Plank Fighting Skeletons

A Prop in progress! These are going to be two skeletons fighting at the end of a plank. So we'll stick this plank sticking out of a ship or something, and have the one forcing the other off the end of the plank. The animation for this prop is best seen in the video clip, but the one skeleton teeters back and forth on the edge, while the one with the sword moves his arm back and forth so it looks like he's forcing the one over the edge with his sword. I'll be gradually adding more details to this to make it a full blown how-to, as well as adding more pictures as we progress.

For details on how I used the wiper motor, see my wiper motor how-to: Wiper Motor How-To. I then took a short piece of PVC and drilled holes on both ends. The end that connects to the motor, I drilled it just a little smaller than the ball on the end of the motor's crank arm. Then you can just take a hammer and force the PVC over the end of the ball. The other end of the PVC I attached Fishing line (I actually hooked zip ties first, then tied the fishing line to that, so it'd be easier to adjust the tension).

The fishing line attached to the motor is tied to PVC screwed into a short plank of wood, which is attached to a hinge. To keep tension on the line, I kept the angle of the PVC such that gravity is always pulling it down and away from the motor. This way Gravity takes care of pulling the prop over the edge of the plank, and the motor is used to pull him back.

Another view of the PVC on a hinge. I just cut a hole in the bottom of this skeleton and slid it over the PVC.

To animate the other skeleton (the one with the sword) I simply tied the tip of his sword to the chest of the one teetering on the edge with some fishing line. When the teetering skeleton tilts down, it pulls the sword with it, giving the impression that the sword is pushing him. The skeleton doing the pushing is a poseable skeleton from Walmart. We had to break the joints in his arms, and reattach them with zip ties to allow the arm to move back and forth freely. This skeleton is attached by drilling a PVC T joint to the plank, placing a short length of PVC in the T and then sliding the skeleton over the PVC. We used zip ties to make sure he was securely fastened to the PVC.