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The Phantom

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The plan

To take a store-bought hanging phantom and make it animated. This was my first animatronic.

The parameters

  • Must be able to be taken apart.
  • Make it look like it’s floating
  • I want it jump up and out over the sidewalk
  • Make it work with the pistons that I got as Christmas presents

The result

I worked on this on in 2017 when I was in 8th grade, so I needed some help on this one.

My dad and I found an iPad app that let me experiment with the design and see how it was going to move based on how long the parts were and where I put the hinges. This let me get pretty close to how I wanted it but my dad had to help get the rest of the way and to make it match how much travel my piston had.

I ended up making it out of PVC and structural pipe, This kept it pretty light and easy to take apart.

To control the motion I used a prop controller called a Houdini that let me record the animation and play it back in a loop. I then took video of the prop in action and used that to create sound effects, using Ring Wraith screams, that I could play in sync using an iPod.

2017, my first animatronic
This is the main part where the PVC and steel pipes are used.

The main linkage

This is the main part where the PVC and steel pipes are used.
This is what the linkage looks like when it's extended.

The main linkage extended

This is what the linkage looks like when it’s extended.
I like to light the phantom with black lights so it glows.

The phantom

I like to light the phantom with black lights so it glows.
Here’s the phantom working on Halloween night in 2021. Unfortunately you can’t hear the matching sound effect in the video.

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