"How did they do that?" - Attraction Special Effects REVEALED!

[Sonno]

Have you ever experienced an attraction and seen something really cool and found yourself wondering: "How did they do that???".

Well wonder no more!

If you have a "How did they do that?" question, feel free to post it here!
If you know the answer to a question and want to jump in with an answer, please by all means feel free!


Most importantly, have fun!

 

[Sonno]

 

[JRawkSteady]

Is this going to be like the KING of the Haunted Mansion?

 

[notnothin]

Are you the KING of special effects?

Seriously, no offense intended. Those threads yesterday were too much.

edit: oops, didn't mean to copy the above poster. I had opened the thread and didn't respond for a while, so I didn't see your post.

 

[JRawkSteady]

Guess it was...

 

[Sleeping Becca]

The following is a reponse that was intended as a joke. When I made this respose I thought this was a spoof thread. I did not write this response to be mean. I'm very sorry for any hard feelings caused by the following response.

I've always wondered how the train in the MK knows where to go. I mean, it seems that it passes in the same exact place everytime! Amazing! Does it have a special path? I know the train uses horsepower,are the horses inside the train specially trained for the train?

Also, has Disney every had a problem with keeping the pirates of the Carribean inside of the attraction? It seems that they are pretty dangerous, I wonder if they've ever escaped? I think that Disney keeps the pirates drunk so they don't escape, but I'm not sure. Has anyone ever been hit with one of the cannonballs they shoot from the ship? It seems that they come really close to those boats you ride in. I know the boats are pulled by tiny dolphins, I wonder if the dolphins are fresh or saltwater dolphins.

Wow this is a great thread, there is so much about Disney that I don't know. I'm so glad there are such great experts around to help people like me out.

Looking forward to hearing the answers to my questions.

Thanks!

 

[JRawkSteady]

HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHA!!!!! That's great!!!

Well to answer your question about the pirates you should look inside the book, Kingdom Keepers. It's a very factual representation ofthe Magic Kingdom. lol!

 

[Sonno]

It's all good.

 

[Wile E coyote]

Wow, some of you are real . The guy is offering free stuff and you on him.

Tower of terror, how is the effect with the family done?

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I am Soooo sorry. I seriously thought this was a joke! I read the first couple of responses, and thought this was a spoof thread.

Please forgive me. I certainly did not mean any harm.

I am really really really sorry.

 

[sistertrip]

This isn't an attraction, but I've always wondered how they know where to send all the buses. Is there some massive command center somewhere?

P.S. If you check out the Haunted Mansion KING thread, you might see why people thought this was a joke thread.

 

[Sonno]

Tower of terror, how is the effect with the family done?

The whole room for "The Corridor Sequence" is built using forced perspective. It's about 12ft deep, 10ft high on the elevator end, and about 4ft high in the rear. This makes the hallway look to be 30-40ft long. If you were looking at the room from over head, there's a glass screen that splits the room sorta like this | \ |. Just to the left is a projector which projects the images of the disappearing guests onto the glass screen. When the room goes dark, there's a projector in the rear that projects the window that comes towards you and crashes. The stars that fill the room at the end of the sequence are fiber optics in the side projection room that reflect off the glass.

And that's how that is done.

 

[Sonno]

This isn't an attraction, but I've always wondered how they know where to send all the buses. Is there some massive command center somewhere?

Honestly, I really don't know. But I would imagine that it's like any other major public transportation network. I'm pretty sure they have a central dispatch center and the drivers follow scheduled routes and what have you.

 

[JRawkSteady]

Yeah, again, if you were here yesterday, you would have been skeptical too. I'm sorry about all that.

Here's a question for ya. How do they control the fire in Fantasmic?

 

[Sonno]

Here's a question for ya. How do they control the fire in Fantasmic?

I'm going to assume you mean the dragon/lake fire.

All the fire is fueled with LP Gas (liquid propane).

The stream that comes out of the dragons mouth is shot out at a very high velocity so it doesn't spread into a fireball. It's kinda like what happens with a nozzle on a spray bottle; if you turn it one way the liquid inside will mist, if you turn it the other it'll stream; same concept.

The fire on the lake is done with pipes that release LP gas on the surface of the water. I don't know for certain how they keep it contained (going to research it really quick), but I'm going to assume it's done one of 2 ways. It's either physically contained with a barrier of some sort on the surface of the water, or there are water jets (kinda like in a jacuzzi) positioned audience side that pushes the water inward a safe distance from the edge. I'm going to guess it's more than likely the latter.

 

[BlindTyldak]

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to test you a bit with one that I know for sure.

How do they do the floating objects that the top of the Tower of Terror?

 

[sistertrip]

Nice edit to the thread title!

In the parades (I'm thinking of Spectromagic), how are the floats directed? Is there somebody inside driving or are they pre-programmed for the route (or another option entirely)?

 

[Sonno]

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to test you a bit with one that I know for sure.

How do they do the floating objects that the top of the Tower of Terror?

In the "5th Dimension Sequence" (the top) the figures you see are clear plastic cutouts with a dim light behind them. The cutouts move a bit to give them that creepy warped look.

 

[metsfan11]

I had been looking for this thread for ages, and I just came up on it again. If Sonno is out there, I would like to ask some questions:

How do they do the whole elevator scene in the Haunted Mansion? Also, how do they make the ceiling dissapear when they show the hanging body on the top?

On Tower of Terror, in the second scene where your elevator moves forward through the glass-made room, how do they achieve this? Are you actually moving forward? Also, where is this room in relation to the tower? What I mean is when you go to drop, do you need to go up from there to the drop point, or do you just go straight out into the drop chute.


Thanks!!!

 

[alfredromero1975]

Disney doesn't do "special effects", it's all MAGIC !!!!