[joshschaf]

I saw this in person and thought it was pretty cool. Pricey, but cool. Anyhow I did a quick search and didnt see a thread on it.

http://www.skulltronix.com/

-jds

 

[DeathTouch]

That almost looks like Dr. Morbius's prop he made for the contest.

 

[Dr Morbius]

Oh man...I wish there was some way to make a skull that could all that for alot less! hmmmm...

 

[Zombie-F]

That almost looks like Dr. Morbius's prop he made for the contest.

I've seen those skulltronix skulls advertised in Haunted Attraction Magazine before. That video is pretty damned sweet. But man, $1099... hardly seems worth it.

 

[krough]

Oh man...I wish there was some way to make a skull that could all that for alot less! hmmmm...

hmmm indeed.

 

[Dr Morbius]

indeed.

 

[ScareFX]

It is expensive but I think we might be able to do better price wise.

I will say that Mike Fox does do a nice creepy VO however.
http://www.custommusic.tv/haunts/VideoClips/seance.html

 

[heresjohnny]

indeed....
hmmm...

 

[Dr Morbius]

yes...indeed.

 

[heresjohnny]

I say.....

 

[Dr Morbius]

By jove...

 

[joshschaf]

Well I am working with a few friends to see if we can do it for alot less. The Skulltronix prop has some nice features but lets see what I can come up with.

Give me a few weeks and I will post my progress....

-jds

 

[slightlymad]

Me thinks I will just stick to my yapper

 

[gmacted]

The video is unbelievable! At $1099 I may have to buy two ... not! I wonder what type of controller they're using?

 

[mrklaw]

It looks like it would take 6 servos to do all of the motion that it does.
two for the eyes (vertical and horizontal)
one for the mouth
three for the head (vertical, horizontal, and turning)

I wonder how many servos you can fit in a bucky skull?

 

[krough]

Well, since I have already done this, I would say 4 standard sized servos is about it, anymore than that and placement is a pain in the $%^. I looked at Fox's site and he mounts his jaw servo outside the cranium.
1 servo for pan
1 servo for tilt
1 servo side to side tilt
2 much micro servos for eye movement



I would say yes its doable.

 

[heresjohnny]

my oh my.....

 

[heresjohnny]

You know, if we wanted to get really fancy, we could use 2 servos to provide tilt in all directions; one servo to rotate a gimbal, and a second servo to provide the tilt.

 

[Dr Morbius]

That would still limit the tilts to one tilt at a time, as opposed to tilt/side to side at the same time, as the Skulltronics skull does.

 

[SpectreTTM]

The video is unbelievable! At $1099 I may have to buy two ... not! I wonder what type of controller they're using?

After reading this part

SkullTronix Talking Skull with Servo board,
2 External Scene Lights,
2 Power Supplies,
USB cable,
Bucky replacement neck bone/mounting adapter, and
third party animation software license?

RAPU (Remote Animation Playback Unit) with custom cable: add $330 (see brookshiresoftware.com for details)

Parallax USB Servo Controller

I'd have to say they are using a VSA set up with a Parallax USB Servo Controller and a PC.