Thread: Animnatronics for Dummies?? What a great idea! Thanks Nox Arcana....

Tweet

Nox Arcana started a thread in another forum on this site asking about Animatronics for Dummies. Thread below:

Animatronics for Dummies?

Seems to me like we could put a book like this together ourselves. Between all the different How-To articles I see on this site, the talent on halloweenforum.com is incredible! Now I am not really expecting that we would publish this through the Dummies franchise, but what if we polled the members, see what everyone wants to see in a book, then use that to build a 'table of contents', narrow it down, and then we can outsource the different bits and pieces to members who are interested in sharing their knowledge? The end result could easily be a downloadable PDF file that any beginning haunter could use as a guide.

I know a lot about pneumatics and a lot of other things, but I really know nothing about mold/mask making, costuming, foam/facade building, etc...

I know there are plenty of people who DO know these things. I say we put together a real guide and make it available to the membership here on HalloweenForum.com.

Is there interest in this? Where do we start? Maybe we could begin by putting together a list of topics that people want to see?

I think that's a great idea!
I'd be happy to contribute anything of interest.
I suppose my specialties would be in projection effects and, after a month or so, foam latex skins for animatronics.

I can provide circuit layouts/schematics for simple timers (oscillators and one-shots), and have how-to's for hacking PIR sensors and Boris skulls. Here's an example of a timer that will trigger a prop using it's "Try Me" button. It has other applications, as well.
HalloweenGallery.com - Documents/Bryce circuit rev3

Thanks Mr Chicken and Otaku, those are EXACTLY the kinds of projects I am thinking would be great in a beginner's guide PDF. We'll see if more interest can be drawn on this over the next week or so. Instead of rallying support from people who want it (if we build it, they will come!), we can just try to solicit support from people willing to write a piece of it. We would need intros for beginners, beginners projects, and how-to articles, very well presented, lots of pictures, and preferably in Microsoft Publisher or Word format. We will also credit each piece of content to the corresponding author here on HalloweenForum.com.

I'm sure Larry would be willing to host the resulting PDF somewhere on the forum where it can be easily downloaded by any member.

So, if you've got a great project, not too difficult (remember this is for beginners), and you are willing to contribute it to our little project here please respond and let us know what it is. If you know of a great project and want to nominate it, we can always get ahold of that person thru PM to see if they would be willing to lend their article to this 'members-only' project.

In addtion to projects, sections/chapters about setting up a prop-builders workshop and tools that are needed would be handy as well, the list really is endless...

Maybe Otaku could write a little article on how to read one of those crazy circuit diagrams, you know tell us what all of the little squiggles and zig zags mean, for people like me who have no idea.

Originally Posted by partsman

Maybe Otaku could write a little article on how to read one of those crazy circuit diagrams, you know tell us what all of the little squiggles and zig zags mean, for people like me who have no idea.

There are a lot of online references for electronic component symbols; here's one that has many of the most common ones we would use:

Circuit Symbols of Electronic Components

Another great site for learning about circuits, simple and complex, is All About Circuits : Free Electric Circuits Textbooks. This is a reference site and forum, similar to this, where you can get info on circuit design, troubleshooting, and post questions to the members. They're a friendly and very knowledgeable group, and they don't "talk down" to the less experienced. I've seen several Halloween-related projects posted there.

Thanks Otaku, from one of the uninformed and least experienced.
Those sites will come in handy, maybe I can build some of the circuit designs that I've downloaded if I learn how to read them.

I would absolutely LOVE this! As a woman, I have no idea how to make an animated corpse and I'm dying (no pun intended) to learn!

I think that would be a great idea! I myself am new to prop making so I have learned a lot from this forum. I am on here every day looking for new ideas. I now have two 3" thick binders full of projects, but really nothing that will move. I'm don't have any idea how to even start so to have some one really explain it would be really helpful and to have it in PDF would be awsome.

This is a terrific idea.

I started out with grave poppers and worked my way up to a FCG, a coffin that has a moving lid, and a 3 axis skull (it's not that hard if you take a little time with it).

This year I'm making servo controlled singing pumpkins and I have one that is just about ready, but I need to get some small parts to prop it up before I try it out. That might be a good starter project for folks wanting to try their hand at servo props.

An Axworthy would be a good how-to as well.