Sep 23rd, 2013 by Scott
Over at Modd3d there’s a quick demo of a character in a video interacting with objects in the real world. Below is a video of the trick. It was all done in-camera and used no fancy editing. Head over to the site for the how-did-they-do-that video.
Sep 6th, 2010 by Scott
There are several ways to synchronize the movements of your animated props to audio. Two of the more popular ways are MIDI control and audio control. It’s not always obvious which method is best, so I’ll go over a few of the pros and cons of each.
Oct 4th, 2009 by Scott
If you have any kind of MIDI-controlled prop you should check out this video. It shows you how to create an animation sequence for your prop. The video uses a skull and Reaper software, but you could apply the technique to any MIDI prop.
Jul 30th, 2009 by Scott
Hacking a keyboard is a cheap (free?) and easy way to control your computer with external switches and sensors.
Oct 28th, 2008 by Scott
Gemmy Animated Scary Skulls are great for hacking. Their jaws move, their eyes light up (and even move on some models), and best of all they’re cheap.
Right out of the box they’re not so impressive though. You trip the motion sensor and garbled noise comes out of the tiny speaker for a few seconds.
What’s it saying? It sounds kind of like “I’m on sale” to me. I guess they just want you to subconsciously decode the message and buy more skulls.
The best thing to do with these skulls is to rip their brains out and add MIDI control so you can sync them with your own soundtrack. This tutorial will show you how to do just that.
Oct 19th, 2008 by Scott
Yard-light motion sensors are a cheap and easy way to add some automation to your haunt. Just hook up power to the sensor, hook the output to an outlet, and you can control anything that runs on 120VAC. But what if you want to control something else? It turns out it’s pretty easy to modify these motion sensors so the output just acts like a normal switch or button. Here are some of the things you can control with a modded motion sensor:
Basically if you can control it with a switch or a button, you can control it with a motion sensor.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
Learn what DMX512 is and how to use it. Part 2 gets into some of the more technical details of the DMX512 protocol.
Sep 23rd, 2008 by Scott
DMX512 us used for controlling all kinds of lights and effects. This DMX512 tutorial tells you what it is and how to use it. Part 1 gives a basic overview of the protocol and what it does.
Sep 4th, 2008 by Scott
Introduction to gain structure; what it is and how to use it to get the cleanest audio signal possible.
Sep 4th, 2008 by Scott
This how-to shows you how to modify your Lite F/X fogger so that it will shoot fog whenever you press the button instead of just when the heater is off. Eliminate missed fog cues!
