# Pepper's Ghost Illusion Question



## camsauce (Oct 16, 2009)

Anyone have any ideas on doing this for a large illusion, say, a horse?


----------



## GOT (Apr 17, 2007)

The illusion can be as big as you like, you just need to be able to hide the object you are projecting. The easiest way to do that is to restrict the viewing angle. That way you can hide a large object and do not need a huge sheet of glass/plastic.


----------



## KevinS (Sep 30, 2007)

On behalf of the entire yard haunt community, I want to see this built. 

I have a "how to" on the Hauntproject.com site on my large(ish) peppers ghost - it's evolved through the years, but OMG - a whole Horse?

Please do this!


----------



## Smexiigirlygrl (Aug 5, 2010)

*Possibly....just throwing ideas out there*

I'm not sure if this will work but it is possibly in theory. 
There is an illusion that the eyes do because we have the ability to try to make a face. Here's a link explaining a little bit more.





If you were to say, get one of those casks of a horse (if could be like one of those toy horse sizes), then magnify it with possibly a reflection off a mirror with X10 magnification (total guess on magnification) or something. It could in theory get you a horse that is to the size you want by tricking the eye and it would have that 3D appearance.

I could see a problem with this whole theory but it's just putting something out there.

Otherwise, you might be stuck with the Disney ghost horse with stiff reins outside of the haunted mansion. lolz!

ORRR

You can get a projector and project on a wall or something a horse.  Not as 3D or lifelike but, hey, it's a horse.


----------



## Demon Dog (Mar 30, 2009)

I presume an animated horse (not just standing completely still).
1. projector to create image of horse.
2. a projector screen of some sort (e.g., even screen paint on sheets of plywood) to project onto.
3. a patio door size plastic shrinkwrap kit from Lowes or Home Depot that you attach to a custom wood or metal frame (horse size +). The image on the screen reflects onto this.

Follow the guidance for how to create a Pepper's Ghost, limit the audience's viewing angle, and that should be it. But you may have to scale down the actual projected image of the horse and use perspective to make it appear the ghost horse is a little ways distance (due to the size limitations of the shrink wrap - which is big, but maybe not quite horse size).

Not a Pepper's Ghost, but another option would be to use a projector and create the horse image on a large scrim. If you can find something large enough for the scrim, this would be easier.


----------



## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

You can buy sections of movie screen cloth on ebay for not much money, the material reflects light better than sheets or normal cloth or painted walls. Part of the challenge I see is masking off the surrounding area of the horse image so that it's not illuminated. If you have Finalcut pro or something similar, you can do it. If you need the actual footage to start with, you might look at some of the "making of" from Sleepy Hollow.
I believe they have some footage that's already setup on a "green screen" to make the masking that much easier for you.
Most horses are large creatures, so even just having a front or rear view would be a big order to project and to reflect. If you are trying for a side view, then it will be even tougher to do.
As it was already stated, I think you would have to make the horse quite small, as though it's appearing in the distance.


----------



## Spectral Illusions (Jul 18, 2012)

Building a pepper's ghost illusion for a full size horse would be a very challenging undertaking. Even with projection it would be difficult. I would suggest using force perspective utilizing a smaller pepper's ghost illusion, or rear projecting on sort of scrim or screen.


----------



## camsauce (Oct 16, 2009)

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm shying away from making a full size horse, if I went through all this effort, I would just put a full size horse prop out on display. This leaves me with magnification or projection. I'm leaning towards projection so it can be animated.


----------

