When it comes to decorations for special occasions, nothing will ever beat the thrill of helium balloons, paper streamers, colourful tinsel and cherished ornaments – they’re the things that make childhood magical, and often hold fond memories (er, except if you’re my eldest daughter who is still scarred by the sound of a dozen balloons bursting simultaneously at her 2nd birthday party!)
With the technological age well and truly upon us, however, it’s inevitable that a new way to decorate for parties, events and holiday seasons has been invented, and it looks like a lot of fun. Slide to the side party supply shops, because digital is here!
American company AtmosFX Digital Decorations has invented a product that means anyone can turn their home, office, or other location into a dynamic, one-of-a-kind atmospheric experience with the use of professional animation – and it’s mess-free! Simply choose a digital download or a DVD, hook it up to a projector or television set and you’re set to go. The only hard part will be deciding whether to scare or delight your friends, family and neighbours.
Whatever time of year you choose, no matter if it’s an indoor or outdoor environment, you can project awesome, realistic holographic illusions and surface projections onto windows, walls, floors, ceilings or monitors.
The company currently produce two ranges of digital decorations – the largest is called AtmosFEARfx and is perfect for Halloween decorating, trick-or-treaters, and horror-themed parties. There are 13 AtmosFEARfx sequences to choose from, ranging from family-friendly scary content to realistic horror-themed content. With titles including ‘Ghostly Apparitions’, ‘Witching Hour’, ‘Zombie Invasion’, ‘Unliving Portraits’, ‘Nightstalkers’, ‘Creepy Crawlies’ and ‘Shades of Evil’, each one provides a thrilling, haunting experience.
Imagine standing outside a house and seeing a ghostly apparition in the windows, zombies clawing to get out or a possessed family staring down at you. How about seeing a character hover in mid-air in the doorway of a house or in the front yard. There’s some fun to be had here at the expense of scaredy cats like me, and some of the ‘realistic’ rated scenes freaked me out, so I’d tread carefully when choosing anything that will be viewed by children. There are unforgettable events, and there are unforgettable events – you want the one that won’t culminate in a lifetime of paying a psychologist.
If you’d rather play it safe, there’s the delightful AtmosCHEERfx range, which focuses on the Christmas period, as well as many other celebrations such as birthdays, anniversaries and New Year’s Eve. You can create a snowy Christmas wonderland or ramp up the anticipation with a surprise visit from Santa. There are also medleys of colourful balloons, confetti, streamers and dazzling displays of fireworks to make festive occasions even more enjoyable. And with a variety of customisable messages and sound effects, they are perfect for use year after year, with the possibilities limited only by your imagination.
Their website provides excellent ‘how to’ videos, and they also sell a range of equipment called AtmosGEAR, which is comprised of products intended to enhance the digital decoration experience. There are also tips and tricks videos that show you how to set up your decorations and maximise their effects (hint: it’s probably worth buying the premium window projection material if you’re planning to project the digital images onto your windows – it looks incredible!)
So the next time you find yourself with an occasion to eat, drink and be scary/merry, maybe consider putting away the stepladder, the sticky tape and the streamers, and get inspired to decorate the modern way!
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