Talking Heads V2 
The Dancing Stephen Project
Stephen is our 4 year old, and he loves music. So what better way to get him involved in the Christmas Lighting display than
to create a special element of the display dedicated to him! Like Brandon, Stephen also has a form of Autism, and is just now becoming more verbal. So while
Brandon and Dad have their Talking Heads figures, our special "Dancing Stephen" tribute will feature him "Doing the Dance"! It will also be made out of Coro
plastic with different strings of colored lights that we can control to make his arms, legs, and head move to the beat of the Holiday music! Go Stephen Go!
This figure was built in a similiar fashion to our Talking Heads, but it was more complex. Several different digital
photos had to be assembled for the various positions that Stephen can adopt during "The Dance" with his arms, legs, and head. After some creative cutting
and pasting and work with photo software and projection overlapping techniques, we ended up with the tracing as shown.
It took a long afternoon photo session and over 200 pictures to get all the various angles of Stephen's limbs that we
needed for the tracing, particularly his feet. He was dancing and laughing all during the photo shoot, and enjoyed spending special time with Dad.
Plus, we were able to use our secret weapon to keep Stephen's attention span intact during the photo shoot - we played his favorite dancing music, The B52's!
It took a long weekend to punch, stuff, and dress the lights in this figure because of the complexity (especially around the two head areas on top of each other). There are 11 different controllable sets of lights for this figure, as follows:
- Body
- Head Normal
- Head Tilt
- Left Arm In
- Left Arm Out
- Right Arm Up
- Right Arm Down
- Left Foot In
- Left Foot Out
- Right Foot In
- Right Foot Out
In order to make Stephen "Dance", all of these movements need to be coordinated at once to give the illusion of movement. You'll have to come by the display
this year and see it for yourself! The Dancing Stephen will be performing all through the Holiday Season in our display! If you're especially lucky, maybe Stephen himself will be out
front giving performances when you stop by. If not, please leave him a comment in the guestbook by the mailbox and let us know your thoughts...
We hope you enjoy the display and all of the effort put into The Dancing Stephen and other elements!
Finally, here is a photo that shows the final product: One pose out of many combinations for The Dancing Stephen. We hope you
enjoyed our explanation about the project and pay us a visit this year to check it out in person!
Not the greatest quality, but here is a rough video that will give you an idea of what The Dancing Stephen is capable of...You have to see him in person to appreciate all the Dance moves! Enjoy! We hope to see you at Belardo Lights!