Spell Book

"This instructable was created in fulfillment of the project requirement of the Make course-Art at the University of South Florida (www.makecourse-art.com)".

Legend has it, this very book contains the soul of a witch that has been confined forever between its creepy leathery pages. This mystical object combines ancient ritual, with twenty-first-century innovation. This interactive, animatronic, “Operation” styled board game is intended to represent a possible first draft of a toy or board game that could have been sold during the holiday season. This particular rendition of “The Witch’s Spell Book” was designed as a proof of concept to demonstrate the implementation of commercial grade artistic expression, using state of the art technology. These devices included 3D printers to manufacture the components, Arduino microcontrollers coded to “animate” the eyeball, and a vector programmed CNC laser cutter used to shape the conductive playing surface.

Take a chance… if you dare! Free the witch from the book by carefully removing the cursed items! But be warned its only three strikes and you too could become spellbound forever!

Step 1: Design the Parts With Maya

First, we had to carefully measure and design the obj files to make a book structure which would have both a cover and a lid. then we used Mudbox another Autodesk application to sculpt this 3d polygon mesh to add the detail of our liking. attached are the end product obj files used for these three parts. careful measurements had to be made with a caliper to ensure a normal 8.5" by 11" board would fit snuggly inside.

Step 2: Parts

Attached are 5 of the 7, 3D modeled parts formed in Maya that we used as the "operation" style board game pieces. in order to complete this portion of the construction, we needed to program a vector mapped CNC machine to precisely cut out the holes needed to put these spooky parts in.

Step 3: Servo Wiring

The fritzing diagram attached below is used to wire both servos, the code below was used to run them accordingly

the 3D frame that was printed and used to hold down both servos was also modeled in maya in collaboration with other videos online such as

CODE:

//include library for servo
#include

//define name of the servo motors Servo upDownServo; Servo rightLeftServo;

//define position name and value #define left 60 #define right 120 #define middle 90 #define closed 60 #define fullOpen 160 #define halfOpen 120

#define waitTime 750

void setup(){ //define pin numbers of the servo motors upDownServo.attach(6); rightLeftServo.attach(5);

//starting position of the servo motors delay(10); upDownServo.write(closed); rightLeftServo.write(middle); }

void loop(){ delay(1000); upDownServo.write(halfOpen); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(right); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(left); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(middle);

delay(1000); upDownServo.write(closed); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(fullOpen); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(closed); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(fullOpen); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(right); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(left); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(middle); upDownServo.write(halfOpen); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(right); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(left); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(middle); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(fullOpen); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(halfOpen); delay(waitTime); upDownServo.write(fullOpen); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(right); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(left); delay(waitTime); rightLeftServo.write(middle); }

Step 4: Sound Sensor

"Operation", is inherently a relatively simple board game to construct, below is a video I found showing essentially how we made the playing surface setup.

the code below details the parameters of wiring a sound sensor to the operation board game. we did this to trigger the green LED on the witch's broom with an Arduino below is the code for the senor

const int ledpin=13; // ledpin and soundpin are not changed throughout the process
const int soundpin=A2; const int threshold=150; // sets threshold value for sound sensor void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(ledpin,OUTPUT); pinMode(soundpin,INPUT); } void loop() { int soundsens=analogRead(soundpin); // reads analog data from sound sensor if (soundsens>=threshold) { digitalWrite(ledpin,HIGH); //turns led on delay(100); } else{ digitalWrite(ledpin,LOW); } }

Step 5: Design

leather is added to the sides and a brass accent glued to accentuate, the binding of the spine on the book. white and grey paint was mixed with a crusty dried 1.5" brush to give a granular paged effect. a black faber castle "F" brush marker pen was used to finalize details around the sides. an off-brand watercolor set was used to colorize a pen drawing of a witch, which was then scanned into a printer and printed onto vinyl sticker paper. This digitized copy of the witch drawing was then applied to the metal CNC cut frame and an Exacto knife used to cut the holes to match on the drawing. lastly, it was given a thorough design with leather and these techniques to finish the look. if followed in a creative manner you too can create this book or even something scarier!