Home-made Gobos

The musicians came up and asked;  "Is there a way you could create a New York City skyline behind us?  We want it to look as if we're performing in Central Park."

I had to pause and think about it because the show was the next day.
"Well, maybe I could create something in Photoshop tonight and project it onto the white cyclorama behind you."

"Great! Oh, and one more thing, ...is it possible to simulate the changes of the day? ...you know, like, going from morning to night?"

"Aaah, OK."

That night I manipulated an image taken in Central Park in three different ways to look like day, dusk and nighttime. The next morning I printed them on acetate and loaded them into three different Source Four Zoom leko lights. By overlapping the images I was able to change the mood at certain times during the show by fading from one image to the next.
No doubt there are better ways to do this but with little time, I did the best I could. I had to remove people from the park, alter the sky and play with colors. The client was happy and that was the most important thing.

"A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop." Robert Hughe