Thread: Beginner's Guide to Props and Pneumatics

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LOL Lane!

I tried reducing everything to simple language as much as possible, maybe my guide is not quite what you are looking for because it mostly focuses on the nuts and bolts of a prop and you are looking for more of a beginning-to-end guide which shows the whole prop. I am currently working on a planning/design guide, maybe when I get that posted, it will help you out more!

Maybe some other folks can provide a better guide to a whole-prop scenario, there are tons of other projects out in the forum, I would try searching around some more and see if anything looks good to you that you feel confident in your ability to build.

Very nice breakdown kept it simple and understandable. Thank you...

This is brilliant, thank you so much. I was really having a hard time grasping the steps between sensor and prop animation. Those diagrams really helped clear that up for me.

Thank you!! ive been trying to find a good pneumatic prop guide and this one is the best one. Thanks!!!! When is the other part of it going to be done?

Fantastic primer! I've read several pneumatic how-to's, and yours is by far the easiest to understand. Now about that air cannon primer....

Yeah yeah, that air cannon thing! I have one in my trunk that I've been meaning to shoot pics of for the primer. But my son plays high-school football, so I've been quite busy with that lately! Will get it up here soon!

Skeletal Remains, I've been wanting to learn more about pneumatics and even gear-based, belt driven and pulley driven prop ideas. Sometimes the simpler the better from a cost standpoint too; just want to get some animation going and perfect things down the road. For example I'd love to learn how to do a set up to have pirates skeletons chase one another around a mast pole. The more basics I can grasp, the better I feel my props will be. After finding this forum I realized that I took the wrong classes in school for this kind of stuff. So it's back to school for Ghouls. Thanks so much for the education.

Hey Ghost of Spookie!

Yes, you are right, there are really no classes to speak of when dealing with leverage, gears, pulleys or pneumatics as it applies to haunt mechanics! One of the reasons I love haunted houses SO MUCH is because you will encounter challenges that you just won't find anywhere else! A few years ago I built a revolving bookcase that had to be able to support a person's weight, magnificent! I used a bunch of skills that I had never put together in that manner!

Let me know how the prop building goes!!

-SR

SkeletalRemains, I must say that this has been the most comprehensive, easy to understand piece I have read to date!! Well done! I am fairly new to all this and this is my first post on the site. I do have one question, and I don't know if this is the right thread to post in, but ... Anyway, throughout your TUT, you show the simplified one cylinder prop and control for this. The prop I want to do this year is a faux cellar door pop up. I would like to have two cylinders for the doors and then one for the "ghoul" and also a light and sound. My main issue, I guess, is getting the doors to open slightly before the ghoul pops and close slightly after so to not "trap" the ghoul. I have also considered having the ghoul attatched to the doors so that they pull him up and allow him to lower when they close and what type of controller I might need (on the cheap). Suggestions, comments? Any help that anyone could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for the well written TUT.

Hey Weavis, that is a very cool-sounding prop! The prop that you describe can be made as simple or complex as you want it to be.

On one hand, you could connect the ghoul to the doors in such a manner that it pops out when the doors open, as you described. You can accomplish this by using 2 cylinders (one for each door) running off the same air valve, just connect both cylinders to the output of the air valve using a tee. This way you'll only have one trigger and one air valve, and based on how you build the contraption, the ghoul should retract appropriately as the doors close. Also, you can turn on a light with your same triggering mechanism. This method keeps the prop relatively cheap as you don't need a dedicated controller. Sound is another issue, I'll get to that in a minute...

The more complex way of doing this, also like what you mentioned above, is to setup the doors (2 cyls running off single air valve, or two if you're feeling spendy) in parallel from an air point of view, and use a 3rd cylinder to launch the ghoul. The only thing about this configuration is that you'll need a controller to do it, unless you are extra-crafty and creative with limit switches and stuff like that.

Ask 10 different people on this forum and you'll get 10 different answers on what kind of controller they like to use. I would recommend a picoBoo controller. Very simple to program, a little costly (like maybe $90-$100) but that's where you can bring in the sound. The picoBoo controller has built in sound (ambient for when NOT triggered, and triggered for when the prop is activated). The controller will allow you to plug in your air valves and you can trigger them in any sequence you want (in real time). This is an easy way to go. The picoBoo will allow you up to 2 outputs, one for the doors, and one for the ghoul. Just connect the light to the same output for one or the other, depending on when you want the light to come on.

There are lots of other creative low-tech ways to bring in sound: portable CD players with amplified speakers and a hacked switch to play the sounds, ISD chipcorders, loop tapes, etc. There are even threads about hacking cheap little $10 MP3 players with incredible sound quality! A whole world out there in this forum!

If this is not making much sense, let me know, I'll be happy to go into more detail on anything if you wish...

-SR