PREP

Spent a few hours this evening laying everything out in the garage so we can set it all up tomorrow. Doesn't look like much but the garage is full.

HALLOWINDOW

We've got our window animation up and running and it looks great. We discovered Hallowindow about two years ago. All you need is is a sheet hung in an inside window, the animation DVD, a DVD playe and a projector.

Here is our dining room window with the animation projected onto the sheet.

Notice how the words are projected backwards. From the outside they read correctly. The DVD has options that allow you to flip the animation.

Here is a REALLy bad photo from the outside. I just took a quick shot. It was windy and my shutter speed was super slow because of the dark. A tripod would have helped but I was to lazy. I'll get a better shot on Halloween night. We'll have a different animation that night.

DEMON / WITCH

This year we are adding an animated demon and skeleton. This is a first for us. We did some research and found some great tutorials on line that walk you right through the process.

First we started with PVC and made the frame of the body. Bought a foam head and added a mask. The head had a whole in the bottom which fit perfectly over the PVC. We then attached him to our heavy umbrella stand.

We took an old sweater and pulled it over the frame of the body. We then stuffed it with brown packing paper and tied string around the waist to hold it all together. This gave him a chest and makes him look not so wimpy. We added last years Grim Reaper cloak over the sweater stuffed with paper.

We bought some Halloween rubber gloves and put wire inside them so we could bend the fingers around the broom stick. The wire is then shoved up inside the PVC.

I didn't get a chance to take any pics of the rigging of the motor. But this is what it looks like inside the cauldron. We used a windshield wiper motor. We also drilled out a large whole in the cauldron to pump in fog from our fog machine. Just used more PVC for this.


I threw some of that tattered cheese cloth like stuff that you can buy anywhere right now, over his shoulders. So this is what he looks like with the lights on.

And here he is with the lights off. I have only a red flood light lighting him up. We also added LED lights for eyes, one of those battery powered strobe lights inside the cauldron and orange xmas lights around the base. Once he's outside we'll have twigs wrapped around those lights. I love the effect the strobe light and fog give off. And we weren't anticipating the beams of light shooting from his eyes. It's a cool effect from the LED lights and the fog.

I will be getting video of this guy when we set him up outside.

WILL'S TOMBSTONE

Shape drawn out on blue insulation foam.

Used a plain old utility blade to cut the foam. Glued the pieces together with wood glue and clamped it. Then I glued it to a 1x6 with liquid nail.

Used my hot exacto to make it look like cracked stone. Also used this to carve the words. I then caulked the seams.

Primed it with acrylic gray primer.

Painted it to look old and then glued on spanish moss.