Nameless Ghoul Mask With Animatronic Eyes

A nameless ghoul mask from the band Ghost that is controlled by an ultrasonic sensor that will wake (open eyes) when you get close.

LIST OF WHAT IS DEFINITELY NEEDED

• one arduino (power source in laptop, but a 5V power chord is optional)
• 3D printer (it uses about one roll of PLA so be mindful of the print time etc)
• glue gun
• 4 digital servo's (the 4 other servo's are optional and used for the movement of the eyeballs!)
• crosshead screwdriver
• male to male cables (about 20 just in case)
• female to male cables (about 20 just in case)
• pliers
• wire cutters
• breadboard
• soldering iron and tin (optional if you are not using a breadboard that you can't solder on)
• some cardboard for support within the mask
• Iduino ST1099 Ultrasonicsensor
• iron wiring 1mm
• 6 x 1.5 mm crosshead screws
• 24 mm eyeballs (can be found on Amazon!)

OPTIONAL

• zip ties
• fake flowers
• planks
• any old thrifted candle holder (wood)
• drill for the wood

How I got started.

I knew when I started this project I wanted to try and make an animatronic using Arduino, but there are a lot of different ways to make both puppet eyes and anything animatronic - that is one of the reasons why I struggled a lot with getting everything set up. There is a lot of research I did mainly regarding puppeteering - how it's made etc. (like this) My first plan was to make an animatronic Grogu (from the hit show the Mandalorian) but that was quickly thrown out of the window after getting bombarded with other homework.... So I was left with two options, make the eyes or retake it next year - and I chose to still make the eyes and have a more simple version of my first idea. The next idea was to make a mask what would look as if it was set on a platter that would open their eyes when you would get too close, the mask is completely optional so feel free to use any kind of mask - but I decided to make the nameless ghoul mask from the band Ghost!

What kind of eye mechanism?

So now I knew I wanted to make the eyes, but how would I make this was my next step. Looking at a lot of different videos and explanations of people making eyes - I was left with nothing but disappointment. All the videos I watched so far were not quite exactly what I was looking for so I ended up looking at two different tutorials (failed mechanism) (eye mechanism used) and ended up trying to print the first failed mechanism - which were a pair of mounted eyes on one stand. This was definitely less fragile and more sturdy to work with - but ended up not working well with the mask I printed. The mechanism I decided to go with were two seperate eyes - but instead of it being controlled by a button I decided to make it controlled by the ultrasonic sensor.

Files!

So make sure that you print the eye mechanics on a 1:1 scale, and plan to get either a base or something you can mount it on for stability. Make sure to plan accordingly for a good base and a mask of choice you would like to use (definitely for long prints make sure to check the sizing so you're not wasting time printing)

3D print

So for the 3D printed files as stated with the previous step is that it has to be printed out on a 1:1 scale because of the servo size. The mask should be printed out accordingly! but remember that bigger prints will take a lot more time.

Assembling the kit

To start off take the rectengular servo holder and attach the eye mechanism. To do this, screw the eyeball placeholder in with a tiny screw. This will hold both the eyeball and the eyelids! Next, screw in the servo's starting from the front up - down - (flip to make the propellors face the other side) up - down, if you only want it to blink you can use the back two servo's with the same directions. The back servo will control the top lid, and the downwards servo will control the bottom lid. To attach the eyeball, glue in the holder within the eyeball piece - and attach both the bottom and the top lid by lightly screwing in the sides with the 1.5 mm screws. (make sure to not let the screw touch the eyeball if you want to move it around)

The wiring should be easy to follow! if you are only using the eyes closed and open function like I am, you will only need to use the first 4 servo's. To change the code to make it blink less or more (have the eyes open and close more) tweak the distance! one servo should be rotated down, and one should be rotated up for the opening and closing of the eyelids. To connect this to the servo use the given buildplate to bend the wire in place and hook it on the eyelid and the servo propellor.

Assembly of everything

To make sure that the wires were nice and hidden I ended up making a solid base for my prop and drilled a hole in this for the cord to get through. This step is completely optional but if you want to make it into a solid artpiece I would definitely recommend! To put the eyes in place I simply used a small piece of cardboard and hot glued it to the mask and attached it to the base. I then glued the eyeballs in place and glued on the back of the mask (I sliced the model since I only have a small 3D printer) Make sure to position the sensor outside of the mask and camouflage it with for example flowers!

Reflection and end result

I am very happy with the end result but would have loved to add more functionality if I had the time. If I were to make this project again I definitely would have added more interaction, but if you're making this I would definitely recommend doing that!