Hey did anyone see the setup for the hologram talking crystal ball, or mirror reflection at party city? Its pretty neat. They sell the DVD that you run continuously that will show either a talking head for crystal ball, scary clownface or other faces too. You put it in a dvd player and lay a TV on its back, and surround it with this black cloth so you dont see the TV, then you tilt a plexiglass piece behind it at a 45 degree angle and put a balloon or a plastic ball behind hit and whoola! Looks like the talking face is projected onto the ball or mirror or window or whatever you set it up on. Pretty neat. You probably only need to buy the DVD, you can cut your own cloth and plexiglass for a bit of the price they charge. But for people like me who arent that handy at building things, its a great idea for a cool effect. party city also had a circular out this week with $5 off a purchase of 15 or more. Ended up buying a ghost that moves back and forth across the rope, up to 25 feet and makes scary noises. Very cute.


The freaks come out at night...

i saw it,,it is and can be a neat prop. and um by the way,,ghosts are never reffered to as being very cute!!

Lifes no fun without a good scare !!!

I saw it at Spencers too!!

^ditto^ i saw them at spencers... but the display wasnt set up very well. Man we cant get many good things here in canada, all we got is wal mart and spencers =P

sincerly,
Phantom.

"halloween is coming soon"

I bought that ghost also. I'm hoping to make it a little less cute with some cheesecloth etc. but either way it worked well and was pretty neat, especially for the price and with that coupon.

Yea, I saw it,nice effect.

Haunted Display
http://halloweengallery.com/thumbnails.php?album=146

can anyone give me a link to, or a picture of the ghost? It sounds pretty awesome...also how much did it cost? Thanks!


* "Wacko Zacko" Crockett
The dead come to life on my parents' lawn...
And I just pray the sprinklers wont turn on.

The ghost was 14.99, and I bought a few other things so I could use the 5 dollar off coupon, so I look at it as getting it for 10 bucks.
I only called it cute because it doesnt have a very scary face on it, but it makes some cool ghost noises. I hung it up in my garage for a test run from the garage door rails across the top and it works awesome. It is motion activated and will go all the way from one side to the other, and it turns its body once it reaches the end and goes the other way. Probably the closest I will get to owning a moving prop, the real good ones are just too expensive for me. :{
maybe one day.


The freaks come out at night...

here a like to them

http://www.bigscreamtv.info/

I saw this prop at Party City as well. I liked it so much that I decided to make my own version. I was going for a pirate theme and the video they sell didn't really fit...so I made my own! I used MS paint to edit a JPEG of the Jolly Roger I found on the web. I then animated it using a program called Showbiz (any gif editor will work). I also added a "Dead Men Tell No Tales" voice over to the video.(Think Pirates of the Caribbean ) You have to play with the video to get the voice to mesh, showbiz made this pretty ez.

Setup: I didn't really like the whole box thing, so instead I decided to buy the clear plexiglass and suspend it from the ceiling at a 45 deg angle using fishing line. This gives the effect of a free floating head or skull without the box. Both the plexiglass and fishing line should be fairly invisible in the darkness. Once the plexiglass is up all you need to do is set your monitor underneath. I made a frame that held my monitor in the upright position and then covered the sides with black construction paper. I put the monitor & its frame on a stand so that it sits closer to the glass (makes the image larger and more detailed). Last I covered the stand in black plastic hooked up the pc and played the video in full screen. The effect is great. When you look at the image, all you can see is the talking head/skull. Everything else just blends right into the black plastic background. Also I added some hanging moss which I made out of coffee stained cheesecloth to help blend things in. The other variation to this is you can create your own DVD and then use a TV just like they do at Party City. I didn't have an extra TV myself.

Slimer[^]