JustInTime
Well-Known Member
As previously stated, I hope they don't too.
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New HitchHiking Ghosts Coming to WDW
- Thread starter Rum Pirate
- Start date
As previously stated, I hope they don't too.
The Duck
Well-Known Member
I have to say, Rum Pirate, so far your track record has been very impressive. This new info sounds interesting. Thanks for all the scoop.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
I don't see how this could work. The whole point of the ballroom scene is that the viewer can look across the entire span of the ballroom from any point on of the mezzanine. For example, you can see the organist as soon as you enter the mez and he stays in perspective as you move across. And in 3 dimensions, no less. This simply isn't possible with projection, certainly not in 3-D, nad probably not in any way that could interactive.
The hitchhikers presents a completely different situation because of the riders' proximity to the glass and the fact that most of the time each ride vehicle is focused on one particular section of the mirror/glass at one time. Same goes, for the most part, for the Nemo attraction.
Hopefully if all goes well, we should see the new Mirror effect by the first of the month! Im curious to hear what everyone has to say after they see the effect, since it was quite interesting the responses to the interactive queue
RP
RP
Rob562
Well-Known Member
New patent filing may reveal what's in store with new ghosts
OK, so a patent that Disney filed for just last month may lend some insight into just what may appear from behind the curtains:
"Apparatus and Method for an Anamorphic Pepper's Ghost Illusion"
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=disney&OS=disney&RS=disney
There's a lot of tech-speak in the paperwork, but it essentially breaks down to this (and how I think it would be applied in the Mansion):
A distorted image is displayed out-of-sight on a computer monitor. A specially-designed cone-shaped or spherical reflective surface adjacent to the monitor and within sight of the rider then reflects that image for the rider. Because of the curved shape of the reflecting surface, the image you see looks normal to you.
And if I'm understanding the physics correctly, the image that you see as a rider appears as a 3-dimensional object.
So how it would be on the ride would be that in place of the moving hitchhiking ghost AAs on the other side of the mirror, you'd have these sets of monitors and reflective surfaces. The monitors would be below the level of the bottom of the mirror, facing straight upward. The reflective surface would be over them.
The monitor would then display whatever image of a ghost they'd want you to see, in a distorted way. The reflective surface would bend that distorted image into the proper shape for viewing. Because of the curved surface, you'd be seeing a 3-dimensional ghost in front of you, without actually looking *directly* at a video monitor.
And lastly, because the image on the monitor can be changed and altered at-will, they can use the new cameras mounted above the mirrors to see what the people in the car are doing, and "interact" with them by simply altering the on-monitor animation of the ghost.
I know there have been static uses of this "distorted image viewed in a shaped reflector" in the parks in the past. I think there was something in the old ImageWorks that showed a slowly-rotating ring of art near floor-level that you looked at in an upside-down cone-shaped mirror in the center.
EDIT: What I was thinking of from the ImageWorks can be seen in Martin's video, at the 19:17 mark.
http://vimeo.com/6976422
EDIT #2: It just occurred to me that WDI has been working on something like this for a VERY long time... (Though perhaps not specifically for the Mansion) I was reminded of a small bit that they showed in the Imagineering segment of Good Morning America's coverage of WDW's 25th anniversary. I tried to find video online, but it's late and I wasn't succesful in the 2 minutes I tried...
Essentially they had the Imagineer doing the tour ("Bram Ferrin"? or something like that) appear as a miniature "real-time hologram" that I suspected was done with a hemispherical mirror and a distorted video feed of some sort...
-Rob
OK, so a patent that Disney filed for just last month may lend some insight into just what may appear from behind the curtains:
"Apparatus and Method for an Anamorphic Pepper's Ghost Illusion"
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=disney&OS=disney&RS=disney
There's a lot of tech-speak in the paperwork, but it essentially breaks down to this (and how I think it would be applied in the Mansion):
A distorted image is displayed out-of-sight on a computer monitor. A specially-designed cone-shaped or spherical reflective surface adjacent to the monitor and within sight of the rider then reflects that image for the rider. Because of the curved shape of the reflecting surface, the image you see looks normal to you.
And if I'm understanding the physics correctly, the image that you see as a rider appears as a 3-dimensional object.
So how it would be on the ride would be that in place of the moving hitchhiking ghost AAs on the other side of the mirror, you'd have these sets of monitors and reflective surfaces. The monitors would be below the level of the bottom of the mirror, facing straight upward. The reflective surface would be over them.
The monitor would then display whatever image of a ghost they'd want you to see, in a distorted way. The reflective surface would bend that distorted image into the proper shape for viewing. Because of the curved surface, you'd be seeing a 3-dimensional ghost in front of you, without actually looking *directly* at a video monitor.
And lastly, because the image on the monitor can be changed and altered at-will, they can use the new cameras mounted above the mirrors to see what the people in the car are doing, and "interact" with them by simply altering the on-monitor animation of the ghost.
I know there have been static uses of this "distorted image viewed in a shaped reflector" in the parks in the past. I think there was something in the old ImageWorks that showed a slowly-rotating ring of art near floor-level that you looked at in an upside-down cone-shaped mirror in the center.
EDIT: What I was thinking of from the ImageWorks can be seen in Martin's video, at the 19:17 mark.
http://vimeo.com/6976422
EDIT #2: It just occurred to me that WDI has been working on something like this for a VERY long time... (Though perhaps not specifically for the Mansion) I was reminded of a small bit that they showed in the Imagineering segment of Good Morning America's coverage of WDW's 25th anniversary. I tried to find video online, but it's late and I wasn't succesful in the 2 minutes I tried...
Essentially they had the Imagineer doing the tour ("Bram Ferrin"? or something like that) appear as a miniature "real-time hologram" that I suspected was done with a hemispherical mirror and a distorted video feed of some sort...-Rob
NoChesterHester
Well-Known Member
^Great find!
Sounds like a hologram with the ability for movement. Fantastic.
Sounds like a hologram with the ability for movement. Fantastic.
Rob562
Well-Known Member
No. As far as I know, the characters in HP are traditional Pepper's Ghost effects, using glass to reflect an out-of-sight screen (similar to how the ghosts appear in the corridor on Tower of Terror). Because of the height and distance from you, you can't tell that the images are two-dimensional.
This new effect from the Disney patent application should make the image appear three-dimensional.
-Rob
Testtrack321
Well-Known Member
With all respect to those using the term, NOBODY is using the term hologram correctly. Most assume hologram is peper's ghost or some sort of project system.. it is NOT. It's a way to create still, 3D images using lasers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography
/nerd rant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography
/nerd rant
Rob562
Well-Known Member
That's one of those things that I used to correct, but rarely do anymore because it's like trying to hold back the tide. You'll correct one person, but another two will come in their place.
And I specifically used quotation marks around my use of "real-time hologram" because that was the phrasing used by the Imagineer in the special I referred to. (Even though I know it's still not really a hologram)
-Rob
Rob562
Well-Known Member
You know...something just occurred to me about this whole thing of the curtains covering the mirrors being lowered slightly to expose the newly-installed cameras above them, and why they did that...
I'm guessing that they're actively testing the new effects, and they lowered the curtain to expose the cameras. That way the cameras can see the doombuggies going by, which allows them to run tests without lowering and raising the curtains every night.
Heck, they could even be testing the effects during the day while Guests are riding, and using the real-life rider situations in the buggies to test the adaptability of the ghosts and their computer systems...
-Rob
I'm guessing that they're actively testing the new effects, and they lowered the curtain to expose the cameras. That way the cameras can see the doombuggies going by, which allows them to run tests without lowering and raising the curtains every night.
Heck, they could even be testing the effects during the day while Guests are riding, and using the real-life rider situations in the buggies to test the adaptability of the ghosts and their computer systems...
-Rob
The Duck
Well-Known Member
Good call. It makes sense to me.
wishesjake
Member
I'm still in the dark about this; how are they going to interact with us?
Rob562
Well-Known Member
A lot of it is speculation and a bit of "armchair Imagineering", but ideas that have been floated could be things like the ghost siiting in the middle of the car and putting its arms around the shoulders of each Guest, even if the Guests are of different sizes... Or pretend to mess up one of the rider's hair... Or take up all the space to one side if there's only one rider in the car. Or if the single rider is in the middle of the car, a ghost appears on either side of him. Or if there's an empty car, a ghost might not appear in it at all. Or if the empty car follows a car with guests in it, the ghost with the Guests could somehow "move" to the empty car and do something...
The possibilities are only as limited as what the Imagineers can think up.
Or.......we're just getting fairly-basic-but-new ghost images, and the interactivity will be put off to "sometime in the future".
-Rob
Mansion Butler
Active Member
Getting phenominal reports from CMs who have seen it, even from some who don't tend to give glowing reviews of new things. Can't share details, obviously, but. . . be excited.
The Duck
Well-Known Member
I'm already excited but I'm also frustrated because my annual WDW trip was last month and I have to wait almost a year before I can see any of this stuff!
heh well I was one of the lucky ones, due to restrictions, I must say, WOW! Just had the opportunity (lucky as this was a very quite event) and Just wow, amazing, I just have to say, very well done, when you get a chance to see which will be very very happy, as a fan I must say, well done, will follow when I can as only say so much, but I do believe you will be happy!
