# Grim Grinning Pumpkins, how to



## childofthenight (Aug 24, 2007)

I asked the guy who did that. he said he animated it himself in a 3-d program .synced them to grim grinning ghosts in maya (I didnt understand what maya was) used regular digital projector, pc speakers connected to portable dvd player on looping dvd. Im sure someone here can figure this out and be able to tell you more or show you .hope this helps a little.


----------



## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

maya is a very expensive 3d modeling and animation software package. you could also use various other programs varying in range. they all have quite a high learning curve though. easiest way to learn is download a sample version (i now 3d studio max has 30 day trial versions for download) and buy a book on the program and learn.

i'm pretty sure he just animated polygons and rendered them out black and white.


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

*heres my version of this that ive been working on - should be ready in like 2 days*

just need ideas for songs and what to use for pumpkins

YouTube - Grim Grinning Ghosts -- halloween ghost singing pumpkins
YouTube - Grim Grinning Pumpkins - Singing halloween faces projector


----------



## cingularpat (Sep 22, 2008)

Steve Wesson - the guy who made the original video - is now selling his animation for $20 shipped. It comes on a CD with an MPEG and AVI file of the animation without sound. He is not including the sound because that would be copyright infringement. However, it is VERY easy to use the Grim Grinning Ghosts MP3 file that you probably already have and dub it together in Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. That's what I did, and it is fabulous! I can't wait to use it for Halloween.

Steve shipped the CD very quickly, and was very easy to reach via e-mail. If you go to the YouTube page (Link and video below) he lists his e-mail address in a pop up on the video.

I highly recommend purchasing this from Steve if you wanted to do the Grim Grinning Pumpkins for Halloween. I would be more than happy to help anyone who has trouble getting the sound going too. It's so simple.

Just wanted to let everyone know. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WVgGGQjyCR0&feature=related


----------



## confucius101 (Aug 12, 2009)

so after i get the file what would i need make this work a projector or what????


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

*just the pumpkins or some sort head type object to project video on!*

just the pumpkins or some sort head type object to project video on!


----------



## confucius101 (Aug 12, 2009)

ok sounds good but what would i need to use to project the image with???


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

U need a video projector -


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

heres an update to where im at 

shows it on pumpkins


YouTube - singing pumpkins -- Grim Grinning Pumpkins projector


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

heres another version of it 

YouTube - grim grinning ghosts


----------



## confucius101 (Aug 12, 2009)

ok one last stupid question 

whats kind of projectors do you recommend?


----------



## robzilla69 (Sep 8, 2009)

im gonna do it combined with this idea in a window so no projector
http://freebaseballseasontickets.in...-floating-head-illusion-virtual-Hologram.html


----------



## robzilla69 (Sep 8, 2009)

i can fix that


----------



## skid_68 (Aug 30, 2009)

tdf22 said:


> heres an update to where im at
> 
> shows it on pumpkins
> 
> ...



That looks great! What songs will they be singing?


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

got set up it on a loop where they will be sing 3-5 songs

so far its
this is halloween
monster mash
and grim griining 
u got any ideas for songs


----------



## Jess-o-Lantern (Aug 7, 2009)

Anybody know if there is an animation similar to these set up to the "Ghost Host" intro?


----------



## VICOUS (Aug 26, 2009)

I have the image from Steve it works great, although I wish it was black with white faces. robzilla69 you meantion you could change that what would you use????


----------



## Auntskaren (Oct 7, 2009)

You can use a white pumpkin if you can't change the animation! But they are expensive, about 40 dollars for a big mac one. I grew 10 orange ones, no white ones. Guess I could call it a seed investment....


----------



## Auntskaren (Oct 7, 2009)

Ok, I got the animation from Steve and we are working on it with windows movie maker. How long was everyone else's version from Steve? Mine was 2 minutes does this sound right? Like half of it is not even with the pumpkins singing. My big kid is working on it with windows movie maker. The MP3 is quite a bit longer.


----------



## skid_68 (Aug 30, 2009)

Auntskaren said:


> Ok, I got the animation from Steve and we are working on it with windows movie maker. How long was everyone else's version from Steve? Mine was 2 minutes does this sound right? Like half of it is not even with the pumpkins singing. My big kid is working on it with windows movie maker. The MP3 is quite a bit longer.



Yeah, they only sing for about one minute. Wish I knew that before ordering. As I thought they would do the entire song. Also sounds like he shipped you the copy with the pumpkins "in wait" between singing songs. The first one he sent me was just them singing. So i asked if he could also send me them just looking around, as I didnt want them singing all the time. He said he took out the non singing animation because sometimes kids would miss them singing. But I would rather not have them singing a one minute song over and over without breaks.


----------



## Auntskaren (Oct 7, 2009)

It's about half and half on mine, first they are just looking around for about the first 45 seconds then they sing, and the MP3 has singing a few seconds before the animation does. I got the MP3 from amazon and I am wondering if I should have gone somewhere else for it.


----------



## Auntskaren (Oct 7, 2009)

I guess if you cannot get the orange changed you could just put black tape around the faces on the tv screen. 

I was going to give this a shot, with the white pumpkins but even though I managed to sync the animation to the music pretty seamlessly if I do say so myself, I am now having heck getting it burned to a disc for some reason. I have tried two different kinds, one will burn but the DVD players pick it up as 2 files, audio and video. The DVD+RW won't even show up in the reader on the computer to burn. I can research up and figure this out too, but I wonder then what would be next!!! By the time I get done it's going to be Easter I fear.


----------



## crazybob (Apr 11, 2005)

tdf22 - would you consider making your pumpkin animations available to us once finished?


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

*animation*

sure -- its done and ready to ship out 
its 13 minutes long 

heres a quick demo of it 






if your interested heres my direct Email 
[email protected]


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

can also have it available in what ever color set up u like 
and different faces 

would take about 2 days -- so the sooner the better --


----------



## Borohaunts (Oct 17, 2009)

*Singing pumkins*

New here as of 10/18/09. Just to say that the Steve W.'s animation is great, worth the $20.00. Program worked great with windows movie maker, ( mixing songs and sounds with video). Only problem now is the projection on the pumpkins. Tried an eyeclops and it sucked. Going to try the Sharper Image projector unless some suggest differently. Thanks to anyone who has input...


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

Would like to see this Steve W video - where can I check it out at


----------



## VICOUS (Aug 26, 2009)

I have the sharper image one and Steve animation. Tired it on both orange and white pumkings its just not dark enough with the orange and yellow backrounds that Steve uses. His file needs to have a really bright projector. I have swithced to using a file from tdf22 that is black and white and it work wonderful even with the cheap projector.


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

Glad to hear - that it looks good on your set up too ...


----------



## esuorc (Oct 5, 2009)

I got Steve's animation it is fantastic. I put the sound back using Power Director. I am using the new Dell pico projector and it works great. It is very bright and has a short throw. I created a DVD and edited the video together several times to give about an hour of play time I even shotrened the down time between songs and added the laugh in random locations to help break it up. I have the perfect location in our living room for the display. I can hide the DVD player, projector and the speakers under the coffee table in the living room. I used plastic pumpkins from Michaels. The display is part of my Dept56 display of a haunted house inside a huge pumpkin. You can see it all here...

SEE NEXT POST (had to get by the first post limitation)


----------



## esuorc (Oct 5, 2009)

Ok here is the link to my Punkin Patch
It contains a huge pumpkin that has an Dept56 Haunted house and yard sceen
Along with the singing pumpkins that Steve provided I edited the music and coppied the video several time to a CD for about an hour of runtime before it repeats
The link is

www.cccgis.com/halloween09.htm

Robert


----------



## esuorc (Oct 5, 2009)

Oops did not link it here it is as a link
http://www.cccgis.com/halloween09.htm

Robert


----------



## skid_68 (Aug 30, 2009)

That looks great esuorc! I just picked up a free projector off some local ads, but it does not look very good for steve's animation. Not sure what Im going to do.


----------



## tdf22 (Sep 21, 2009)

just wanted to share my test run pumpkin singing video..

YouTube - test run on singing pumpkins

grim grinning


----------



## skid_68 (Aug 30, 2009)

That looks awesome tdf22. You have done a great job on your singing pumpkins. Might I suggest a little more mouth movement on the thriller song. 

P.M. sent


----------



## Nephilim (Oct 22, 2005)

Just FYI for people reading this thread, if you have a copy of our Gordo digital puppet, it will do this kind of animation interactively, so that you can have pumpkins talking to your visitors. (This is a new feature in 2009, a free upgrade if you bought Gordo before.)

YouTube - Gordo Black Talking Pumpkin (Digital Puppet)

(In this video, I'm controlling the puppet as I talk - that's not an animation.)

This is more of the same ideas behind the Magic Mirror prop - namely, having your haunt creatures actually talk with and interact with kids makes the magic come alive more than just static props you watch.


----------



## macpo (Oct 24, 2009)

please tell me how you got rid of all the extra orange background color around the pumpkins? I have been trying to block it with cardboard in front of the projector lens but it doesn't look very good!



esuorc said:


> I got Steve's animation it is fantastic. I put the sound back using Power Director. I am using the new Dell pico projector and it works great. It is very bright and has a short throw. I created a DVD and edited the video together several times to give about an hour of play time I even shotrened the down time between songs and added the laugh in random locations to help break it up. I have the perfect location in our living room for the display. I can hide the DVD player, projector and the speakers under the coffee table in the living room. I used plastic pumpkins from Michaels. The display is part of my Dept56 display of a haunted house inside a huge pumpkin. You can see it all here...
> 
> SEE NEXT POST (had to get by the first post limitation)


----------

