If you’re planning a technically-complicated costume, it might serve you well to start building now for Halloween. To help, Hackaday features a guide from Ikkalebob on how to produce a compact animatronic eye mechanism using Adafruit parts.

The eye is inspired by mechanisms used in professional animatronics. However, that doesn’t mean it’s hard to build. Complex machining is done away with in favor of readily reproducible 3D-printed components.

The eyes are able to look in different directions and can move realistically, and the build includes working eyelids that have a great blinking action to them that feels very natural. An Arduino Uno is charged with running the eyes, paired with a bunch of hobby servos and an Adafruit PCA9685 servo driver. A hefty 5V, 4 amp power supply is on hand to deliver enough juice so the servos move smoothly without stuttering.

See the video below and more on Hackaday.