Big shoutout to Malicious_Tacos for the idea. It motivated me to fix the mech that has been plaguing this for a few years and now, it's looking fantastic. Really pleased with how the cauldron is looking now! Will add a few more "bubbles" tomorrow, some paint to help the bases blend into the grass, some directed lighting, then calling this part of the display good to go. Flickering in the cauldron is only in the video, not to the naked eye.

My giant skeleton base broke so now he rides the Arachnoid as Emperor Skeleton

So I’m making this entry way for a Halloween party and it will go in my apartment front door but I’m not sure where to go from here, I really want to make a scary face and have the top been the top of the face with teeth. Tbh I really don’t know how I got to this creation. I did use a ai for a idea of what to go for because I was stuck but I’m not sure how to execute an idea of this( I don’t expect this to be good whatsoever but it has gone better than I expected so far.

Maybe a little more than halfway? Hopefully I'll have some reinforcements coming tomorrow to help set up.

Staging has begun!

After backing up and punting more times than I care to remember, my coffin creep is finally working!

Note: if you fail to check your exhaust valves, there is a very real possibility of having to go next door to ask if you can retrieve your skull.

I know they're supposed to spin and sway but given the amount of wind I've been experiencing lately, I'm left wondering if I should install a string that goes straight through from the tree branch at the top and stake it into the ground so they don't flail around and get smashed.

What're your opinions? Good idea or should I just bring them in?

I made this from a photo of my own face, using a configurator I wrote, to blend faces like in the film The Thing. It's a mix of generative+realtime 3D. Happy to share more if that's of interest.

Since you liked my last creation here's what I made last year

I recently made a low lying fog machine using a 10 head ultrasonic mister, a 1200w Amazon fog machine, and a husky 27 gallon tote. Fog goes in on top, mixes with mist, then output on side through 4” corrugated hose with holes drilled into side every 8” or so. Made it to the specs of others so no issue there. My problem, or question, is why is my fog just coming out of the hose and pooling there and not moving or rolling across the ground and spreading out? It is just hanging out around the holes like a large puddle. Would an inline blower fan help?

(Sorry, don’t have a pic of the setup at the moment)

8 feet tall. The gargoyles are another 2 feet. I will have and arch connecting them and a continuation of fencing on each side. I still need to add a scratch coat, paint and age them.

For those of you that saw my earlier post. I was asked what Skelly does when it’s not at the party. He sits on the porch and greets delivery people. They seem to get a kick out of this routine.

So this started because I wanted my lights, fog machine and sound to all go off together when people walk up, and every tutorial I found wanted me to learn xLights and think in DMX channels. I did not want to do that. I wanted to press a button.

So I built a web app that sits on top of Falcon Player on a Raspberry Pi. You make scenes, preview them, hit go. That’s pretty much it. There’s a cheap mmWave sensor by the walkway, so the show starts on its own when someone comes up or triggers scare scenes while the show is going on.

Setup in the video is 3 RGBW PAR lights, a DMX fog machine, the 12 ft Skelly (he came with his own personality, I just lit him), and a speaker running off the Pi. The whole DMX side is one of those cheap ENTTEC USB dongles. I was worried it wouldn’t hold up, but so far so good.

I mostly built it for me but figured somebody else might get use out of it, so it’s open source now: https://github.com/phonoodlesramen/haunt-director

Fair warning, I’ve only tested it with my own gear, and I put what I know works and what I don’t in the readme. If you try it and something breaks, tell me and maybe I’ll take a look - or just put Claude on it.

My neighbors already asked me what we're doing for Christmas lol

My zombie is up and running, already terrorising the postman, uber drivers and neighbours 🤣

Jason decided he quit after an honest day's work though....