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Pumpkin's Mostly Ghostly Haunt 2016

16K views 75 replies 30 participants last post by  The Halloween Lady 
#1 ·
:jol:Hey Peeps! I'm starting on my 2016 yard haunt and I have a few new ideas for this year. First off, I am going to pay homage to Ray Bradbury and make my own version of his Halloween Tree. I've talked with my good friend Bobzilla and he and I have bounced some ideas around. I have a surprise that I will reveal a little later, (thanks to Robert) but for now suffice it to say, I'm going to do Mr. Bradbury proud.:D I am borrowing from one of the forum members, Hilda, and her rendition of The Halloween Tree.

It has always been a big favorite of mine. Another forum friend, Laura, The Halloween Lady, created this photoshop picture after I told her of my plans and what I had in mind. She knows how much I love Hilda's tree and she took my book reading skeleton and added the tombstones and viola! The picture comes to life. I tell you, without all the friends I have here, I would probably still be having just a few skeletons and pumpkins as my Halloween display. This is one of my big new ideas for this year for my haunt. What do you think peeps?

Of course, the ghosts will still be porch bound, but a few may make it into the cemetery this year. I'm going to extend my fence to surround the Halloween Tree portion of the display and then work on the lighting in the graveyard so that all the tombstones can actually be read. I'm working on the cemetery entrance as well and I have ideas flooding my big-old-pumpkin-gourd-brain, and as I come up with new idea and complete the projects I will post the results here. It's always nice to hear what you guys think and get your input. The Pumpkin5 has started her build. (don't you just love it when I refer to myself in the third person??):p
 
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#3 ·
I did a budget version of the pumpkins in the tree last year using styrofoam pumpkins from the dollar store and some flickering LEDs. http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=41960
The lighting in this short clip isn't the best but you can see the flickering of the pumpkins.
I was able to get this done in a few hours and that was with soldering all of the resistors to the LEDs and wiring everything up. If I had the money, I would probably use small funkins, but they were a bit too expensive for my budget.
 
#5 · (Edited)
:jol:Hey B-zilla, I'm counting on you to help me so I guess in mind I'm thinking, "we've got our hands full", ha, ha.:D Laura is such a sweetheart to design that picture for me, I may have t-shirts made.:D Thank you SA for the video, I love the look of the pumpkins in the tree, their glowing faces smiling in the night, that screams Halloween to me. And thanks for the encouraging words Dr. M, you do some bold things yourself, and I consider you one of the best haunters out there.:)

My plan is to use one of my existing Dogwood trees and fill it with glowing pumpkins. I'm sure I will add more pumpkins each year, but this year I'm going to start with around 25 or 30. I am going to string twinkle lights in the branches, and then have the pumpkins all lit. I am going to have a talking skeleton under the tree, sitting on a giant pumpkin, reading excerpts from the story, The Halloween Tree. And from Laura's creative mind, I will add tombstones in and around my new skeleton. That is my basic idea, and I'm sure it will grow and develop as the season nears.
 
#10 ·
:jol:Thanks Jan, I think pumpkins in the tree will definitely be a show stopper.:) I just have to call in a favor or three and get a bucket truck to come over so I can get pumpkins in the TOP of the tree. IMU, I appreciate your interest in the thread, keep checking back to see what develops. And Mr. Bobzilla.....who said anything about a Three Axis skull???....Are you holding out on me???....What do you know, that I don't know???:D;)
 
#11 ·
Well, you said you were going to have a talking skeleton under the tree, so I assumed you'd have nothing less than a three axis skull reading passages from the book. Seems logical to me :winketon::lipsrsealeton:

:jol:Thanks Jan, I think pumpkins in the tree will definitely be a show stopper.:) I just have to call in a favor or three and get a bucket truck to come over so I can get pumpkins in the TOP of the tree. IMU, I appreciate your interest in the thread, keep checking back to see what develops. And Mr. Bobzilla.....who said anything about a Three Axis skull???....Are you holding out on me???....What do you know, that I don't know???
 
#12 · (Edited)
Have you thought about having the pumpkins talk to the skeleton?

You can use hobby servo's in the pumpkins to articulate the mouth movements controlled by my Servo/Recorder Playback application that runs on the propeller activity board (Parallax).

You would record puppeteered mouth movements to prerecorded soundtrack. Then play them back, triggered by any sensor of your choosing.

Here is an example of a singing ornament Christmas tree I created. You can transfer the same techniques to your application...
Talking/Singing Ornaments Standalone Prop on Vimeo

Here is another example of Servo Recorder Playback application running an Easter egg project...same technique and system...
Easter Egg Basket Animatronics 1 on Vimeo

And if you want more Details on how it's done, here is a very early tutorial on this system...
Servo Recorder Player Video rev5 on Vimeo

I can help you, step by step....just say'in!
 
#13 ·
:jol:Wow Brian, I hadn't even thought of that! That sounds really intriguing, but I just know next to nothing about the technical stuff.:( Maybe I can learn if I had some guidance, but probably not this year. I will have my hands full getting all the pumpkins carved, lit, hung, painted and get my new skeleton talking and reading from the book I'll have to make. Plus I have to work on my entrance, carve new tombstones and make a few more ghosts. Your singing Christmas tree was so entertaining and I loved the talking Easter egg. Thank you so much for sharing those, such a remarkable thing that you do.:D
 
#16 ·
:jol:Wow Brian, I hadn't even thought of that! That sounds really intriguing, but I just know next to nothing about the technical stuff.:( Maybe I can learn if I had some guidance, but probably not this year. I will have my hands full getting all the pumpkins carved, lit, hung, painted and get my new skeleton talking and reading from the book I'll have to make. Plus I have to work on my entrance, carve new tombstones and make a few more ghosts. Your singing Christmas tree was so entertaining and I loved the talking Easter egg. Thank you so much for sharing those, such a remarkable thing that you do.:D
Understandable Jana...You are doing the right thing to keep the workload within scope of time and schedule. You will be quite busy with your new projects.

I really like the idea of the Halloween pumpkin tree though. The artist rendering looks terrific. Knowing you, you will hit it out of the park!

If you need help with the 3 axis skull animation, let me know.
 
#17 ·
It would probably blow out your scope/budget (and possibly be outside of your intended concept) to give your skeletal narrator an audience of little ghouls. I bring this up mostly because I immediately pictured a little toddler zombie half-emerged from the ground but in typical chin-in-hands pose of rapt attention and it struck me as kind of hilarious.
 
#18 ·
:jol:Ahem....well....I won't even tell you what I find hilarious, but I had thought of doing the odd, TOT wandering the graveyard. No kind of ground breaker thing, but just simple, Charlie Brown type characters with the ghost costume w/or/w/out witch mask, etc. but definitely child sized, wandering in and amongst the tombstones.... I think maybe you are on a whole other realm than me, ryschwith, but it is interesting....I'll give you that.:p Feel free to elaborate on your concepts.;)
 
#20 ·
:jol:Yay! I put Lily up last night...I know it's not even October 1st, but I needed a "Lily fix".

I have to say, the swop meet find of the century has to be the used/new to me Wildfire Black light fixture that Bobzilla scored for me for one whole dollar. Lily has never looked so bright! I will add the pumpkins tonight or tomorrow night.
http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m545/pumpkin513/Lily%202016_zpso3adtc2k.mp4
 
#23 ·
:jol:Thanks guys!:D I can't take credit for the mechanism that moves Lily, I bought it 16 years ago from The Iron Kingdom and except for a few hiccups last Halloween, it has worked flawlessly. I have noticed one thing he did when he built it was to use two pulleys on the part that holds the mannequin head. It makes her look like she is looking from side to side as she goes up and down. I wish I knew what happened to those guys. I'd love to buy another one from them, it's the best I've seen. My husband has promised to make me a few in the off season. I'll keep you posted.;):D
 
#26 ·
:jol:Thank you Zills, and Jan, you guys are so sweet! I love Lily more these days than when I made her 16 years ago....wow....(16 years???) I think I'm getting old.:(..ha, ha.. But then I get creepier when I get old....Right? This has been my last few weeks....working on my Halloween Tree scene...and lordy, lordy...Do I have some pumpkins?.....
Sheesh....it's every kind of pumpkin you can think of in my house.
My sweeter than sweet electrician came out on Friday and finished up some wiring for me so that I now have dedicated outlets for my Halloween display. I am so "happy-clap Happy" over that. It has been a long time coming, and I won't have to worry about having cords strung everywhere, from Timbuktu, and in my 1950's house blowing fuses right and left....Yay for Derrick!



Please pretend you don't see the wine glass, giving me liquid courage to finish all the orange orbs, floating around looking for faces, it is well after 5:00 pm here.....:p
 
#28 ·
:jol:^ Ha, ha William, I'll let you have that one. (It actually is a wine glass though, and it is lettered with the following, "No good story ever started with a salad. -wine") I thought that was pretty funny.:p I have needed dedicated outlets for the last 10 years, I really have, because previously I just had the one outlet on the porch and the outlet on the lamppost. My electrician is very good and he is actually coming back after Halloween to do some upgrades to our electrical box. He told us some scary stuff about how inadequate our current 1950's set up is, but he circumvented some things that should hold us until he can come and do a more thorough job, so the "necessary" Halloween outlets maybe saved us from a nasty house fire.:eek: Once again, Halloween Rules!
 
#29 ·
:jol: I love my countdown sign, but I have noticed it's a little lopsided what with the two ghosts on one side, and only a little skelly on the other....and it's really bothered me that "Pumpkins glow, and Zombies moan" didn't have a zombie to represent....so...I added Scary Harry. I think he kind of completes the sign. You can see in the background we got the fence up today. I didn't string the orange lights yet, but I will do that this week. The graveyard is going to be kind of huge this year....:D


While I was out putting up the fence, a family walked by and the little boy, I guess he was about seven, said, "Oh! Look at the zombie!" I love how kids know everything about things that go bump in the night.;) One of my little peeps, in training.
 
#30 ·
Well I have to say once again Jana.........WOW!!!! You've done yourself proud again this year! It would be fun to be young again and to visit your house on Halloween.

It is just incredible how much dedication you put forth to make sure everyone has a really great Halloween experience! Keep up the good work!
 
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