Make a silhouette glow wall

Some of us were talking at work and thought it would be cool to make a glow wall for a Halloween party at work. I never got around to it unfortunately. I have wanted to do this since Halloween but haven't had the time to until now. Overall this was a fun project even if I made and tested it alone :(. This could be a hit at a party or really almost any event. It just has to be in a low light or dark room. Other than that it should be fun for all ages.

Also, I try to learn a little about something I make that I didn't know before. Apparently after reading a lot, I didn't know too much about glow in the dark stuff. Now I know. So here's your gooey morsel of science for the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorescence

Enjoy!

Step 1 Supplies

I picked the sheet and paint up at WalMart for $20. One sheet and 3 cans of paint is around $20. If you have a sheet you can toss out, use that. That should save you around $5. You might be able to get glow spray paint cheaper online, but I didn't see it cheaper than what WalMart had (under $5 a can). The paint seems to have radically varying prices online ($4-$35) as well.

Required:
1 sheet
3 cans of glow spray paint
and a BRIGHT light source
time

Recommended:
camera flash (with remote)
spray paint gun
some thumb tacks or mounts to hold up sheet

Comments

[dreamberry]

I like that this is portable! A blacklight (UV) works good to activate the glow particles, which I learned at Glow Inc. website, also that products will vary in glow intensity and fade rate, hence the wild differences in prices. Kids of all ages love glowing things, don't we?

[CaptPikel]

UV lights do work well but all I had was a small LED one. The flash at full power gave me the best results. I tried a halogen light as well but it didn't do too well. And yes, I think all ages enjoy glow in the dark stuff to a certain extent. It always fascinated me growing up.

[skrubol]

If you do end up using this later, you might look at getting a filter sample pack from Lee or Rosco and see if any work well to let through UV while blocking most of the blinding light.

[polcz]

FYI ... The glow-in-the-dark compounds are ONLY activated by UV Light, which is why the halogen lamp did not work. Sunlight works extremely well to charge the whole sheet. It also shows you just how much Ultraviolet is actually put out by a Xenon flashtube! Other interesting effects can be generated by using a violet laser pointer in the 405nm range.

[l8nite]

the glow in the dark paint is a nice touch ! We used an opaque plastic for a shadow wall in this years haunt and it was very effective, at 8x20' it would have broke our budget to paint it though ! I usually use artist quality paints when using glow in the dark or fluorescent paints and generally on smaller objects, for this years Haunt I was using other quality paints and found it a lot easier to wait until dark and work under a black light. Thank you for sharing this thought invoking idea..

[CaptPikel]

Yeah those cans of paint are pricey for me. But once you paint it once, it's done. Larger than what I did would be a lot to paint but also a lot to get lit evenly for the cool effect. I showed this to some people and they couldn't have had more fun. My flash actually started smoking it was being used so much. I wish I would have had it Halloween. Maybe next year.

[l8nite]

we used a high intensity work light which worked for our purpose, the actors shadow would be 8' talll and pace along side the patrons on the other side and then just disappear when he got out of the light and they approached a corner, leaving them wonder.. a couple of rooms and turns later they came up to the other side of the wall to the operating room so we got 2 scares for one build. . I've already written this into the notebook for next year with 3 stars, perhaps at the end of a dim lit hall or even in the middle of a wall, depending on materials and our actual setup but Im confident it will be a great scare ! http://www.instructables.com/id/2011-Haunted-House-with-help-from-instructables-po/

[CaptPikel]

I wanted to use this in a haunted house at work. Instead of how my video and set up was (person in front and flash in front), we were going to have someone behind the sheet and the flash behind them. This works in reverse. So you get a glowing silhouette but the people can't see the person that made it. This is especially creepy of they are walking by. The actor behind the sheet can follow them and a high flash rate will look like a ghost is following them. Maybe I'll add that to the Instructable to show.

[l8nite]

That's kind of what I was thinking, the whole wall is glowing under a black light and then a bright light flashes behind the wall to reveal a shadow figure

[piratekev]

what color goes on the sheet? or is it clear?

[CaptPikel]

The sheet was initially white. The paint goes on a very light green, almost clear. It's barely noticeable.

[alteregio]

This is so cool! Just have to try this.