Week #6 - Disneyland Optical Illusion

I got the opportunity to go to Disneyland again this weekend, and as the quarter progresses I have been more and more observant in terms of lighting. I am incredibly impressed with Disney and the way that they create such a happy feeling just through the lighting throughout the park. One lighting trick that particularly caught my eye was on a large display on Main Street as we were exiting the park. There was enormous display of plastic, replica balloons coming out of an over-sized envelope with a card protruding saying a much more eloquent and clever version of “thanks for coming.”

            What was so exciting about these balloons at night was that light was being projected on them in such a way that made it look like they were not only real, but actually floating. It is hard to tell from this picture since you can’t see the light moving, but somehow shapes of squiggly lines were moving around on the plastic, and rotating to create the illusion that the balloons were being moved around by the wind, floating up and down and back and forth. I looked around and tried to figure out where the lighting fixtures were, but I did not see them. I am incredibly intrigued as to how they achieved this illusion, and managed to conceal the lights that created this illusion. I would guess that it had something to do with rotating lights and maybe some gobos, but I am not positive as to how this worked. I would like to learn. Regardless, I was so impressed that light could create such an exciting and interesting optical illusion.