Ben Heck’s Animatronic Puppet Head Part 1

Learn more about TE Connectivity LightKnacks at element14.com/te
element14.com/tbhs - In this episode Ben sets out to help Backflip films with their upcoming puppet movie The Princess Knight. The film requires its actors to memorize prerecorded dialogue in order to match it with the mouth of a puppet. In this episode Ben sets out to create an animatronic head that would move its mouth automatically by detecting the highs and lows of audio waveform.

[@element14presents]

Don't worry everyone, Dreamcast Part 2 and Part 3 are coming in a couple weeks. It's just taking longer than expected.

[@molten_software]

No worries here! I'm just glad there's a show to watch every friday morning! Thanks!

[@sopothetocho]

Let me guess, You couldnt figure out how to replace the GD-drive, right? thats the holy grail in the Dreamcast scene, there is the SD card unit but its too slow and many games dont work. There was also a dude who managed to emulate the drive but I havent heard of that project since. If only we could replace the GD-drive with a DVD drive or a HD... :(

[@frostydog1189]

BUILD A ROBOT

[@TKTmon]

rayco santana he's made some, but it's my understanding that he's having trouble producing them due to the parts being hard to get a hold of.

[@nicoful86]

rayco santana Are you referring to gdemu.wordpress.com? That project is very alive and he has shipped a lot of units already. They do cost a hefty sum though. There is also this guy with the USB emulated GRDROM: www.retrocollect.com/News/usb-gdrom-controller-sega-dreamcast-gets-another-disc-drive-replacement-allowing-up-to-2tb-of-game-storage.html

[@GlassCurtain]

haha the entire time Ben was assembling the mouth I was thinking Crow from MST3K...then he busts out the Joel impression. I was laughing so hard. Thanks Ben!

[@BrudusMaximus]

Every time Ben breaks out the oscilloscope and starts talking electrical engineering I start drooling and my eyes glaze over.

[@DamianReloaded]

Yeah that pays more than enough for all the other cheesy nonsense ^_^

[@rm2kdev]

WTF wheres the dreamcast episode............ wth is this

[@dannonyogurt98]

rm2kdev Seriously! I'm so sad right now.

[@rm2kdev]

I know right! i was sitting around waiting for the next video to come out and this...... just ruined my friday night ben :P

[@rm2kdev]

rm2kdev OMFG "it doesn't work, lets make a second part and use a different puppet" damn this was the lowest quality episode I've seen yet.ZOMBIE ATTACK NEXT WEEK WTF IS THAT?!!!! Give us the bloody ending!!!

[@rm2kdev]

I watch bens videos religiously lol you'll find me here on Friday night at 11pm waiting for the next episode every week..... SO RAGED right now at this shit though conclude the bloody dreamcast episode been waiting aaaaaaaaaaaaal week for it >.>

[@AMBaggs]

He might be waiting for parts to come in and that is why he is doing something different this week

[@artvandelayimports]

When I got a notification for KZbin, I thought the second part of the dream cast portable was uploaded

[@AaronEiche]

The MST3K invention exchange got a laugh from me.This was a fun project. Thanks for using discrete logic and explaining it. It's nice to see those solutions.

[@leopoldarkham7017]

The quality of the opening skit just went up by 500%

[@MICROmor]

this is a fun little froject, but I have a fundamental problem with it: wouldn't make the puppet animatronic make it be lifeless and robotic instead of artistically animated by trained hands?

[@MICROmor]

allluckyseven yes I understand, mbut most of the time when using animatronics on a puppet, they have an operator giving life to every little movement of the servos, maybe I'm taking this too seriously tho

[@MICROmor]

***** sorry I have a dyslexic condition and sometimes make weird typos like that

[@allluckyseven]

MICROmor Yeah, his isn't going to be that sophisticated, that's for sure. But he could apply some of that. Something like the performer holding the puppet up and doing his body and arms movements, while the servos control the opening and and closing of the mouth.

[@soviut]

The project is intended as an introduction to animatronics. Ben tends to scope his projects to be things you could do at home; Trying to replicate animatronics projects from the 80's and 90's like ET or TMNT wouldn't be practical for the hobbyist. That said, many amusement parks make use of simpler animatronics like this for secondary characters. Think of this as being able to make your own "It's a Small World".

[@fazzitron]

As a puppeteer, I would never want a puppet like this. Not only would it make it lifeless, but the mouth needs to be analog, not digital. Not only that, but it seems you would lose the ability to actually move the head. Without that, you essentially have a mouth on a stick.

[@ChatterboxPuppets]

Hi Ben, and Ben subscribers! Just wanted to pop in with a couple notes...and also to say I really appreciate you helping people get into puppetry who may not have normally considered it. Anyway, here are my thoughts... 1) professional puppeteers keep the top of their hands relatively static, while they only move their thumb for the lower jaw. They don't do the floppy thing you describe. They open and close the JavaOne for each syllable in a word. The Henson company has a great tutorial about how to do it on their youtube page. 2) A couple of people have said the puppet is creepy. The main reason you feel that way is probably because their eye focus is a little off. Most puppets are slightly cross eyed to give them a point of focus while looking at the audience or the camera. 3) Without anchoring the top hold for the upper palate, you would get the same floppy result you demonstrated with your hand with the trigger mechanism you made. . I think your main problem, however, looks to be a lack of clearance between your top and bottom jaw plates for your hinge to operate correctly. 4) I 3d print my mouth palates, and make snap bands with ninja flex for puppets used by several people for theater and such. They can be wiped down with alcohol wipes if needed. I also build vents into the heads. Your puppets shouldn't be gross unless you aren't taking care of them. If you hands get sweaty, just lay the open end of your puppet propped open in front of a fan, and that should help keep it from getting gnarly if you have a fabric covering. 5) For those of you interested in making a trigger mechanism you can hand operate on your own, you can make one cheaply with a bike brake cable. I usually use the hand break itself as the trigger, since it cuts down on hand strain. 6) I have a channel called Makerhigh where I demonstrate how to make a basic puppet and a free pattern download on my website, if you want to give Ben's project a go, but don't have a puppet you can use. Cost of materials should be less than $10 if I am remembering correctly. Will obviously be more if you 3D print a compatible mouth plate. Thanks everyone! First time chiming in, but finally felt I could add something to the conversation!

[@donniedamato]

Ben has been building replacements for everyone this year.

[@hingeslevers]

Joel impression was spot on!

[@AMBaggs]

Great start but I feel the parts that go into the head need to be bigger like a hand. They seemed a little small and I think that is why the mouth on the puppet did not work correctly.

[@yorgle]

That was a spot-on Joel impression! :D

[@jeterjr28]

Ok so it's not the dreamcast pt 2(obviously). I don't see a need or want to complain because this episode was still awesome. Thanks BHS

[@donnierussellii4659]

Now it is confirmed: you are a MiSTie. I knew it with the fish quote in a previous episode. You also have an ASCII chart on your wall. Even I don't have one of those (but I want one now). We geeks are incorrigible.

[@PatFarrellKTM]

It will be interesting to see if this approach actually mimics a human's jaw. I trust that the discrete logic is simpler than trying to do FFTs in an arduino. A totally different approach would be to make it controlled by MIDI. Use a keyboard to record open/close actions and then use a sequencer to both play the audio and the MIDI

[@Bladedragonlord]

MST3K reference, too cool! Thought of Crow as soon as I saw the mouth on a stick! LOL! :)

[@valkin07]

Absolutely love the show! Studying EE at Temple University now because of you Ben!

[@supersat]

This might be a good project to dive in to more advanced analog techniques. For example, instead of a simple threshold detector, you might want to use an envelope detector. Perhaps some low-pass/high-pass filters would help as well. This could become as simple or complex as you'd like...

[@geeko321]

Your Joel Hodgson impression is uncanny!

[@Robonza]

The mechanism divides the torque by about 3, basic fulcrum lever stuff. If you put the servo in the head it could be a lot stronger.

[@HeyItsJonSchwartz]

I loved the MST3K reference! I was thinking about that the whole time you were testing the parts! Plus, your accent is authentic!

[@iaincowell9747]

Also, 15:32 is a "The House That Drips Blood On Alex" reference.

[@FerHivore]

Yeah, Ben nailed Joel’s voice, and the robot kind of sounded like Servo.

[@TheRussianhippie]

the episode was good but seriously what the hell, i know i wasn't alone eagerly waiting for the next episode of the dreamcast portable.

[@zolwikwkurwik]

Ben's waiting for his GDEMU to arrive :P

[@directive0]

That was an ace Joel Robinson impression.

[@SdudyoyO]

Last weak, Ben said The Dreamcast portable hack would return in a future episode, he did not say it would come this weak, I'm sorry, but some people need to pay more attention, but I guess I can't blame the younger ones.

[@secutorclaudius]

Weak, it's week m8

[@SdudyoyO]

secutorclaudius Oops, I didn't notice that!

[@soviut]

secutorclaudius M8? It's "mate", dude.

[@secutorclaudius]

i know, but i just talk like dat sometimes. anyone have a gtx 750 or gtx 570?

[@swsephy]

I guess eventually there had to be a creepy episode.

[@ChrisFredriksson]

What happened with "Ben Heck’s Dreamcast Portable Part 2" !?!?!? Been waiting for what feel like ages, even though it was only last week =) I thought we would get part 2 today? Anyhow, great videos and keep up the great work Ben! :)

[@ObiTrev]

Have you seen Jim Henson's Creature Shop? I think you would appreciate the engineering it takes to bring a puppet alive.

[@RunnerPack]

Analog and discrete circuitry is cool and all, but you should probably just get the jaw mechanism working, then control the servo with an AVR using speech data generated with Papagayo.

[@BagelCollector]

Five Nights at Ben's Workshop

[@altrogeruvah]

I was expecting the Dreamcast Part 2 this week, but this was a fun episode! I did something similar in college with Max/MSP and a small robot a friend of mine made.

[@benny42000]

MST3K FTW! I love that show... and not just because I'm from Minnesota.

[@Forssa1]

No, still use a human hand, but put electrodes on it, which are activated by the microphone. Science.

[@relik0fages]

One step closer to a human puppet.

[@Sony_08]

What a shocking idea!

[@soviut]

Meat puppets are a future build.

[@eformance]

Why not just use an RC delay on the input of the 3rd opamp?

[@stenyxx]

He does a pretty good Joel impression!

[@DamianReloaded]

Hey Ben, you could filter all other frequencies that are not between 80-300 Hz so the puppet would only respond to those of the human voice. I mean to prevent it from opening the mouth when someone farts or something. ^_^

[@marco.ruggiero.]

i was thinking, why Mr. Ben never uses his handmade tools ( glue gun, soldering gaunlet) in his project? they look so amazing and corfortable :D

[@iamvonimmel]

Sparkfun just released the Servo Trigger. Cheap, to the point, and would totally work for this.

[@Najvalsa]

Looks like you're making a giant Pez dispenser! :D :P

[@soviut]

4ms is awfully fast. My background is animation (digital, not paper, thank "spaghetti monster"). We usually animated at 24fps and usually matched our phonemes (mouth shames) to very broad enunciations (pull on the sides of your mouth while you talk and those are usually the phonemes that actually visually register). Usually only two or three per second and never less than 3 frames apart. Considering that 24fps is about 41ms per frame, and we weren't even hitting a phoneme per frame, I'd say 100ms is probably a more viable target. Oh well, I guess we'll see in the follow up episode.

[@failedprocess]

Ermahgerd...perfect Joel impersonation.

[@breadgitarian]

Remember on the early episodes when people would post the timecode to skip the theme song? 2:05

[@dajack05]

I love his MST3K reference! BEST SHOW EVER!!!!!!!!!....

[@knownuser09]

Couldn't you rig up a switch to activate when the actor opens there mouth/jaw. That switch then activates the puppets mouth to open, thus it will be in sync. Also be a lot easier to make.

[@tostiheld]

what kind of mic did you use? just some electret mic?

[@pahaha70]

The 3-D printed pieces look like they were treated with acetone, even though they'll never be seen. Are you doing that for all 3-D printed things now? I know you said it made it a bit stronger as well as shiny in a previous video?

[@Cheese_1337]

very good!

[@habitatone]

ben should've designed the actuators to look like a hand...so mostly every puppet could be operated

[@spiritsuit7846]

Awesome mst3k reference Ben

[@NewWorldOver]

Ben you're from Montana too!? Been watching your channel for a while never new.

[@joesmoe71]

I'm going to make the puppet from the Saw movies with a tricycle and have it follow people around. "I want to play a game...."

[@legallyblindreview]

I wanted to build something like this but wasn't sure how to, but I was going to use a nunchuck from a nintendo wii controller. I would like yo see you use a new raspberry pie to build a portable all in one Photo Booth.

[@imslashjr]

A couple of years ago I did a project to get a Good Will "Big Mouth Billy Bass" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mouth_Billy_Bass) to talk from mp3 files using an arduino and a motor shield. To those without a 3D printer an old "Big Mouth Billy Bass" may be a easy solution. I am looking forward to see Ben Heck's solution.

[@DogRox]

Ok that was good .. and it was Funny as Heck!! Get it?? :-)

[@darinsfool]

were is Dreamcast part 2?

[@spartanfoxie]

You and Adam Savage would be the best of friends

[@cyangtw]

Every new episodes on Friday is killing me...

[@uebertreiberman]

Hey, Ben, can you create a printing Server for 3D printers? Like you can send your Models to the Server, it will put them in a queue and print them one after another? Than you would have to figure out a way to get the printed model of the printer to make space for the next one...

[@MichielHaisma]

That would be quite cool, but requires no special electronics. So I don't think it's something for TBHS.

[@TFM110]

Hi Ben, you should make a mini transformer that transforms with a click of a button

[@mikgus]

The video above this one in my subscriptionlist is sparcfun doing this project with two of their boards an a nine volt battery

[@Hobypyrocom]

magenta, cyan... why peoples recently started saying magenta instead purple? purple, pink, blue, dark blue... talk the language of the normal humans and leave the magentas, cyans, contrast for the graphic designers...

[@lillydoye7418]

But Ben used to be a graphic designer before he started doing electrical engineering. Old habits die hard.

[@Hobypyrocom]

Samuel Doye well if thats the case...

[@Hobypyrocom]

rayco santana your examples of purple and magenta are the same color different shades, use photoshop and lighten the darker one and youll see. same counts for your examples of cyan and blue. here you go: www.liveleak.com/view?i=3ba_1427299809 explanation from an scientist.

[@Hobypyrocom]

rayco santana your talking about printing colors and that have nothing to do with what we are talking here actually and if you watched the video i linked you would notice at 00:12 of the video "the formal name of purple is magenta"... and yes this video explains how we perceive and how the brain creates the cyan and magenta colors. watch the video again fully and make sure you listen everything he says. we are not talking about mixing colors for printing press here we are talking about the name of the colors. show to peoples cyan and magenta and if they have no connection with graphic design they will say purple and light blue, thats what i am talking about in my comment and the majority of the peoples are not graphic designers. did you try my experiment with your examples and photoshop? what results did you get? arent those colors just shades of the same color?

[@lillydoye7418]

Hobypyrocom Guys, is it really worth fighting over how we name colours? Everyone knows what he means. If you prefer it one way, then feel free to talk that way, just don't fight with over people about it.

[@guerillagrueplays6301]

I'm not an engineer. So, with that obvious statement out there... why did you choose to convert the analog signal into a digital one for purposes of the animation? It seems to me that the analog waveform would be more useful since you could use it to allow the actor utilizing the puppet more control over the degree to which the mouth was open? Was it just for simplicity of the electronics themselves, as well as the animation module? Or would the shift of tones and/or volume such a system would use be too difficult to interpret? Honestly curious what the reasoning is; I love your show, and the builds you create are always fascinating.

[@sarowie]

he did choice the binary control (mouth open/closed) for simplicity. Of course, analogue would be better. The animation module is already analog - the servo is driven by an analog signal. The length of the pulse to the servo controls the leaver. Short pulse: Smale angle, long pulse: width angle. The interpretation of the analog signal would of course be tricky, but "to difficult or not" just depends on how much time Ben wants to dedicate to the project. If this technique is for an interactive theme park attraction, it will be good enough. But for a movie... well... I would prefer a lazy puppeteer over this. An not lip synced puppeteer can at least move, tilt, rotate etc. the puppet giving it a bit of life.

[@guerillagrueplays6301]

sarowie Makes sense. thank you.

[@loidor]

Nice project! However, I'm intrigued about what happened to the second ep of the dreamcast mod =)

[@Rana__]

The Ben Heck Show Exscuse me ben. Im loving all your products / projects especially the portal shirt and I was just wondering. Maybe could you do a project on a either Something to extend the length of your internet... mine is garbage and it always crashes D: or you know r4 chips those things you can download games off the pc and put in in your xbox maybe could you try making something where you download a xbox 360 or one game put it in the xbox then you can play it :) i really hope you can / will do these!

[@azyfloof]

Five minutes to order and then eat sushi? In what universe?!

[@ExcaliberpegasiS]

the word animatronic made me think of five nights at freddy's.

[@ItzsMarco]

"and we'll do this again in 5 nights" heard it.

[@colonydrop5928]

It's been over twenty years since the last Invention Exchange. :(

[@DJignyte]

Good stuff!

[@samj1012]

The guy who did the mouth fart at end of the video dropped the video from cool and professional, to shitty and filthy...condolences guys.

[@Outware0]

Can you find out how to record your Xbox with just a tablet and charger?

[@JazzTheDogOfWar]

Where is the second part of portable dream cast????

[@Interlude.idle26]

Can u do an animatronic Good guy doll from the movie Childs Play? Just the good, normal one that is battery operated plz. So it can talk, move it's eyes side to side and move it's mouth while talking. I would really need your help on it. I really don't know what I'm doing.

[@olek5916]

Hey, did you ever, or could make a video to repurpose an old cell phone?

[@sMiLysSympHoNy]

can you make a simpler version for dummies like me? Just hoping here, making a project for my daughter :/

[@wiatroda]

sparkfun just did it, honestly just few mins ago :p

[@UmbraAtrox_]

Dreamcast! WHERE? GIFF DREAMCAST!

[@dragonfire810]

Can you please make a Skeksis Hand Puppet and Costume?

[@joeofdoom]

supermarionation on the cheap?

[@RoccoDNYC]

where can I get a diagram for the op amp circuit?

[@moultriemanicmechani]

Was there schematic released for this ?

[@iamsuperroot]

What about details so anyone can make what you made? STLS? Code.

[@scottspitlerII]

This is the creepiest thing ever.

[@RAMChYLD]

Hmmm... Vu meter....

[@jackbotzet781]

Where do you get all those tools and bits

[@Dampre]

"They took my JOB!"

[@loganjorgensen]

So you're making the most complicated Muppet ever, why didn't you just make a robot? :\ On that little skit, fire bad puppeteer and hire good puppeteer, KISS.

[@stevenyang7942]

Hey Ben can you make something that can build legos?

[@elger7654]

Is just like a slow tone.

[@TheTechChef420]

just saying there were alot of that's what she said moments in here

[@ryanchristianson3794]

ben you live in montana?

[@rickyvanswaal]

Am I just going to be the first one to say... ...Ben is creating Five Nights At Freddy animatronics? Shit.

[@danxepha4535]

No-show Dreamcast sad face :-(

[@MrHolozip]

"and lets extrude that out"... BLAM, whizbang fully 3d part modelled with bevels, curves, circular bits on the end, holes cut through the middle etc. Fuck your sorcery, Heck! ;-) Awesome video as always though... :)

[@ju1360]

Ben reminds me of Lester from Gta 5

[@nintendolunchbox]

Mst3k references rule!!!

[@sean111happy1]

Could you do me a guide on that software you are using because fucking hell you do Drew some squares and then that cool shaped popped out

[@EPICZAMZ]

Do you know how many people just lost their jobs

[@PaperDragons]

I read Aromatic.... first three times