Halloween Animatronics

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

	What animatronic creation would be complete without moving, crawling hands? I dont know about you, but adding this little bit if creepyness to your animatronics really bumps up the realism.
People know it's not real, after all it's halloween. but it's that extra step, that extra bit is motion that really gets noticed! When you add animatronic hands to your Halloween Props, You will be stepping into the big time. Now, obviously there are several designs for building an animatronic hand. I am detailing you a fairly simple one here. The concept is sound enough that you can extrapolate it if you wish to build similar, jointed mechanics, like tails, tentacles whatever you wish.
	But for now, let's stick to making the animatronic hand. I have sectioned off a 3/4 dowel to serve as the finger joints. Each joint is cut and beveled before connecting them together Remember, the THUMB on HUMANS is OPPOSABLE, It's not jointed at the same angle as the other fingers so I show you how to account for that.
The wooden structure is complete, sized correctly and the finger joint strung with monofilament line. I contemplated using fine wire and brazing the ends but it's really too complicated to explain correctly, so I demo'ed monofilament line instead. In this instance, I have ONE micro-servo controlling all the fingers on this hand. Once you start using multiple servos, you start to immediately run into space problems you will have to mount them remotely and run the cabling from the remote mount, up the arm and into the fingers, It get's complicated quickly so if you choose that route, plan accordingly.
	I make a wooden ridge at the wrist, this gives the finger servo arm some room and allows for second servo to twist the wrist. Let's check out the movement before we paint the latex glove. THe fingers work pretty good. and the wrist works as well. Dont worry, once painted, you wont be able to see through the latex glove at all and it really helps make an awesome animatronic hand because it stretches .
So Before we go on.. I m going to show you a few tips on adding veins and other details to your new hands. Veins... Details like these add that little extra that will set your prop apart from the crowd. Simply use some latex caluking compound to make these features then paint them and your'e ready to add these hands to your main prop.
	Yeah, Hands take a while to make, but I've always said, "anything worth doing is worth OVER doing.." Plus you get to use those cool micro-servos... perfect for this situation. Anyway, since this video deals only with electrical animatronics,I also touch base with you on Advanced animatronics- HALLOWEEN PNEUMATICS, which is convered in my video 'Halloween Animatronics VOLUME 2 where we take everything we learn in this video and apply it to pneumatic systems for fast moving powerful prop motions.
Click to Get your copy of the DVD	Let's move on to the next section Mechanical motions

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!

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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!

Copyright 2008, Dave Corr