Halloween talking faces

[kneel999]

OK, thanks to Cracker, he has motivated me to build my own faces and start getting my money out of my light-o-rama system. Here are some links to some video's I have taken in my living room. I haven't done any other lights yet, just the faces but I am pretty pleased with the results so far. The skull is 7' tall and the other 3 faces are 5' tall.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks

Monster Mash

Thriller

This is Halloween

Boom Boom Pow

Dead Man's Party

[csimmon5]

very nice....the mouth movement to the music is really good

[jeffandnicole]

That sucks! Oh, no, I take that back...I'm just jealous. You did a great job there. As Simmon said, the mouth movements really are matched up well - you can actually believe they are singing the music!!!

[kdouglas]

great job,

this is also my project this weekend

[ryebred]

These look really nice. Would you be able to share your sequence files for the face animations on these songs? I am toying around with the idea of doing something similar.

[gmacw]

your skeleton face animations look great. Would you be willing to send the sequences & maybe some tips on how you made the faces. I'd like to try to make themthis year.

[RickWIlliams]

Nice work!

I really like your variations of the sculls.

[fdunham]

Wow, great job!!:shock:

[JonB256]

My wife has decided I need to do at least one animated face. Halloween music we usually play includes:

Monster Mash
Werewolves of London
Time Warp
Purple People Eater
Thriller
Ghostbusters

When the weather is good, we get between 500 to 750 treaters. We know because we buy Vampire Teeth by the gross and count before and after.

This was last year:

Hope to post my own animated mouth video soon.

ps - if you are willing to share any or all of your sequences, I'll send you a set of vampire teeth!!! PM me

JonB

[RaceMedic]

Planning ahead to next christmas already .....

I want to do a talking / singing face.

Here ist he dilema .... I have NO IDEA on how to work with rope lighting and how to do custom lengths etc.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated in leading me to some links.

Thanks,

Dave

[fdunham]

RaceMedic wrote:

Planning ahead to next christmas already .....

I want to do a talking / singing face.

Here ist he dilema .... I have NO IDEA on how to work with rope lighting and how to do custom lengths etc.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated in leading me to some links.

Thanks,

Dave

They're actually pretty easy. The manufacturer tells you what the cut length is (and they usually have a pair of scissors stamped on the rope where to cut). They also sell the connectors and parts (eg to join two peices end to end, plug ends, etc.). If you have excess length at the end of the run, you just tape it with electrical tape so that light doesn't show through.

[fdunham]

RaceMedic wrote:

Planning ahead to next christmas already .....

I want to do a talking / singing face.

Here ist he dilema .... I have NO IDEA on how to work with rope lighting and how to do custom lengths etc.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated in leading me to some links.

Thanks,

Dave

Oh yeah, vendors. There are numerous, a few are listed below:

Action Lighting - http://www.actionlighting.com

Creative Displays - http://www.creativedisplays.com

1000 Bulbs - http://www.1000bulbs.com

Planet Christmas has a number of vendors listed on their Web site.

[RaceMedic]

Thank-you !

Have have bought all my lights this year from CDI ... I just didn't know if they were all able to be cut or now rope likes worked like that !

Will have to do more research !

I want to do a talking santa claus for next year !

Dave

[toddmoon]

I did a face for Halloween last year. I had decided to redesign the face into a Santa for this year and have it multi purpose.

That is still my plan only now it it for next year. I had taken on too many projects this year and the face redesign just did not happen this year.

The rope lights are easy to work with and cutting them is not a big deal. Connecting them together is not hard either. You can purchase ones for this purpose or you can also solider wire ends and poke them into the rope lights to hook them up if you want to connect them from different locations.

[ryebred]

Does anyone have an idea on how much rope light is needed to create a face the size of Crackers? CDI sells the rope light in 150 foot rolls. I am wondering if one roll would be enough to make 2-3 faces or if I should go for two rolls?

[CLD Kevin]

ryebred wrote:

Does anyone have an idea on how much rope light is needed to create a face the size of Crackers? CDI sells the rope light in 150 foot rolls. I am wondering if one roll would be enough to make 2-3 faces or if I should go for two rolls?

I cant exactly recall, but I believe the larger face was about 100ft. The smaller were about 70ft. 2 - 150 rolls should be enough for 3 faces. I used 3/8" You want extra for sections that burn out. So get extra splices too.

I believe CDI rope cuts every 3'? May be hard to work with leaving you lots of extra for each section, but I wouldn't know. I use rope that can be cut at every 18", but its not LED.

[ryebred]

Your right, it does say 3 feet. For some reason I glanced over that before and read it as 3 inches. I am glad you pointed that out as it does seem difficult to work with if it needs to be in 3 feet sections.

[kneel999]

1 roll will definitely make 2 faces but probably not 3.
I made 4 faces and had two 150' rolls with very little left over.
Hope that helps.

[RaceMedic]

Has anyone found LED rope light with a cutting length of less than 3 ft ?!

If so ... I would appreciate knowing where ... I am continuing to look !

Dave

[tgrabher]

RaceMedic wrote:

Planning ahead to next christmas already .....

I want to do a talking / singing face.

Here ist he dilema .... I have NO IDEA on how to work with rope lighting and how to do custom lengths etc.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated in leading me to some links.

Thanks,

Dave

Thanks for the info, I was kinda in the same place as Dave there!

Tony