by CommerceStyle.com

Created on: January 18, 2007   Last Updated: February 25, 2012

The use of fog in theatrical and stage effects has been around for a while, but until recently if you wanted to achieve this effect on a shoestring budget you were pretty much just out of luck. Now things have changed and pretty much anyone can produce a fog effect without a ton of money or time.

Dry Ice

The most common method of using fog for special effects is to use Dry Ice. Placing Dry Ice (very cold) into warm water will cause the dry ice to quickly turn from a solid into a gas, thus producing the fog. The great thing about dry ice and the main reason it's used in special effects is since the gas produced is cool in temperature, it is heavy and lays on the ground because as we know, hot air rises and cold air falls to the ground. This produces a mystical or eerie effect that is often used in musical concerts and horror movies. There are however some bad sides to using Dry Ice to produce a fog effect.

First off, Dy Ice is solidified carbon dioxide that has a surface temperature of -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit (-78.5 degrees C). Dry Ice is so cold if you touch it with your bare hands it will burn your skin. That is why when handling dry ice you much use heavy duty glove to protect yourself, you'll also want to make sure you have proper ventilation when using dry ice. Another down side to using dry ice to product a fog effect is price. Dry Ice isn't really expensive, but the amount of money it takes to produce the desired effect for a good amount of time just doesn't make sense when compared to the cost of purchase and operation of a fog machine.

The Fog Machine.

Fog machines have been around for a while, they are very common at concerts and in movies to product a hazy fog effect. Until recently fog machines have always been pretty expensive, but in the last few years they have come way down in price and size making them affordable for pretty much anyone who wants to product a cool fog effect at home or anywhere else. Fog Machines use a liquid called "Fog Juice" to product the fog effect.

The main problem with Fog Machines is that they product a hot or warm fog, which tends to rise and create a haze effect as apposed to dry ice that falls and creates the low lying fog effect. Cold air can be used to cool the warm fog produced by a fog machine, but there really aren't any good off the shelf methods for this.

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