A Different Kind of Kicking Legs

[trentsketch]

I thought hard about inspiration for the 2010 haunt. The theme needs to be substantial enough to cover a pretty decent outside space (Front yard, Side yard naturally split in two, Back yard easily split in four, and side yard) as I fully intend to finish an outdoor walkthrough at the homestead next year. Which means I'm starting construction by December. I work slow because I do too much at once, so I figure 11 months would be enough for all the new, reusable props.

The new theme is The Red Shoes. I'm sticking with the general story as told by Hans Christian Andersen (save that miserable uplifting ending of salvation), but I'm lifting imagery and expanded story circumstances from Kate Bush's short film The Line, the Cross, and the Curve (also based on The Red Shoes). I'm making good progress in preplanning some mechanical pieces, but I'm stuck on how to recreate one of my favorite images in the film.

The prop in question would be based on a brief scene where Kate first has the red shoes placed on her feet. After they tie themselves up, her feet start dancing en pointe by themselves. I can't for the life of me figure out how to work out a simple mechanism for raising and lowering the feet at a pretty fast clip.

The section in question is at 3:39-3:40 in this video. I told you it was a brief scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9W9XTxbnWI I know the video doesn't work here. Embedding is disabled. Just follow the link for the visual.

I'd prefer not to have to use pneumatics, and I'm pretty sure it's not necessary. Anyone have any ideas? I'm sure there has to be a similar movement in another prop with an existing tutorial somewhere that could be used. I'm just stumped.

[beelce]

How about magnetics?

[DarkLore]

Sorry....I'm not where I can give you an illustration...

...but I'd try a motor attached to a small teeter-tooter. Imagine two ballet slippers screwed at the toe onto the top of a black dowel....at the opposite sides of a small teeter tooter. A triggered motor sets the teeter tooter in motion. As one goes up the other goes down. The speed of the motor and the size of the armature determines the speed and height of the movement.

Trigger the motor to make it move. Install the mechanism within a small box as a base...or desguise the box as a shoe box for ballet slippers. Paint the dowells flat black to hide them in the light.

[DarkLore]

Another way would be a motor driving a spindle. Like a rotisiere motor (apologies for spelling). Bend the spindle like the crank on a piston shaft (high and low points). As the motor turns, the shaft bumps up or down for each shoe. There would be many ways to attach the shoes either directly to the shaft...or have the shaft drive small piston type rods or something similar.

[spinman1949]

I think you could adapt a small electric hedge clipper to cause your dancing shoes effect. Plus the dancer could use them for that UNIBROW !!! LOL !!! DANG !!!

[trentsketch]

DarkLore, I think I understand the teeter-totter idea. That seems pretty doable to me.

beelce, how do you mean magnetics? I'm fascinated by uses for magnets, though I always think back to how close a Project Runway designer was to being eliminated one season when the magnets in her convertible dress reversed polarity before she had to display her piece.

spinman1949, the unibrow is crazy, but it definitely is a well-researched nod to horror mythology. British lore in particular suggests a way to tell if someone is a werewolf, an imminent threat to your safety, is if their eyebrows meet. It's a major part of The Company of Wolves, one of the strangest werewolf films you could ever watch. As strange as Kate Bush's videos tend to be, they are methodically researched for horror film accuracy.

Hedgeclippers could probably do the trick, but unfortunately if I look at a sharp object, I get cut. :laugheton: I'd hate to think what would happen if I started playing around with the mechanism. There's also a bad case of the stupids in my neighborhood, wherein the parents of ToTs tell them it's ok to eat bubbles off the ground or hang from suspended props for a laugh. :rolleyes:

[spinman1949]

Sorry I was just in a goofy mood. The Unibrow just struck me funny. I honestly did not think a hedgeclipper would be an option to achieve the movement you are looking for.

I can tell you that whatever choice in mechanics you choose, low mass is your first goal. Inertia is your enemy with fast movement. Lower mass results in less inertia to battle.

[DarkLore]

Without thinking the whole thing through...something like this is what I was pondering...

http://www.mourningwood.com/images/RedBalletSlippers.jpg

You wouldn't need the additional linkage necessarily. The center point of the level (teeter-tooter) would be fixed. And you would need to stablize the verticals so they only go up and down.

[spinman1949]

I need to watch the video again. Could use acrylic rod for the vertical to reduce visibility of the mechanics.

I just watched the video again. I never got to the part where she is dancing in air. Unibrow had me mesmerized. LOL !!!

Anyway, it seems to me that since the shoes are on her feet, that a similiar approach to Darklore mechanics could be used. His center pivot could be a gimbal and you could add other directional movement to obtain the effect. Probably will want to move linkage up to around mid calf. Since the toes are pointed throughout the routine, you won't need to articulate the ankle.

[trentsketch]

DarkLore, thank you. I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not too concerned if the motion is perfectly vertical: I just want the quick foot motion. It's not going to run for too long at any given time anyway. This will be the first animatronic prop the ToTs ever experience in my yard (stupid rain grounding this year's devices) and I don't expect them to hang around too long when she gets to stepping and groaning.

spinman1949, the dancing in air bit is great, but I have a much more severe design in mind than the serene movements in the video. I'm going to build my poor naive dancer as one of those fan-based hangman props. Her whole body will be shaking when she's floating in the air. The rope will be replaced with the bandages from the unibrowed witch.

She'll also be spinning in place with the fine gentleman in the video, who will be converted into a hunchback for maximum scare value. And that unibrowed witch will be following her with those bandages in ever scene, orchestrating her every movement.

Which means I'm going to be doing a lot of sculpting this year. Too much, probably, but it will give me a cavalcade of humanoids to build off of in the future. It's not that hard to switch out clothing, wigs, and paint. And once I get the basic features down for each character, it's only minor adjustments for the various emotions and positions. I'll start banging them out like an assembly line.

[spinman1949]

The prop will be hanging and gyrating. You will anchor the feet and ballet shoes below using Darklore's design and have the ankle's and calves extend up into the prop. Sounds like a plan.