This week's goal was to practice animation.

So, first I had to choose a project. My goal was to find a magic trick that had been performed in the past using sleight of hand, misdirection, or other techniques, and to re-implement it using technology to make the illusion become reality.

The ideal trick has some relation to technology that makes it an obvious candidate. My choice for a trick is a relatively recent one that plays on people's expectations about electricity. It is a simple light board with 4 switches and 4 colored bulbs.

week 1:
an old fashioned magic-revival

Animation

The tools to do animation are varied in cost and ease of use and functionality. The most robust tool, Blender, is also free, but incredibly hard to use. I found another tool, called SketchUp which is much easier to use. Unfortunately, I do not have a license, but using the demo, I was able to generate models to import into Blender.

Blender's animation tools are much more powerful, so I used it to do the actual animation

The trick

Look at the movie to see the effect.