So, I'm trying to create an original effect. The problem is I have never really created an effect before. How do you create an effect? Also, can you please give me some tips on creating an original effect. Thank you so much!
Need help creating an effect
- Thread starter RyanMagician
- Start date
Hey Ryan! Welcome to the forums. By your question, I assume you are relatively new into magic. I don't want to bore you with a long post, but here I go:
Creating effects require time. You cannot create an effect just because you want to. The best ideas for creations came to the creator through inspiration. It just "happened." This is a result from their experience in the field of performing and digesting methods.
Do not go and seek to create an effect just because. If a certain plot intrigues you, study it thoroughly. Take your time doing so. I was in the same situation a few years ago when I developed a torn and restored effect, but wasn't sure if it was original. I did a lot of research on so many TnR effects out there before I finally was satisfied. That was after I did magic for three years. It's been 8 years since then, and I still find that my TnR is original, but I still keep my eyes out on any new TnR releases to see how mine compares.
Do not seek inspiration; let it come to you. In the meantime, study as much magic as you can and when the time does come for you to create an effect, you'll have the knowledge and tools you need to be successful.
Creating effects require time. You cannot create an effect just because you want to. The best ideas for creations came to the creator through inspiration. It just "happened." This is a result from their experience in the field of performing and digesting methods.
Do not go and seek to create an effect just because. If a certain plot intrigues you, study it thoroughly. Take your time doing so. I was in the same situation a few years ago when I developed a torn and restored effect, but wasn't sure if it was original. I did a lot of research on so many TnR effects out there before I finally was satisfied. That was after I did magic for three years. It's been 8 years since then, and I still find that my TnR is original, but I still keep my eyes out on any new TnR releases to see how mine compares.
Do not seek inspiration; let it come to you. In the meantime, study as much magic as you can and when the time does come for you to create an effect, you'll have the knowledge and tools you need to be successful.
What @VagueTheory said lol
However, if you are ready to make your own effect, you can do a few things:
1) This is more so to personalize effects you already use. If you personalize and customize an effect enough, you can take it to a whole different level. Essentially, just build off of base effects.
2) Use something. Take something that intrigues you; a prop, an item, a principal, a sleight, whatever. See what you can do with it and branch off of those ideas.
3) Make it backwards. Imagine the final effect. Now work backwards and figure out how you would perform it. Then build upon that.
This should help get the creative juices flowing!
However, if you are ready to make your own effect, you can do a few things:
1) This is more so to personalize effects you already use. If you personalize and customize an effect enough, you can take it to a whole different level. Essentially, just build off of base effects.
2) Use something. Take something that intrigues you; a prop, an item, a principal, a sleight, whatever. See what you can do with it and branch off of those ideas.
3) Make it backwards. Imagine the final effect. Now work backwards and figure out how you would perform it. Then build upon that.
This should help get the creative juices flowing!
This video will give you some good details on:
-How to create magic
-Research, credit, and verify originality
-How to sell it to others
Be warned however, it is not an easy and quick process. The average time from start to finish that I release an effect I created is about 6-9 months. Some like "Tour de Force" took years of tinkering, rebuilding, and reformatting before I even started production.
This is how I generally do it. In fact, I JUST did this the other day. It didn't take as long for me with the specific concept I came up with this time (because it's so simple in method). Usually however, it does indeed take a while to think of the effect itself and what you want to happen and then think of a method of pulling it off and THEN the presentation.
The concept I came up with the other day, like I said, is very simple in the multiple methods it uses. It took me a few hours to put them together to test it out first. Then I was determined to show it to someone. So I showed it to a friend. They were completely blown away by it (literally speechless like I was some evil magical entity lol), BUT it was right then that I realized I hated the presentation that I was just winging. So now, while the method and final effect won't change, it's time to sit down with a notebook and come up with a presentation that will hit it out of the park. That part will take quite a while...trial and error.
My daughter is someone that has been around magic for a while so she is one of the most hideous critics I have lol. So sometimes I'll ask her "What would you like to see a magician do that would make you say 'wow'?" Most of the time she comes up with ridiculous things (she's 9) that would be literally impossible. However, in that, lies the mind of a child (which is where magic is born in my opinion). So I'll take her suggestions sometimes and try to figure out a method to make it happen.
This is just my personal process and story but it echos what others have already said.
Ryan:
I'll echo what @VagueTheory said, don't try to create just for the sake of creating something.
If you are new to magic, the best use of your time is to learn the fundamentals and then keep learning. The more sleights, principles and plots you know, the more tools you have in your toolbox to build something original. I"ve got over 200 books on magic and I'm still learning.
One of the best ways to be creative in magic is to take existing effects and put your own touches on them. Those touches could be a different presentation, different moves, a different ending or taking the principle and applying to accomplish a different result. Most of my performance pieces are customized magic where I've taken the main effect and changed the handling and/or the presentation. The rest of them are routines where I've put together a series of standard sleights in a unique combination using props like linking rings, sponge balls, cups & balls, etc. Magic is a performing art and this type of focus makes your magic performances unique.
When you combine a strong knowledge base and the experience of personalizing your magic, you will create something. If you do, don't rush out to sell it. Fine tune it through performance. Greg Wilson said something to me once that really resonated. He said that most magicians want to show off the latest thing they are working on learning. Greg said that he asks magicians to show him what they have performed a thousand times.
To magicians that want to create magic: I don't want to buy what you just came up with 1, 6 or 12 months ago, I want to buy the effects that you have performed a thousand times, the effects that you treasure as if they were your own children, the effects that you can't bear to see someone else perform.
Exactly. A lot of thought and time goes into effects like these. The best selling effects are ones that become "signatures" so to speak, of the magicians that created them. It doesn't always take a long time to come up with an effect or a method to achieve said effect. It does however take time to perfect it, create a lasting presentation for it, and hammer out the finer details of the effect. If it's only been a year or less, it's usually not ready and it's generally not yet tested enough in the field.