide, my concern is the height...do you think your design, blowing downward rather than up could create about a 5' wall of screen? The bottom 18" or so of the wall where the screen is has a painted border to simulate a real theater screen, so I don't need to have image below that..

I, for one, am on pins and needles to see your pictures and hear more about the design... the straws seem like the missing link for me. I did some experimentation with just a slot and couldn't control the flow well enough... What type/model of 4x4 fans did you use and where did you source them?


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## fearfair (Jun 17, 2005)

Phoenix_UK said:


> I think much of this design can be simplified if compressed air is used instead of the fans, but drinking straws for the laminar flow nozzle is an awesome idea.


Do you think it would take a massive quantity of compressed air and at approximately what psi? We run a good sized (80 gal compressor 11.9 cfm/90psi compressor and a 60 gallon reserve tank plus tons of line) in our haunt, but also have quite a few pneumatic props on the system.

That is an interesting idea using compressed air to replace the fans for clean air flow, but I wonder about perhaps some sort of venturi setup since most pneumatic systems are more geared to high pressure/lower volume than high volume/lower pressure as I am assuming this type system would need.


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2006)

using compressed air would make a more compact unit, much more compact than 32 PC fans, but your right you would need a means of converting high pressure/low flow to high flow/medium pressure.

If using a venturi it would be interesting to feed the venturi with the smoke machine output giving you 'high pressure smoke' and then direct this through the Laminar nozzle.


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## fearfair (Jun 17, 2005)

Phoenix_UK said:


> If using a venturi it would be interesting to feed the venturi with the smoke machine output giving you 'high pressure smoke' and then direct this through the Laminar nozzle.


But, you would still need the clean air 'curtains' to contain the high pressure smoke, correct?


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2006)

Maybe, I'm guessing the 'clean air curtain' is actually working like a venturi itself, i.e. the clean air flow being higher than the smoke flow helps keep the smoke laminar by the Bennoli effect however as the laminar flow breaks down for the clean air it will start to disrupt the smoke itself.

Think of it another way, if the clean air contained smoke, what benefit would the smoke flow add to the effect?

Of course it could prove that the amount of smoke you would need to add to the clean air flow to make a sufficient screen is beyond the capacity of the smoke machine, and you really do need the combination of high volume flow for the clean air curtain and low volume flow for the smoke.


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2007)

...its Bernoulli


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## TNBrad (Sep 12, 2007)

OK I have a question 
I live out side Knoxville, TN. in 1982 they had the world's fair here were since I have seen air curtain devices on the door ways to keep the AC in. They were very compact maybe 12' x 12' and a little more than the width of the doorway. Could something like this be used in a vertical form to hold the screen together? I think it was some sort of a Squeral Cage design.


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2006)

look for the words 'LAMINAR FLOW', if its a laminar flow device then possibly, otherwise definitely not.


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

I'm surprised nobody here seems to watch MythBusters. Grant Imhara built a very large laminar flow filter using drinking straws in no time at all. 

He bought boxes of straws, left the straws in the boxes, and then used a band saw to cut them into chunks about 3 or 4 inches thick. By leaving the straws in the boxes, they are already packed into nice, tight square groups. He then simply shoved them into a frame he made with square openings the same size as the box. You could skip the frame and just glue the box chunks together if you wanted to. 

Way simpler than gluing straws together.

Thanks,
Affine


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## [email protected] (Oct 9, 2008)

crazybob said:


> Actually Buzz is a lot more sophisticated than that. I just found this out recently, but the face you see is actually projected into a bundle of fiber optic cables that carry the image up to the face. Here's the picture from the patent for this.


All it takes is a bank account thick enough to pad a couch!LOL


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