# Animating a skull, need HELP!!



## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

I am in the planning stages of a new prop, I want to go all out on this one so I need all the help I can get!! part of this prop is animating a skull to a song and I have no clue where to begin! 
I saw one on here animating a skull with blinking eyes to the song Werewolves of London, it was fantastic! Thats what I am looking to do but to a different song.
Can anyone help me out?? In as simple terms as possible PLEASE!!! I tried looking through posts on the subject and got lost in the terminology!


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Do you want the whole skull to move, or just the mouth?


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## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

Was hoping to get a little neck movement but if I can get the mouth to move and maybe some blinking or light up eyes I would be happy with that.


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## HauntNH (May 17, 2010)

Depends on how far you are looking to animate it.

I am in the process of building boards to control the jaw of mine. I got the kits from here http://www.cowlacious.com/productPages/talkingSkull/talkingSkullList.html

but this wont give you full 3-d motion, like the werewolves you saw here.


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

Here are some more. The frist one are converted Boris skulls. Some times you can find them on ebay for around 50.00 each. The last one is the one you saw singing the songs.

Talking Skulls :: reh-011.flv video by brushe2008 - [email protected]@[email protected]@http://vid511.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid511.photobucket.com/albums/s360/brushe2008/Talking%20%20Skulls/[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@s360/brushe2008/Talking%20%20Skulls/reh-011

http://www.frightprops.com/FrightProps/props/Product.asp?ID=0911

http://www.skulltronix.com/

OK I went digging. Some one on here made a grave yard greeter like this. But this a good way to get some head motion cheap. With out programing them. Also I think Doc Morbius builds and sell some of the talking heads.

http://halloweenpropmaster.com/prop_head_movement.htm


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

The Scary Terry skulls HauntNH refers to are great if you want jaw movement. All you have to do is feed your audio into the Cowlacious board & it pretty much does the rest. The Cowlacious board has outputs for illuminating eyes, too.

If you want the head to move, then you're looking at what's commonly called a three axis skull. These are usually controlled by a PC running Visual Show Automation by Brookshire Software. They use hobby servos to move the head, connected to a servo controller board like the SSC-32. The servo controller connects to the PC. There are other ways to do it - this is just the most common. If you don't have the skull yet you can buy one already set up to do what you want, either assembled or in kit form. There are a few places to get them - Graveyardskulls.com comes to mind (HalloweenBob is a member here.) There are others out there - that's just the first one that comes to mind.


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

Spider said:


> I am in the planning stages of a new prop, I want to go all out on this one so I need all the help I can get!! part of this prop is animating a skull to a song and I have no clue where to begin!
> I saw one on here animating a skull with blinking eyes to the song Werewolves of London, it was fantastic! Thats what I am looking to do but to a different song.
> Can anyone help me out?? In as simple terms as possible PLEASE!!! I tried looking through posts on the subject and got lost in the terminology!


Spider,

I had the same problem. I have a Gemmy skull dropper that I was trying to figure out how to hack to get jaw movement with any audio I liked, and one of the members on the forum gave me a link for a simple DC toy motor circuit that is driven off a speaker wire-level input. After a little trial and error, I got it to work, and for the $10.00 I invested in the circuit, it works to my liking. I didn't want to spent tons of money on servos and computer programs, so I went with this one. Just search "Gemmy Skull" in the search column on here and you will find my old posts about the same topic. If you can't find it, send me a message and I'll get it for you. Hope this helps.

PS- The Gemmy skull I have has LED eyes that will light up in conjunction with the jaw movement.:jol:


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I'd suggest a Cowlacious Skull kit to start. You can give this single axis (left/right) animation very easily at any point or go to three axis animation if you want via a few different options.

The Cowlacious kit is dead easy to setup and use. As simple as feeding in the sound track and adjusting a few controls till you get the movement you want. At the price it's an absolute winner.


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## Spyder (Aug 16, 2008)

Thanks for all the options everyone, thanks!!


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## Fiend4Halloween (Aug 28, 2008)

...as a follow up, now everything that I see on screen has a blue outline to it...i think i ruined my vision reading your post!! lol Good luck, hope to see some pix. (actually I'll be happy just to see again!)
=p


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

I remembered I made this guy last year. He is dirt cheap. All you need is a lightning simulator. I just took out the guts added a potentiometer and a resister. Then pluged him into the lightning simulator and and a mp3 player.

SDC10373.flv video by brushe2008 - [email protected]@[email protected]@http://vid511.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid511.photobucket.com/albums/s360/brushe2008/[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@s360/brushe2008/SDC10373


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I love this guy's voice! Did you record it?


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

RoxyBlue said:


> I love this guy's voice! Did you record it?


No Roxy that was one from 4shared voice files . I am pretty sure. My computer crashed last year, so I lost a lot of my links. But I still have some of them I down loaded to my mp3's.


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

Watcher,
That's exactly how I did mine. I used a one channel light organ ($9.00) a 5v Wall wart and a Gemmy Screaming Skull. Attach the wall wart to the motor leads on the jaw (watching polarity) and plug it into the light organ. MP3 Player to the organ and instant jaw movement. Whole project cost about $15.

He was the "Head Chef" - skull on a grill with fake flames, headless body behind. Told lots of cooking jokes. 

RandalB


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

RandalB said:


> Watcher,
> That's exactly how I did mine. I used a one channel light organ ($9.00) a 5v Wall wart and a Gemmy Screaming Skull. Attach the wall wart to the motor leads on the jaw (watching polarity) and plug it into the light organ. MP3 Player to the organ and instant jaw movement. Whole project cost about $15.
> 
> He was the "Head Chef" - skull on a grill with fake flames, headless body behind. Told lots of cooking jokes.
> ...


Well I try to get the most for my money. But my limited skills sent me in this direction. I tried scraping the chip, but I swear, that thing was melted through the board. So I had to think of something, since the wife had just watch me ruin a perfectly good skull. But I was happy with him. The truth is I have several of the talking Gemmies and no body even know the difference. I had Have the singing pirate and the talking heads and the big 6ft Pirate. Through this guy in the treasure chest and people mention him more to me that night.


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## CAH (Sep 8, 2009)

*another gemmy skull hack question*

Hi all - Just getting back in the swing of things. I have three of these skulls that I would like to hack. RandalB wrote that he used a one channel light organ and 5V wall wart. Does anyone know where to buy these? Do I have to order on-line or does a store like radio shack carry them? Thanks!


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

Electronic Goldmine has the 1 channel kits...


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

The Watcher said:


> I remembered I made this guy last year. He is dirt cheap. All you need is a lightning simulator. I just took out the guts added a potentiometer and a resister. Then pluged him into the lightning simulator and and a mp3 player.
> 
> SDC10373.flv video by brushe2008 - Photobucket


Which pot and resistor did you use and where is the resistor added in?


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