How I Designed And Built The Magic Mirror for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Part 1
"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
- Edith Wharton -
Go see Beauty and the Beast. Performances start on April 19th. You will find it hard to believe you are not on Broadway.
In the Disney story, Belle uses a Magic Mirror.
This is my story of how I imagined, designed, and crafted it for her.
An animated Belle, gazing into the Magic Mirror.
Source: Disney image by way of YouTube
NOTE: In this series of prop design articles, clicking on most images will reveal a full-sized version of the image. Just in case you want to count the blemishes on the actor's face.
Perception is everything.
I wanted my prop version of The Mirror to appear as similar as possible to the one in the 2017 live action Disney movie. In this image captured from the 2017 movie, Belle has commanded The Mirror "Show me The Beast."
Belle shows Gaston the Beast.
Source: Disney image by way of YouTube
So I looked closely at the movie's Mirror scenes.
Most obvious are The Mirror's extremely ornate Baroque styling, its dark gold coloration, and of course the animated appearance of remote characters.
I began by finding a more complete outline of the mirror. I discovered a usable image of a commercially available cellphone case that was part of the film's merchandising. I traced half of the outline, and used it to extract and mirror half of the original image (see sequence below).
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Merchandising image, traced right half, and mirrored extraction (click for full-sized images)
Source: Disney merchandising product image.
Then things got really tough...
I nearly went crazy trying to create the sculpted appearance of the mirror. I found some web apps that purported to translate an image into a 3D model. However, the model was neither detailed nor smooth enough, it was negative (i.e. concave instead of convex), and I had no tools to improve it.
Negative-space STL model generated by a web app.
Derived from Disney merchandising product image.
I went back to working with 123D Design.
A reasonable facsimile of the Mirror face.
Original CAD image by @creatr
Unfortunately, either it is less well suited to creating Baroque style art than I would have liked, or I just don't have the right skill set working with it to do so.
Nevertheless, I ultimately succeeded in turning out a reasonable facsimile of the Mirror surface texture, one that I could work with. I showed the director this CAD image of what I had finally arrived at, and got her approval to move forward.
I ordered some dark gold printer filament.
The complexity of the CAD image loaded down the 123D Design program pretty significantly, but (provided I was patient enough) I could still (just barely) work with it.
I printed a thin appliqué of the face of the mirror to see how it would look when made of the gold filament. You can see the progress of that print job in the following series of photos.
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Sequence as Mirror appliqué was being printed (click for full-sized images)
Original images by ***@creatr**
The print turned out well.
Unfortunately, at that point, even though I more or less had the aesthetics down pat, I didn't yet have a solid concept for the overall design of the mirror body, nor did I know for sure what LEDs I would be using, or how I would place, power, and operate them. All I had was what you've seen before:
One surplus Kindle Fire, a rather lame Mirror proof of concept prototype, lashed together on a dollar store mirror frame, and the very thin, flexible appliqué that I had just printed.
Off to a rather poor start...
Original image by @creatr
Oh, yeah...
I had all that, and a sideways-oriented video of The Beast from the 2017 Disney film.
How did I get from there to a finished production prop?
Stay tuned for our next installment to find out.
~To Be Continued~
If you're just tuning in, here are previous entries in this series (including ruminations) about prop-making:
"The Ocean of Life" - A Haiku by Duncan Cary Palmer
"When Wandering Wizards Wonder..."
"Finally Out to Sea..." a Haiku by Duncan Cary Palmer
Beauty and the Beast Props - Enchanted Rose ~Teaser~
Beauty and the Beast Props - Magic Mirror ~Teaser~
Beauty and the Beast Props - Windmill ~Teaser~
Beauty and the Beast Props - The Director Is Happy!
Fine-Tuning The Rose for Beauty and the Beast
How I Designed And Built Maurice's Windmill for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Part 1
How I Designed And Built Maurice's Windmill for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Conclusion
How I Designed And Built The Magic Mirror for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Part 1
How I Designed And Built The Magic Mirror for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Part 2
How I Designed And Built The Magic Mirror for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Part 3
How I Designed And Built The Magic Mirror for ~Beauty and the Beast~ Conclusion
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Great work you have changed movie scene into reality I am glad to see your work & I appreciate your effort how you do such mind-blowing work through this post everyone can make that mirror thanks for this guidance @creatr
Thank you.
Welcome
Thank you.
I am always amazed at the gift folks like you have to imagine and then bring to fruition items of beauty like this. On to part 2. :)
Great job @creatr, you are very hardworker, you are doing very good job. Thanks @creatr for sharing this trick. i appreciate your work, and i hope you can share more life related stories or tricks.
your post is resteem from @mafzaal92
Thanks.
most welcome @creatr
maybe you could mass produce versions of the mirror featuring random people or even celebrities saying, "Good Job" - I know Trump would buy one ;)
But I can truly say to you, without artistry, Good Job, my friend!
Thank you, John! :D
Magic mirror!! This is very interesting sir. Dear, @creatr thank you so much for sharing this kind of interesting story with us. Keep it up sir. I'm so glad to be one of the followers of your blog
Excited to see how your creation develops.
How lovely to see you, Ophelia!
I'm glad you came across this. It has been quite exciting developing these props, and a real challenge at times. With the Mirror prop, just trying to understand the aesthetics of the fleur-de-lis and find some approximation of it was a struggle for me.
Thanks so much for your visit.
Great craftsmanship.
I'm loving your series both because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney animation and live-action story of all time, and because you have a very interesting behind-the-scenes process. The fact that I know from your other post that your Director loved these props just makes the whole series seem like a fairy tale unfolding.
Greetings, @cryptocopy!
I'm really glad to discover that I'm fueling your love for this Disney production. :D
Working on these, trying to get things "right," to bring them close enough to my own visions of what is ideal and also to please the B&TB director, has indeed been a real adventure. It's challenged me to the limits of my creative abilities, and taken me through some deep waters at times.
I appreciate your interest very much, and hope you find the remaining stories in the series as engaging as the ones you've read thus far. :D It's nice to "meet" you today, and I wish you well here on Steemit.
Thanks! I grew up with Disney, that's why I love that they're making classic fairy tale movies again in a way that's neither a re-imagining nor a critique of the original.
Also, I find the creative process fascinating. I come from a family of creatives, though I think that gene skipped with me, and I also work with people in creative industries. So I enjoy learning about how people build things, go from one prototype to final product, and find inspiration around them.
And it's nice to meet you too!
Good for you. ;)
Please stay in touch!
I will. Thanks!
Excellent up in the mirror the tip is like a crown of the king, I think that's how I see it, it's great your design a work of art
Thanks.
My version sort of looses the king's crown, because it is truncated and flattened. But yes, the original definitely has a crown at the top.