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The following projects are presented with permission of the authors.
For more information on these personal projects, contact the creator.
Also, email Info@BrookshireSoftware.com
if you have a project you would like to add.
Night Frights
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DESCRIPTION. Mike Fox is a widely regarded go-to guy for sophisticated VSA character routines in the Haunt industry, having developed an impressive collection of spooky, life-like performances for the award-winning SkullTronix Skull.
These frighteningly entertaining VSA routines that feature professional voiceover artists are available to all VSA users, allowing them to incorporate top quality animations into their own professional or home haunt using their own VSA-based servo-driven talking character. As each individual's character's hardware will, of course, be unique, some modification of the VSA programming by the purchaser will be necessary to accommodate the various different servos, settings, hardware arrangement, etc. utilized in each person's setup. Use the included programming and high quality audio as a starting point for your own version of the routine. By manually editing the performance and/or using VSA's built-in editing tools, you can bring your own servo-driven character to life, or use it as a learning tool to help you get up to speed on developing animations with VSA.
Visit http://www.nightfrights.net/HauntAudio-Seance.html for more information. |
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Robot Stones
Video Performance
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| DESCRIPTION.
The ‘Robot Stones’ are 11 inch figures fashioned after
a famous rock band. All figures have articulated
mouths, necks, and torsos with a few appropriate
additions to each figure. A colored light show also
goes with the song’s tempo. |
PERFORMANCE. Mick, the lead singer, stomps
his left foot to the music and sings lead on the song.
Charlie, the drummer, has 4 additional features;
snare/hand/stick, Hi Hat/hand/stick, Bass pedal/foot
and Hi Hat pedal/foot. Ron sings backup and
strums/picks his guitar. Keith picks his guitar and is
generally very animated, along with Mick. 10 colored
lights go with the beat.
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MECHANICS. Each figure’s head was built
like a ventriloquist dummy, with the mouths hinged and
connected to a servo with music wire. In order to get
the speed on the mouths, the servo horn was lengthened
to 3” and each servo only travels a few degrees. The
drums were actually driven by servos connected to
Charlie's feet, so it looks like he is really playing.
All figures move their torsos, head (neck), and
mouths. The secret to getting all this up from the
bottom was telescopic brass tubing with servo horns
connected to each. The mouth wires run up the center
of the inside tubing. Lighting is done with parallel
hi-bright LEDs arranged into copper plumbing
connectors. Guitars and hands are double-pinned to get
both hand/strum and guitar action.
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ELECTRONICS. SSC-32 running at 115 kbps.
Figures use full servo setting; lights use relay
setting. All servos (16 in all) are HITEC HS325HB.
Power supply is 5VDC@3A and12VDC@1A. Music is ported
thru a 3 watt amplifier with small computer speaker
remounted in a ‘road case’. VSA runs from COM1. |
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SPECIAL TECHNIQUES. Each head was sculpted
by hand from polymer clay, then hardened in the oven.
Of special note: Use hard clay for the heads, but the
‘rubberized’ clay for the hands. I broke several hands
when the figures wildly play their guitars! Mouths had
to be made separately of hard clay, then hinged/fit to
the faces. To be sure of durability, I used brass for
their ‘tongues’ and connected it to the music wire
with a loop. Guitars were also made of polymer clay
(and real guitar strings), then painted. |
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TIME. About 100 if videos and documentation
are included. |
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CONTACT.
welwell@zbzoom.net |
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WILLETTFX
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Tigger
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DESCRIPTION.
Gutted,
zippered, and mechanized, a stuffed Tigger was slowly
brought to life. Driven by nine custom-servos, Tigger
has two fully functional arms (shoulder, elbow, and
wrist) and a completely automated head (yes, no, and
mouth). |
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PERFORMANCE. Tigger does it all. From
the hit SNL "Roxbury Brothers" sketch to Tigger's
"TTFN" farewell, Tigger is quite the showman.
With VSA by his side, Tigger performs "I'm Tigger,"
"TTFN", the "Roxbury Brothers" sketch from SNL, a
scene from Jackie Chan's "Rush Hour," and a rendition
of Tigger's "Private Ear." |
MECHANICS. Tigger's skeleton is a
combination of aluminum and wood rods. Motion is
primarily transferred via push-rods and pin hinges.
Arm motion is driven by six servos mounted beneath
Tigger. Head motion is controlled by three
internal servos.
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ELECTRONICS. Tigger is controlled by a
custom PIC16C74A controller board. This board is
responsible for switching power to the MiniSSCs and
the servos (allowing power to be software switched).
It also handles the A/D conversion for the electronic
servo feedback system. This board listens to the
MiniSSC 9600bps serial line for its commands. An
AT power supply provides all power. |
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SPECIAL HARDWARE. Tigger's primary
powerhouse is a PWM customized servo. These
customized servos provide electronic feedback as to
their true position, allowing Tigger's position to be
passively determined. |
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SPECIAL SOFTWARE. A custom build of
VSA is used to control Tigger. This build has
added features including support for the electronic
feedback system, a Phonetic Analysis package to ease
lip-sync, and a "State of Health" dialog to provide
power control.
Contact Brookshire Software for more information
about using these features in your project. |
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CONTACT. Contact the
author for questions regarding this project. |
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Valter
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DESCRIPTION.
Valter is 4.5 feet tall with a welded steel frame
and ball bearings; the non-moving parts are all made
of aluminum and nylon. The 13 axes of movement
include: eye brows, lower and upper lips, jaw, head
yes and no,
right shoulder, elbow and a wrist-fingers combo, and
right and left chair pivots. The costume and wig are
custom-made to withstand the everyday wear and tear
and to fit the mechanical movements. Valter is
covered with silicone skin over fiberglass cores. |
PERFORMANCE.
The show itself consists of a four language (French,
English, German, and Japanese) multimedia
extravaganza designed to teach foreign tourists how
Canada was formed (discovery, provinces, etc.).
The entire presentation lasts about ten minutes and
includes curtains, 24 lights, two separation
projectors, an LED message board, three TV monitors,
a projection screen and, of course, the 13 axis
pneumatic puppet, Valter!
VSA was used to perfectly control and synchronize
the puppet in the French version, try to imagine the
Japanese translation! |
| ELECTRONICS.
Valter's interface electronics are something else!
Valter absolutely needed to use VSA, but he also needed
ON/OFF valves. As a result, the signals had to be translated: VSA controls
two MiniSSCs which provide
PWM signals.
Two Basic Stamps (BS-2s) then decode the PWM and
provide digital output (1's and 0's) to a 16
channel / 24VDC relay card. The relays
activate valves and are used to trigger keyboard taps to
pause/load or play the VSA file. |
| CONTACT.
Contact the author for
questions regarding this project. |
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Jiminy
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| DESCRIPTION.
Animatronic Jiminy Cricket |
| PERFORMANCE.
A 15-minute performance for a wedding reception -- and VSA controls
it all. Opens with a servo controlled lighting effect to music
on a five foot Cinderella's Castle made out of rock candy. A
fiber optic Tinker Bell effect is then triggered, traveling from the
Castle to a giant wedding gift box. The gift box opens, Jiminy is
elevated out, sings "When You Wish Upon a Star," and then
proceeds to introduce the wedding party. The wedding guests
will be dancing a Waltz under an atrium surrounded by balloons
which, upon completion of the Waltz, will be triggered to pop in
sequence. Jiminy also is
equipped with cheek baffles, allowing him to blow
noise makers at birthday performances. |
MECHANICS.
Jiminy
is a steel frame and hinged for movement:
- Head up/down
- Head turn left/right
- Eyes left/right
- Waist turn left/right
- Waist bend up/down
- Left & Right arm up/down
- Left & Right arm in/out
- Left & Right elbow bend
- Right wrist twist
- Mouth top up/down
- Mouth bottom up/down
- Program Sequences (Castle lighting, Tinker Bell lighting, box,
etc.)
- Open/close Jiminy up/down
- Tinker Bell movements
All electronics are housed in the Jiminy gift box. |
| ELECTRONICS.
Two MiniSSC II controllers; servo 15 rotates around 8 momentary
switches triggering SCR controlled relays to match all effects to
the music -- all through the VSA Software. |
| SPECIAL HARDWARE.
The Jiminy system is 95% built from old mechanical and electronic
parts (old copier machines, answering machines, DC car motors,
camera parts, old movie projector parts). The 2700 meters of
fiber optic cable and servos were all purchased online. GM
Foam Latex, clay, and plaster molds were used for Jiminy's face. |
| SPECIAL SOFTWARE.
Cool Edit 2000 for music and voice mixing and Brookshire Software's
VSA. |
| MUST HAVE ITEMS.
A dremel drill and VSA program! (seriously) |
| CONTACT.
Contact the author for
questions regarding this project. |
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ALBERT
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| DESCRIPTION.
Artificially
InteLligent BipEd RoboT |
| PERFORMANCE.
ALBERT has just learned to walk, started to
climb up small steps, and has a karate kick. ALBERT
may just be a set of legs, but he also plays a mean
game of soccer. |
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MECHANICS & ELECTRONICS.
ALBERT has 12 standard servos for articulation.
He uses the
Pololu 16 servo controller, which has
worked perfectly for this project. Eventually
ALBERT will get a Basic Stamp, an accelerometer,
and a battery pack so he can walk on his own.
At the moment, ALBERT stands 9" tall and 6" wide
(stocky little thing) and he weighs 1 lb. 6 oz. |
| SPECIAL HARDWARE.
ALBERT is entirely custom built, using off the
shelf servos and controllers. |
| SPECIAL SOFTWARE.
ALBERT is design number seven. Thanks to
VSA, six other designs were easily
tested with trial-and-error. VSA definitely
made it very easy to design an idea and instantly
known whether or not the designs were going to
work. |
| CONTACT.
Contact the author for
questions regarding this project. |
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The Terrible Trio
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| DESCRIPTION.
The
Terrible Trio and a huge suite of additional
animatronic Halloween products were created by Fox
Productions. The original Ghost Host, Wilfred,
was accompanied by Albert and Horace in 2003, driven
with VSA. For more
details, see the contact information. |
| CONTACT.
Contact the author with questions at the
main website. |
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My Bedbugs
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| DESCRIPTION.
Welcome to
Bugville! It's time to party with the Bedbugs!
Have you ever wanted to take an adventure in your very
own room? Now you can with Gooby, Toofy, and
Woozy. The producers use VSA to pre-script the
motions for the eyes and mount of these costumed
characters. |
| CONTACT.
My Bedbugs can be
seen on channel 56 (WTVS), Detroit's public television
channel. Contact the author with questions at the
main website. |
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Animatronic Head
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| DESCRIPTION.
Previously sold at the
Robot
Store, this Animatronic Head is the perfect
prototype for animation exploration. |
MECHANICS.
The head is made from modeled plastic and requires
some assembly. Driven by four standard hobby
servos, the head can talk, motion "yes", motion "no", and move
its eyes.
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| ELECTRONICS.
The four servos are completely controlled by
VSA and
the MiniSSC II through a standard PC serial port. |
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ERSA
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| DESCRIPTION.
Sold by
Robodyssey, Expressive System for Robotic Animation
(ERSA) is a robot that is clearly not human. It is non-threatening - how could you
be afraid of something with a scrunchy for a mouth and soft, floppy eyelids? It
is unpretentious -- it is its self. Yet, it is recognizable at all levels of
human interaction as a face - familiar, intentionally comical, but friendly. It
is manipulated by four hobby servos and can be controlled with many commercially
available products. |
MECHANICS.
- Molded, high strength plastic frame and gears
- (4)
Hitec HS-311 hobby servos
- High quality novelty eyes
- All mountings are pre-drilled to insure accurate
location
- Improved eye-shift linkage for greater range of
motion
- All hardware included
- Complete instruction manual
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ELECTRONICS.
- Battery Pack and
Velcro Strap (batteries not included)
- Accessible on/off switch
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| CONTACT
& PURCHASE. Visit the
Robodyssey and purchase
ERSA with everything you need to get started. |
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