Common trick is the gal is in a box, cage whatever and they throw a sheet over it. Pull away the sheet and the woman is either gone or changed into a tiger or something.
With this trick no sheet it thrown over the performer, she's in a glass box and after some magic incantations from the magician, she slowly fades from view. Then after a few more incantations, a tiger or something appears in her place, maybe even appearing from a puff of smoke.
The way it's done is you're not looking through glass, you're looking at a video image of the person / tiger, whatever, as the cube is made of video screens and the interior is lined with hundreds of cameras, the images from which are fed into a program to create the images projected on the screens.
So when the assistant gets in the cage, a real time video of them climbing in is projected as it would be viewed if it were simply a glass box, then the image is faded to the video cameras showing an empty box. The tiger is moved in, and that live shot is faded in.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 03 2023 This https://www.youtube...watch?v=29eEWsXWSGc [doctorremulac3, Apr 03 2023] Classic Sideshow Acts: The Girl into the Gorilla https://www.museumo...l-into-the-gorilla/ [a1, Apr 03 2023] That's not a twist, *this* is a twist ;) https://www.youtube...watch?v=eXKE0nAMmg4 [Skewed, Apr 04 2023] Parallax?-- pocmloc, Apr 03 2023 // Parallax? //
Pepper's Ghost, see also Girl into Gorilla sideshow act. Though lhe link doc offered suggests instead he's hoping to repurpose the technique used on 3D billboards down to stage-magic size. Parallax is an issue with that also, but in a limited venue you might be able to get all of the audience close enough to the right viewing angle.-- a1, Apr 03 2023 I expected something unexpected.
I think it was the with a twist bit in the title that lent me that expectation.
How about using a different girl who's then never seen again every night?
Could make an interesting social experiment, a how long does it take before people notice, comment on it, voice concern and contact the police thing.-- Skewed, Apr 04 2023 Sounds like a reasonable horror movie plot.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 04 2023 Using video/projectors/computer graphics for "illusions" is a bit meh. Turns a stage show into a movie, & also has the parallax errors others have mentioned (same reason car rear-view-mirrors are mostly better than cameras).-- neutrinos_shadow, Apr 04 2023 I'd say whatever technology gets the illusion across would be acceptable, but okay.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 04 2023 random, halfbakery