In addition to animation effects, I've also discovered the joys of creating fractal art in my time away from the blog. I use an app called Mirrorlab to take my photography and produce abstract and sometimes psychedelic imagery. You get to a certain point in the process and you almost forget what the original image even was! Here's a few pieces I've produced over the last few years...
Can anybody name the original subject (besides the skeleton, plant, and jack-o-lantern) of any of these? If you think you're up to the challenge, leave a guess in the comments! For everyone you get correct you'll get an official Cryptic Corridor "No-Prize!" (Remember those, old-school Marvel fans?)
You might have noticed that I haven't said much about this year's Halloween display... In years past I could hardly contain my excitement and shared updates leading up to the 31st of October on a fairly regular basis. However, with the exhausting move my family recently went through I guess I just haven't had the energy and zest that I normally have for my various projects - this blog included, most unfortunately!
Depressing admissions aside, this year's display was probably my favorite so far for a number of reasons!
First... A little history lesson:
Growing up, my aunt's neighborhood was the happening place for trick-or-treating. We lived out in the country so going from door to door during Halloween wasn't much of an option. Meanwhile, my aunt lived in town where my sister and I could be turned loose to trick-or-treat all round the block! It's silly looking back, but that little bit of freedom was exhilarating at the time and I still think about how awesome it was getting to experience that as a kid.
Around middle school, I was "too old" to trick-or-treat, but I was still determined to make Halloween special. My aunt would always have me over on Halloween to hand out candy. This is where it all started! I found that it was just as much fun to be on the other side. One year I dressed up as a werewolf and pretended to be a dummy and waited for older kids to reach for the candy bowl only to jump out at them and give them a good scare. I even set up modest displays like the one pictured above with a few ramshackle props thrown together at the last minute. Notice poor Zombie Chef on the right.
Flash-forward to this year in which we have moved into a house somewhat in the country. As great as a situation as it is for our growing family, it's not exactly ideal for attracting droves of trick-or-treaters to enjoy a Halloween display. But my long-suffering aunt indulged me once again and offered to allow me to take over her yard toward the end of October!
As cheesy as it sounds, I've gotta say... It felt like coming home!
My aunt's yard is much smaller than our old yard, but I really enjoyed the new layout.
My daughter, on the other hand, did not particularly care for any of it...
A not-so-happy Peppa Pig...
This was a little sad for me, especially considering the fact that she was completely unafraid of the props when they were set up in our previous home's basement. At least she enjoyed all of the free candy from trick-or-treating around the neighborhood!
The display looked so much more amazing at night. Once again, I tinkered around with lighting, and think that I finally find the right balance... Despite the annoying streetlight positioned directly next to the corner of the yard.
Having just moved and feeling perpetually exhausted in the weeks leading up to Halloween, my wife convinced me to not take on any new projects, but to focus instead on refining the existing props.
I did, however, try out at least one new trick... I bought the AtmosFearFx "Phantasms" DVD and borrowed a projector with hopes of conjuring up some digital ghosts. I first attempted to produce a hologram-like effect using a screen. This, sadly, did not work so I tried projecting onto a shower liner mounted over the large window in the front of the house. It worked marvelously!
The video is not the best quality, but you get the idea. You can hear my aunt giggle with delight as she filmed the setup with her phone. This effect turned a lot of heads. The night we tested it we had a ton of people who drove by stop to ask what exactly was going on.
While the display turned out as good as I hoped it would, the trick-or-treater turnout was just not that great this year. Last year we had around 300 visitors and this year it was down to 50. I'm not sure exactly what contributed to such low numbers.
Finally, I present to you this year's Halloween display video put together by my friend Perry Wesley!
Overall, it was another great display. I'm already making plans for next year!
I hope everyone had a happy Halloween this year. I'm pleased to report that ours was a smashing success! Thankfully, the weather was cooperative enough to let us set out our entire display for the big night!
The goal for this year's display was bigger and better. To create a more immersive atmosphere I wanted to have a graveyard with tombstones this year and enclose the whole thing in a run-down fence. The tombstones were a bit of a challenge since I have no wood-working ability whatsoever. Thankfully, the local technical school was kind enough to carve the graves for me... All I had to do was send them my designs and then paint them up! The fence came together very quickly and easily using old pallet wood from a weekend dumpster-diving adventure.
Of course, one thing led to another and I ended up constructed a simple archway to go along with the fence... Which then of course had to have sign... Which of course necessitated that the whole thing needed a name to put on the sign! For whatever reason, the phrase "fearful symmetry" from the William Blake poem The Tyger popped into my head while I was working and I thought about how cool it would be to have a "Fearful Cemetery". But eventually, I ended up really liking the name "FearField Cemetery" instead. A friend with a fancy laser wood-burner created the amazing sign for the archway.
Overall, the end result is the closest to what I had envisioned all along: A rickety old graveyard filled with monsters!
Another aspect I wanted to improve this year was the lighting. I felt like last year's lighting was a good step in the right direction. Rather than depend on ambient light as I had in the past, I found that the lights enhanced the props and made them really stand out against the darkness (Who would have thought?!?). So this year I took it to another level, incorporating lights throughout the whole thing, illuminating individual props and using light sources as accents.
I also set out to improve older props. Unfortunately, many had fallen into disrepair, so it was time to make improvements in those areas. Additionally, I wanted to enhance the character of a few characters in taking them to another level. Zombie Chef is one of my oldest props and he was always more of a zombie waiter, just holding his tray of brains and such.
So this year I decided to give him a grill. I didn't get to work on the grill as much as I would have liked... I didn't add coals or a fog machine to simulate smoke, but I think it turned out alright anyway.
As you know, I made Cousin Eerie last year, but he was not able to make his Halloween debut due to the inclement weather. Since he had been patiently waiting in the basement all year I decided that he needed a whimsical companion to oversee the madness of the night with.
Enter: "Classy Cthulhu", this year's only new character. My version of Cthulhu is a sophisticated, fez-wearing lounge dweller who strikes up witty conversation when he's not destroying the sanity of mere mortals. Interestingly enough, I was able to find an antique chair of the same make as Cousin Eerie's so I guess it was meant to be!
Meanwhile, Fly Guy, our resident mad scientist was all alone on the porch this year. For whatever reason most of the kids braved the graveyard, but wouldn't venture into the lab! Fly Guy was a real sport and terrorized the best he could from his post just the same.
The ground-breaker Toxic Zombie now has a grave to call home and I guess a new name... Cleetus Wormwood. The tombstone was inspired by an award-winning DIY grave prop. I really liked the name and it seemed to fit my character.
The only prop I had some trouble with was Lantern Ghoul who kept leaning over and his arm just kept falling off for some reason! Thankfully, the arm held during Halloween and he never toppled over on anyone. This guy will need some major repairs before next year!
Of course Hagatha was the show-stealing fan-favorite once again. All of the trick-or-treaters had to go check her out up-close and try to see what she was concocting in that pot... Only to be startled by the fog machine suddenly coming on as she let out a piercing cackle!
Ultimately, it was a great night! We lost count of how many trick-or-treaters we ended up with, but I'm confident that it was well over 200. Everyone seemed to enjoy the display. A lot of the kids wanted pictures with the props and there were plenty of "oohs" and "aahs"...and I'm sure I overheard few "eeks" and "groans" as well. It's great to see all of the hard work was appreciated. I hope that in some way I have helped the kids have the opportunity to make some life-long Halloween memories.
I'm too exhausted to even begin thinking about plans for next year's display at this point...
You may have noticed that I haven't said much (or anything at all) about this year's Halloween display, but I'm doing a lot of work behind the scenes. I've expanded things quite a bit and I'm very excited to share the updates, but I'm going to wait just a little longer.
In the meantime, check out the picture of "the gang" above. My monstrous menagerie of home-made props just keeps getting bigger. We're going to run out of room in our basement pretty soon! This picture was taken for a photo contest for the awesome Fright Props catalog. Sadly, our entry didn't win, but it was cool to get the whole collection into one image anyway...
While we're at it, here's a panoramic shot of what the basement looks like throughout the year (with a [debatably] cool filter). Just click to enlarge and bask in the wonder.
We've had many guests ask us how we don't get creeped out when we're down there, but my wife asserts (and I agree) that it's actually spookier down there when the props are elsewhere. And, yes, the back wall features a mural of dragon, which was actually already there before we moved in. It's obviously too awesome to paint over and fits well enough with the stuff in our Halloween Headquarters 24/7/365 (as we like to call it).
Well... I guess I better get back to putting the finishing touches on my remaining projects.
Stay tuned for the unveiling of this year's display!
It's hard to believe that another Halloween has now come and gone...
Above is a picture of this year's yard display. At least this is how it would have looked had the weather not turned so nasty. Between frigid winds and nearly constant precipitation, we were forced to bring the majority of the props inside to avoid damaging them.
Thankfully, I did set everything up just the night before to fine-tune the lighting and took some pictures!
You'll notice a new prop next to Cousin Eerie in the picture above. I call him Fly Guy and he's a prop I put together earlier this week. I envisioned him as being a mad scientist of sorts, so of course I also had to make him a laboratory complete with glowing, bubbling chemicals, spooky specimens, and advanced, yet antiquated, scientific equipment. Fly Guy's mask and gloves were made by Ghoulish Productions.
Anyway... In total, we would have had around 10 full-sized props on display. Unfortunately however, as I previously mentioned, the weather just didn't cooperate this year. Any props we set up in the yard either blew over or were at risk of being ruined by the freezing rain. It was only midway through trick-or-treating that we were able to put three props out on the porch. Thus, we ended up having a bare bones (pun intended) setup last night. Hagatha, the Toxic Zombie, and Fly Guy made the cut while the others had to be put back inside.
To say that I was disappointed with last night's weather is an understatement. It's frustrating to spend a whole year preparing for one night just to have it ruined by some nasty weather.
In spite of it all, we had fun and the trick-or-treaters seemed to get a kick out of the props we were able to display.
As an added bonus, Jacob Vaught - my cousin, who is a talented up-and-coming filmmaker - shot and edited together footage of the display! Enjoy...
Well... I guess it's time to start planning for next year!
