Aircraft Searchlight

When I was little, I lived in a house near a small airfield. The tower had a searchlight, which consisted of two lights mounted back-to-back: one was white and the other was green. I'd fall asleep almost every night watching the faint arc of light, alternating between white and green, sweeping across the sky outside my bedroom window.

My plan, from my earliest modeling days, was to recreate this effect on the sky backdrop of a permanent home layout. I've known all along how I'd do it, too: A drum with two slits, one with a green gel filter, rotating slowly over a white light source, angled such that the light rays swept across the backdrop just as they had when I was young. (I've had half a mind to do it anyway, and have the light sweep across part of a wall or ceiling in my bedroom area.)

Return to David's Animation Workshop

Copyright © 2021-2022 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved