Thread: Transformation Illusion

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In the second millennium, when I was a child, I read of a "magic" trick to make someone appear old instantly. Now,in the third millennium, my son stumbled upon the same trick while reading his own magic books. I thought it had some hauntworthy potential.

The concept is straightforward. Have two lamps - one blue and one red. Draw "age lines" on the actor's face in blue. They disappear under blue light but turn black in red light. Reverse all the colors and it still holds true.

Well, I could not find a blue light that was pure enough to make the blue disappear, so I went with red makeup. I also decided to do a rough skull design, since that's more familiar to me.

Pictures and video here:

http://azhaunters.ning.com/forum/top...-change-effect

Cool idea! Couldn't really tell much from the video, unfortunately, but from what I saw of the pics, it looks like it really works! Nice!

The video quality makes it hard to see what is happening. But, I love the idea. I might have to experiment with this concept. Thanks.

Fantastic idea! I Love it!!

It's true my camera doesn't do so well in the blue glow of a 25 watt bulb, but between that and the stills, I hope the idea is clear enough. The main reason for the video is so you can see it really is instant - no camera trickery involved!

This is a way cool effect. The same principals were used in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with Fredric March in the title role. They did the effect using a red filter in the camera which canceled out the red makeup which shows up very dark in a
black and white film. Remove the red filter and the "transformation" begins. Screw CGI this is the way to do it. Here's a clip of the transformation, it starts at about 1:06.

Enjoy, Marc V.

Sweet! Thanks for sharing. I was going to try using a red filter myself, but it seemed to degrade the picture too much as all I had was cellophane. I need a decent filter!

Thinking back to the old days of film photography (when we had to capture the image we wanted in the camera - no Photoshop back then) there were all kinds of filters and gels available for lots of cool effects.

I happened to catch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on some channel the other day. Rather than film the extensive night scenes with lots of lights, they shot them during the day but with a filter that made it look like night.

At the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago, they do a really good demo of how colored light effects what you see. They use red, green, and blue lights on dimmer controls. It's in a big booth where a group of people can stand. The kids love it when you turn their clothes a different color right in front of them.
It would be a great idea to use this in a haunt. Thanks for posting.

Originally Posted by NIL8r

At the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago, they do a really good demo of how colored light effects what you see. They use red, green, and blue lights on dimmer controls. It's in a big booth where a group of people can stand. The kids love it when you turn their clothes a different color right in front of them.
It would be a great idea to use this in a haunt. Thanks for posting.

Glad you liked it! I am a big fan of illusions. I wish there were more haunting magicians out there sharing haunt worthy illusions. Especially simple ones like this!