The Talking Heads 2.0 Project
Renovated in 2010
Used for the Talking Heads Project
It was time to renovate the original Talking Heads figures in 2010 for a couple of reasons. First, the incandescent lights
in the original figures were getting faded and needed some help. Second, there were some improvements that we wanted to make with the animation of the heads
themselves. So, that was enough motivation to rebuild the Talking Heads in 2010! Another project? Let's go!
We needed to get a new photo of Dad to use for the renovated Talking Heads to help improve the angle and layout for the new
figure. The old photo had Dad looking to the side at a sharper angle, and that had been difficult to animate and program on the old figure. So we got a
family member to take a new photo of Dad that didn't have such a sharp angle. Perfect for the new figure. We ended up using the same photo of Brandon for
the renovated figure, and just tweaked some of the features a bit.
As outlined in the previous page about the original Talking Heads, the first step is to project the image to a flat surface
with some butcher paper and trace out all the features you want the figure to have. Less features is better for animating with lights. If you include too
many features, then it gets busy or crowded with the lights and sometimes it is difficult to make out the features. This photo shows the old coro on the right,
and the new traced photo on the left. Now it's time to punch holes and get some LED light strings built!
Similarly, we do the same re-tracing and re-drawing for Brandon's photo. The coro on the left is the original, and the
trace on the right is the new rendition. After getting the features on the tracing represented just right, now it's time to build some LED strings, punch
some holes in the new coro, and get the lights installed.
This year we decided to use LED light strings to rebuild the Talking Heads 2.0 figures. Some of the strings needed for the figures are very short,
especially the ones at the bottom of the mouth, bottom of the chin, eyebrows, etc. Rather than use a strong of 35 or 50 and wrpping up the unused bulbs behind the figure, we decided
to build shorter custom strings of LED lights to make it simpler. These strings have special custom-built full-wave rectifers, and special dropping resistors to maintain the 15ma.
current that the LED strings require for full brightness. On our lab bench in the garage, we set out building these custom LED string sets. It took the better part of a weekend
to get all the strings built up and tested. Once that was completed, then we got the figures stuffed with lights. They look great!
Here is Brandon's finished Talking Head with all the lights installed. With the new light strings and features, we'll be able to open and close
his mouth, raise and lower his chin to simulate talking, and arch his eyebrows when something good and/or fun happens in the display. That will be a great new feature to add.
Here's the finished Talking Head figure for Dad as well with all the lights installed. He has the same features as Brandon does, and will
definitely look great in the Display as we sing our songs together and host the Belardo Lights display. After all the work, the renovated figures turned out very nice...
We'd love to have you stop by and see the Talking Heads 2.0 in person this year at Belardo Lights!