Tail mechanics!

Here’s a shot of my first “4-way tentacle control”. I can’t say enough about the DVDs from the Stan Winston School of Character Arts! I’ve watched most of 3 DVDs, and learned so much, including how to machine parts for the tentacle control, and how to 3D print parts for the eye mechanics.  Here, I’ve combined the two by 3D printing the spacing discs (think “vertebrae”).

In the Stan Winston terminology, anything that looks like a tail that swings back and forth plus up and down is referred to as a tentacle control.  This is the basic mechanism for the chest burster in Alien!

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NeoPixel Gas Mask Holder for LEDs and GEMMA

The holder created by the Ruiz Brothers on Adafruit and Thingiverse didn’t quite fit into the respirator portion of our gas mask, and we thought the attachment of the rings was also a little clunky. (But then, we’re relatively new to this whole 3D printing thing… so we’re not saying the Ruiz Brothers messed up… just “it didn’t work for us”.) Read More