Specifications:
Details
Materials:
Details
Movements:
Details
Available
Taiwanese superstar Jolin Tsai created a huge sensation in her 2015 PLAY World Tour wearing a giant Medusa head of writhing, menacing snakes. We are very proud of the animatronic Medusa head we created for Jolin Tsai, and the enormous success it has been and the acclaim it gads received The project proved some real tough challenges- in creating so much independent movement in as lightweight a headpiece as possible, with a fairly limited deadline, and also given her unavailability for fittings. Not only did we solve all of these challenges, we actually brought much more to the project than was expected. To insure that the headpiece would fit accurately and comfortably, we requested that a life cast of Jolin Tsai’s head and shoulders be created where she was busy in Taiwan and shipped to us. Using her life cast, we vacuum cast the lightest and strongest possible headpiece in ABS plastic, and we also made use of the shoulders in the life cast- there is a good reason that we requested that they Jolin Tsai’s shoulders included in the life cast. Anticipating weight issues with so many mechanisms required in the head, we decided to design the headpiece in a way that the headpiece would extend down and would also give added support and stability by resting on her shoulders. This was a critical strategy to avoid any strain on her neck, which can be a very dangerous issue in creating things that rest on people’s heads. The next strategy we employed to reduce the weight was to create the snake bodies out of soft foam with highly detailed, realistic skins printed on stretch fabric.
MEDUSA - Animatronic Costume
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MEDUSA - Animatronic Headpiece.
Specifications:
One 30 inch wide,
8 pound total snake headpiece.
Materials:
Soft foam, printed fabric, red LEDs, ABS plastic & mechanisms.
Movements:
17 Snakes writhe and eyes light up.
Similar Head Pieces Available with Advance Notice.
Taiwanese superstar Jolin Tsai created a huge sensation in her 2015 PLAY World Tour wearing a giant Medusa head of writhing, menacing snakes. We are very proud of the animatronic Medusa head we created for her, and the enormous success it has been and the acclaim it has received The project came with some real tough challenges: mainly in creating so many independent movements, yet keeping the headpiece as lightweight and safe as possible, all within a fairly limited deadline, and all this with the added complication of her unavailability for fittings. Not only did we solve all of these challenges, we actually brought much more to the project than was expected. To insure that the headpiece would fit accurately and comfortably, we requested that a life cast of Jolin Tsai’s head and shoulders be created in Taiwan and shipped to us. Using her life cast, we vacuum cast the lightest and strongest possible headpiece in ABS plastic, and we also made use of her shoulders in the life casting. Anticipating weight issues with all the mechanisms required, we decided to design it in a way that the headpiece would extend down and give added support and stability by resting on her shoulders. This was a critical strategy to avoid any strain on her neck, which can be a very dangerous issue in creating anything that needs to be supported on people’s heads. The next strategy we employed to reduce the weight was to create the snake bodies out of soft foam with highly detailed, realistic snakeskins printed on spandex.
Seventeen servo motors were mounted on the helmet, at the base of each snake, and extending up off of each servo motor was a wire axle. The movement, speed, and direction of each snake can all be individually controlled by a small, programmable arduino circuit board. We slipped flexible tubing over the wires coming off each servo motor, covered the tubing with super soft foam, and slipped the snake skins printed spandex tubes tightly onto the foam. The wires on each servo motor were bent into curving patterns so as the wires turn they push the snake bodies out and around in a beautiful writhing movement, but with each snakeskin anchored at the base, so the snake heads and bodies would undulate yet not spin. Lightweight painted foam snake heads were attached to the end of each snake, and to add drama to them -but not much added weight- we installed red LED lights in each of the snake eyes. This really put the final effect way over the top. The final effect surpassed even our expectations- with all that we packed into it, we were able to keep the weight of the Medusa head down to only 8 pounds, and man!- when we finally turned all the snakes on and they began writing in their hypnotic dance, with their mouths open, fangs and forked tongues exposed, and all of their eyes glowing hot red- the result was shockingly visceral, and impressive.
Once again, we not only hit the bulls eye, but we brought extra to the job. The clients were all very pleased, and when Jolin Tsai took to the stage in our Medusa head, she made a huge impact, one that can still be read about all over the internet...
MEDUSA - Credits
Jolin Tsai's 2015 PLAY World Tour.
Service from behind the scenes since 1980.
