Help sought animating Annabelle from "The Conjuring?"

[ahoudini]

Hi!

I have a beautiful new 1:1 replica Annabelle doll from "The Conjuring" produced by the great folks at The Scary Closet:

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I would like her to slowly turn her head toward the viewer on activation of a key fob type remote in my pocket. I can handle the radio control activation part, but I need advice on the mechanical movement of her head.

The neck is a solid cylinder that fits down in a hollow cylindrical sleeve in the chest. Both the neck and it's "socket" are resin or fiberglass. The head is posable, left and right, but it turns pretty stiffly.

One possibility I have thought of is a beefy servo motor with a rubber "tire" that makes contact with the neck through a slot in the socket?

Oh, rpf animatronic gurus, I beg your help!

 

[Alexfx]

Without seeing what you have to mechanise its hard to explain exactly, but yeah best bet is a chunky servo, tires are crap tbh, but if you mount it well a gear system will work fine.

im going to assume the head cylinder protrudes from the bottom of the hollow 'body sleeve' if not, can you cut the sleeve a bit shorter/extend the head bar? If so do that, find the outer diameter of the inner bar, and. Make a simple cog to fit it, tight as you can get around the actual bar. If you can't find an existing cog, you can find many program's that will draw them up for you. Since you want 180degrees of turn on the head and a servo turns on average 180 degrees an identically sized cog mounted onto the servo will be perfect.

Again I don't know what sort of space you have to play with, but there is always the option to attach the servo directly into the bottom of the head cylinder, if the servo is bolted down nice and tight it'll happily turn the head, the reason I say this secondly however is that attaching a wide rod into the top of a servo can sometimes be a real pain in the arse lol

 

[Alexfx]

Also the neck being stiff to turn is easy to fix, either lubricate the inner bar/outer tube, or take the inner bar out and sand it down a little bit (or if you can, turn it down on a lathe, dunno if you can detach it as I can't see the things you're working with)

 

[ahoudini]

All very helpful, Alex. I will report back.

 

[ahoudini]

Where I am, so far. I know the case is too small but it is all I have room for. She will fit once I replace the back of the case with dark brown spandex and cut out the sides and install glass. I think I am going to settle for moving her hand rather than her head as it will be much easier. Just a servo and fishing line!

 

[Moviefreak]

That is an awesome replica.
Can't wait to see how you get it to move.

 

[Luke0312]

Where I am, so far. I know the case is too small but it is all I have room for. She will fit once I replace the back of the case with dark brown spandex and cut out the sides and install glass. I think I am going to settle for moving her hand rather than her head as it will be much easier. Just a servo and fishing line!

View attachment 323922

The sign clearly says not to open. Nice knowing you...

It looks great, going to very neat when you get the head rotating.

 

[ahoudini]

LOL!

Yeah, in a way it is a little scarier open, like she somehow outgrew it…

Mark at thescarycloset.com (who made this replica) says they are working on an animatronic Annabelle with moving head and eyes! Scary to contemplate how much that one will be!

Makes sense since she is getting her own movie…

 

[Cerberus442]

Hell Yeah...!! this doll freak'n me out...!!! :devil

 

[ahoudini]

New thought: spring load the cabinet door so that the remote starts the light flickering in the cabinet and cuts the power to an electromagnet holding the door closed so it swings open under its own power. Should scare the crap out of visitors to the ol' man cave!

 

[ahoudini]

Here is my solution, so far:

Annabelle case effects - YouTube

 

[ahoudini]

Annabelle claimed her first victim last night. My 16 year old son had a young lady over and they watched "The Conjuring." Of course, afterward, they wanted to see Annabelle and the music box. When the door popped open, she jumped an inch off the floor! Mission accomplished!


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