The Soul-Sucking Dementor on Forbidden Journey? | Inside Universal Forums
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The Soul-Sucking Dementor on Forbidden Journey?

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S

snoopboop

May 7, 2012
31
1
Hello all! I'm new here! :wave:

My first trip to Universal/IOA was last November, and unfortunately, I didn't discover this board until after I returned from my trip. While it was nice having all of the rides and experiences be "unspoiled," I sure would have liked to have had a heads-up about the soul-sucking dementor on FJ. I rode at least half a dozen times, and I never noticed it. Perhaps it wasn't working, or perhaps I wasn't looking in the right spot?

Anyway, I'm wondering whether anyone has a picture of what this is supposed to look like? I remember one dementor near the end of the ride that looked like he had a flashlight in his mouth, but I don't remember any others specifically!

I'm going back next November, so I'll definitely be watching for him this time... but in the meantime, if anyone can give me more specifics, that'd be great!! :smiley:
 
Where are we supposed to see ourselves? Is it IN that light somehow? Or is it supposed to be projected in front of him or something?
 
The effect is known to hiccup every now and then, but yes...you should see yourselfs in the mist that follows your encounter with the dementor.
 
From what I've been told, the actual image projected on the mist is from the image taken for the on ride photo back in the Forbidden Forest. But where ever the image is taken, the facial recognition software isolates your face and black mattes it for the projection. So if you have your head turned at to far of an angle the software won't recognize a face.
 
It's very off and on for me. What'll often happen is only two faces will appear in the mist, or the software will be out of sync and we'll get a set of faces from another vehicle. I actually can't remember the last time I saw my own face with everyone else's..... hmm... something to harp on about in my next trip report!
 
I've never seen my own face, but I've also never had a ride where it wasn't at least functioning. Usually it's another vehicle's photo which, in all honesty, does not surprise me. The on-ride photos are almost always out of sync in the gift shop. I must have twenty or thirty tickets on my desk to view my on-ride photos...
 
I've ridden FJ over a dozen times over 2 years and I've never seen anyone's face in the mist... It just looks like a flashlight is shining through that dementor's mouth. In fact, I didn't even know about the effect until I visited this forum
 
It was a nice idea... but as the OP said... it looks like a dementor with a flashlight in its mouth. I would bet average folks having no idea what to expect see the light source and not the projection.
 
AcidPop said:
Why is this effect so hard to maintain? Anyone know?
Click to expand...

Some have speculated the dementor does not have sufficient time to reset sometimes. While others say its the software not recognizing the faces causing the skulls to appear. Given all the variables though its a very hard effect to pull off every 4.5 seconds for 12 hours straight.

Spideyfreak said:
Probably because the software is running on Windows or something.
Click to expand...

Since I am now a Mac user through and through this is hilarious! Our windows based lap top took a crap about two weeks ago.
 
This is the Harry Potter version of the Spidey signal issue I suppose...I'm guessing reset time is the issue...I've seen myself a few times but Saturday it was all skulls
 
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