Cyclorama wall tips/suggestions?

[cyrus]

I am considering building a cyc wall in my new space. There are two adjoining walls that form a 90 degree angle which can serve as a great backdrop (height: 9 ft, widths 16 ft on one side, 10 ft on the other side)

I have investigated various solutions to make the bottom wall curve -- "wiggle board" flexible plywood, for example, can be used easily. However I am perplexed at making the portion of the cyc wall that goes in the corner.

Now I'm thinking of simply using drapery hanging from a drapery track that curves to match the 90 degree turn. This has the added benefit of being able to change the backdrop color etc. easily and not having to deal with construction, and also not losing space along the wall to a permanent cyc wall installation.

ANyone have any hints/suggestions for this?

[rdenney]

I am considering building a cyc wall in my new space. There are two adjoining walls that form a 90 degree angle which can serve as a great backdrop (height: 9 ft, widths 16 ft on one side, 10 ft on the other side)

I have investigated various solutions to make the bottom wall curve -- "wiggle board" flexible plywood, for example, can be used easily. However I am perplexed at making the portion of the cyc wall that goes in the corner.

Now I'm thinking of simply using drapery hanging from a drapery track that curves to match the 90 degree turn. This has the added benefit of being able to change the backdrop color etc. easily and not having to deal with construction, and also not losing space along the wall to a permanent cyc wall installation.

ANyone have any hints/suggestions for this?

You can slot plywood to make it curve in one direction only. So, you can make a curve to connect the vertical walls, and other curves to connect the walls and floor. It's where the two walls and the floor meet that you'll have a problem. The way they do it in real cycloramas is by cutting panels in triangular sectors with bulging sides, curving them, and then joining them at the edges. Look at the construction of any cardboard globe and you'll get the idea. No, it's not easy, but that's how it's done.

But if it were me, I would carve the compound curve in a large block of foam, or use hardware cloth connected to a wood carcass with the curves cut in it, and lay fiberglass over it to make the curved surface. If you intend to stick a flat photographic print to the resulting compound curve, you'll be back to cutting those sectors, though.

Rick "narrow enough sectors will simulate the compound curve effectively" Denney

[Jim C.]

I've made a bottom wall curved very inexpensively in my old studio by using vinyl
sheet flooring remnants inverted, carpet taped to the wall and floor and painted white.
Make sure the sheet flooring back is smooth, some are textured.
I never got as far as making a corner radius in my old space but depending on how
'round' you want the corner to be the sheet flooring can be notched and eased to
form a parabola.
The sheet flooring is also easy to remove.

There is also a more expensive solution Pro Cyc - http://www.procyc.com/product.php?intID=3

[IanMazursky]

I used to work at some of the studios in the city and the cyc’s were made out of plaster (could have been a type of concrete) covered wood.
They made a lot of frames, slit plywood, draped it with think sheets of plywood and screwed it to the supports.
Then they skim coated it with plaster. They would continue to build up the plaster layers until they could smooth it out into a nice curve.
The total thickness of the plaster must have been an 1” to 2". It was thick enough to walk all the way to the wall on the curve.
The trick is the thickness of the plaster/concrete. To thin and its going to fail, to thick and the weight could be a real issue.

I remember one of the studios i worked at did a rush cyc job and when we went to paint it, i cracked it (Im only 133lbs).
I wasn’t supposed to paint the cyc but i volunteered for some reason. They just did a few thin coats of plaster and it couldn’t support much.
They also drove a man lift through it by accident or so they claim! Luckily not my fault but it was funny to watch. They wouldn’t stop even though we were all yelling for them to stop.
Needless to say they rebuilt it properly using the best cyc guy in the city. I forget his full name but he was amazing!

[Frank Petronio]

I wonder why you'd want one? The corners are always a problem to get perfect unless you blow out the background tones - otherwise only Photoshop or a good retoucher can fix it. So how many shots do you really need it for? And why, I mean hasn't it been done to death already?

In basic drawing classes the instructors would always ask us to include horizon or ground lines. Reference points are nice.

[Photojeep]

I built one in one corner of my old studio and made the long curved portions (where the wall met the floor) out of hard board (peg board without the holes.) I also used hardboard where the walls met. The corner was a compound curve that we filled with several braces made from particle board. We made the braces by drawing them using a string held at one end at one corner of the particle board and pulled to another corner with a pencil tied at one end of the string and traced the arc to the opposite corner. We repeated the process on the opposite corner and cut the two arcs (and ended up with a bunch of football-shaped pieces.) We glued these to the floor with the curve facing front. We cut strips of mountboard about 1-1/2" in width and stapled them to the curved braces leaving a gap about 1" apart. We repeated this by covering the gaps to create a 'lath' that the drywall mud could hang on to.

I was told by the taper who came into to finish the mudding that there is a 1/4" sheet rock made for curves. That would probably require less mud.

Paint became the last problem and I found that I could use exterior stucco and masonry matte surface paint. Matte worked to hide any imperfections in the finishing and exterior paint contains no whiteners so there was no blue-ish hue to the surface.

Good luck!
Randy

[Kaiser]

Honestly I went through this whole process and let me just tell you it was a nightmare to try and do myself and I am very mechanical. I thought about using ProCyc but honestly they are out of their minds with their pricing. I bought a system from Infinity Wall Systems. It cost 40% less than ProCyc and was installed in 1 day. I actually got referred to them by a museum of all places that had one installed as a display. I did all the install work myself other than the patch and paint part. I dont remember the contact persons name but the email address was infinitycycs@aol.com I would check with them before wasting a bunch of time and money on this thing. They really worked to make it affordable and were very helpful.