I'm building some ghouls in the style of Pumpkinrot's Tin Man shown in the image below and I'm trying to devise a way to animate the arms to create a swinging motion.
The plan is to have a pick in the ghoul's hand digging a grave.
I want the arms to raise slowly or at a normal speed but then fall forward under their own weight so the pick strikes, or appears to strike, the ground.
Though this could be done with a cam/follower mechanism but I'd like to keep the mechanics within the upper torso if at all possible.
Next I thought of some sort of linkage with an actuator on a wiper motor that pulls the linkage attached to the shoulder downwards thus pulling the arms up. Once the rotor spins past a point it releases the linkage and drops the arms to the starting point.
Needs to be continuously running, electric, no pneumatics.
Seems like this would be the most compact and doable with a wiper motor.
Two years ago I built an animated window silhouette that makes a movement similar to what you are describing. I don't know how much room you have to work with, but maybe this will spark some ideas/solutions.
Where I'd go with that is a pair of 2 bar linkages for the arms, similar to what HeresJohnny did with his Phantom Shadow ghost for the elbow movement. Although, obviously oriented front to back instead of side to side. It's not as compact of course, but there's not many other options that don't require quite a bit more space.
Couple that with Dave's awesome silhouette mechanics for the chopping motion and...
the motion on this phantom shadw ghost is SO cool. I love the 'complexity' of the linkages and the cam/follwoer setup. Nothing like some old-school automata!
I sometimes need to attach things to foam. In one instance it was a foam tombstone that I needed to attach to a thin plywood base, so it would stand up on a stage. Many years ago, I recall seeing someone use what I thought were drywall screws. But, that didn't hold at all on the polystyrene...
I found this photo and wondering how to create the trees and moon. You think the trees are made from thin plywood? What about moon?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey guys, I interviewed this gentleman who had a giant collection. The reason I am posting it in props is because, he makes 1:1 Scale characters and they are very good. He also sells them so check it out. We see a bunch of them in the interview.
Have you created any photo ops and incorporated scare props?
we had folks taking pictures with some of our static props (crypts, Corpses, mausoleum), so I wanted to build something specifically for photo ops.
I’ve seen the electric chairs that vibrate/flash when unsuspecting ToTs sit down...
