# Kodama Grotto 2010



## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

Our 2010 haunt didn't get much documentation, as I was too busy trying to finish and run the dang thing to shoot any footage of it. However a friend of ours shot the video below. The narrator is my oldest son.

My wife's not a big horror fan, so our goal was to do something different from the usual gothic stuff. We decided to base the tableau around the kodama forest spirits from the movie Princess Mononoke. (My avatar is a kodama from the movie.) They're spooky and fantastical but not especially scary.

When the video was shot, the grotto was an hour or two from being fully assembled, but the bulk of it's in the clip. The steel frame structure with foam block and rocks was finished. Most of the artificial foliage was in place. Still some bare spots, as you can see. (My cousin's florist shop had a ton of plastic and latex plants and flowers collecting dust. A couple hundred dollars' worth, if you bought them retail. She was happy to get rid of them. Score!) In the dark with a couple of ground-level lights, the setup looked pretty convincing. We were pleased.

To point out some highlights, the banyan tree came out wonderfully, to our surprise. Monster mud is great stuff. I wish the video had a better shot of it. My mother sat inside the grotto wall behind it and fed candy through the holes. Also there's a set of ten animated kodamas perched in and around it. (My brother-in-law built the twitching mechanism; I forget which microcontroller he used.) I only finished two of the full-size kodamas (never got my vacuum former to work) but my son made a point to show off the cam system in the video. It's a vent motor and two LEDs with my $1 battery holder/switch mechanism attached. In the dark they looked nice and eerie.

Anyway, you can see lots of other details in the video. Enjoy!





(Sorry, embedding is disabled.)


----------



## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I like it. It is different but fun all the same. The great thing about Halloween is you can take the decorating part so many different ways. In one yard you have a scene from the Saw movies and in the next it is a pirate ship. It is just fun to decorate your way and sticking with a non gore approach I can respect. 

Myself, I have taken all blood and gore out of my display. Been there done that. I prefer the spooky aspect of an old home that looks abandon and creepy. My wife is also not a horror fan. She has yet to watch a single horror movie with me. (She is actually afraid to watch ET as she got scared by it when she was younger)

I look at it this way. You have a fun and unique display. Keep it up and enjoy the season your way. Looking forward to see what you come up with this year.


----------



## Terrormaster (Sep 27, 2007)

That is such a really cool an awesome idea. Mononoke was one of the few Miuzake films I actually liked (the other was Howls Moving Castle). All you need are some white wolves (maybe some wireframe reindeer hacks) and build this guy (the real challenge):










A shame you didn't get any night shots, I would have loved to see how it looked lit up with sound and fog.

I'm thrilled to see more and more original haunts that are moving away from the blood and gore and more towards spooky creepy.


----------



## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

We wanted to do a night walker! Our plan was to make a big cloth one that would inflate and animate via a large fan. When we started plotting out that project, we realized it was waaay beyond our skill and resources. Maybe someday.

The scene was pretty creepy when it was running at night, with lights and shadows and fog. It looked scary but the exterior kodamas were whimsical. People had no idea what to expect when they walked through the vines. They always seemed pleased when they came back out.

(This year, instead of the organic look, we're going the opposite direction with an evil candy-making machine. Always keep them guessing!)


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I really like this - refreshingly different. Your son did an excellent job of explaining the details (and your daughter is a hoot).

The twitching mechanism looks very much like the action you get with a type of lawn sprinkler.


----------



## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

Heh, that's actually my friend's daughter (the one taking the video). She can be a handful. The angel costume was appropriate.  We love her though.

We got a kick out of the sprinkler action of the kodama heads. My brother-in-law programmed them from just a brief description. He lives a couple hours away, but he's always an awesome guy to have on the team. Always comes up with something unexpected.


----------



## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

This looks great. I've no idea of the charaters, but it's just a great looking place with a lot a vegatation the kids will love. Love it.


----------



## CreeepyCathy (Mar 28, 2009)

that is awesome!!! and super creative! love it!!


----------



## MrGrimm (May 19, 2009)

"It's foam."
"What's a foam??" LOL 

Great grotto! Loved the out of the box thinking and creativity on display.

Those kodamas look like mischievous little buggers!


----------



## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

Thanks! For anyone who's curious, here's a pertinent kodama scene from the movie:


----------

