# Realistic arm movement



## daz1 (7 mo ago)

Hey all, noob here and not sure where to start! I want to build some realistic look animatronics for my scare maze but not sure on the joints to use to get good range of motion that also look natural???? please help 

this is the look and range of motion I need for the arms of my prop 




also having difficulty figuring out the internals of this window animatronic 




many thanks


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## Allen_Haunts (Jul 26, 2021)

This guy has really come up with how to get good movement. There is some how to in his video and it is really good. It should give you some ideas on how to build what you want.


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## daz1 (7 mo ago)

Thanks Alien_Haunts, didn't think of looking at this kind of work for ideas  kinda reminds me of Danny Huynh's awesome work


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## Allen_Haunts (Jul 26, 2021)

daz1 said:


> Thanks Alien_Haunts, didn't think of looking at this kind of work for ideas  kinda reminds me of Danny Huynh's awesome work


That’s is awesome work. There really is a treasure trove of joint ideas on the web. Frightprops.com has a lot of prop mechanisms to emulate as well.


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## Hallowed31 (7 mo ago)

daz1 said:


> Hey all, noob here and not sure where to start! I want to build some realistic look animatronics for my scare maze but not sure on the joints to use to get good range of motion that also look natural???? please help
> 
> this is the look and range of motion I need for the arms of my prop
> 
> ...


The nun looks to be a gear motor shoulder joint with a cam , connected to upper arm. Sometimes the motor does a full rotation, sometimes it appears to do half then reverse to full. I'm not much for building mechanical linkages though, that's just a guess from what I can see.


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## daz1 (7 mo ago)

Hallowed31 said:


> The nun looks to be a gear motor shoulder joint with a cam , connected to upper arm. Sometimes the motor does a full rotation, sometimes it appears to do half then reverse to full. I'm not much for building mechanical linkages though, that's just a guess from what I can see.


also the arms seem to sway out to the sides but not to much, so i wonder if they have some sort of movement restricting hinge ????


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## Hallowed31 (7 mo ago)

daz1 said:


> also the arms seem to sway out to the sides but not to much, so i wonder if they have some sort of movement restricting hinge ????


Yeah, I'm not sure.


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## Allen_Haunts (Jul 26, 2021)

Hallowed31 said:


> The nun looks to be a gear motor shoulder joint with a cam , connected to upper arm. Sometimes the motor does a full rotation, sometimes it appears to do half then reverse to full. I'm not much for building mechanical linkages though, that's just a guess from what I can see.


I think that the violent movement is done with air driven actuators but could be done with a wiper motor. The lunge is a scissor mech with air actuator though. You can find the plans to these online.


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## Allen_Haunts (Jul 26, 2021)

I found another prop mech video I think will help you build what you want…


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## Allen_Haunts (Jul 26, 2021)

And yet one more…


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