Welcome to my Haunted Halloween Yard!

The purpose of this web site is to showcase my Halloween decorations and props.  Some of the props are store-bought, and some of the props are hand-made.  I also incorporate computer-controlled lights and audio. If you are interested in seeing my display, you can find my townhouse at the following address:

Please note that my display won't be fully operation until two weeks before Halloween.

If you'd like to contact me, you can email me at Xpendable@hauntsoft.com

This year I'm building an animated witch for my front porch. She will appear to be stirring some sort of witch's brew, and her head will slowly turn back and forth. The witch will utilize two motors. The stirring action will be done using a windshield wiper motor that is hidden in the bottom of the cauldron. The stirring stick is attached directly to a crank arm that is attached to the motor. The side-to-side head motion of the witch is created by a small crank motor that I salvaged from a lighted wire-frame deer Christmas decoration that I got on clearance. It has a slow speed and a decent amount of torque. This motor is actually at the bottom of the torso of the witch, and it turns a shaft that connects all the way to the head.

Witch Photos:

	View of the wiper motor.
	Perspective View of the frame.
	Side view of the frame.
	Closeup of the head-turning mechanics. This is a crank motor salvaged from a lighted wireframe deer decoration from Christmas.
	5 sections of extruded styrofoam glued together with spray adhesive to create a block of styrofoam. A head form will be carved out of this block.
	Rough shape of the head carved out of the block of styrofoam. I used a metal brush bit on my drill to speed the carving. What a mess!
	The witch mask test-fitted over the head form.
	Closeup showing the fogger connected to some ducting. This is the first time I've ever used duct tape for actual duct work!
	Fog coming out of the cauldron from the ducted pvc pipe.
	PVC skeleton hand I made using the tutorial referenced/linked on ScareFX's website. The thick copper wire that runs through each finger is very strong. Almost too strong. This allows the fingers to keep whatever pose I want.
	Latex monster gloves fitted over the PVC skeleton structure.
	This picture shows the chicken wire attached to the frame to hold the shape of the body.
	Another picture of the chicken wire, but with the arms attached.
	Closeup view of the cauldron frame with the cauldron removed. The PVC piping is for pumping fog into the cauldron. I'm using a windshield wiper motor (supposively from a 2000 model Saturn) to turn the stirring stick. I cut a section of aluminum bar and drilled 5/16" wholes in both ends. I drilled aother 5/16" hole into a 1/2" PVC end cap and bolted it to one end of the bar. Then I used a short section of 1/2" PVC piping that connects to the end cap. The stirring stick is 1" PVC piping that fits loosely over the short section of 1/2" PVC. This allows the stirring stick to pivot around the smaller section of PVC.
	Closeup view of inside the cauldron. I used a 100 bulb strand of lights to light the inside of the cauldron. This gives the fog a nice glowing green color.
	Here are some rings that I am making for the side of the cauldron. I took 2 cheap styrofoam rings and coated them in Elmer's Wood Glue. The ring on the top of the photo has been sanded, the ring on the bottom has not. The ring holders were carved out of extruded styrofoam. They will be hot-glued to the sides of the cauldron.
	Sickie Ickie over on HauntForum requested a how-to on my shoulder joints. Here's the parts that I use for one shoulder joint.
	Here is a partial assembly. The 1/2" PVC section will rotate freely inside the short 1" section of PVC pipe. These sections are a littler shorter in my actual witch, but this demonstrates the concept.
	The 1/2" end cap is snapped on. This keeps the 1/2" PVC piping from coming out of the "socket". The 1" PVC piping can now be attached to a 1" coupler. I used a 1" T-joint.

Witch Videos:

Here is a video of an early fog & cauldron lighting test
Here is a video closeup of the head crank
Clothing test. I bought 3 yards of black cloth for the dress, 2 yards of a distressed cloth for the cape, and 1 yard of the moon & star pattern for the shoulders. ScareFX used this same pattern for the shoulders on his witch. I liked it and decided to use it for mine as well.
The mask, hands, and styrofoam head are now all painted to match. The stirring stick is painted, the eyeballs are finished, the witch hat is now installed, and the "blinky" lights are now installed below the cauldron. There's still more to do, but we're getting pretty close!

Fence Photos:

Halloween 2007 Photos:

My Projects:

Flying Crank Ghost:

The Flying Crank Ghost is my first animated prop.  It consists of a large 8' tall PVC frame from which an animated ghost hangs.  The ghost moves up and down with independent movement of the arms.  The ghost is driven by a single windshield wiper motor powered up by a cheap power supply.  I'm currently pumping 4.5 volts into the motor at 200 milliamps.  That's about as slow as I can run the motor and still have enough torque to lift the ghost.  I should mention that this prop is roughly based on the original design by Doug Ferguson over at http://www.phantasmechanics.com

Here is a video of the completed ghost: (10/16/2006) FCGTest4.wmv

Previous videos: (10/04/2006)  FCGTest3.wmv   FCGTest2.wmv

 

Computer-controlled lighting display:

Here's a short 1 minute demo of my computer-controlled Halloween lights. I'm using Insteon home-automation technology for control. Insteon works by using your home's electrical system to send data between various light switches and plug-in modules.  For this demonstration, I'm using 8 plug-in modules (LampLincs and ApplianceLincs) and the USB PowerLink controller.  I've written my own software that allows me to script the lighting events so that they are syncronized with the playback of a custom sound track that I created.  My computer plays the sound track and tells the various modules to either turn themselves on/off, or to begin fading up or down at a pre-programmed rate.  For those curious about what programming language I used, I did this entirely in VisualBasic.NET.

About a week before Halloween, I will have all of these lights setup outside.  The table lamps that you see in the video will be replaced with flood lights.  I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to use the lights or what lights will be synced to what sounds.

Updated!  (10/22/2006) Demo video here:  LightTestRun3.wmv

See the demonstration video here:  Light Demo #3 (LightDemo3.wmv)

 

Styrofoam Tombstones:

What haunted yard would be complete without tombstones?  Fortunately, you can make realistic ones out of styrofoam.  Here is my first tombstone:

6' Tall Standing Monster (static):

I'm working on a large static monster that will stand 6' tall.  The frame is built out of 1.5" PVC.  The hands are made with monster gloves from Kmart with 12 gauge wire inside that allows me to pose the fingers.  I still need to buy some hardware cloth or something similiar to bulk up the body and the arms and legs.  I bought some rebar that I'll hammer into the ground, and the PVC legs will fit directly over the rebar.  I have a grim reaper cloak (also from Kmart) that will act as the clothing for the monster.  I have about 12 different Halloween masks that I can use for a face.  I just need to decide which one to use!  Sorry, no pictures yet!