Singing Pumpkins of AtmosFX

Introduction

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins

Singing pumpkins for Halloween? Where do you find something like that? In my Halloween 2020 setup, I had the 3 funny pumpkins from AtmosFX in use for the first time. These sat merrily on a garden bench and talked, sang and made all kinds of funny faces. This was an absolute highlight for all visitors that evening. In this article I show how the setup was in 2020 and how the whole thing basically works.

View setup video of the singing pumpkins at “Old School Haunter”.

An overview of all the craft instructions can be found here.

What do i need?

  • Garden bench
  • 3 pumpkins (or use this tutorial to build styrofoam pumpkins)
  • Projector
  • Player to play video files (can be omitted if the videos are played directly from a SD card in the projector) I use a Raspberry Pi as Payer
  • Bluetooth speaker (alternatively a wired one)
  • Halloween net or other fabric as cover
  • HDMI cable (if an external player is used)
  • digital Download of the singing pumpkins Jack ‘O Lantern from AtmosFX
AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 01
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 01

Step 1

Start by placing the garden bench and the pumpkins.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 02
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 02

Step 2

The wooden fruit crate gets a board, on which the projector is placed. This board should be at the same height as the seat of the bench. Otherwise you may get a distorted projection at the end.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 03
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 03

After installing the cables and connecting the projector and the Raspberry PI it looks like this.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 04
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 04

Step 3

The crate is placed in front of the bench. In dependency of the used projector the distance between the bench and the projector varies. Here you have to experiment a little bit. In my case the distance is 1,20m or 48 inches.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 05
AtmosFX -Singing Pumpkins 05

Here you can see that the projector and the seart of the bench are at the same height. Doing so adjustments later on are much easier.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 06
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 06

Step 4

Now the projector and the Raspberry Pi are started to adjust the projection. Here you have to adjust the focus, the left/right and the up/down position of the image.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 07
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 07

If everything is fine the faces can be seen on the pumpkins. If the projector is placed on another height you have to use the keystone correction of the projection to distort the image. Many projector provide such a function but please keep in mind, that using this you will lose quality of the projection (especially when using a cheap projector)

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 08
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 08

Step 5

In order for the pumpkins to get their voices, the Bluetooth speaker is activated, connected to the player and finally is placed behind the pumpkins. So you will get the illusion the voices are coming directly from the pumpkins. You may place the speaker next to the projector which also works pretty well. But doing so the illusion is not as good as the placing behind the pumpkins. This is because what you see and what you hear do not match. But it will also work.

AtmosFX - Singing PumpkinsTutorial 09
AtmosFX -Singing PumpkinsTutorial 09

Step 6

As you can seen on the image below, the visitors can see parts of the technique which is not so good. Either you use a crate where you cannot see through or you cover the crate with the Halloween fabric. In that way you can hide the technique but you will also see, that you use a wooden crate.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 10
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 10
AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 11
AtmosFX – Singende Kürbisse Tutorial 11

Step 7

Now the setup is done and the show can begin to impress you visitors with song, jokes and laughs from the pumpkins.

AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 12
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 12
AtmosFX - Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 13
AtmosFX – Singing Pumpkins Tutorial 13

Happy Halloween 🙂

 

** This link takes you to the AtmosFX website and is part of the AtmosFX Affiliate program. By using the link you WILL NOT pay extra money, but you support Old School Haunter.