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I'm working on an animated Marching Band for my display this year. I'm slowly building my first band member as a prototype (got alot of non-Christmas stuff on my plate right now, so it's hard to find more than a couple hours a week to work on it.)
I built a PVC frame, and wire tied hardware cloth (wire mesh, chicken wire...) It's the green coated kind from Home Depot. I'm using strings of mini lights with 2.5" bulb spacing and wire tying them to the mesh. As I lay them down and tie them, they wind up being pretty close together, with the tip of one bulb almost going to the base of the next socket. So far I've got a bit of work done on the legs. As I stand back and look, it looks pretty good to me, but I'm concerned that I only see the legs and feet because I know that's what they're supposed to be. I'm concerned that if you aren't looking to see legs, it'll just be a mess of lights. I'll post some pictures once I get a bit further to get some unbiased eyes on them. But this isn't my main question.
Reading through the forums most people seem to use coroplast or plywood for their cut outs. I did see the post on Marcia Hale's method, which is almost identical to what I'm doing, except she uses rope light.
I like my wire mesh method because with each band member being 2'x5', the final group will be about 20'x5' and I'm concerned that all that coroplast would act like a big sale. My hope is to mount these onto a train type track, and actually animate them marching across the yard. But that may be next year's upgrade. Thus, they can't be anchored into the ground.
Is there something I'm missing by not using coroplast? From the looks of things you can get a closer light spacing with the coroplast (from looking at the examples of Bryce's work over at Kindla Christmas.) Other than that, can anyone offer some guidance?
I like coro because you can paint it. So, during the day, your display will have some nice color that will be attractive.
There are a miriad of other reasons too, but it would take me all day long to detail all of them. Suffice it to say, I enjoy the look and feel of Coro.
I had considered wire mesh, but I thought it would be too flimsy for my applications.
Take lots of pictures of your band and let us know how it goes.
Hi Steve, I've used both the wire mesh method and coro.
I can say they are both good methods, but I personally prefer coro if you want more detail or a to fill in color. What Martha Hale accomplished looked fantastic and I'm sure that your application will be equally as good.
The biggest difference is that with coro you push the bulbs through the coro and can get them closer together. Although with the wire mesh you can put the bulbs quite close, tip of one bulb up next to the base of the next, the bulbs lay flat, so you are limited by the space taken up by the base. The coro method allows you to pack the bulbs extremely close together if you choose to because the bulbs are standing up and are viewed straight ahead. Another nice thing about coro is that it doesn't degrade in wet and cold weather. Coated mesh will handle the elements too but you can't paint it for a nice daytime effect. Both methods require a system of support, but the coro's inherent rigidity makes it easier to work with.
I have attached a picture of a section of some "garland" I made and used on my roof this year using coated mesh. It worked fine and held up very well. It was a breeze to store because it rolled up, lights and all. But creating it, even though it was a simple zig zag shape (the entire thing is not pictured) took a lot of time and zip ties, each bulb having to be zip tied in place (altogether I hand zip tied 1,000 bulbs, so it was labor intensive). There was also "give" to the mesh, no matter how we stretched it in order to keep it taught. At least that was my experience. With coro, if you punch the holes to the correct size, all you have to do is push the bulbs through and they hold extremely tightly, no zip ties required.
That's my experience with both of these methods. I like them both..but for detail and closer bulb spacing I prefer coro.
My coro/wireframe hybrid used coro inserts on the beard, pom pom, sleeve, and Santa's lower robe, its hard to tell from the picture, but the pom pom alone had an entire string of 50 bulbs packed closely together.
Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking I owe it to myself to at least try it with coro and do a comparison. Now to find some!
When you push the bulb through, do you push just the bulb, or the whole socket? Second, when the lights are on, do they illuminate the coro?. I'm probably not going to paint the coro if I go that route. For my application in one "scene" a section of the coro would be part of the red shirt, then the next the instrument might move over it, and thus it now needs to be yellow. If I paint do it, I'd probably paint it black. If my plans come to fruition, the band will be around the side of the house when not "performing," so I'm not too concerned about daytime viewing.
That Santa look great!!
Now that I've got people waiting to see pictures I feel motivated to find some extra time and get this prototype done!
DanglinModifiers wrote: Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking I owe it to myself to at least try it with coro and do a comparison. Now to find some!
When you push the bulb through, do you push just the bulb, or the whole socket? Second, when the lights are on, do they illuminate the coro?. I'm probably not going to paint the coro if I go that route. For my application in one "scene" a section of the coro would be part of the red shirt, then the next the instrument might move over it, and thus it now needs to be yellow. If I paint do it, I'd probably paint it black. If my plans come to fruition, the band will be around the side of the house when not "performing," so I'm not too concerned about daytime viewing.
That Santa look great!!
Now that I've got people waiting to see pictures I feel motivated to find some extra time and get this prototype done!
You push only the bulb through, not the socket. When the lights are on they do not illuminate the coro much, if at all, but that depends on how closely you have them spaced and other sources of ambient light in your display. I wanted the beard and pom pom to be really bright so I packed those bulbs in pretty close. There was a small amount of reflection on the white coro in those two areas, but not much. On the lower skirt and sleeve, I spaced the bulbs less closely in order to make the stars, the coro itself receded and wasn't noticable when lit. I left the coro inserts on Santa white, but had intended to paint the sleeve and lower skirt red for daytime viewing, at night it won't show anyway. So you really don't need to paint the coro black as the bulbs do not really "light" the coro up.
After dealing with one of the rudest sales people, and one of the nicest managers at a local Fast Signs, I got some Coro!
I used and overhead to draw my first band member on it. I can tell already I like working with the coro better. I'll be nice to be able to work based on the transferred image, rather than needing the overhead on the whole time (and holding up a piece of paper) as I did for the mesh.
Didn't get much further than that. I'll keep you posted!
I'm a convert! I've been playing with the coroplast, and I love it! I'm doing a prototype panel (2'x5') of one band member. I tried sections of it with 3/4" spacing and with 1/2" spacing. I'm thinking the 3/4" looks better (and my fiancée agrees,) so we'll move forward with that. I can absolutely tell it's supposed to be an arm and a saxophone, unlike my concern about the legs I did with the wire mesh. My plan was to fully make this band member, so I could see how the animation looks. With all the work in doing it, I'm having second thoughts on that and thinking I should move right to the actual build.
My main reason for wanting to see the animation is just to verify it will look good. I realized real fast that to have a band members body still while the arms and instrument move, would require a crazy amount of channels due to turning on and off different sections. My compromise idea is to move the whole upper body. So he's more swaying to the music along with the motion of the instrument. I'm 90% sure this will look good, 10% concerned it will look like a seizure. This would be what I'd want to see if I take this prototype to completion.
Now a few questions: I'm having a bit of trouble with the holes. Even when I'm very careful, the drill tends to walk on me. To avoid that I tried using an awl to first poke a small hole, then open it up with the drill. This worked better for most of it, but I found whenever my hole was right on top of a rib, the awl would slip to either side of the rib. Any thoughts on how to mitigate either of these problems?
I ordered some big sheets cut to size, but I may trim the excess off when I'm done. What is the best way to cut this stuff? I ordered the 6 MM thick panels. I got them at Harborsales, about $30 for a 10'x5' sheet, plus free delivery! I figured that couldn't be beat based on some of the prices I've seen for 4x8 sheets.
Anyway, thanks for all your help! I'm going to go lose sleep over whether or not to finish out this prototype!
I like to use the awl to poke a hole and then drill the hole when doing tighter spacing. The ribs can be frustrating at first but it will make little difference when the project is complete. Some will be above and some below the rib. The more you drill the better you will get at forcing the drill to stay on the rib. Once the lights are in and lit it is very hard to tell.
A box cutter is good to cut straight inline with the flutes. I like to use a jigsaw to cut curves or across the flutes.
I made a complete gingerbread theme from coro it turned out awesome
I get my coro used from RTD sign boards off busses. its a little dirty but after you peel off the vinyl add board the board is as clean in one side as new board
Right now I am working on Denver Bronco Head for my neighbor and hes is getting me some stuff for my trian.
I am also working on a new coro Patriotic swag design for the house and some coro ribbons
____________________ Scot Meyers http://rockymountainlights.spaces.live.com
"What matters most to me? Helping people to decorate their hearts with peace and love"- Wally Bronner
