Tecnical: lighting in Fantasmic!

[GoofyMagic]

The lights that raise for the intro, what type are they? They look almost like 360 degree Cyberlights...Anyone know?

Also is there a lighting board out there anywhere? Or FX in general or anything of that nature?

Thanks!!

 

[boo52]

The lights that raise for the intro, what type are they? They look almost like 360 degree Cyberlights...Anyone know?

Also is there a lighting board out there anywhere? Or FX in general or anything of that nature?

Thanks!!

I believe the tower have mostly Martins on them and a few Cyberlights. Not sure though. I do know that the lighting board is located in the booth which is at the top of the theater and they use a Wholehog 2 console.

 

[GoofyMagic]

Thanks! Would be awesome to see up there sometime...

 

[WDWfreak89]

I think you can I talked with a lighting deisgner from disney world once and he said if I ever wanted to on my next visit call him and he will show me the equipment. so try calling around disney world and you might be able to find someone

 

[lightboy]

Hey hey there...

The towers that come up are actually all High-End lights (used to be Morpheus I believe when the show opened...and I believe DLR's is still Morpheus). They have Studio Spots (I know)...575s...not sure if they are CMY color mixing though. They may have Studio Colors as well...I haven't been over there in a looonnngg time to visit those guys.

The Cyberlights are actually not Cybers at all (I thought they were at first too)...they are actually Coemar NAT 4Ks (4Ks...hmm, don't quote me on that, but I know they are NATs). They have a mirror sort of head on them, but it's a weird type of contraption...I'd view the Coemar site or google it if you want to see it. You can find those on the architectural truss, as well as more on stage on poles.

They've also got various outdoor PAR cans, with color scrollers (they may be color fader scrollers)...and other odds and ends. The board is a WholeHog II that is up in the booth in the center, rear of the house...and is 100% run off of SMPTE timecode.

Hope I helped ya!

Hey boo...the guesses weren't too bad...I'm impressed for a fireworks guy!

 

[boo52]

Hey boo...the guesses weren't too bad...I'm impressed for a fireworks guy!

Hey I wasn't always playing with the big stuff. I spent some time at Fan and sentenced to Epic for a few years.

 

[Legacy]

Just out of curiousity, how many fixtures are patched into the show. And I would also assume that they use only four universes, or do they run linked consoles?

 

[Blizz]

You dont need to link consoles with the Hog2, you can use 2 DMX widgets giving you a total of 8 DMX universes.

Also, I got to say I think Disney is the largest user of HES EcoDome's. If you look around the 4 parks and DTD you'll find them hidden all over the place with some fixtures id give my left leg to own.

 

[Legacy]

You dont need to link consoles with the Hog2, you can use 2 DMX widgets giving you a total of 8 DMX universes.

The one time I saw eight universes run with the Hog II was at the Army Birthday Ball this year, and they were using the two consoles linked together with the DMX through on the slave. We are traveling with a couple of widgets, but those are for back-up if our main board dies and we have to use the Hog PC as a back-up.

I had no idea that there were so many lighting people on these boards.

 

[Blizz]

Amazingly and even harder to believe is they are all so critical of WDW's shows. Haha. But in all seriousness the guys a WDW do one heck of a job, some of the best lighting in the world. I mean Lighting Dimentions even featured the awesome arch. lighting job done at Pop Century and i think it was 2 years ago at LDI they had a tour of WDW's prod. facilities so there is a big connection between live ent. techs and Disney World. One of my mutual friends played Tigger for the longest time in the WDWCP and now he is a tech. somewhere in WDW, last I head he moved from lighting to pyro.

 

[lightboy]

Boo...sentenced to Epic? haha! That's great....!

Legacy...not sure how many universes of DMX they are using at Fan, nor how many fixtures they have...sorry! I'm primarily out at MK...!

Blitz...first...thanks for the props...there are some great guys among us...and really knowledgable as well...some of the best! They are absolutely wonderful to work with!! Even my fireworks buds....you da man Boo!!

Actually the Hog II has 4 universes of DMX built into the console...you *can* expand it by 4 more universes *if you must* by adding what they call a "Hog II OverDrive Box"...or as I believe Legacy said...slaving another Hog. Now there are some companies that make Overdrive boxes that are knockoffs. Eh...get the job done...I wouldn't even user one myself. 4096 Channels (8 universes) of DMX is a lot...that's roughly 227 HES Studio Spots....and a heck of a lot of computing for the Hog II's outdated 486 processor! Instead, we use "Opto-Splitters" if we need more runs to go more places...instead of using up more universes. We rarely use over (and even if that) 4 universes...but it's happened.

Hog Widgets *actually* are used right now primarily with the Wholehog II PC software...and I believe the brand new Hog iPC...which runs both Hog II & Hog III software. It will work on WholeHog III PC when it becomes public. I just went through Hog III training today...and it actually has NO DMX outputs on the console itself...you use an external unit (DP2000), which has 4 universes on it and it is networked via ethernet to the console. You can have up to 10 DP2000s as of right now on the console...which means...yep....40 universes...20,480 channels of DMX. hehehehehehe...

Hope I filled your brain with enough useless information hehe

 

[WDWfreak89]

I had no idea that there were so many lighting people on these boards.

Yeah I am one of them too. But im not to big on knowing all the lights and which ones are which. I guess thats what college is going to be for when I go for theater deisgn.

 

[boo52]

The one reason why I loathe any and all lighting gigs ever.... SOCAPEX. The main reason why I majored in video. Smaller cables.

 

[Legacy]

The one reason why I loathe any and all lighting gigs ever.... SOCAPEX. The main reason why I majored in video. Smaller cables.

You are so right. We are traveling with 30 of them, run in four group bundles and is an absolute nightmare. I appreciate my cable person so much for handling those things.

 

[lightboy]

Aww...socapex is good for ya! Good times with the 2.4k mult

(kidding)

So Boo...."now" you have even less cables with pyro? Correct? Wow...I see where your priorities are....haha, jk!

 

[boo52]

Just remember the almost 2 miles of perimeter cables have to get run through the swamp somehow.

 

[UltimtMickeyFan]

Im curious to see this weekend if the perimeter wire is gone from around the train tracks behind fantasyland.

 

[Blizz]

I like when I was visiting the lighting tech for the Stars on Ice tour. He never touched the cable, he let all the poor union suckers in each city deal with that. All he does is make sure to pack up his Hog II and all of his PC's. Smart idea.

 

[MagliteL13]

I like when I was visiting the lighting tech for the Stars on Ice tour. He never touched the cable, he let all the poor union suckers in each city deal with that. All he does is make sure to pack up his Hog II and all of his PC's. Smart idea.

Anyone know if any Disney stuff is planned for LDI this year?

 

[marni1971]

Just thought I`d chip in on this tech chat.. not that I`m that knowledgable on lighting tech (more interested)

We flew back from DLP last night, and as promised for Boo I took as much notes as possible from Wishes. I`ve got some shots of the Fantsayland roof fittings (from the castle balcony in Fantasyland - long lens stuff so I hope its` of some use to one of you guys) and various pics of the hub fittings (projection units, false rocks, lighting, laser units etc) and also of the lighting `hut` - in the hub is a themed `shed` where I understand an operator controls the gobos, projections etc for the show - I got chatting with them post show and learnt Wishes is run off a Hog 2 controller that controls the projections, gobos and supplemantary castle lighting added for the show. Projections are from false rocks either side of the drawbridge and the new `bunker` in the hub centre. Lasers are from the bunker too and also from the top of MSUSA (corner nearest castle on what is the north east block in WDW). There is also a laser in the highest castle turret (which didn`t work on Monday, was fine for the rest of the week) - some of the fx are amazing.

Pyro, as for FITS, is all launched from Fantsayland rooftops. With new launch equipment by the looks of it (temporary safety railings are a give away) and there are also banks of 16 parcans on the rooftops to backlight the castle too. The generic castle lighting is still hidden on the moat banks, plus strobe lighting (for Fantillusion too). I`ve a multi angle video edit of Wishes coming this week - first of many from DLP - and I`ll get the pics organised when I get organised. Feel free to ask anything (Boo - PM me anytime!) and I`ll try my best to answer with my laymans knowledge.