In the mid 80s I conceived the idea to create a 3-D haunted attraction. In researching the idea I quickly realized the expense involved in the development and construction of an acceptable attraction would be prohibitive. I would be limited to the use of the old red and blue lens glasses, polarized glasses, or the type use in the Michael Jackson film
Captain EO at Disneyland.
Using the red and blue glasses would be expensive and creating the artwork would be too time consuming. Red and blue lighting could be used, but I didn’t think that was spectacular enough. It also was apparent to me that there was not enough variety in the scenes to make a complete attraction.
Using the type glasses used in Captain EO only works because of the type of camera lens used when the film was shoot. And, because that show was a live production, the arrangement was not an option for me.
In 1995, while walking the aisles of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) annual trade show at New Orleans, I came across American Paper Optics, Inc. This guy seemed to step out from nowhere and sticks a pair of funny looking glasses in my face and says: "Try these on." These glasses featured the ChromaDepth® lenses created and patented by Chromatek Incorporated.
Now I'm a big boy, but I didn't want to have any trouble with this fellow so I put on the glasses and he shoves a piece of paper in my face with a bunch of printed colored graphics.
Wow! A flood of ideas for my 3-D attraction jumped into my mind. I yelled back down the aisle at TOG, (that other guy, Don Moore) my "partner in slime" at the time. We had been working together since 1989 and TOG and I had discussed my idea. He quickly caught up and I said, “Try these” and shoved that piece of paper in his face. Without
any real emotion he said “that’s cool,” took the glasses off and gave me a blank look. I couldn't believe he didn't understand what I was thinking. “My 3-D Attraction!” I said. He put the glasses back on and looked at the paper again. He turned to me with a grin spreading across his face and said: "Oh, yeah, now how we gonna do it?”
For the last few days at the show I could think of nothing but producing the first 3-D Haunted Attraction, and how those glasses were the greatest thing I’ve seen at any IAAPA show.
I already had a contract with Glenn Lewis of Louisville, Kentucky, owner of Industrial Nightmare, an event we created for him the previous year, to revamp his show and add a second element. The contract was for a set amount, rather than hourly or daily rates, so I thought I would use some of my free time while in Louisville to experiment with this new found avenue of haunting.
I experimented with painting signs in different colors, different lighting sets and displaying props. Some of the experiments included signs for a haunted Christmas Toy room. I did the room in fluorescence and painted the signs with long perspective shadows and short block shadows. I painted a few large boxes as Christmas presents with dimensional separations. Another experiment involved lighting, using true deep red and blue multi beam rotating lights over a pile of body part in a Hellraiser room, which created an eerie ghost images effect with some parts floating over the pile. I experimented with yellow tinted clear coats over green toxic waste and even arranged to have a 3-dimensional ghost image over toxic waste drips of foam chalking.
While experimenting, I was trying to create a theme and style for a second element for the Industrial Nightmare. Glenn had rejected some ideas saying he wanted something that would "blow 'em all away.” At first I did not feel confident enough to present my 3-D idea as a worthwhile venture, but did not want to discuss it with anyone for fear someone else would use it before I had the chance to prefect the concept.
After a considerable amount of thought and research I settled on the idea of a Carnival of Carnage featuring the Maniac Maze. The Maniac Maze features a crazy clown in a demented fun house using several types of 3-D artwork with some lighting effects.
Glenn's response was a bit cool until lead him into Industrial Nightmare wearing a pair of glasses and showed him what I’d been working on. At that time I had only a few signs and some lighting effects, which until then, no one else had viewed through the glasses.
I’m a haunter that does some pretty great blood n' guts set decorating, but never considered myself to have any significant skill with scenic art. I knew it wouldn’t be the quality of the artwork, but the quality of the 3-D presentation that would create the “WOW factor" needed for optimum entertainment values. That problem was easily overcome because Glenn already had a great artist, Darin Stiller, on his staff working at
Industrial Nightmare and other businesses ventures. Darin and I worked together in the creation of, what I consider to be, some outstanding artwork and images.
We started building the Carnival and Maze in June of 96. A lot of the 3-D effects we used were pretty simple, and others were just revamping of old ideas into the 3-D style of doing things. We used the polka dot room I’ve been using for several years, but now the dots were different sizes in order for the 3-D images to fit the room design. Other
ideas included the wall of faces, checkerboard and Pepper’s ghost illusions. We also used the crazy doors and windows theme, but added lots of artwork; simplistic and detailed.
Glenn and I agreed to keep the project a secret, especially from the haunt industry. I knew the concept would be a hit and was selfish enough to want to be the one who created the “World’s First 3-D Haunted Attraction.” A haunter’s or artist’s ego thing, I suppose. Mike Cruz, who was doing the marketing for Glenn, was terribly upset with us for not including him in our secret project, but quickly got the word out as
we knew he was capable of doing.
A local radio station was one of the event sponsors and, after our first commercials, felt it necessary to actually come to the Industrial Nightmare to better understand what they had been talking about on the air. We started them out by touring the main attraction and then took them to the Carnival of Carnage. When we gave them their glasses, most
thought they were fireworks glasses, but when they entered the 3-D maze they were "blown away!" When they reported their findings on the airwaves that night they spoke with newfound enthusiasm.
John Burton, owner of Theatrical Terror is the author of “Scary 3D Attractions” a step by step look at the art of ChromaDepth® Haunting. He can be reached at osg@ipa.net or by phone at 704-236-8992.
The illusion of 3 Dimensions
Leonard Pickel
In today’s entertainment field there are three widely used methods for creating the illusion of tree dimensional images from two-dimensional medium. Each of these systems requires the viewer to wear glasses with differing lens over each eye. The oldest method is Anaglyph. These have been used for decades in comic books and old horror movies. The glasses have one Red and one Blue lens, and if viewed without glasses, the art or film has two distinct images.
If you have seen a more recent 3D (sometimes called 4D if they squirt water on you during the experience), like It’s A Bug’s Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, then you have used the second 3D method. This system uses Polarized lenses to filter images going to different eyes of the viewer. This system offers the most lifelike full color 3D of the three methods.
The third type is known as CromaDepth(R). Originally developed for the printing industry, Haunted Attractions are now the number one buyer of this type of 3D glasses. CromaDepth(R) 3D is achieve by filtering the wavelengths of different colors of light. Red appears to float in front of the 2D surface. Blue appears to float beyond the 2D surface and the remaining colors lie in according to their position in the artist’s color wheel. Purple will lie in different locations depending on the amount of red and blue in the hue. Black tends to lie with the color it is next to and white stays close to yellow.
The more pure and vibrant the color, the larger the “jump” off of the surface. Which is why fluorescent paints and black light are used in most haunts. Also, the further away the viewer is to the art the greater distance between the colors, which is why painting 3D art on the floor is so effective. A blue floor with red cracks or grid pattern cause the patrons to literally step over things that are not there.
By blending the colors from one hue to the next, you can achieve slanted plains, rounded surfaces and even translucent objects. The one drawback is that the color derives the location of the surface. You can render a human face in 3D with this method, but the nose would have to be red, the cheeks orange, the green and the ears blue. The hair would be yellow in front, and fade to green than blue at the back. This multi colored look combined with the bright colors of the fluorescent paint is why so many 3D attractions have a clown/circus theme.
The CromaDepth(R) system works with any colored light; either reflecting off of colored paint or ink or projected onto surfaces from light fixtures. Using lighting rather than paint allows the 3D designer to have moving orbs of light that brings life to the static 3D world. It is in the use of colored lighting to create 3D images that we have only scratched the surface of haunting with the Illusion of 3 Dimensions.
Leonard Pickel is editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine and Partner in the design-consulting firm of DOA. You can reach him at 704-366-0875 or by email at editor@hauntedattraction.com.
Animating and more in 3-D
By Jim Confer
If you have seen swirls, stripes, dots, spatter, cartoons, and clowns, you have seen just about all the 3-D effects there are, right? Not likely. As scenic painters, we have just begun to scratch the surface of painting and illuminating effects for CromaDepth(R) 3-D.
Even if you do not have an artist at hand to render “drop dead” artwork, the tools that are available today (like overhead projectors, computers), can help anyone produce amazing effects with little effort. The first task is to choose the theme of your attraction. Clowns and Circus themes are the easiest, but ghosts and aliens can also be very effective. Next pick the optimal spots for placing your 3-D effects. Over the years of painting 3-D houses we have learned to not saturate the haunt with 3-D everywhere, use discretion in placement. The further away the art is from the viewer, the greater the 3D illusion, so try to place your best art at the end of hallways. Art that is on the walls of a narrow walkway seems to move as the viewer walks by, but the depth is lost do the close proximity.
Now choose your artwork carefully. Look through books, comics, for subjects that fit your theme. Line drawings are best, but even photos can be turned into beautiful paintings. Try to keep the same style of art throughout the attraction. You do not want cartoon figures next to those taken from real life photos. Once the outline of the subject is transferred onto the wall, it becomes a “paint by number” project. The back ground behind the object will be blue, the part of the subject closest to the viewer will be red, and each part that is further back fades into the next hue on the color wheel, red to orange to yellow to green and lastly to the blue back ground, with all the shades in between.
As a final step to pop out the different color plans, outline each separate color with a small black brush. NOTE: Do not put highlights on the finished artwork. White and yellow set at the same plane as the surface, and placing them on a red object confuses the eye and destroys the illusion.
Also try not to paint already 3 dimensional objects with the 3D paint treatment. Misting a prop with blue paint and dripping red paint for blood on the object makes the blood look like it is hovering in mid air over the prop and not attached. It is difficult to even tell what the prop is supposed to be.
At Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia, we painted a demented circus 3-D haunt where the clowns, riggers and the animals had gone mad. We pushed the limits of the 3-D artwork to the realistic side in the animal effects staying away from the cartoon style of haunt. Using blacklight, strobing white light and alternating red and blue light we were able to animate the 3D illusion.
In one corner a crazy clown was juggling dynamite. We animated the clowns arm movements by painting his arms as a double image and using colors that will wash out with a Red - Blue color change. The finished image has a bazaar look under static white light, but alternating the colored light made the animation become visible. The dominate "Red - Blue" combination also gave a twisting appearance to the animation in addition to the 3-D effect.
At the end of a long hallway, we painted a realistic leaping lion using the 3-D spectrum. Rust colored PVC bars were then mounted approx. three inches in front of the image giving red layer to the depth illusion. The effect was lit by a patron-triggered egg strobe that started flashing when the viewer was about ten feet away, making sure that the strobe was not glaring into the patrons eyes.
The Clown and Lion's images were first created with a computer art program, then transferred to overhead film and projected onto canvas. With the Lion art, selections of the final renderings colors were altered using the 3-D spectrum and then layered onto a final copy. These colors were transferred to a clear cell and then projected and painted on canvas. The result was a very realistic 3-D image.
While swirls, stripes, dots, spatters, and cartoons are effective subjects for 3D artwork; today’s ChromaDepth(R) designer can create motion and very realistic figures. Using computers and overheard projectors as tools, even the novice painter can create very effective 3D effects, and as time goes on, experimentation will uncover even more effects and techniques of painting and illuminating effects for CromaDepth(R) 3-D.
Jim Confer owns Jim-N-I Studios
Jim Confer is a free lance Scenic Effects Artist and an owner of JimNI Studios in Orlando, Florida. He has been a scenic designer and effects artist with Haunted venues for over thirty years. He can be reached at 407-273-7220, via email at jim@jimnifx.com , or visit his web site at www.jimnifx.com.
