Thread: Projecting onto mist / fog like Davy Jones on Pirates of the Caribbean ride?

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How difficult is it to create a wall of mist to project a video on to? What's required to generate the wall of mist? And how powerful a projector does one need? Anyone done a DIY one of these? If so, got any videos of it?

search the forum for fog projection. I know there have been at least 3 threads.

Here is the company that makes those:

http://www.fogscreen.com/

And I have been thinking about doing this for a while and thought a good alternative would be using pvc pipe as a bar and putting mist fittings every inch or so.

http://www.aeromist.com/home


Another way would be to figure out how to stick some sort of vaporizer or humidifier in a pipe at even intervals and try to get that working correctly. If you come up with something definitely post it up here, and when I get a chance after I finish a couple projects I would like to figure this out myself as well.


Also, here is a breakdown of exactly how it works:http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/gee...rden-woods/990

Basically those ultrasonic humidifiers that look like hockey pucks are submerged in a row and create a fine mist of water while a fan blows it down. Two other banks of fans sandwich the air in what is called "Laminar Flow" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow and this flattens the mist out and creates the screen.

You could totally make one of these yourself with a bunch of PC fans and some ultrasonic humidifiers. I will see if I can crank one out in October and post a how-to if someone doesn't beat me too it.

Thanks everyone.

The problem is not making the fog- its making enough of it come out without dissipating to allow a projected image to show clearly. Whether you use some sort of directed airflow or add fans or what have you, the fogger must put out a very good amount of fog that will lie in one area long enough for the trick to work.

In the ride, the airflow in that area is carefully controlled, so the fog won't move too far to break up the image. In a real world outdoor setting with constant wind and breeze, its a whole different story.

In considered trying to make one a few years back, but with some foggers the way they are with only a few seconds of fogging time, even of you try to cool it down, the concept just doesn't work very well outdoors. Ultimately I did this, based on the existing concept of strips of fabric hanging from the top. It works much like what you see when entering an airconditioned area in a grocery store- where you can go through with your cart but the strips prevent all of the refrigerated air from escaping into the rest of the store.

during the day


during the night


Vict

i agree with victor. It is extremely hard to do in our real world situation. My husband tried using multiple foggers timed at different intervals with humidifiers. We couldnt EVER get enough fog to make a clear pic of what we were projecting. (just because of wind & the amount of people walking threw it. We do a haunted maze & have 500 per night for 4 nights) You can spend the money to buy one pro style, but wow they are spendy. May be worth it if its something you will use for years tho. Good luck! We gave up on it. If you do find something that works DIY style, i think the tut would be outstanding!!!

Yeah I don't think even the pro models are going to work outside with the air flow, you might get away with in a garage but if you are doing something outside then your only likely option is to project on water. I got a few projects to get done but when I am done with them I might just try to tackle this one.

I have a glow-in-the-dark pirate mask. For Halloween, I'm gonna put it in my bedroom window to resemble a face. Do you rmthink this is good, cool, or cheesy? Thanks.

Sorry. Was meant to be a forum post.

I built an 8 ft unit and posted a few weeks back, just search for fogscreen on the forum. I can get 8x7' clear projection with no wind and 8x4.5-5.5' with wind, through I can make it better with a proper power supply. I use a 1200w fogger and it's way more than enough, but will only do 30 second bursts. You can easily do garage of evils 3 fogger hack w 400w foggers to get continuous flow and it should be enough fog for a 6ft wide screen. Ultrasonic is not feasible or cost effective for an outdoors screen bigger than 3'x2' (there was one done by a member for a Harry potter haunt that used one and it turned out well just the screen was 4' and had to be downsized to 3' for enough output-that was using an industrial 12 jet unit). I designed mine off of the fogscreen brand units, and it really works better than I could imagine. It will take you a good 50-60 hours to build though.... Just as a warning.

I can gladly answer questions if you have any.