Halloween Animatronics

Let's Take a look at Animatronic Neck Design
selected information from Halloween Animatronics Volume 1 Animatronic Neck.

In creating a neck design - I decided to use simple components. An animatronic neck has to be strong - and it had to be compact. I needed three main axis so it could easily imitate the human neck This aluminium skeleton design allows the neck to rotate left and right, pan side to side and Tilt up or down. In action it's quite simple and once a faceplate is attached it allows you really bring your animatronic characters to life.
	In This Particular Neck design, I use fairly simple parts. The Animatronic neck design will depend upon what you need to accomplish of course so this design is quite different than the design I use for the popular BUCKY skeleton head, which is included in the BONUS BUNDLE (modding the Bucky) but you need to start somewhere, CLICK HERE to SEE SOME OF THE MODDING THE BUCKY INFO. Full documentation is available on the Video, Halloween Animatronics Volume 1 so be sure to get your copy.
If you move your head around, it rotates left and right. It moves up and down and it tilts side to side. It can do this one action at a time or all at once. It can move fast or slow. Your Head is actually just along for the ride. It's the next that's doing all the work, except for the thinking. Heads are pretty heavy, last I checked, so the neck must be pretty strong. So we need a design that provides 3 Degrees of freedom to simulate the human neck, it has to be strong and the simpler, the better. In this section, I offer to you a version of my animatronic neck design. The design is simple to build and sturdy. You can control it with any of the servo diver circuits we have built and it works awesome.
	Now we have a stong neck skeleton that allows for 3 seperate motion axis. The faceplate mounts right here Once the servos are installed, I run the through a simple pic motion routine to check it's function. It looks ok, so I mount the faceplate and see how it looks
Skinning the neck. To conceal the mechanics, you need a material which stretches like skin and is easy to apply. In the Video, Halloween Animatronics V1, I go over this are in detail. Here you can see how well it looks. The sheer has a good deal of stretching ability so it's perfect for this moving part. And since I paint the face and neck as one unit, it will blend in nicely. trust me... Ah this guy is looking better already. I have sprayed a combination of brown, black, grey and white on the face and neck. now they looks to be one unit. Since I want him to look old and tired, I'm brushing in some black under the eyes. Now I still need to blend it in a bit more but I think you're getting the picture. Ok, I've pretty much finshed it up by adding a grungy looking beard, hat and weathering SO let's press on.
Full instructions and demonstrations are available on the DVD Halloween Animatronics Volume 1 Get your copy today

On to Section Seven - animatronic face design-->

Here alone you will find a complete guide to making your own Halloween Animatronics. Since building animatronics requires you to be familiar with several technical areas, we are proud to introduce a NEW series specifically focused on Halloween Animatronics.
This 3 part technical series of DVD video's, downloadable videos and downloadable PDF documentations will allow you to begin with absoluetly no electronic knowledge and progress, step by step to creating your OWN working Halloween animatronics! And we're not talking about the cheap junk you find at the superstores, You will be creating Hollywood style animatronics... The type that will, without question, blow away your entire neighborhood!

3 Awesome DVD volumes
Volume 1 - beginning to intermediate knowledge levels
Volume 2 - Advanced animatronics (pneumatics/design and control)
Volume 3 - Halloween Scare Concepts and Designs

Click around the site and Start the Halloween Animatronics learning curve RIGHT NOW!

THIS IS THE INFORMATION YOU'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR

We have brought all these resources together for the expressed purpose of teaching you step-by-step, not only the mechanics of Halloween Animatronics, but the actual design and construction of the electronic control circuits that make it all happen!

Dave makes it easy to understand! I Built my first animatronic this week!
D. Denzer, Portland

Copyright 2008, Dave Corr