Thread: MAKE Magazine--Magic Talking Mirror issue/Maker Faire USA

Tweet

My husband told me about the current issue of MAKE magazine (#23) that he saw while in Barnes & Noble tonight. He said it had a project on making a frame for use with Magic Mirror. I went back to pick up the issue since I have always wanted to make my own Magic Mirror set up for our haunt one year, having learned about it a few years ago here on the forum.

For those that aren't familiar yet with Magic Mirror and the ImaginEERIEing folk here's a link to the Carnival of Souls website that has it listed as a Featured Attraction.

Here's a link to MAKE magazine and the current issue preview. Don't miss the Download section for the Magic Mirror Slide Show, Config screenshot PDF, and PDF of wiring schematic, etc. while your there. BTW the article on Magic Mirror isn't available for free, you'll need to pick up the magazine or possibly subscribe online to read it. The article's author said he built one for his kids playhouse, but he's seen it used inside a well at a Los Gatos halloween haunt, and inside a suitcase at a hotel lobby where it forecasts the weather for travelers.

MAKE is a bit pricey ($14.99 US/Canada) but it really does have some cool things to build. BTW if you are a Barnes & Noble member don't forget to get your 10% off when you check out.


BTW the Maker Faire, which has been a SF Bay area West Coast thing (reportedly 80,000 attendees this year), is been held in other parts of the country this year as well. It just finished up in Detroit and will be coming to NYC at the NY Hall of Science on Sept 25 & 26. Mini Maker Faires will be held in Kansas City, MO; Providence, RI; SF East Bay (Oakland), CA from now through October.

No need to shell out for the Make article (though I'll admit it's a cool magazine and there are probably other neat features in the issue). He's had the how to on Instructables for a while: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Magic-Mirror/

Spookie,
Yea, those ImaginEERIEing folks have a great little product there. I hope they continue to add little things along the way. Also, I'd love to find a way to use the snowman at Christmas time.

I used the skull face a couple years ago on a projector in my picture window. The kids loved it so much, I decided in 2009 to build a facade for my front door. Again, kids loved it. I'm very proud of how this one came out with minimal effort. My only complaint was that it was a bit difficult to see in the early afternoon (door faces west and the sun washed out the picture a bit). This year, I'll probably add something to "shade" it a little.

Anyhow, here's a link to my build if you care to take a look. Although, it was kinda hijacked by another HF user
Magic Mirror build

Thanks for posting about your MM NIL8r. I loved your brickwork. Nice detail and painting job there. The red curtain color was perfect too. Very rich velvety looking.

Not to get off the topic of Halloween, but maybe you could use the snowman as a Santa helper of sorts during a Xmas party with kids. Instead of your front door, use an interior doorway and create a large drop chute below the snowman to deliver the kids presents from Santa's bag.

If anyone has used or seen MM used in different ways from the picture or mirror look, please share. I thought the well/wishing well idea was pretty unique. When you spend the time creating a great prop like this it's always great to have multiple ways to use it.

...Spookie, Thanks for your kind remarks. I wanted to add that, on another thread here, a person was going to use the Gordo "puppet". It got me really thinking about various ways to use the different faces. It was suggested using Gordo as a head of a scarecrow. I'm thinking that creating a false wall with the monitor behind it. Then use a scarecrow, skeleton, or numerous other bodies (snowman ) on the viewer's side of the wall. In the case of Gordo, a headless horseman could be done. The headless body against the wall holding the Gordo head (or skull).

Great, now I want to do something different and I don't have any time!

Hello Spookie and welcome to the Magic Mirror club! (unofficial). As NIL8r mentions...this is a VERY simple effect that can be done with just about any old Windows XP (or higher) home computer you might have laying around.

It is how you build the facade and handle your sound is how you can add to the complexity as you wish and really turn out a really nice effect. Last year I did the Magic Mirror for the first time using the original Magic Mirror puppet that Imagineerieing released.

Originally Posted by NIL8r

Spookie,
My only complaint was that it was a bit difficult to see in the early afternoon (door faces west and the sun washed out the picture a bit). This year, I'll probably add something to "shade" it a little.

This is the SAME problem that I ran into a problem in the early afternoon as well. I housed my attraction in a vestibule so I could sit behind a scrim in a totally darkened "room" However, the door to the vestibule was directly facing into the sun and the scrim I used did such an effective job at blocking out the light that it also blocked out the Magic Mirror. It wasn't up until about 4 or 5pm where the face was clearly visible and I opened my attraction. Sadly though, I did miss out on quite a bit of TOT's early on . However, once night was fully under way the TOT's I did get were very impressed...so much so that neighborhood kids came up to me earlier this year and asked if I was going to do it again. Of course, my answer was a resounding "Yes".

Needless to say I did learn quite a bit about my first Magic Mirror attempt and also the way Halloween falls. We had many TOT's come out early last year because Halloween fell on a Saturday, so much of the younger kids I missed out on due to my sun problem. But older kids did come later. I figured that this year because Halloween fell on a Sunday, it was going to be worse than last year because kids have school the next day.

So I did make a couple of changes to my Magic Mirror for this year to take advantage of the earlier crowds.

1) I have decided to go all 'non scary' pumpkin theme for this year, as such I bought the Gordo pumpkin puppet from Imagineerieing. The Gordo puppet has two faces, one friendly and one mean looking. Naturally I will be sticking to using the friendly face only. The reason for the change from the Magic Mirror I used last year was because I noticed that my own kids (2.5yrs old at the time) were afraid of the Magic Mirror face. So if my kids were afraid, so would others be. A friendly pumpkin face would solve any issues of kids not wanting to approach the mirror from the get go.

2) Addressing the 'sun' issue was no easy task and while I have not been able to eliminate the problem completely, I have been able to make the pumpkin face visible quite a bit earlier on in the afternoon (about noonish the sun moves away from the door and this was prime TOT time last year).

a) The first thing I did was set the monitor further back into the vestibule on the table that I constructed last year. This will 'shade' most of the light from hitting the screen.

b) I am currently building a 'shroud' that will further block extra side lighting from the monitor.

c) Due to the construction of a shroud, I am going to use it to also mask most of the monitor only cutting out the portion of the visible screen where Gordo will show up. Because of this, having the scrim hanging in front of the monitor is unecessary. So with no scrim over the monitor screen, the full light output of the monitor will be available. I WILL still be using the scrim, but just over the area where I will be looking out so this way I can still see the TOT's...but they can't see me!

[QUOTE]
Anyhow, here's a link to my build if you care to take a look. Although, it was kinda hijacked by another HF user
Magic Mirror build

Guilty as charged! Yup, I am the hijacker (sorry about that NIL8r, I just wanted to keep the related posts together since it was all relevant material). You will see my posts for my project in that thread as well.

Here is the thread of my actual build:

Magic Mirror Prop Help?

As you can see better all of the details I was explaining above in regards to my build.

I will say that since you have only 1 week left, if you have not started building something, I would start TODAY. The hardest part is coming up with a good facade. I had trouble with that too but there were many here including NIL8r that helped me out. DezzyLee99 though was the chief architect in the design since I had a very unusual location and a stoop to deal with. Dezzy came up with the idea to work WITH the stoop to create my candy chute and general work area in addition to the facade of the attraction.

By all means, please check it out...it might help you too!

Happy Halloween!

Geo

Originally Posted by NIL8r

In the case of Gordo, a headless horseman could be done. The headless body against the wall holding the Gordo head (or skull).

Great, now I want to do something different and I don't have any time!

That IS an excellent idea NIL8r! I knew though that I couldn't do something radically different this year, I just had to change things around to make it more kid/day friendly. I am also offering a Singing Pumpkin display this year as well, and most of my time went into that. I still have to do work on that as well, but both ends of the project are coming along well and should be finished by the end of the coming week.

Geo