# New Project - Green Man mask with animated eyes



## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

We have a tree in the front of our house close to the sidewalk. I have been thinking for a while about trying to make some kind of a face that looked like it was part of the tree. Something along the lines of this photo. If you do a google search you will see it many form and is typically referred to as a "Green Man" mask and is usually interpreted as a symbol of spring or a forest or rebirth in general.










But I digress. I wanted something that actually had eyes that moved which was going to be a complicated project. But then I found this new animated eyes thing at Adafruit.com. They call it the Monster M4SK. 









It uses 2 small TFT displays and comes with the program to display the eyeballs which just go through a series of random movements. You can change a text file they give you to change some of the attributes of the eyes. I was able to change mine to make the pupils look more like eyes of a cat. If you have graphic talents I think it would be an easy task to create any type of eyes you want.

To help me make the face I bought one of these cheap plastic masks. I will cover it in Apoxie Sculpt to create the face I want.









To make the eyeballs look more 3D they sell glass or plastic convex lens that fit over the TFT displays which make the eyeballs look larger. I elected for the glass ones as I thought the plastic ones would get scratched in the assembly process and the glass ones would probably provide greater clarity. I am glad I did this.







I had to cut much larger holes in the mask in order for the eyes to fit.









I taped the mask down to a board to keep it from moving when I put the Apoxie scuplt on. I covered the eyeballs and the circuit board with plastic wrap to keep the clay from sticking to those parts. I also used some heavy duty tape around the edges of the circuit board to ensure I would be able to remove the board after the Apoxie dried. I also should have put the plastic wrap on the wood base as well as the Apoxie stuck to that. 










I had never used the Apoxie sculpt before but it is easy to use. You just take equal parts of the A and B clay, mix them together for about a minute and start throwing it on. I would create pieces about 1" in diameter and press those onto the mask. You then wet your fingers with water and smooth the seams out. This process also makes it super easy to create a heavy texture in the "skin" which I liked. I kept the eyeball animation going while I worked the clay around the eyeballs so I could easily tell how much I needed to cover up. 










You have to let this dry overnight but it is like concrete now. Now I am going to attempt to make a mold of some tree bark and I will add more clay and use that mold to create more of a bark texture to the face. 

Here is what it looks like with the plastic wrap removed from the eyes. I just hung it up on the wall to get an idea of what it looks like at the moment and I have to tell you that this has turned out better than I thought and it so creepy you can't believe it. This is going to seriously freak some kids out.  I will add more photos after I add the tree bark texture.


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## J-Man (Feb 1, 2011)

That's AWESOME! ?


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

That is awesome. It will definitely creep some TOTs out. Great job.


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

Thanks J-Man and HauntedWho!

Update: I used EasyMold silicone putty from Castin' Craft to make 2 small molds of the bark on the tree. See photo below on left. It was so easy and it worked perfectly. I just slapped a gob on the tree and squished it in and in 30 minutes you have a perfect mold of the bark. Then I added more Apoxie Sculpt to the face and squished one of the molds into the clay. There is no way I would have been able to match this texture without this. Is it just me or does he look happier?


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

Looking good. Neat way to get the tree bark texture. He definitely looks like he's happy that he will soon be scaring some TOTs.


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

Here is a photo of the finished product - my attempt at painting to match the actual tree.










And here is a video of what it looks like in action:


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

Very cool. You did a great job on him.


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## J-Man (Feb 1, 2011)

That's awesome, great job!


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 8, 2010)

Very nicely done!


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## FogMaster (Jul 4, 2018)

Wow, that is really fantastic! Great job.


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## Daphne (Aug 11, 2007)

This looks incredible! You did a great job and I'm sure that was a huge hit! 

With regards to the mask, did you just buy the mask, glass eye covers and battery for it and that was all? It sounds pretty much just plug and play which is great for those of us that are clueless in this area ha ha!


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

Thanks @Daphne - it was a hit with both the kids and parents. It would be better if the eyeballs were mechanical but making a set of mechanical eyeballs that move in 2 dimensions and blink is an engineering wonder that I do not have time for at the moment. 

I would not classify the board as "plug and play" but it is certainly not difficult. When you first get the board you have to load some files on it to get it to show the eyeballs but they (Adafruit) have pretty good instructions on how to do it. I think I had it working with their "default" eyeballs in about 10 minutes and I'm no rocket scientist. I was just looking the other day and now they have about 10 different types of eyeball graphics that you can download. You can also edit one of the files they give you to make something custom which is what I did.

If you are interested in making your own here is the "*quickstart guide*" for the board on their website.

Fyi - You don't have to buy the battery if you don't want to. The board has a micro-USB socket that can power the board. If you do get the battery then it will charge when the micro-USB socket is attached to a charger or your computer and then when you disconnect the cable the battery will keep the board running for hours. The battery only costs about $7 so I would suggest you get it just in case.

If you make one of these make sure you post some photos!


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## Daphne (Aug 11, 2007)

Agree mechanical eyes would be incredible but that is so far over my abilities it is rather laughable. Creative I'm in, electronics, I'm a complete moron ha ha! 

Ugh, I was getting ready to order and realized I don't know what battery to get because I haven't deciphered how long they last. Not sure if either the 1200mAh or 2500mAh would last long enough for Halloween night (around 3.5-4 hours). Its probably easier just to use the USB but figured if I was getting a battery, may as well get one that could charge it the whole evening if that is possible.

Definitely getting the nose cable since I sculpted a witch mask and hope that if the board has to be taken apart it will fit in there, I have a ton of time in that mask and don't want to destroy it!! Will definitely have to post some photos!

Thanks!


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

fyi - I only got the 500mAh battery and it was good for at least a couple hours so I am sure that either the 1200 or 2500mAh would be more than enough to get through 4 hours of operation.

If you decide to do this definitely post photos of what you come up with!


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## Daphne (Aug 11, 2007)

Perfect! Thanks so much, thats exactly the info I needed! I'm going to get the 2200mAh cylinder. The witch is already a major energy hog so if the eyes can run standalone maybe I won't cause a blackout in the area when I plug the rest of it in! Just crossing my fingers that board fits in the mask.... Thanks again!!


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## davy2 (Sep 10, 2008)

JW, thanks...I was looking at this m4sk, and was wondering how to use in my props. This is very helpful!


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## The Skeleton Crew (Aug 2, 2016)

This was a great project, it looks fantastic. For some reason I always called those faces tree druids. We should have shared ideas as I have been working on a similar project for the past couple of years. I couldn't find a reasonable way to recreate the bark so I developed a wrinkled mache technique that worked sufficiently. As I'm sure you know the most difficult thing was to figure out how to match the coloring of the tree bark. It took me a while but I finally developed a painting technique that allowed all the color variations (oak bark has these odd greenish/gray colors that are extremely difficult to match):










B&W photo of mache while its still wet









Finished paint outside in shaded sunlight


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## djjerme (Oct 17, 2019)

Do you have a how to on the Mache? I haven’t done that in many, many years!

As for the digital eyes, do they have a rest position you can put them? Like have them appear closed when no one is near, and then trigger them to open. Or at least have to return to rest position after a pattern of looking around, so they aren’t always “searching”? 


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

@The Skeleton Crew :


> As I'm sure you know the most difficult thing was to figure out how to match the coloring of the tree bark. It took me a while but I finally developed a painting technique that allowed all the color variations (oak bark has these odd greenish/gray colors that are extremely difficult to match):


Yes - you are correct - the painting is difficult. I took a photo of the bark with my phone and tried to match it with the paint but I will be the first to admit it was pretty bad. I eventually did some touch up while the mask was actually in the tree so I could see the colors of the tree up close. Part of the problem is that the paint looks different when wet so it is really tough to get a good match. Once I get it out of storage for this year I will try again.

@djjerme - the eyes come with a canned program and they are always moving around. I am pretty sure you can change the program if you want to but it was fine with me. For me it was kind of a last minute project and I did not have time to deal with making it any more complicated than it already was. I was much more concerned with keeping it running if it rained.


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## JW Halloween (Sep 30, 2012)

@djjerme - Was just looking on Adafruit and they actually have their own tree-man project using the same mask and their version has a motion sensor so I think this is pretty close to what you were looking for:









Tree with Animated Eyes and Motion Sensor


Create a tree sculpture with deep and soulful woodgrain-inspired eyes using Adafruit's Monster M4sk. Add a PIR motion sensor so the tree "wakes up" when someone walks past, and "sleeps" after a few moments of looking around.




learn.adafruit.com


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## djjerme (Oct 17, 2019)

Yes!!

I’m so overloaded with projects this year, but what’s one more..


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