Synthia - Animatronic bust

phil83er

Active Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hey guys,

I wanted to share something me and Christoph, his RPF username is "Prime" built within the past 6 weeks.

I don't really know if this is the right category for our first animatronic or even suitable for the rpf, but I felt it is the most fitting one, as our build is not really a replica but our own design. It is inspired by a lot of different movies, like of course Ghost in the Shell, Terminator, Star Trek, and different other ones though :)

mfv17.jpg


Bit of background story on this one:

Around two months ago me and Prime had the opportunity to get an exhibition table at the maker faire vienna. Since we already participated last year, we thought, that we should do something new for this years exhibition.

Ghost in the shell was just in the cinemas, and of course we also found the tested video of Adam Savage showing the props and the geisha animatronic of the movie.

Well, and then a crazy idea took shape, and we decided to make our own take on the geisha. :D

Here's a video of the first movment test.


The basic info on the animatronic is:


  • 13 Servos used (3 main head movment, 2 for the eyes, 2 for the jaw and 6 for opening/closing the face)
  • 1 Arduino
  • 1 Xbox One Controller
  • Processing sketch including a small UI for the controls
  • lots and lots of cables, EL Wires, and RGB LEDs
  • a ton of Putty, Primer, and Color
  • many night shifts

Basically all the parts were 3d printed. The base was laser cut from acrylic glass. The body (until now) was a mannequin that we bought second hand.
A friend of us was so kind to 3d print all the parts for us, as both our printers were non functional at the time we started building it.

Then, within two weeks espescially Prime smoothed, sanded, colored and prepared the parts until they were not recognizable as 3d prints anymore.
And it really paid off!!

We received so much attention at maker faire, which we really didn't expect at all.

Over the course of 6 weeks we managed to make everything from design to servo layout and programming the arduino so the animatronic could be puppeteered via an Xbox controller.


AND now:

We wanted to make this animatronic as an open source project!

Within the next weeks, we will upload all the STL Files, the Arduino and Processing sketches, materials used, and electronics we bought, including a documentation on how we build everything.

Maybe, or hopefully this will be interesting to you guys, and help to build some by yourself ;)

I will post the link here, as soon as we documented everything :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy our project!

and here's a work in progress video of its current state:
(still going to add music and voice over)
 
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I think this is unbelievable! I will definitely be jumping on the files and incorporate into a build.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hey guys,

I wanted to share something me and Christoph, his RPF username is "Prime" built within the past 6 weeks.

I don't really know if this is the right category for our first animatronic or even suitable for the rpf, but I felt it is the most fitting one, as our build is not really a replica but our own design. It is inspired by a lot of different movies, like of course Ghost in the Shell, Terminator, Star Trek, and different other ones though :)

View attachment 730356


Bit of background story on this one:

Around two months ago me and Prime had the opportunity to get an exhibition table at the maker faire vienna. Since we already participated last year, we thought, that we should do something new for this years exhibition.

Ghost in the shell was just in the cinemas, and of course we also found the tested video of Adam Savage showing the props and the geisha animatronic of the movie.

Well, and then a crazy idea took shape, and we decided to make our own take on the geisha. :D

Here's a video of the first movment test.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF1GwQpY16c[/URL]

The basic info on the animatronic is:


  • 13 Servos used (3 main head movment, 2 for the eyes, 2 for the jaw and 6 for opening/closing the face)
  • 1 Arduino
  • 1 Xbox One Controller
  • Processing sketch including a small UI for the controls
  • lots and lots of cables, EL Wires, and RGB LEDs
  • a ton of Putty, Primer, and Color
  • many night shifts

Basically all the parts were 3d printed. The base was laser cut from acrylic glass. The body (until now) was a mannequin that we bought second hand.
A friend of us was so kind to 3d print all the parts for us, as both our printers were non functional at the time we started building it.

Then, within two weeks espescially Prime smoothed, sanded, colored and prepared the parts until they were not recognizable as 3d prints anymore.
And it really paid off!!

We received so much attention at maker faire, which we really didn't expect at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDt159VWVY

Over the course of 6 weeks we managed to make everything from design to servo layout and programming the arduino so the animatronic could be puppeteered via an Xbox controller.


AND now:

We wanted to make this animatronic as an open source project!

Within the next weeks, we will upload all the STL Files, the Arduino and Processing sketches, materials used, and electronics we bought, including a documentation on how we build everything.

Maybe, or hopefully this will be interesting to you guys, and help to build some by yourself ;)

I will post the link here, as soon as we documented everything :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy our project!

and here's a work in progress video of its current state:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLxl9Nf6pU
(still going to add music and voice over)

Did the servos provide smooth movement? I'm wondering if you had to test out multiple servos? Thanks in advance - I'm think ng ahead for a project.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just a quick update. We are currently working on the upper body. Here a teaser pic of the skeleton.
All parts 3D printed using PLA and PETG on an Original Prusa i3 MK2S, sanded and painted.
The aluminium cage which houses the servos is CNC milled.

The body shell parts are also already finished and we ar working on the assembly.
Can‘t wait to show the full finished animatronic.
 

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Quick update from the assembly phase... Many sleepless nights at the moment....
 

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Fantastic craftsmanship, really. Beyond hobbyism.

One question though, the face plates are moveable, the question I am asking is, why in that manner? I personally cannot see any purpose for them to move except for the creepyness factor. The parts are interchangeable, what about breaking at least the mouth up into segments for the lips? Teeth are there, but can only be seen when the mouth section is opened.

I envy you guys for your time and skill sets...
 
first of all, sorry for the extremely late reply

unfortunately, (and in another way fortunately) I was extremely busy during the past few months.
Since I'm self employed I sometimes don't have any spare time for these projects :(

First time I've seen this. Pretty awesome. :)

Fantastic craftsmanship, really. Beyond hobbyism..

thanks! glad you like it :)

One question though, the face plates are moveable, the question I am asking is, why in that manner? I personally cannot see any purpose for them to move except for the creepyness factor. The parts are interchangeable, what about breaking at least the mouth up into segments for the lips? Teeth are there, but can only be seen when the mouth section is opened.

Basically the whole project started out as a "fun" build by me and Prime. After we saw the real life Ghost in the shell movie with the Geisha that opened its face, we wanted to try and recreate this animatronic. We saw it as a challenge to build it as precisely as possible with the folding mechanism, yet - since everything was funded by ourselves - also as cheap as possible.
So the reason for the moveable faceplates actually comes from trying, if we can build it like that. :)
And, of course for the creepyness! :D

We also didn't think it would gain so much attention, but end of February we shot a scifi short movie - called "Synthia" - which should be released by the end of the year.

Here are some behind the scenes :)
5OXPHO7.jpg6alJ3eG.jpgp4wHHu4.jpg
 
Did the servos provide smooth movement? I'm wondering if you had to test out multiple servos? Thanks in advance - I'm think ng ahead for a project.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the servos worked quite well for as cheap as they have been.

I already worked with thesefor quite some time, and till now I've been quite happy with them.

However, since we shot a short film, and due to the animatronic being active almost nonstop for around 6 days in total, we have seen that some of the servos are being worn out. the movement is still quite smooth, but they can't pull the full weight anymore it seems.

That probably comes with the price, and also the way the animatronic is constructed.
I think there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. ;)

Oh, and by the way, the small servos for the eyes were some Corona CS238MG Metal Gear Servos for around 6$, and the big ones were some SM-S8330M 30kg Servos for about 20$ by hobbyking.
 
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