Thread: Calling set designers! Tomb color

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I'd like to hear feedback on color for my tomb scene.

Its an Egyptian tomb in my garage. I had assumed I would make it a sand color brown - basically the color of the pyramids. Then I watched the newer Mummy movies and the inside of their tombs were very dark grey (almost black). I don't necessarily need it to be an accurate representation of the actual egyptian tombs or the movie, but would rather pick the color that is going to give me the best effects. I will be using foam insulation walls with a stone effect and possible artwork so I will be painting the pink foam.

So does anyone have a thought? Sand color would seem more traditional. However, I was thinking a dark grey might be more forgiving - cracks, shadows etc would blend more easily I would think.

Any set designers (or anyone else) out there have a thought?

Here is a shot of mine. We bought muslin because it was the cheapest fabric they had, and the color turned out perfect.

Nice. Good looking Mummy too - you make it or find it somewhere?

I was going to go with Foam board to make stone effect and then paint heiroglyphics on a bit of it too so I'm looking to paint the foam. Fabric would be cheaper and less work but I'm want to give the foam a try.

Originally Posted by Swampboy

Nice. Good looking Mummy too - you make it or find it somewhere?

Wrapped her myself.

We did a 'tomb wall' for the lack of a better term, see pics in the link below.

Flickr: dna1990's Photostream

I too started off shooting for tan, even found a great 'texturized' gallon in the oops depart at HD. But under lighting (tried all colors) it just didn't 'pop' out like I wanted. Looked GREAT in daylight, but really bland at night. So I went with a black base coat followed by something closer to gray than brown. The gray was rolled on lightly with a very stiff nap roller, leaving plenty of black specks underneath. That gray picked up the lighting color much better.

Bottom line - experiement. You have 300+ days. Test with various lights including UV if that is part of your setup. We have a very odd pale green color (also found in oops bin years ago). It looks horid in daylight, but is the coolest deep purple under UV.

Also pay attention to lighting placement. I had used that texture paint as well as mixed in some faux suede 'dust'. It felt really rough and stone-like, but unless the lighting came at it from an extreme angle to give it shadow, it all washed out to the viewer.


Maybe I just need lighting advice more than you need any paint advice....grin.

I was at The Mummy ride in Orlando and they have a creepy queue line that is like a haunt walk-thru. It's beige lit with a lot of red lighting. Here's a picture:



and another: