Fantasmic! Halloween 2009

[michael.farney]

Here's my 2009 Halloween display of Fantasmic! It's an eighteen minute cutting from the 1992 version of Fantasmic!. For those of you who are familiar with the famous stage show, you will recognize the story recreated in my yard from the shooting water jets to the appearance of the "dragon."

Here is the teaser write up that was on my website for the show:

Fantasmic is a 18 minute sequence where Mickey Mouse uses his vivid imagination to create magical imagery for all to enjoy. Sourcerer Mickey appears in the opening sequence where Mickey uses his Fantasia skills to call up powerful jets of water. As Mickey progresses through his imagination, he travels through many scenes including the Fantasmic! theme, Fantasia, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Best. There are many familiar themes as well as new ones. As Mickey dives deeper through his imagination, it becomes more treacherous. Evil eyes invade his imagination and stare. Ghosts and spirits appear and fly around. Even a witch manages to penetrate Mickey's mind and appear. As she works her brew and magic (and consults her magic mirror for advice), she does everything in her power to take over Mickey's mind and turn his dreams into an overwhelming nightmare! Is Mickey's imagination powerful enough and strong enough to overcome the evil forces that invade his mind? The sequence features many simulated special effects including fire, smoke, water jets, fireworks, specialized theater lighting, projections, video, laser, and an atomic strobe.

Note: The large animation in the 5'x5' window is laser, and video does not capture it correctly. All the flickering and the appearance of the image "drawing" itself is due to the slow frame rate of a video camera. The laser images are sharp and in color, never black and white as the video camera sometimes suggests.



http://vimeo.com/9100479

[michael.farney]

Here's a good youtube link of the actual stage show for those who haven't seen it. The show starts at 1:20.

[Brian Mitchell]

As soon as I can get my jaw up off the floor I'll tell you what an incredible job you did on that show. Everything about it was just superb. I almost felt I was at MGM studios.

You can come do my house anytime.

[Carrie Sansing]

Michael, that was amazing!! I'm pretty much speechless. I rarely watch videos all the way through. So many of them out there are doing the same thing. Not this time..your show sucked me in and kept me interested throughout. Lots of fresh and new ideas and your use of lasers and DMX was great!

I lurk on this board often and I never post, but this time, I had no choice. Your show was so fantastic, I was compelled to tell you.

[zman]

Read above ^ Ditto! LOR does not have the bowing emocon, too bad, it's appropriate.

[jldavis1969]

Very well done, I loved the inflateable and the fireworks, but everything was great.

[bhays]

Beyond fantastic! Great job. I sometimes wish my display area were smaller so I could pack more effects into a smaller area as you did.. the intimacy makes it twice as impressive.

[Gary Levelius]

Michael,

There is only one word I have and that is: WOW! Can't think of anything else to describe the fantastic job you have done!

-Gary-

[ravenscroft]

I LOVE IT!!!! As a Disney Fan I really enjoy the little things, like the Dragon deflating at the end, The Horses during Chernabog's scene, etc. You do excellent work Michael. This truly was a Fantasmic performance. From the way it sounds, this was the Disneyland Version right? I was going to start sequencing Fantasmic after I am done with Hallowishes and a few songs from my friends band, the young werewolves. You have given me a few sweet ideas, may I use them in my display? I like to ask before I use other peoples hard work.

So I am guessing next year you will have the dragon spewing fire right? lol Keep up the great work.

[R Weiland]

Excellent work! :cool:

[michael.farney]

ravenscroft wrote:

I LOVE IT!!!! As a Disney Fan I really enjoy the little things, like the Dragon deflating at the end, The Horses during Chernabog's scene, etc. You do excellent work Michael. This truly was a Fantasmic performance. From the way it sounds, this was the Disneyland Version right? I was going to start sequencing Fantasmic after I am done with Hallowishes and a few songs from my friends band, the young werewolves. You have given me a few sweet ideas, may I use them in my display? I like to ask before I use other peoples hard work.

So I am guessing next year you will have the dragon spewing fire right? lol Keep up the great work.

I love Disney too. Can you tell? Yes, it is the 1992 Disneyland version. I hate to say it, but the Disneyland versions put the Disneyworld versions to shame. Overall, there is more creativity and better use of space and effects in the Disneyland versions. And the Peter Pan scene is by far the best... If only I could float a giant boat down my yard....I'd figure out some way to have a sword fight scene!!!!

Horses, horses. Hmmmm, you have me baffled there. I had horses in my display??? Really? What is the time number? I'm trying to figure out what you're calling the Chernabog scene if it doesn't refer to the gargoyle the witch calls up.

I have seen at least some versions of Hallow wishes on other displays. It's a great piece. Is there a place to buy the audio still, or is it long discontinued like every other Disney piece people want?

Next year, there will be both video and laser on the big screen. So there will be better video particularly in the slower parts. Plus, I really want to have some sorcerer Mickey. So, a lot more of the story will be told with video. I'm also going to look at doing some better spacial use of the yard. I want to get some raised props so i can do some better hiding of tupperware. I also want to figure out an electric chiller (not going to do ice every night), and a better fog distribution system to mitigate some of the wind issues. Also, I need to finalize the enclosures for the DMX. Did you notice the two big DMX lights on blocks out front that were not protected? Oh, and don't forget about firing up real water. It could be done with the right valves and relays... Maybe some pneumatics? Those are my thoughts so far. Who knows what I'll get into. I only had time to implement about 80% of the vision. I can think of two things I wanted to do last year that didn't get done (the video animations of Mickey being one)...

Sure, you can reuse some ideas. I mean, to be fair, Disney came up with the concept. I just used my imagination to figure out how to recreate some Disney magic in my yard. I think I got pretty close short of the moat scenes I had to cut out.

[Davidt]

michael.farney wrote:

Here's my 2009 Halloween display of Fantasmic!

G'day Michael that was sensational!

Was the laser rear projected from inside the house, or was it outside?

I had lasers running in my garage for a few years and even in a confined area with the fog machine at the rear of the garage it was only moderately effective as the wind from outside kept moving the fog in / out too much.

I'd like to get my DMX pan/tilt spots outside, but as it can exceed 100F here at Christmas I don't know how they would survive.

Cheers,

davidt

[ravenscroft]

Horses, horses. Hmmmm, you have me baffled there. I had horses in my display??? Really? What is the time number? I'm trying to figure out what you're calling the Chernabog scene if it doesn't refer to the gargoyle the witch calls up.

I was mistaken about the horses, I guess I was just thinking of the projections during Chernabogs scene. Chernabog is the Gargoyle from Fantasia

If you see the video of Fantasmic you will see video on the Fan Screens and most of the visuals are from Fantasia when Chernabog summons the evil spirits.

[crackchecker]

All I can say is WOW!



Started off a little slow for me but picked up nicely. Wish you sould animate the "dragon" a little.

[NWSanta]

Michael that was truly amazing! How very very cool! You have so many different things going on so many different amazing ideas. I can't imagine how long it takes you to program/setup/and display!

I have 2 questions:

What are the lights that are on your roof? They appear to be colour changing strobes or something like that? Fireflies or something? They appear near the end scattered across the roof.


Also, how many channels are your 3 fountain lights out in the yard?

Truly amazing! I too would add a bow here but, LOR doesn't have one!

Thank you for sharing...
-Evan

[michael.farney]

Davidt wrote:

michael.farney wrote:

Here's my 2009 Halloween display of Fantasmic!

G'day Michael that was sensational!

Was the laser rear projected from inside the house, or was it outside?

I had lasers running in my garage for a few years and even in a confined area with the fog machine at the rear of the garage it was only moderately effective as the wind from outside kept moving the fog in / out too much.

I'd like to get my DMX pan/tilt spots outside, but as it can exceed 100F here at Christmas I don't know how they would survive.

Cheers,

davidt

The laser is rear projected for safety reasons. It's a class 3b laser capable of causing permanent eye damage, so putting it outside is out of the question. In order to project outside, it would take complicated paperwork which has to be approved by the government and FAA. Being so close to midway and o'hare, I don't have a chance at getting a variance to operate it outside. My location violates the current proximity standards for distance to major airports. Even if I could, I would only consider it if the laser and screen were mounted high enough that noone could stand or jump up into the beam. (Basically, in accordance with the variance rules and US laws.)

In my case, the laser was both projected and terminated inside the house. You're looking at the screen through the window. (Actually, it was a shower curtain.)

I'm curious what you were trying to accomplish in your garage. Was it a beam show as opposed to graphics show? The laser was rated weak enough you were pointing it at the audience? Fog outside is always a problem. I was lucky enough to get a few good fog shots for the video. There was actually one key fog effect that I did not get on video due to the wind direction the night of filming. The basic trick with fog is to shoot most of it at the house and do lots of small blasts instead of a big one. Then, the wind will work to your advantage some.

As for your DMX, put exhaust fans on the enclosures. Even with temps 30-60 degrees, my big dmx enclosures have exhausts running. Could you do it in 100 degree weather without tripping the thermal switch? That I couldn't say...

[michael.farney]

ravenscroft wrote:

Horses, horses. Hmmmm, you have me baffled there. I had horses in my display??? Really? What is the time number? I'm trying to figure out what you're calling the Chernabog scene if it doesn't refer to the gargoyle the witch calls up.

I was mistaken about the horses, I guess I was just thinking of the projections during Chernabogs scene. Chernabog is the Gargoyle from Fantasia

If you see the video of Fantasmic you will see video on the Fan Screens and most of the visuals are from Fantasia when Chernabog summons the evil spirits.

Very nice! I think you're referring to part where there are gobo ghosts are flying across the house. Stay tuned for next year. The laser window will have some of the said video footage you are referring to.

[michael.farney]

crackchecker wrote:

All I can say is WOW!



Started off a little slow for me but picked up nicely. Wish you sould animate the "dragon" a little.

I'm always looking for suggestions! So if you have any for how to improve the slow parts, I'm all ears. Once of the main things is the addition of regular video in the "laser window" during some of the slower parts. I think showing the relevent Fantastmic! or Fantasia clip will help move the story along dramatically.

I hear you for the static dragon. I had a difficult time filling those 2 minutes with something that would keep the audience's attention. In fact, that is why there are so many pan cuts in the video at that location. It's just boring. I can modify the gargoyle to shoot fog out his mouth, but that's about the only thing I can come up with. Is there any way to "animate" a blowup?

[crackchecker]

shots of fog would be good coming out of his mouth. You might also want to flash a spot on his face every once in a while or build a turning table that he sits on that would turn to the right and back to the left a little.

As for the slow parts... I think the video would help alot. dependent upon the video you see on Vimeo and the wind, you miss alot in the real show too because you can't see the video on the water.

I saw the real show this last December for the first time. It was raining and the rain blocked alot of the video off the spray too.

[michael.farney]

NWSanta wrote:

Michael that was truly amazing! How very very cool! You have so many different things going on so many different amazing ideas. I can't imagine how long it takes you to program/setup/and display!

I have 2 questions:

What are the lights that are on your roof? They appear to be colour changing strobes or something like that? Fireflies or something? They appear near the end scattered across the roof.


Also, how many channels are your 3 fountain lights out in the yard?

Truly amazing! I too would add a bow here but, LOR doesn't have one!

Thank you for sharing...
-Evan

The idea was to have individual firework colors. It doesn't show up in video well. In fact, I'm impressed you noticed. The effect was achieved with curtain strobes. There are 6 colors: white, red, green, blue, orange, and yellow. Each firework had 4 colors, about 8 strobes of each, so around 32 curtain strobes for each firework. When a firework exploded, it had a pre-determined color (in my head), and only that color (or combination of colors) of curtain strobes lit up. It is only in the grand finale when all the colors come on at once. To get the colors, I painted the strobes with glass paint.

The poles are 14 channels, plus two for the security lighting on top of the pole to round out the board.