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Halloween Diorama
I enjoy seeing miniatures and dioramas and have decided to build one myself. I also want to incorporate Arduino into my project, as I have not seen many dioramas with this feature.
1 Test Build
Start the diorama test build to see how far I can go with the first time building a diorama.
Layer the pink foam, and cut with a utility knife into the shape you want.
Glue them together
Start to layering base color of the diorama
After finishing painting the color add turfs to give it a more realistic look.
Finally, add epoxy to recreate the sea.
I'm very happy with the outcome since this is my first diorama. I've decided to continue with this concept and add interactivity to it.
2 Terrain Planning
Three different scenes, with some sensors, 3 corresponding interactions.
Approximate terrain layout
3 Construction
Shaping and cutting the terrain with a knife and a blow torch.
Create the base shape of the house with foamboard. Then, cut wooden craft sticks and attach them to the base to give a realistic wooden house feeling.
Create other objects in the scene using foam clay and wait for them to dry.
4 Sensor Choice
I was thinking using PIR or IR sensors, but professor mentioned I can Capacitive touch sensor. Which help my finally landed my sensor on Conductive Ink.
In order to test whether the foam clay works, I paint it and insert a pin to see if it will trigger a signal change in the Arduino when it touches the clay.
After I touched the painted foam clay the data in column two changed from around 100 to around 2000, and I can now use this data change as a trigger to trigger the interaction.
Please note that only the second column contains accurate data. The first column may be prone to false triggers due to overly sensitive ink. The third and fourth columns are currently not connected and do not contain any data.
Paint the inside of the house and roof with conductive ink so I don't need put wires inside to transfer the singal from roof to wire. And the roof can be the trigger
Same thing use conductive ink cover the object I want to become the trigger.
5 Construction Continued
Attach objects to the scene and paint a base color. Create a wooden base for the diorama to conceal everything inside, including the Arduino, servo, LEDs and breadboard.
Add a flipping rock to the grave scene. The flipping should be caused by a servo attached to a wooden stick with a skull head.
Then I continued painting and added more turf, sand, rocks, and static grass to the scene to make it more realistic.
Showcase video during the 2022 Halloween Expo at NYU ITP.
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