The Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion Effect Thread 7: Further Realms of Fright

[mikeerdas]

And I've gotten this word from GRD (remember him?):

The Grand Staircase footsteps are projections from the floor below.

Thanks HBG2. Did GRD say how he knew for sure the effect was done and why it was done that way vs. fiber optics, etc?

It wouldn't surprise me if this was a projection effect based on some experiments I've done projecting footsteps into a hallway. Sort of by accident, I found the footsteps "walked" nicely up a door or wall onto the ceiling (and the same in reverse) without much, if any, distortion. In a similar way, the Haunted Mansion footsteps walk up a 3D staircase without looking distored. Here are my early experiments. So the first projection set-up below is how they do it? (front projection from below)





Wondering if there would be any way to confirm how the effect is being done in-ride, e.g. at the Ballroom scene, holding up a lit cell phone screen will reflect in the glass. With a projection effect, if you looked closely enough, would you see dust particles in the projection path?

Or is there any other indicator in videos of the HM effect that would reveal it to be front projected versus some other method?

[Grinning Ghost]

And I've gotten this word from GRD (remember him?):

The Grand Staircase footsteps are projections from the floor below.

Thanks HBG2. Did GRD say how he knew for sure the effect was done and why it was done that way vs. fiber optics, etc?



Wondering if there would be any way to confirm how the effect is being done in-ride, e.g. at the Ballroom scene, holding up a lit cell phone screen will reflect in the glass. With a projection effect, if you looked closely enough, would you see dust particles in the projection path?

Or is there any other indicator in videos of the HM effect that would reveal it to be front projected versus some other method?

You can take his word for it; GRD is a Disney Cast Member that has actually worked in the HM.

[xFoolishMortalx]

I find the photo attached to the HM section even more hilarious: it's from (likely) a Sally corporation dark ride with the laser-gun targets plainly visible. People know nothing indeed.

Me too!

[mikeerdas]

You can take his word for it; GRD is a Disney Cast Member that has actually worked in the HM.

Thanks Grinning Ghost. Was hoping for CM confirmation. Searching far and wide on the web, I hadn't come across anything like that. I'm surprised, for example, there's no mention of the effect details on DoomBuggies.com or elsewhere. Hopefully folks will start to incorporate that info (the grand staircase footsteps being a projection effect) in write-ups of other Haunted Mansion effects and illusions.

Would love to read any more detail about the effect if any other CMs can share. Like why it was implemented as a projection effect versus other methods.

Here is a conversation we're having on a Home Haunting forum discussing the effect:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/hallow...ml#post1424092

[HBG2]

You can take his word for it; GRD is a Disney Cast Member that has actually worked in the HM.

He also was chummy with at least one of the Imagineers involved in the 2007 "Rehaunting" and got a lot of inside info that way.

I'm sure they went with projections because they (1) look good and (2) cost less. If they can project Leota's face accurately on a moving object (which they don't anymore, but they did for a time), the footsteps should have been a piece of cake by comparison.

[mikeerdas]

Perfect. Thanks again HBG2! Re: good looks and less cost, the idea of having a fiber optic assembly in each stair did seem a bit overcomplicated. The simple (and cheaper) answer is often the right one, e.g. like Pepper's Ghost in the Ballroom vs. holograms. Easy for me to say that in hindsight of course...

Given the known mirror configuration in the staircase room, are only the sides without footstep projections reflected? Because otherwise you'd expect to see ghost steps in multiple places in perfect sync with each other. Not sure if that can be seen or not. It's not something I've noticed in any videos of the room. But then with the nature of the Omnimover restricting your field of view, like someone mentioned either here or in another thread, who knows! Maybe simultaneously timed / mirrored step paths exist but can't be seen from the ride vehicle.

He also was chummy with at least one of the Imagineers involved in the 2007 "Rehaunting" and got a lot of inside info that way.

I'm sure they went with projections because they (1) look good and (2) cost less. If they can project Leota's face accurately on a moving object (which they don't anymore, but they did for a time), the footsteps should have been a piece of cake by comparison.

[xFoolishMortalx]

Just finished my St. Patty's day surprise for you all! Ladies and gentlemen, I present the first (I think) working life-size Constance prop on Youtube! It took a week of hard work but I think it turned out great! It just needs a few tweaks!

[FoxxFur]

Hi guys! it's Foxxy from Passport to Dreams.

Thought I'd actually post here instead of lurking like I always do. :P

Made a trip back to Florida from California for visit my parents and take a vacation - had terrific fun! I also got some quality Magic Kingdom time in, mostly to help me with posts on le blog. Here's some mildly interesting observations on the state of the Florida ride, having become acclimated now to the Disneyland Haunted Mansion:

The astonishing visual clarity of everything really is what blew me away. Stuff you can kinda see in California really pops in Florida - the clock hall, in particular, really impressed me. I had previously never really given much thought to how the scenes differed since they're basically physically and conceptually the same, but looking back now I think its interesting how the initial approach in 1969 was to paint the clock flat black and then use paint to bring out highlights and shadows. In Florida they just made the clock a different color than the wall and made the clock hands bright red, and as a result it really comes out at you. Another huge difference is the two Constance effects - Florida doesn't just have the better effect, the staging is far superior - she cheats sightly towards the cars, is a bit further back away from the track, and they don't let you look at her for as long as Disneyland does.

Some random observations on the general state of the ride:

The graveyard pop-ups' heads have been moved around and repainted. I also noticed that several of the individual lights for the pop-ups have returned. I know enough about how Maintainence works to not try to pretend that this was a result of my blog articles, but any progress is good progress.

I've previously mentioned that although Florida has always had the Egyptian crypt and sarcophagus behind their Mummy scene, it's never been visible - Florida dispensed with the Disneyland scheme of using both incandescent and ultraviolet light in their Attic and Graveyard scenes in 1971, so there's never been that big splash of yellow/green light behind their Mummy figure. somebody finally went in and added some blacklight highlights to both the crypt and sarcophagus, making those scenic elements visible for the first time in who knows how long.

The big news is that Florida has finally reinstalled their bicycle ghosts, who have been missing for a very long time. It looks like they basically rebuilt the whole scene from scratch. The figures flap in the wind, and best of all you can actually see their entire route of travel and the tiny, forced perspective crypt they circle from the top of the hill, which is something I've never seen before - they're so bright and clear that they look almost exactly how they appear in the "lightning" WDI graveyard footage used in Disneyland Showtime, ie very clear and impressive. I went on Mansion about ten times just to look at them.

I also put some Mansion stuff up on YouTube that was not previously available. I ripped the Sandy Duncan Disneyland... thing? off the old Extinct Attractions DVD:


Here's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Since 2007, the number of clear, quality videos of the Florida ride in its basically untouched state have dwindled. I pulled this one off the EAC DVD as well. it's not mine, and I have no idea where those guys got it, but I can tell you it's probably from 1998-2001 and shows the ride as I fell in love with it pretty clearly:

[ttintagel]

Here's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Since 2007, the number of clear, quality videos of the Florida ride in its basically untouched state have dwindled. I pulled this one off the EAC DVD as well. it's not mine, and I have no idea where those guys got it, but I can tell you it's probably from 1998-2001 and shows the ride as I fell in love with it pretty clearly:

Wow, thanks for posting that! I had actually forgotten what the rubber spider looked like in situ. Y'know, as goofy as it was, I'd take it back if it meant we could also have the old queue area, attic, and HHG's back, too.

[bigcatrik]

I also put some Mansion stuff up on YouTube that was not previously available. I ripped the Sandy Duncan Disneyland... thing? off the old Extinct Attractions DVD:

I wonder how long it took them to remove the doom buggies and cover the track.

[WDITrent]

Did anyone else notice the door used at 4:30 in the Sandy Duncan Thing?

[HMF]

A better picture of the Doll House in the DL Attic Scene.



Also a nice series of pics from the post 07 WDW Attic with some never before-photographed details.

Incidentally, that piece of furniture poking out from behind the screens in the Frank Tableau seems to be one of the few things that was probably not moved at all during the switchover. At least That's my theory. Bring in pic of virtually the same area from pre-07 look in the dead center.

[RegionsBeyond]

Great info and videos, Foxxy - thank you very much for sharing all that! I truly wish the bicycle ghosts at DL would get some TLC and better lighting.

[Grinning Ghost]

Also a nice series of pics from the post 07 WDW Attic with some never before-photographed details.

The last photo shows the white lamp that used to be in the load area. Nice to know it wasn't simply discarded, even though that shade just screams 1971. I wonder if the table it's on is also the one from the load area...

[HBG2]

I wonder how long it took them to remove the doom buggies and cover the track.

They just took out a short string of them and then kept scooting that blank area to each scene as they were shooting them. If you look towards the end when they are running out of the graveyard scene into the crypt, you can see the back of the doombuggy sitting just inside the opening. They probably covered the slot after removing the doombuggies with plywood and carpet, or something like that.

Did anyone else notice the door used at 4:30 in the Sandy Duncan Thing?

Yep, I mention it in the post. I used a mess of screen grabs from that footage to create a photo of the open door. Indeed, that's the crypt that was going to be the main exit for one of the two walk-thru's. Fun stuff.