Theater
Pepper’s Ghost Effect Rose
March 2023 - May 2023
A holographic rose for Beauty and the Beast Jr. — polycarbonate over a TV, modeled in Blender, animated in Unity, and triggered from the tech booth over Wi-Fi.
The Effect
Pepper’s ghost is a holographic illusion that reflects light off glass or plastic. This setup used two pieces of polycarbonate, hot-glued together and mounted at an angle above a TV screen. The TV was connected to a laptop hosting the video of the rose.
Building It
The rose was modeled and animated in Blender, then imported into a custom Unity application. Animations were keyed so the rose could lose a petal, lose the last petal and wilt, and grow the petals back.
Running the Show
The laptop wired to the TV hosted the Unity application. A second laptop in the tech booth controlled it over Wi-Fi. The effect ran across three performances in 2023.
