I'd wondered for YEARS what this was called, the local theater used to do one of these in between movies. Thank you so much, I feel like I've regained a lost piece of my childhood.

I've been wondering why this art form had nearly gone extinct. It seems that very few people still understand the subtleties behind it. Thank you!

After almost two decades of VJ-ing on computers and staring at screens, I've recently wanted to get away from digital and dive more into analog, partly because I've been purging from too much technology, and partly because I started getting migranes. I love the idea of getting back to the roots, how it all started! I really appreciate analog visuals and I'm excited to experiment, thanks for breaking it down!

Steve there should be a Discord for this

Dude.. solid. As a kid i was always obsessed with this. Went to new york city at 16 and me and dad saw a liquid light show at the hayden planetarium by Joshua Light Show Joshua was a dick to me when i asked him how this stuff was done. Told me to look it up online and found nothing Just found this video randomly, thank you so much its so goddamn helpful

Lime and limpid green, a second scene now fights between the blue you once knew

this is a beautiful art form and i feel like a resurgence is on the way soon. at least i think i can't be the only one trying to get into liquid light projections

in the 70's and 80's i worked at a sound co. and would provide sound and light shows at parties, schools, we had two metior pro beams that had two steel rods that came out of the front and you would slide a motor unit over the rods and drop in these cassettes we had, we had a whole case of them, oil cassettes, flowers even a orgy scene that would rotate very slow but light up the whole wall. very bright, very sharp optics. i can't even find a picture of them now on the internet., not the projector, not the cassettes. nothing. i loved messing with that thing. just don't grab the orgy cassette at a high school gig. the cassettes were about 6-7 inches round and made of glass with a rubber edge so the motor could drive it. oil cassettes were a two pirce unit to make random shapes.

Love the tutorial. I love the randomness you get from the dyes so much more than a typical light show (lasers and projected lights on their own). I hope to incorporate this style of light show into something in the future.

Steve, thank you. Such a fascinating video on how to create liquid light shows. How generous of you to share your techniques! Was so into light shows when I was a teenager going to concerts, when my dream was to be a psychedelic artist. And I agree-these hand done optics are more interesting than the plethora of more mechanical creations-what you call “lazy,” ha ha. Beautiful, organic shapes & colors, like something Ma Nature would create.

This is insane! I've totally just got inspired for my final degree work! Thanks so much!

This is absolutely fantastic. Great presentation. Really opened my eyes to the possibilities. My band Elephant Path is trying to work this into our live set with fans being able to participate in helping create the light show. Thanks for the inspiration.

You've permanently changed my life with this video. Thank you so much

My 2015 project will be making one of these, full scale with cellophane wheels and cut outs too. I cant wait to get started.

Dude, that is so cool. I saw The Charlatans in 1991 and they had a great oil and water light show. I never saw another show like it but it made such an impression and has stayed with me until now, 29 years later. I think I saw you have a video about how you would set up for a live show. I'm gonna check that out too. When I put on a show I want to try to get this going on. It's brilliant. What a great tutorial. Many many thanks.

Maybe the best video I've ever seen on KZfaq. I've tried this with a pair of clock faces before, but only using oil and water. I'd never added alcohol. And I used candy dye, but never got very intense colors. Thank you very much for demoing this!

Thanks, this is a great help for me in my quest to inject more colour into my overhead projected liquid light...

Wow man is that ever cool! In the 1960's these were called heavy water displays. The Iron Butterfly album cover has one as the background. Also, in the 1980's the Allman Brothers Band used one as the back drop on stage and it was live and changed with the heavy beat and rythm. They used a glass brownie tray and an overhead projector. Thanks so much for showing us the way! Beautiful.

You should also do a video on how to set it up for a live performance

no.. Thank YOU! i do projections at parties but am performing my first overhead projector liquid light show and your comprehensive video surely helps me a tonne right now. Subscribed !

im new to this art style and this video has solidified my decision to start this art style and create my own art so thank you!

Thanks for the tutorial! I managed to put together a small light show using etched glass for a friends performance and it was a hit. My bulb burned out after about 4 hours but I should be getting a replacement soon. I wouldn't have been able to do it without your tutorial. Much appreciated.

Great video Steve! I like your technique and narration. gonna try this later. THANK YOU

Thank you for explaining and showing so clearly how to do this.

I am so grateful for this, I'm fascinated by this art form and can't wait to utilize it in my own videos!

o yeah, almost forgot - the effects are awesome!! The alchohol tip, the advice to not bother wthi food dye and the detail explaining the use of separate dyes for water and oil are major secrets revealed saving countless hours of trial and error. THANK YOU!!!

finally! I've been looking for a definitive tutorial on this. it'd be great if you continued this series!

Fantastic tutorial! I have had an OHP sitting in my basement for MONTHS just collecting dust. I'm-a pull it out an go psychedelic with that baby!!! A thousand thanks to you sir!!!

Man, thank you so much for putting this up here!!! It’s true this art form is hard to find out about, so thank you for sharing!!

This was an awesome introduction! Thanks so much for showing me how this is done!

Love your page. picking up a projector for free from a church tomorrow, gonna be spending a lot of time on your channel.

Amazing! thanks so much, there is so little out there about this, I had gathered the equipment and started doing it, but got bored as i couldnt get it quite right, i didnt knew about the alcohol, that opened my mind. Im starting doing again. thanks again for the huge help

Thanks so much for making this video. I just discovered thru watching this, how much I want to start doing this! Nothing looks like this looks.

Email this guy. He is very friendly and helpful. I'm looking for part II.... maybe one day

Nice that this is still around. I had the good fortune of being resident liquid light and other creative projection stuff for a nightclub, RPM Toronto, for 5 years or so back in the late 80s

thanks man, super helpful. im looking to add this as a layer to my CRT video feedback looping rig. and hey, clock glass! i never would have thought of that.

Thankyou so much for this tutorial...I got my plates and ink from you a month ago and getting everything set up- sooooo fun!🙏🏽❤

Thanks Steve!!! I have 6 free school projectors and just scored 10 clock faces at auction...I'm ready to try this out.

Good stuff, brother! It's true there never really has been a lot of information about this craft. I very much into all kinds of analog effects as I'm making music all-analog these days too. I'll definitely be incorporating what I've learned here into music videos and eventually some live performances! Keeping the hand craft alive :)

Fairly simple process but extremely effective - I do my own electronic music and would love something like this for a back drop.

I LOVE THIS! Thank you so much for making this video! I can't wait to try this!

thank you so much for this tutorial, my VJing experimentations are going next level with that!

Thank you for uploading this I always had wondered how to do this.

Excellent tutorial...you fired up my imagination

Thank you. Great explanations. I’m going to try some of your ideas!

Incredible. Thank you!

Thanks for posting this, man. This was awesome, just what i was looking for. I'm in a Pink Floyd cover/tribute band, as well as one for The Doors, and I plan to do this and probably film a bunch and edit them together for projection next time we play.

Thanks dude this is awesome, very helpful! Glad you did it. After watching this I am now realizing that my biggest problem with what I was doing was not being patient enough... It looked very similar to the way it looked in the beginning.

Just an Incredible video ! Better impossible, Thank you so much for sharing the info !!

Thanks, I really love the sun at the end.

Some of this I could’ve made with our guesswork, but you are a legend for making such a comprehensive guide!

was looking for awesome visuals to add to my band's shows and stumbled on a Dead tribute band with a live liquid show like this. said "damn, that so cool". then I typed in "how to do a liquid light show" and bam, here I am. thank you for your service.

I use special slide projectors with horizontal light stages, these concentrate more light in less space so dyes can be more concentrated and colors more saturated, the mixing crystals are about 2 inches across, the lower layer can be patterned glass which imparts rigid shape onto otherwise fluid shape. Much less liquid is used. If one fills a crystal with heavily SALTED water (salt well dissolved) water dye such as food color or water based transparent inks will not mix together despite being water based, they float on top of the heavy salt water and I suspect imprint separate channels into it so that they do not mix of their own accord but may be stirred up. This looks like the clouds of Jupiter. I'd like to know if others are using the same technique with the salt water and water based dyes, this allows virtually any number of colors to remain separated unless stirred up too much, it operates much like the technique of book marbling only no sea weed is used, perhaps sea weed jells salt water, something like hair jell might work to0 further thicken the salt water but for my little stages salt alone is enough. sugar softens and feathers the patterns, alcohol or soap instantly destroys the separation erasing the patterns., oil adds a weird shimmer but has little effect on the water dye separation pattern because it floats above the dyes like a lacquer and LOOKS like a lacquer , dyed oil is particularly interesting because it adds a "finish" with tinted "shine" You move the dye about with pins that have been heated and imbedded in a sheet of clear plastic similar to the pins used in book marbling., or with fishing line, transparent comb, or other minimally invasive implement, but you do not squish them between crystals, it does not work. I would assume all this this would work on a larger scale for overheads but I've never tried it.

This is absolutely amazing...wow!!!

Thanks so much for this video! You have awesome work!

I watched a light show group called Little Princess 109 doing this at the Fillmore/Carousel in San Francisco many years ago. I was fascinated. They also ran 8MM loops of film on separate projectors with trippy M.C. Escher like animated drawings. The 60's version of an animated GIF.

Muchas gracias por hacer este tutorial. He aprendido muchisimo. Hasta hace poco no sabia de esta tecnica. Este tutorial es exelente. Muchas gracias. (translation: Thank you very much for making this tutorial. I learned a lot. Until recently I did not know this technique. This tutorial is excellent. Thank you very much.)

This is f**kin AWESOME and i love the delivery. I'm wanting to take up this art form now. So thank you for that, so inspiring. I wanna add it to a film clip I'm working on so i like what you said at the end about clips today looking kinda fake and analouge art forms being great. :)

Thank you Steve. This was great.

I saw someone do a liquid light show once very cool always remembered it

thank you for for this tutorial this is what i have been looking for!!!!

Rad i admire this bro thanks for keeling this art alive!

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, this is so helpful 👍

Thamks for this tutorial. I am fascinated by this and wish to pursue this art form.

As a fan of all things 60s, this was fascinating, thank you so much for sharing

thank you so much for this!! this was really helpful :') im definitely planning to try this soon

Thanks man, this was super instructive.

Great tutorial

simply wow!

Wonderful and inspirational

Thanks for the tutorial, motivated to make some art!

This is awesome! Thank you!

Wow thank you for the upload!

this was so helpful thank you so much for uploading this!!!!

Hey Man. Thanks a lot for sharing that. Im pretty impressed.! Keep on that good work. - Big up from Germany!

Wow, you have just explained the whole 60s for me!!!

Fantastic, thank you I’ve learned a lot.

13:53 On the left, it looks like earth spinning and in the center is the sun

great work

great work, thanks for demystifying that. I tried to figure it out on my own about 8 years ago and couldn't get there

not one dislike for damn good reason. 309 : 0 =majesty in like to dislike ratio. well done sir

This is very cool! I first saw this on the 1969 Dick Clack show after Woodstock.

WOW THANK YOU!! I have been contemplating buying a liquid light projector, but Id so much rather make these myself!!!!

Love the oscillations

This is Awesome! Thanks

can you do lighting for an average/local smaller type venue with just one projector, and the mineral oil and all the coloring and nothing else? btw thx for the vid your one of the few i could find on the topic

Love it! Thank you!

wow that's so cool , ill like to use that for my band , thanks for the info you right theres not a lot of info on this , your videos are the coolest , thanks and rock on

Awesome Joshua would be proud

Just saw this for the first time, thank you! My materials arrived and I’m setting things up. I sub’d too.

Amazing!

LOVE IT !!!!!

This is rad, thanks!

This is really cool... I couple of questions... I wonder if by using permanent dyes (and maybe ice) that you could make some really cool custom frisbees

Amazing. Thank you.

Thanks for the tips.

Great video thanks for sharing

This is amazing..thank you so much

Dude, I did my own wet shows in my folk's attic about a hundred years ago and I didn't even think about layering! That is a great idea, I just might start doing them again just for the grins. Have you ever tried a VERY small piece of dry ice in the dye mixture? It was really intense! Have you experimented with polarized light? Just wondering, what the effect would be?

Thank you SO much for creating and explaining!! This takes me straight back to my childhood. I was a kid in the SF Bay Area in the late 60s/early seventies, and these images up on a screen or wall were a huge visual part of that. (And the wiki page for liquid light show *really* sucks.)