Animatronic Audrey II

Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorite Broadway shows and I believe that the movie adaptation is one of the best translations of a Broadway musical to the big screen. I've always been amazed at the puppetry used to bring Audrey II to life and have wanted for a while to make my own version - albeit one that doesn't drink my blood.

During this project, I used traditional crafting techniques such as paper macheting as well as more modern techniques like 3d printing. For the 3D modeling, I used AutoDesk Fusion and all of the 3d files are f3ds. Also, to represent the circuit, I used TinkerCAD. I poured a lot of effort into this project and am extremely proud of the final product. I hope you enjoy this project as I did.

With that I present to you "The Animatronic Audrey II".

1. Access to a 3D printer
2. Paint (You will largely be using shades of green, red, green, orange, purple, grey, and brown)
3. Hot Glue
4. Elmers Glue
5. Scissors
6. White Paper
7. Gray Pearlescent Mica Powder.
8. Felt (You will mostly use red, green, purple and brown
9. Cardboard.
10. Toothpicks
11. Aluminum Foil
12. Thin office rubber band
13. UV Resin (OPTIONAL)
14. Sandpaper
15. Jewelry making wire
16. Small jewelry pliers
17. Paint Sealant (Mod Podge matte spray)
18. Needle
19. Double sided tape
20. Arduino
21. Small breadboard
22. 6 V battery pack
23. Motion sensor
24. Small speaker
25. 3 Servo Motors
26. DC Barrel Jack
27. Screws (Use the bigger screws that come with the servo motors)
28. Dupont Wires
29. 3 100 µF Capacitors

NOTE: For some of the electronical parts, I provided links to the exact one I used. I recommend using the same parts.

3D Print the following files.

As shown in the photos, paint the stem, hinge parts and gears a dark green. I used multiple shades of green to mimic texture.

Also, cut a servo horn and place it into the gear like shown above.

Set these aside for future use.

Print the following 3D files.

Push the CAN RIM onto the top of the CAN MAIN and glue it in place. Paint ALL parts of the can light grey and dust it with pearlescent grey mica powder (I had to mix black and white because my kit didn't come with grey). I used a makeup brush, but paper or cotton could be used to apply the powder. After the can is thoroughly dusted and as shiny as possible, tap off any excess powder and seal it with a matte sealant (I used matte spray mod-podge).

Measure a strip of paper with a width of 7 cm and a length of 40 cm (This is about 3cm excess so you will have to trim it later). I had to glue two sheets of paper together to have the right length. Next, draw and paint the picture of the Maxwell House Coffee label on the paper. Once you've done this, cut out the label and seal it.

Above I linked a picture of the label that you can copy. This is not my image. Below is a link to the original creator.

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Print the following 3d files.

Tear a few sheets of paper into small to medium sized pieces and soak them in water. Mix Elmers glue and water in a 50 - 50 mixture. Use this mixture to stick the soaked paper to the top and bottom halves of the mouth. This is so that when painted, the mouth has texture.

When dried, paint the outside of the BOTTOM and TOP LIP with shades of green, yellow, brown and purple like shown above. Paint the inside in shades of red. I also painted around the edges with a mustard shade and drew light brown lines to mimic lip texture.

On the top and bottom of the mouth, draw spider webbed like lines and trace them with lines of hot glue. Paint these lines of glue with darker green, and purple.

Once you've done this, paint the RUBBERBAND HOLDER and MOUTH SPINNER the same shade of red as the mouth.

Also, on the inside of the top of the mouth there is a semicircular curve. Glue a strip of felt along this curve. Take the mouth spinner that you painted earlier and glue a strip of felt along the top of it.

Next, create the teeth. I made these by cutting out small circles out of thin cardboard, poking a hole in the middle and sliding the tips of toothpicks through the holes. Next, put hot glue onto the top of the cardboard circle and pull it up so that it forms a peak. You can stick the toothpick into the side of a cardboard box so that it can dry. After you've made a sufficient number of teeth, paint them cream. Dab red and brown along each tooth to represent dirt and blood. Once dried, cut the excess toothpick from the bottom of each tooth.

Now, create the tongue. Using foil make the tongue shape as shown above, the length (when the tongue is curved) should be about 3.5cm and the width about 3.5cm. Bend it into a tongue shape. Towards the back, stick and glue a toothpick in the center and wrap the tongue in paper-based tape. Using the method that you used to paper mache the mouth, glue paper to the tongue until it is fully covered and paint it in shades of red.

I also put globs of hot glue onto the tongue for texture and painted the top of the glue with darker shades of red and purple.

Finally, get a servo motor and paint it red like shown above. On the top, I smeared hot glue and painted the glue with a mix of red and purple paint. This is essentially the same thing that you did to make the tongue.

Now that you've made the tongue and teeth, stick the toothpick of the tongue into the cylinder at the bottom of the bottom half of the mouth. However, don't glue it in place yet. Using hot glue, glue the teeth to the gum section of the top and bottom mouth. Use enough glue so that when you glue them down, glue pools around the edge of the tooth. Paint any visible glue red to mimic gums.

Next, get the rubberband holder and a thin big rubberband (the kind you may find in an office). Fold the rubberband in half and slide it into of the gap as shown above. Use strong glue to glue the holder above the notch on the back of the curve in the top lip.

Gather the three parts of the hinge. Glue the biggest part of the hinge to the back of the top half of the mouth as shown in the picture above. Use glue and paint to make the joint between them seamless.

Get the servo motor that you painted earlier and place this servo in the gap in the back of the mouth, threading the wire through the hole. Screw it in place. Place a servo horn onto the motor and spin counterclockwise until it can't turn any more. Now, take the servo motor out and snap it into the back of the mouth spinner, placing it back on the motor so that it faces to the left. After you've screwed it in place, glue the tongue into place. If the tongue can't fit, apply pressure to the back of it to bend the foil.

Stretch the rubberband around the bottom of the motor.

If you want to go the extra mile, use resin and hot glue to mimic saliva.

Use the pictures above to assemble Audrey II.

Gather the base, a servo motor, two screws and a screwdriver. Position the base so that when looked at from above, the hole on the surface is facing you. Now place the servo in the gap in the middle as shown above, with the white part towards the bottom. Screw the servo motor in place.

Next, gather the base spinner, the base from the last step, a screw, a servo horn and a screwdriver. Turn the base so that from above, the hole on the side is closest to you. Now put the servo horn on the servo and turn counterclockwise until it will no longer move. Carefully take the servo horn off and place it in the bottom of the base spinner as shown above. If you wish, you can glue it in place but that is not necessary. Now, take the base spinner, with the hole facing you and place it on the servo motor in the base. Use your screw to screw it in place via the hole in the middle.

Gather both sides of the second arm, a servo motor, four screws, a screwdriver and the mouth that you made previously. Position the servo motor in the gap on the inside of one half of the arm so that the wire comes out of the top. Use two screws to screw either side in place. Thread the wire through the gap in the bottom of the arm. At the top of either half of the arm you will notice a circular space, one with a hole through it and the other without. You will also notice two cylinders on either side of the mouth, one with a rectangular hole and one without. Align the cylinders on the mouth with the holes in the arm, making sure that the side of the mouth with the rectangular hole is on the same side of the arm with a circular hole. Take the wire from the servo motor in the mouth and push it through the gaps in the top and bottom of the arm. Push both halves together to secure the mouth in place and use the two remaining screws to screw the arms together.

Now, gather both halves of the first arm, the part from the previous step, two screws, a screwdriver and a hot glue gun. First, push the wires from the two motors you installed previously through the gaps in the top and bottom of the first arm. Like before, align the cylinders in the second arm with the holes in the first arm. However, this time, use glue to secure the arms at a 90-degree angle as shown above. Screw the first arm closed.

Next, gather the part from the previous step and the base from the first step as well as a hot glue gun. Thread the wires from the arm into the hole in the base spinner. Grab the plant stem/mouth with one hand, and with the other, push the walls of the base spinner apart so that you can slide the stem inside. Hold the stem at a 90-degree angle to the base spinner and move it slightly upwards so that the stem does not touch the edge of the can. Mark or memorize the angle between them so that you can remove the stem, apply glue and the glue it in place.

Finally, gather the two gears, a servo horn, scissors, a screw and screwdriver, sandpaper (optional) and superglue or hot glue. Cut a servo horn so that only the circular center remains. Insert the servo horn into the gear with a hole. If you are having trouble inserting it try flipping the gear. If the problem persists, use sandpaper to sand the hole. Glue the servo horn in place. Grab the plant that you made in the last step and turn it to the side which has a motor sticking out of the stem. Place the gear with the servo horn onto the protruding motor and screw it in place. Rotate it left until you can't anymore. Take the other gear with the protruding rectangle and stick it into the square hole that you saw on the mouth earlier. Try to do this without moving the position of the other gear. Glue it in place. Now, when you turn the gear connected to the motor with your hand, the mouth/head should move up and down.

Cut out leaf shapes such as those above from green felt. Glue thin wire down the center and cover the wire with a strip of the same-colored felt. Repeat until you have about six leaves. Glue half of the leaves around the top of the mouth, and the other half, around the bottom. Next, cut out two more of the same leaf shape. Glue wire down the center and along the bottom of the leaf. Glue the entire leaf to another piece of felt and cut it out. Glue The leaf where the top lip ends and bend the wire so that it curves around the bottom lip.

Wrap one of the speakers with green felt making sure to leave a hole in the front like shown above. Cut out a small leaf and glue it diagonally in front of the hole to disguise the speaker. Make sure to leave a hole in the felt for the wire.

NOTE: I cut off the end of the speaker wire, to expose the wire so that I could plug it into a breadboard.

Using more items from the list, get a mini motion sensor, scissors, hot glue, purple felt and three male to female wires. Cut a slit in the felt and slide the motion sensor through. Around the sensor, draw a flower shape on the felt and cut it out. Glue the petals to the motion sensor like shown above. Attach the wires to each pin of the motion sensor.

Take your speaker and motion sensor and thread the wires through the big hole in the front of the can. Glue them in place as shown above. Turn the stem a few times to make sure that they don't prohibit motion.

Cut out more leaf shapes from various colored felt. Glue Thin wire down the center of each leaf, allowing about 3 cm of wire to hand from the end. Cover the wire with a strip of fabric. Once you've made the desired number of leaves, follow the steps below to install them into the can.

1. Look for the small holes at the bottom of the can. You may need to use a needle, or thin sharp took to expand these holes.
2. Thread the wire from the bottom of each leaf through a hole.
3. Thread the wire up and adjacent hole, and down another, making sure to pull the wire taut.
4. Glue the end of the wire in place and clip any excess.
5. Repeat until you have a satisfactory amount of leaves.

NOTE: I left a gap towards either side of the stem empty so that the stem could move freely.

Finally, cut brown felt into small strips as shown above and place them into the can so that it looks like potting soil.

Above, I linked the Tinker CAD circuit and schematic as well as the code. Assemble the circuit and upload the code to the Arduino. Make sure that the wires are long enough that they won't loosen with motion.

You will need to install the PCM (David Mellis) library in order for the code to work. I used an Arduino UNO but I recommend using an Arduino nano because it is smaller.

NOTE: In the future, I would like to add a feature which puts the Arduino into deep sleep when the sensor is not triggered in order to conserve battery. When you run the animatronic on only battery, it will drain the battery very quickly and run out of power. An alternative is to plug in the Arduino via the power jack by threading the power cord through the hole in the can and plugging it into the wall. This will last much longer. Also, to make turning off the animatronic easier (i.e. taking out the batteries) you can take the battery out of the can and use long wires to push it through the hole in the can and plug it into the breadboard.

After you've assembled the circuit, screw the two parts of the can together via the holes of the sides. In my picture the gap where I had to put the screw is much smaller than the one in the 3d file I provided. I realized when trying to screw the parts together that this was very difficult, so I fixed it in the file.

Once I screwed the parts together, I used double sided tape to tape the label to the can. Do not use glue or you won't be able to take of the label to change the battery. Also, cut a flap in the label for the Arduino power cord and battery cord to run through.

And that's a wrap! You've officially made your own Audrey II animatronic. You can use it as a Halloween decoration or for the superfans, all year round. If you do end up building this project, please leave a comment or picture. And always remember, DONT FEED THE PLANT!! No matter what it promises you!!