# ImaginEERIEing Puppets



## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

Has anybody used these in their haunts? I downloaded the free one and can't quite figure out how to use it. The Image come up and can be worked manually, But I wanted to try the Mic feature and can't figure out how to get to this option. Thanks for the info. Phyllis

http://www.imagineerieing.com/see_it_in_action.html


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

I've been using his puppets for four years. On the original puppet, I believe you have to edit the text file to change the control options.
On the later puppets, you press tab to open up the options menu in the program.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Same here - can't get the mic control console to appear even after changing key assignments - a pity as I could use this VERY effectively - I have a spare projector this year.

I don't mind buying it but I can't get any of them to work with a microphone (although the register versions allow the control panel to apepar) and I see no email address for them?


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## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

Mr. Chicken,

Do you use the mic option? I would gladly pay for one of the newer options if I knew I could get it to work. Are you using a Mac or a PC? Thanks, Phyllis


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

I'm on a Mac. I don't use the mic, but I have gotten it to work in the past. I don't have a mic on my new computer, but I'll try it with both the paid and free puppets on my old one later tonight and let you know what it takes.

You might want to download the demo of the paid puppet that you like to see if you can get the mic input to work on that.


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## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

Good suggestion on the download. I'm on a PC, I wonder if that has anything to do with it? be interesting to see what you find out. Thanks again, Phyllis


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## The Watcher (Sep 13, 2008)

I went and checked their home page. They suggest not using the mic. They say it can pick up the tot's just as easy as you. Here is a link to their tips page. You should also be able to get to their home page from their also. Everyone certainly enjoys ours.

http://www.imagineerieing.com/faq.html


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I've got the purchase version working but only on my laptop. The other PCs give me an error even with the latest sound card drivers.

Well worth $15 though and I'll be modifying my HalloWindow display to include this.

I'm now going to try voice modification software to see if I can creep my voice in real time.

Good find - thans very much.


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## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

I tried 3 different puppets, and could only get one to work with the mic. I'll try loading it onto a laptop and see if that works. Thanks


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

This is really cool, but I have a question. If you manually move the mouth and don't use a mic, but want it to be "live", how do you feed the sound? If that makes any kind of sense -


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

You just hook the mic to an amplifier and talk as normal but press the mouth open key as your mouth opens and closes. It takes a bit of getting used to but once your brain has 'locked in' it's quite easy.


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

Here's what I found...
The microphone on my computer is barely sensitive enough to move the mouth when the puppet's sensitivity is at its highest...basically, it's really hard to get the mouth to move, much less on each syllable.
I would definitely just go with manual control on these guys.

Also, note that all of the puppets were originally made on a Mac, so the PC versions are probably buggier


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## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

You would have to have the mic hooked up to another source... Powered speakers? I think.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I have a copy of Yoric the skull. It is fantastic. I am a puppet person so I use the botton to move the mouth. All you have to do is have some rhythm. Tap to the rhytm of your words. It is very important to remember you are throwing words when you open the mouth, dont bite them. I Used a cordless mike (self powered would work too)I got at Target for $20.00. I connected my headphone out port to a practice amp and had a great time.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Okay guys. I am so tired, so treat me like I'm 5, and maybe I'll understand. Where do you sit so you can see the kids? Or do you have a video camera feed? Or are you hiding behind the scrim? I have NEVER seen this before, and am amzed it's for FREE. We are nto doing our usual Halloween and this would be a great, perfectly special thing to use instead. Please advise all you can. I have a PC..how do I secure the monitor to the facade so I don't wreck the screen? 

Sorry to be such a girl..LOL.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I had a wireless mike so I just sat off to the side and spoke softly into the mike. I guess sitting behind the scrim would be better.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

The only one that is free is the Mirror Mirror image. Yoric cost a minimal amount.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

I'll be rigging a video feed from a security camera system I have


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I made mine as a ghost in a box. I made a large prop of foam board that looks like three crates stacked on top of each other. They are actually all cut from a single sheet of foam and put together. The entire inside area is contiguous and accommodates a 17" monitor pointing up. In the top box there is a piece of glass at a 45 degree angle to reflect the image. The front and back of the top box are cut away and the inside painted flat black. One of the settings on Yoric is to "float". The combination of the Pepper's Ghost illusion and the "floating" movement of the image give a great illusion of being a ghost. I made one big mistake. I made the top box too small. It limits the view ability of the illusion. What I liked about it is that you can see through him all the way through the box. I even had a battery operated candle set behind it for a while to emphasize the transparency of the image. What I don't like is that my laptop is outside all evening under the prop. I used a wireless keyboard and wireless mike with amplification.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Mr_Chicken said:


> Here's what I found...
> The microphone on my computer is barely sensitive enough to move the mouth when the puppet's sensitivity is at its highest...basically, it's really hard to get the mouth to move, much less on each syllable.
> I would definitely just go with manual control on these guys.
> 
> Also, note that all of the puppets were originally made on a Mac, so the PC versions are probably buggier


Strange - I had no problem even with a mic costing a couple of bucks. Are you on a PC and if you are have you gone through the microphone calibration?


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## TNBrad (Sep 10, 2007)

Here is a third Idea I did a search for a text to speech program and found a demo download with different voices. Male/ female/ Scottish, britches, American and ETC.
you might/will have to learn to add (...) pauses or it will read right through to the end as you type. and well there is the spelling the words phonic thing to. 

[ame]*http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS338&q=text+to+speech&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10*[/ame]

[URL="http://www.naturalreaders.com/?gclid=CJqrw5-Q55wCFSQeDQodhA2IHA"]*http://www.naturalreaders.com/?gclid=CJqrw5-Q55wCFSQeDQodhA2IHA*


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

Fritz, I'm on a Mac. I remember it all working much better in the past, but maybe the microphone (internal) is just getting tired.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Even on a Mac there might be a hidden option for boosting the gain of the mic. Have a look around.

Years since I worked on Macs but I started in the IT industry with Apple IIEs


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## Spookie (Aug 26, 2008)

Mac users, Check your Sound settings under your System Preferences (go to the Apple menu to locate System Preferences, then Sound). There are Output and Input tabs with options under each you should check. Maybe that's been your problem if they weren't set where they needed to be?? I've seen ImaginEERIEing and loved it but aside for playing around briefly with the demo never had the time yet to really explore it. It's definitely one of those things on my wish list when time permits.


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## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

Thanks for the advice, guys, but I've got it under control (a bit of an unintentional play on words there, since I intend to manually _control_ it as I have in past years).
It's the PC folks who were having issues


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## Dr Frankenscream (Dec 1, 2007)

Debbie5,

Here is my Magic Mirror set-up. I have had it running the past two years at our annual neighborhood kids Halloween party. The first year I used the free Mirror version and the second year I upgraded to the Mirror, Mirror version ($15).

Here's some video from year 1...





I run mine on a PC and use the manual key clicks for the mouth movements. Easier to control in an interactive environment.

If you are interested, here is more info on my set-up...
http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=9649&highlight=magic+mirror

FYI...Nephilim is a member of HauntForum.


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## doggieshop (Jul 15, 2008)

Debbie, That looks great! I guess I will just have to hope I can get someone to manually wokr him. I'll have to find someone who will spend some time practicing. 

Thanks everybody for all the input.... Phyllis


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

Thanks. Just downloaded this setup. It is a great idea and I'll have to get working to incorporate this into this years haunt. A big *THANK YOU *goes out to you all.

If I get a video of this in action, I'll post it here.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Thanks everyone for the video & explanations. I don't "get" things like I used to & your patience is *greatly* appreciated!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

doggieshop- that's not mine. I wish!

Dr. F. : I love the "what do you say?" and they say "Please". How cute. I like that you don't make this scary for the kids. It's cool....Do you have your wall supports sandbagged or what to keep the wall from tipping??I'm so excited about this program and cost. I feel like I'm 12 years old...LOL.


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

Dr F- that was wonderful!! Those kids were having a blast!


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## Dr Frankenscream (Dec 1, 2007)

debbie5 said:


> Dr. F. : I love the "what do you say?" and they say "Please". How cute. I like that you don't make this scary for the kids. It's cool....Do you have your wall supports sandbagged or what to keep the wall from tipping??I'm so excited about this program and cost. I feel like I'm 12 years old...LOL.


I run the Magic Mirror for approximately 2 hours straight for our neighborhood party. It's exhausting but well worth all of the comments from both the children and the adults. I've had several neighbors already asking if the Magic Mirror will be back this year.

The facade is made out of two 4ft by 8ft sheets of plywood. I cut one of the sheets in half to make the two side sections. I have a 2in by 2in frame built on the back side of each panel and they are all connected with door hinges so the whole thing can be folded up for storage each year.

The two side panels are pulled back at a slight angle so the entire facade is free standing and fairly stable. Since I do this indoors, I don't have to contend with any wind.

I made some additional upgrades for 2008, however, I didn't get any video because I accidentally hit the PAUSE button when I started recording.


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## sparky (Dec 7, 2006)

I down loaded the free version of the mirror to check it out and now I really like it,so I'm going to try and make it for this year(time to cram this project in)and see if it will work. 
My kids school was going to try a kids haunted house this year but not enough time they said, so if I don't get it done this year it will be a great project for the whole year to figure it out and make a great facade!!!!! 
If anyone has more videos of there projects out there, please post them up so we can see your great work and fun with the kids and adults!!!!!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Do I need anything special/extra to buy to use a wireless mic & wireless keyboard? I have a 1 month old HP Pavillion PC.


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## Nephilim (Sep 15, 2006)

Wow, nice to see all the interest in the Magic Mirror and our other puppets. I'm especially gratified to hear about how they've been a hit with the kids at other haunts besides our own. That's great, and is exactly why we offer the puppets for use elsewhere. It's all about providing some spooky magic for kids. Awesome!

To echo what others have said, we strongly recommend that you DON'T use the microphone feature. We added it because _so_ many people wanted it, but really, you will get far, far better results from manual puppetry. Only use mic input if:

(a) You have a solid understanding of how your computer's operating system deals with audio input. You don't want to be trying to figure this stuff out at 6pm on Halloween night when the sound input stops working for some reason. The fewer points of potential failure, the better.

(b) You have kids doing the puppeteering, or are piping in audio from elsewhere. Adults should be able to handle manual puppeteering.

(c) You can control the sound level of your voice actor. To calibrate your mic input, you set a "threshold" volume - any incoming volume higher than the threshold opens the mouth, and anything lower closes it. For this to work, your voice actor cannot let his or her voice range too far from where you calibrated. That means no talking louder to be heard over large groups of kids, no raising and lowering your voice for added drama, and no talking softer as you get tired over the course of the evening.

(d) You can control the ambient sound levels. This one affects where you can put your voice actor. If a trick-or-treater can shout and cause the mouth to move, you'll just have a bunch of kids shouting at your attraction to watch the mouth move. That destroys the whole illusion. And even disregarding this intentional scuttling of your attraction, remember that the general sound level at your attraction will rise and fall with the sheer number of kids around. If it gets high enough, it will peg your puppet's mouth open, or will at least require your voice actor to adjust how much volume he or she is adding in order to keep the threshold volume for the puppet the same.

There is also the issue of input volume not mapping well onto whether the mouth should be open. For instance, the mouth will open on "M" sounds, which looks really bad. There is very little you can do to offset that using mic input.

It may seem that mic input is the easy way to go, but if you want good results, you have to do a lot more work, both practicing keeping your voice levels tied to the calibration, and setting up your facade so it is soundproofed. Truly, it only takes a little practice to internalize the manual puppeteering, and you get _much_ better results.

As a side note, if you use our digital puppets in your haunt, be sure to drop us a line with photos or video - we love seeing the ways people use them!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Hi, Neph! I want to use a wireless mic for my voice, not putting it thru the puppet. I am having a hard time choosing which one to use! I love Gordo, but I love Mirror Mirror.... I am AMAZED that you offer Mirror for free, and even the others are at such a nomimal price. Truly amazed. THANK YOU! I can only imagine the hours of time you programmed & tested all this.... I see one release was in the wee hours of the morning- cool to be so dedicated (or insomniac when you know there is a bug). 
Happy Halloween!


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## Nephilim (Sep 15, 2006)

debbie5 said:


> Hi, Neph! I want to use a wireless mic for my voice, not putting it thru the puppet.


Nice. Good show.



> I am having a hard time choosing which one to use! I love Gordo, but I love Mirror Mirror....


Yeah, we like them both. For what it's worth, we use Mirror Mirror at our haunt, and it never fails to draw a crowd. If your visitors are particularly young, you might try Gordo's happy face - it might be a little less intimidating.



> I am AMAZED that you offer Mirror for free, and even the others are at such a nomimal price.


Well, I'm certainly not making a mint off of the sales. I make about enough on puppet sales to cover candy outlay plus food to feed my volunteers each year. But like I've said before, every home haunter does this for the kids. We all burn a lot of personal time and money to make kids happy one night out of the year. That's why I leave the free one available, and keep the price of the higher-end puppets low - I don't want to put barriers up for people who want to do something special for kids. Yeah, I could charge more - probably a lot more - but some child somewhere would be missing out on a fun experience as a result. That goes against the whole home haunter philosophy, it seems to me.


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