Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Sphynx update.

Pretty much finished the Sphynx today.
He is ready to go in the garage till next Halloween.
Still need a King Cobra for his headpiece.












Thursday, December 24, 2009

3D Styrofoam Anubis head.

I've been thinking of a way to make a decent Anubis head for another prop for Halloween and I came up with the following : glueing several sheets of styrofoam together to make a thick cube and cut it out with a hot wire styrofoam cutter in 3D. The way to cut 3D patterns is to cut one side ( face side ) en turn the cube 90 degrees and cut the other side ( side view). I will post some how-to pictures when I cut the real sized heads.
I did a test run with a miniature version of the jackal ( Anubis ) head. It's about 6" long and 4" high.
After cutting the main parts of the head , you can use a file to smooth and round the edges. If you need to take out bigger chunks of material , you can use a handheld hot wire foam cutter that can be bought at your craft store or you can make your own , the same way you would make a hot wire foam cutter table.
If you're interested in building your own cutter , you can do a search on the net and find the information you need. Anyway , here are some pics of the unfinished , rough cut , miniature styrofoam head.
The real head will be about 2 ft long and approximately 1 and a half foot high.
Found enough styrofoam to start the first head.
After three burned out hand hot wire foam cutters , I was able to cut little pieces out of the styrofoam head. Here's the progress so far.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Sphinx

Started working on the first major prop for Halloween 2010. It's a sphynx.
The skeleton will be completely made out of cardboard and will be papier mache'd later.
I'd like to keep my props lightweight , especially the ones that are gonna stay inside the house.
This year's theme will be , if you didn't guess it , Egypt.
I'm looking forward to building props for that theme since I have great interest in ancient Egypt.
Anyway , here are some pics of the progress. ( Took me about 4 hours ).












Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Shop

Nothing much going on this time a year in the Prop Shop.
We just finished setting up Christmas stuff and outdoor lights.
We can't wait till the holidays are over so we can start on next year's Halloween props.
Until then , it will be slow for blogging.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Free wallpapers

For those who like to change their wallpaper every so often ,
here's a free wallpaper website that has some good stuff.



Website

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Saw 6

I don't know how many more of these movies they're gonna make.
Even though they come up with new challenges everytime , it's getting old.
I did enjoy the movie but not as much as the first few.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Pumpkin Attack !

Fiberglass pumpkins on 10-12ft poles ,
overhanging the pathway to the candy...

Also...notice the orbs in the second pic?
These are some form of energy....







One of the Reapers....


Wall / doorhangers

My version of the wall / doorhangers.
Little styrofoam skulls have LED eyes and I also
added a white bright LED on the bottom of the hanger.
( can't be seen in these pics )
LED's are powered by a 9V battery.
The power switch is located on top of the head.









Haunted chess

A couple of years ago I had this idea of making a haunted chess board.
The board was made out of 1/4" plywood with a printout pattern.
The pieces had to be cut out of 2x2 stock . At least I got 1 piece cut out.
Never got around to cutting the other pieces.
On the bottom of the piece , I put a magnet and also had a magnet under
the board. With the movement of the bottom magnet , it would drag the piece
with it. Here's a small vieo and a pic of "what should have been " a chess board.

For the video : Click HERE



Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Nosferatu Flash Animation

We had a window projection going on last Halloween.
It's called  HALLOWINDOW
Since I don't know anything about flash animation ,
I thought I'd give it a try and came up with this...

Nosferatu
Nosferatu 2

The files are small , thus easy and fast to download.

Witches Of Belgrove Part 4 : The sign.

The sign is made out of styrofoam , the white stuff.
Letters were cut out with a home-built hot wire foam cutter.
Lots of links are available online if you decide to make your own.

The sign itself is one piece of styrofoam , with wood grain burned in ,
spray painted ( to "eat" the styrofoam ) and the letters are done the same way.
Glued the letters on with Elmer's glue.
Also glued a piece of thick cardboard to the back to make it more sturdy.






Witches Of Belgrove Part 3 : The Cauldron.

The cauldron is made out of 3 rings of wood ( one top , one middle , one bottom) ,
covered with chicken wire and paper mache.
The goo is sprayed-on Great Stuff and painted.
Inside the cauldron , I mounted a car door motor ,
hooked up to a computer power supply.
Also inside was a green spot light , a fog machine and
a small sound system for the sound fx.

Animation for this cauldron was that it was self-stirring.










Witches Of Belgrove Part 2 : The spell book.

The Spell book was made out of cardboard and print-outs.
For the cover , I used a toilet paper roll that I cut in half .
Taped that to two pieces of cardboard.
The decoration is made out of foam board.