HM New Hitchhiking Ghosts Follow you Home

[Magicart87]

How is the Hitchhiking Ghosts effect created? In the most recent rehaunting the ghosts seem to interact with the riders in a variety of sight gags. How is this effect created? Is it an IR tracker and video screen? Please be specific as possible. I would like to recreate this effect for a project.

 

[DisAl]

The ghosts probably use some sort of projection similar to the ballroom scene. What I would really like to know is how they swap the rider's heads in the doom buggy. That would require both cameras viewing the inside of the doom buggy and the software to swap the position of the heads. We went for a second ride just to see that effect again!
Disney, if you are listening, explaining some of the effects would be a GREAT addition to the Keys to the Kingdom tour!

 

[bingie]

The ballroom scene isn't a projection - it's a reflection. All the ghosts that you see in the scene are either above or below the ride track. When you are in the ride vehicle and are looking into the ballroom, you are looking thru large panes of glass that run floor to ceiling. The ball room is dark, the ghosts are brighter than the ballroom, and they reflect on the glass (kinda like being inside a lit room and night at looking outside - you can see outside and you can see the reflection of inside).

 

[DisAl]

Thanks, but I already knew how the ballroom seen worked. My curiosity is about the ghosts who join you in the doom buggy at the end of the ride, especially how they swap heads on the people in the doom buggy. I am guessing that it may still use the reflection technology to merge your reflection with that of the ghosts, but with a wide video screen (sort of like the "strip" screens that go around a sports stadium) behind the doom buggy generating the images that move along with the doom buggy.
I love the behind the scenes tours at WDW that they have now, but the ULTIMATE tour for me would be an after hours tour where they showed you the "insides" of some of the rides. I would gladly stay up all night long for that kind of tour!

 

[bingie]

Thanks, but I already knew how the ballroom seen worked....

Ok, well you did call it a projection at first and it's not...

I've done the tour of that show building a few times before the park opens. It's very cool. Did you watch the first video - there's a little bit in there about how they do it.

 

[DisAl]

I did watch both videos. The segment about the ghost explains the new animated ghosts but doesn't go into how the images of you and the ghosts are synced as you move through the scene.
I think you understand what you thought I said but what you don't realize is that what I said is not what I meant. I should have said "display" not "projection".
I agree the blending of the ghosts with the doom buggy is a reflection because you are obviously seeing you own reflection. What I am wondering is how they generate the image of the animated ghosts that travel along in sync with the doom buggy. It must be some sort of long video display behind the doom buggy. Maybe next trip I can remember to use my cell phone to peek around the edge of the doom buggy and look behind.
Which tour takes you there before the park opens? I have done the Keys to the Kingdom tour but the park was open and rides running so we did not see behind the scenes of any rides.

 

[willwilts]

Which tour takes you there before the park opens? I have done the Keys to the Kingdom tour but the park was open and rides running so we did not see behind the scenes of any rides.

That's the Marceline to Magic Kingdom tour, shorter than Keys to the Kingdom, and more about Walt.