# My Halloween Site



## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

I just wanted to help get out the word about my Halloween site. Check it out to see what I did last year, especially the talking skull and talking raven I built. In addition to the stills, there are a couple of videos of the talking props in action.


http://www.SoCalHalloween.com 

Thanks,
Affine


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## Wormyt (Apr 11, 2005)

WOW Affine the talking skull and raven is awsome............how did you get it so smooth talking ...........I mean the movements are so smooth with no jerkiness. You are one smart Halloween person to get to know. Um and you live all the way in California??? UGGGGGGGGGGG to far for me to even think about stealing.............um I mean barrowing your props LOL......Love it all. Wormyt


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## Deathtouch (Nov 19, 2004)

Man, I love those videos you have on there. It was funny and the voice sounds pro.


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## Deathtouch (Nov 19, 2004)

Oh, I need t add. Where did you get the audio for the scarecrow? I need something like that. But, I don't want to use my voice.


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

Wormyt,

The reason the movements are so smooth is that I spent a lot of time designing a system that had smooth movement as a primary goal. Almost every off the shelf RC servo control system out there is designed to move from on place to another at full speed, and then wait to go somewhere else. Because my system was designed as an animatronic system from the start, I placed a priority on high quality animation.

Thanks,
Affine


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

Deathtouch,

I recorded the audio myself. I got a couple friends together who are are good at voices and recorded them. I used Adobe Premiere to do the sound editing (and later to edit the video) since they were recorded separately. I was also able to remove false starts, bad sections, stumbles, etc, to make a really clean track. If you don't want to spend the money on Premiere, you can download the freeware audio program Audacity (a Google search will find it for you) and edit the tracks with that. 

If you don't like doing voices, find some friends. If you don't know any friends who are into that, find a local theater group. If you hunt around, you'll usually find people who are into acting and such, and believe me, all of them will do it for free just because they love doing this sort of thing. Make sure you have everything written out in advance, since most actors are not improv artists, but like to work from written dialog instead.

Thanks,
Affine


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## hacksaw42 (Sep 18, 2004)

Affine you still around?


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

Hacksaw42,

I haven't been here in a while. I just saw your message.

Thanks,
Affine


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## ksshane (Sep 6, 2006)

Wow.. I really like the movements of your skull, and crow. Very Nice!

One other thing that caught my eye, and its so simple. Is your cemetery fence. 99% of the cemetery fences you see either for sale, or people make look alot alike. They all have those perfect straight up and down posts. 
They are nice and all, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking I wanted to make something different, but just could not put my finger on it.

I hope you dont mind, but I think I may borrow your fence idea, and build something similar.


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

Ksshane,

Glad you liked the work I did. Also glad to hear someone who noticed the old, broken looking fences. I have never understood why everyone makes their fences perfect. The idea (to me anyway) is that this is an old, creepy, graveyard. Having brand new fencing just looks like a bad theme park to me.

Thanks,
Affine


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## Guest (Sep 30, 2006)

I love it.
That skull kinda has a Mr. Haney sound to him. Very funny dialogue.
You are truly talented. Are you an engineer?


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## Affine (Sep 17, 2005)

Haunted Bayou,

Thanks for the compliments. My Friend, Dan, did the voice. It's not intentionally "Mr Haney-esque", but now that you mention it, there is a similarity. 

I'm not an engineer for a living. I've just been doing electronics and writing software for a long time as a hobby.

Thanks,
Affine


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