A chilly breeze, a clap of thunder! Who's the fool who disturbs my slumber? If you want to build something like our magic mirror prop but want to give it a more evil, sinister edge, why not use Yorick, our new skull-head digital puppet? Features Higher-resolution model and smoother animation than the original Magic Mirror puppet. Customizable lighting setup. Choose the colors for the ambient light and highlight, and choose the direction the highlight comes from. Choose what color Yorick's eyes glow. Decorate him with pirate garb, devil horns, or an iron crown. Three modes of control: Keyboard, Microphone Input, or Performance Playback. The many moods of Yorick: asleep, sad, docile, and furious. Add custom backdrops if desired. Comes with a creepy blue-lit stone wall texture, or you can add your own. Turn floating on or off. Much better interface than with the original, done through a pop-up console with easy navigation: If you use Yorick at your home haunt this year, be sure to tell us about it and we'll feature it on our "Friends of ImaginEERIEing" page!

Full Version Price: $15 CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE Demo Version Yorick version 1.2 is latest fully-functional stable demo version. The only difference between the demo and the full version is a watermark behind the skull, which is removed when you register the full version. Mac Version Windows Version Development Builds I've received reports of sluggish playback of performances. If you'd like to try out a development build that attempts to address this issue, try one of these downloads: Mac Version / Windows Version. If you try them out, please let me know whether they fix the issue for you.

FAQ's and Recommendations

How do I make Yorick as big as possible onscreen?

Yorick runs at 800x600 resolution, so you should set your screen resolution to be as close to that (but still larger!) as possible. You typically do this in your system preferences. If you can turn your monitor on its side for your haunt, you should also change Yorick's orientation to "portrait," which displays him sideways, which allows him to be displayed larger.

Help! I can't record a performance - it stops recording as soon as I start!

Yorick times your performance against a sound file. If you don't provide Yorick with a sound file to record your performance against, you will stop recording as soon as you start. Make sure you give it a standard audio file format, like .mp3 or .wav, that your file really is in that format (and not just named .mp3), that your file's permissions are set so that Yorick can read it, and that you have given Yorick the proper location of the file. If you don't hear your sound file playing when you start recording, then something is preventing Yorick from accessing your sound file.

How do I get the best results out of Yorick?

Your best results will come from having a live puppeteer controlling Yorick as it interacts with your visitors. That interactive element adds a lot for many visitors. It is better to use manual control of the mouth, rather than relying on the microphone, since unintentional noises can open the mouth (like an "mmmmmm" sound), and you may want his mouth to be open when there is silence (such as if he goes slack-jawed from some strange comment).

We also strongly recommend that you build a facade for Yorick and display him behind a "scrim," which hides the fact that he's generated by a computer. It takes a bit of work, but the results are fantastic and sure to please your visitors. For more details on how to build a facade, and more on the history of this great attraction effect, see our Magic Mirror page.

How do I create my own backdrops?

The backdrop feature allows you to load any image and use it as a backdrop. The recommended image size is 512x512 pixels, but any image size can be loaded - it will scale your image to be 512 pixels wide, and then fill the rest of the 512x512 with black if necessary. Yorick will then scale the image to be as wide as the screen. To load it up, select "Backdrop" from the "Appearance" menu in the console, and select the "Custom File" option. You'll be prompted to locate the image you want to use.

Can I save a performance as a QuickTime movie?

Yorick by itself does not support this feature. However, you should be able to use Snapz Pro X on Mac or a similar utility on Windows to capture the screen video for later use in a video editing application.

I'm using Windows, and I get script error messages.

This is probably due to the way you extracted the ZIP file. In order to run properly, there needs to be a folder called "Xtras" in the same location as the Yorick application. The asFFT.x32 file needs to be in the Xtras folder. If the asFFT.x32 file is not in the Xtras folder, or the Xtras folder is not in the same folder as the application, or if permissions are set so that Yorick cannot read out of the Xtras folder, then Yorick will fail to run.

I'm broke! How can I do this on a budget of less than $15?

The original digital puppet we created is free. It's a floating mask like a Magic Mirror. You can download it here.

Version History

v1.2.1

Attempt to address sluggish performance playback.

v1.2

Added registration code in preparation for online sales.

v1.1

Added pirate ornamentation.
Added backdrop support.
Attempt to fix font issue on Windows.

v1.0

Initial demo release