Trading tips for dark displays and prop production.
#96117
Here are a few pictures of the final display. If you'd like to see how everything was made, you can read through the original posts below.

haunted house entrance:
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vampire layer:
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photo corner:
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* * * *********** * * * Original Post * * * ***************** * * *

Inspired by my daughters' love for Mavis from Hotel Transylvania, we're going to be vampires this year.

So, here we go again ... :)=

I'm going to redo my castle walls and try to make a photo corner that will look something like this:
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I'm going to use gray frabric, 250cmx90cm, and draw on the stones. The goal is to make 12 sheets in all. Ideally, the sheets can be hung in any order and they will match up. Those will hopefully look something like this:
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I did a sketch of large square stones, but all the voters in the house like the random shaped stones better:
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For the stage, I'm going to make a vampire mouth entrance and then inside some sort of walk through:
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In the walk through, I hope to have a forest type scene with a castle silhouette (with lighted windows.) The second room will be a castle room with a coffin and some stained glass windows, and the third room will be something I already have (maybe bloody walls.)

here are two things I will try to make:
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The first at the top left will go on the pillars in the photo spot. I'm going to use foam for the base and paint it purple. Then use a silver wire to make the spider webbing. The pillars will be painted black so I'm hoping that will add some color to the scene.

The second will be my attempt to make a stained glass window prop. I'm going to try to use foam for the base and clear plastic files for the glass.

I haven't done much more than penciled these things out.

Any other ideas for decorations or vampire theme games?
Last edited by mesmark on Thu Nov 24, 2016 7:20 pm, edited 4 times in total.
User avatar
By pagemaster1993
#96119
Another awesome big project. You always do the best sets. Just a quick question: what do you do with all the pieces from the previous year?
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By Pumpkinfreak
#96121
This looks amazing, already awesome designs! :thumbsup:
I love the stained glass window prop idea, can't wait to see how that will turn out!
User avatar
By sloaner
#96171
This is going to look great. I wish I had the room for these big displays.
User avatar
By mesmark
#96198
pagemaster1993 wrote:Just a quick question: what do you do with all the pieces from the previous year?
I keep the things that I think I can reuse in storage. Some stuff I keep for a while but eventually throw out, like some of the Egypt stuff. If possible, I reuse some of the materials for other things in later years. But, basically my storage is full of Halloween stuff :D
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I started to make the vampire mouth entrance today.

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I need to sand it down a bit, paint the pieces white and then glue it together. But, you can get the idea.
I made 2 sets, roughly the same size for the bottom and the top.

I bought a few of these torch things. They look a little cheesy in person, but photograph nicely.
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I guess that's all that really matters.

We've ordered the fabric so wheels are up and Halloween is on it's way over here :)=
User avatar
By mesmark
#96214
I got the fabric today that I'm going to use to make the stone walls.

I bought 12 sheets at 2.5m and a 1m strip for testing. Here's what I did:
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What do you think?

That took me about an hour. There's a little bit more to the fabric that's not in the photograph. Anyway, I think it will take about 2 hours to do each of the 12 sheets ... :|

Then I have to paint and shade them, if I decide to do that.

I think I'm going to draw them all out and then see what they look like.
User avatar
By Pumpkinfreak
#96215
wow man, that's looking great! :thumbsup:
Always love to see your projects evolve!
The fabric looks fantastic, sounds like a lot of work :pale: , but looks fantastic! :wink:
Love the stone design.
Cant wait to see more :D
User avatar
By mesmark
#96247
PumpkinFreak - Thanks! It's fun to share these projects with you guys, and I appreciate the comments and support. :)=

I have already drawn 4 sheets and will do one more today. I've been worried about the painting and shading ... I decided I had better give it a test run before I draw out all of the sheets and then decide I should have done something differently. :arrowhead:

So, I went for it a little today. I brushed some black, bown and white paint onto a paper plate. Then using a crescent shaped sponge, I dabbed and rubbed here and there on the rocks.
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I should probably be a little more careful and take a little bit more time with the actual sheets but the effect seems much better with some color. Plus, people will be viewing it in a much bigger scene from further away. Hopefully, they won't be micro examining each individual rock :?
User avatar
By Cirrus
#96266
Wow, that looks great! You always have the best projects. It's like watching a Polaroid photo develop. Nice job!
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By Mayor of Haddonfield
#96275
Wow! This is looking so cool! I can't wait to see the end result. :thumbsup:
User avatar
By mesmark
#96290
OK, after spending 30+ hours on these things, I have finished the 12 sheets.

The bad news is I ruined at least 2 of them, and a few others are usable but crappy.

Here's what happened:

This is a picture of my son painting white highlights on the rocks. Afterward he will go back and paint shadows around the edges.
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It looks like he's doing a great job. The white highlights are going to look great! :D

Then we took the sheets to the back yard and hung them to dry:
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As I carried those to the backyard, I couldn't keep from thinking that those white highlights were really strong. Maybe they would dry a little lighter ... But, we would try to take it easy on the white with the next sheets.

We did, but the same thing happened.
:cry: :oops:

We did 6 sheets and had to take a break. After those sheets dried, I laid them down on the floor of my room. I looked at the sheets and felt a little better. They didn't look so bad. I told my son that (he was down at the other end helping me lay the sheets flat.) He looked at me a little funny and said, more or less, that he didn't agree.

Then I went over to his side and saw this:

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If you are looking at the sheets with the main light source in front of you, you can't see the white. If the the main light source is behind you, you can see it. (That picture is a photo I took after we had figured out what happened. So the he was being even more cautious, but still arguably too much white.)

We had painted 6 of the sheets that way, with the light source in front of us. (it's a little difficult to paint in your shadow.) Even when we were being careful, we couldn't see what was really happening as we were painting ... a sad lesson learned.

2 of the worst sheets:
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2 of the better sheets:
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The good news is that I have 4-5 good sheets that I can use for my photo corner, and the other sheets will go in a dark room of the haunted house.

Oh well, on to the next project! Finishing the vampire mouth entrance.
User avatar
By Pumpkinfreak
#96301
Wow, I wouldn't have thought that this would make such a difference either!
But still, even the ones which are strong in whites are looking really good in my opinion :wink:
However it's great that you have 4 or 5 very good ones for the photo corner, so either way, a project succeeded :thumbsup:
I know I've said this before but I really love the stone design, and the hidden eyes in between the stones are a fantastic addition!
Can't wait to see how the entrance will turn out!
User avatar
By sloaner
#96328
I think both look good. I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong with the "bad ones"
#96475
Thanks guys! I think I was just down because the stone wall sheets didn't match the image in my head ... :?

I took some of the worst ones and went over them a bit with some gray paint. The really bad ones I darkened a lot. Here are a couple of the bad ones painted again. Now they may be too dark but that seems better than the first go.
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I can't spend any more time on those this year. I'll try them this year and if need be, touch them up some other Halloween.

I started to make a castle silhouette:
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I cut up the pieces from scraps and left over pieces.
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I'll paint and then assemble later this weekend. I left the 1m stick next to it for size reference. It's about 90cm high. I'll make a base later, but I'm hoping the castle will sit on a 1m stand. I'll try to put some flickering LED lights behind the windows. I'll need to add some sort of paper backing to reflect the light like a room and also keep the light from bleeding too much onto the silhouette.

This will go in a spooky forest type scene in the first (dark) room on the stage. The second room will be a castle room with the stone wall sheets and a coffin in the center. The third room will be the blood walls and maybe some wrapped up bodies on the floor.

I started the little pillar adornments as well:
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Once the paint dries, I'll add the spider webs and see if I need to shade them.

Anyway, things are moving along! :thumbsup: