2009 Video!

And there you have it, a nice little video for 2009. Be sure to check out the pictures too!

Halloween 2009 Night Photos

Here's what you've been waiting for -- the night pictures!

Success!

Halloween 2009 has come and gone.  Just like last year, the weather was about as perfect as possible with very little wind.  Overall we had 267 tots (trick or treaters) in total.  Next years mission is to break 300.  No costume tracking for this year as I wasn't prepared but I did notice a trend with video game characters.

Halloween 2009 Day Photos

Smile for the camera!  Here's some pictures from the daytime.

2009 Setup Day 1

Worked on some zombies today.  I'm trying some latex gloves filled with wire and Great Stuff for the hands, seems to be working pretty good so far.  I also paper-mached some heads and filled them with newspaper and Great Stuff.  They were also wired with some green leds for eyes, you know, for that extra somethin' somethin'.  Setup the tombstones and fence with a couple of spotlights.  I've got a lot of painting and setup to do tomorrow!

Pumpkin Carving

Saw this picture online -- simply brilliant!

Snow! Eek!

It snowed today!  Snow + Halloween Display = Crap.  It looks like it will clear up before Saturday.

Odds and Ends

In years past I haven't done much of anything inside the house.  This year I've put together a couple of things including a skull chandelier, some candles and some potions.

Fog Juice!

Received my gallon of fog juice from FroggysFog.com today. I ordered Swamp Juice this time which is supposedly very very thick. I used "Freezin' Juice" last year from Froggy's and it worked out awesome but it dissipates fairly rapidly and with the wind being unpredictable as it is, I'm thinking this stuff will be easier to work with.

Nightmare on Bayshore Promo

Made a little promo video to splice in between clips on the Hallowindow display. Enjoy!

Eyeballs!

Saw this thread on HalloweenForum.com and had to make some. They are essentially ping pong balls, with one side dry-brushed red, a color print of an eyeball, some red yarn (veins) and some nail polish. I'll be putting these in a jar with an antique style medicine label.

Skull and Bones Wreath

Another new project for 2009 is this Skull and Bones wreath. This is replacing the plastic Grim Reaper sheet which didn't make it past last October. The skull at the bottom has blinking LED eyes and moves it's jaw when activated by a motion sensor. I disabled the default audio because it was extremely annoying. If you want to see how it was made, I've posted a thread on it here HalloweenForum.Com - Skull and Bones Wreath

Candles Project

I just finished some PVC candles. I think they turned out nice. The serving tray they are on came from Thrift Town. I got a chuckle when I saw the same set at the DI (another thrift store). If you want to build your own, see the step-by-step instructions found here Halloween Forum PVC Candles Step by Step

Hallowindow!

Just added another project to the list for 2009. Check this out...

Grim Reaper

The very first Halloween prop I made got enhanced this year with some red LED eyes.

Fog Distribution

I tested a new method for distributing low lying fog this week to great success! Previously I used a 'venturi' style chiller with a cooler and PVC pipe (pictured below). I never could get this chiller to produce the low lying fog I wanted to fill the cemetery scene. The other day I saw a very simple design on the web using some 3-4" PVC and some fittings with ice contained inside the pipe and an elbow fitting outlet. Here's the link: Liemavicks $20 Fog Chiller

I made some modifications from Liemavicks design in that I simply capped off the end of the pipe and drilled three 3/4" holes throughout the length of the pipe instead of using an elbow fitting. Even with only 1/2 of the pipe filled with ice the end result was pretty drastic -- nice low lying fog that just hanged around for 2-3 minutes! I'm using Froggy's Frog Freezin Fog juice which is awesome. I'll upload some pictures soon.

Halloween 2009 Planning Begins..

I've made a list for 2009. This year will be my first attempt at some animated props. I'm going to improve upon some existing static props as well.

http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutorials-step-step/79208-how-make-realistic-cannon-part-4-a.html