The Ames Room - Made for a Quaker Oats Commercial
Errol Morris, Bob Chappell, Steve Hardie, Julie Ahlberg, Julian Wall.
The Ames room effect is achieved by constructing a space with exaggerated geometry but which looks normal from only one exact position. Usually this is a peep hole into the room so that one can watch "live" as people move around in the space and appear to grow and shrink before one's very eyes. Unfortunately when the effect is used on film there might be an assumption that some other visual FX are at work.
See below for an explanation of how I figured out the geometry for this particular instance using 3D computer models (Sketchup) and also there is a video here of Errol Morris and Ricky Jay walking around in the room which shows the effect.
Figuring out the weird shapes of the oversized product boxes proved to be the most difficult aspect of the job, and they would only look correct when placed in the exact spot of the room for which they were drawn!
See below for an explanation of how I figured out the geometry for this particular instance using 3D computer models (Sketchup) and also there is a video here of Errol Morris and Ricky Jay walking around in the room which shows the effect.
Figuring out the weird shapes of the oversized product boxes proved to be the most difficult aspect of the job, and they would only look correct when placed in the exact spot of the room for which they were drawn!
Above is a video of how I worked out the geometry for the room. It's a movie file so let it play or grab the controls.
Ricky Jay and Errol Morris grow and shrink.......it's magic.
Room from the back which attempts to show how distorted the space really is.