Make a horrific-yet-delicious Meat Skull Centerpiece for your next Halloween party! The MONSTER M4SK is our all-in-one, dual-display animated eyeball animation kit that you can easily use to bring this tasty decapitated head to life! The lenses and lens holders make those peepers really pop from their fleshy sockets.

Inspired by this recipe from the Today Show, we decided to up the creepy quotient a bit! Add MONSTER M4SK eyes and sliced prosciutto, capocollo, mortadella, and salami to a plastic-wrap covered foam skull to make a spooky/yummy three dimensional serving platter! Will your house guests be bold enough to peel off a slice of flesh to go with their crackers and beverages?

Parts

Tools, Materials & Supplies

In addition to the parts listed above, you'll also need:

• Decorative prop skull -- preferably made of styrofoam, such as this one
• Serving platter
• Two 3oz. packages of sliced prosciutto
• One 3oz. package each of capocollo, mortadella, and Calabrese salami (OK you can use any sliced meats you like, it's your party!)
• Plastic cling wrap
• Toothpicks
• Crackers

Optional: Brain Jell-O mold and red Jell-O

Our first step is to prepare the prop skull by making it food safe. The prop skull is most definitely not a food safe surface. We'll do this by covering it with plastic cling wrap.

M4SK/Eyes Setup

Next, set up your MONSTER M4SK to have creepy eyes! Follow the main guide quickstart instructions to get the M4_Eyes.UF2 running.

I created some cherry tomato style eyes by adjusting some settings for the demon eyes that come with the eye graphics download.

Here is the adjusted config.eye file I created:

{
  "eyeRadius"       : 125,
  "irisRadius"      : 40,
  "eyelidIndex"     : "0x00", // From table: learn.adafruit.com/assets/61921
  "pupilColor"      : [ 0, 0, 0 ],
  "pupilMin"        : 0.05,
  "pupilMax"        : 0.25,
  "backColor"       : [ 80, 0, 0 ],
  // From www.deviantart.com/suicidecrew/art/Fire-Seamless-tile-116721709
  "irisTexture"     : "demon/iris.bmp",
  "scleraTexture"   : "demon/sclera.bmp",
  "tracking"        : false,
  "left" : {
  },
  "right" : {
  }
}

{
  "eyeRadius"       : 125,
  "irisRadius"      : 40,
  "eyelidIndex"     : "0x00", // From table: learn.adafruit.com/assets/61921
  "pupilColor"      : [ 0, 0, 0 ],
  "pupilMin"        : 0.05,
  "pupilMax"        : 0.25,
  "backColor"       : [ 80, 0, 0 ],
  // From www.deviantart.com/suicidecrew/art/Fire-Seamless-tile-116721709
  "irisTexture"     : "demon/iris.bmp",
  "scleraTexture"   : "demon/sclera.bmp",
  "tracking"        : false,
  "left" : {
  },
  "right" : {
  }
}

With the demon directory copied to your M4SK, save the config.eye file with those settings to the root directory of the board.

Add the battery, lenses, lens holders, and elastic headband + tri-glides (or other method for securing them) as shown here, and slip the goggles onto the skull.

The skull is ready for meat application!

You can layer up as many slices as you want, and when you're ready to present your centerpiece, be sure to add some crackers!

You Meat Skull Centerpiece is ready to entertain (and freak out) your guests. For enhanced effect, turn the lights down low and add a bit of dry ice to the tray.

Buon appetito!

Here's a fun add-on project for when your guests tire of sliced, preserved meats -- the Jell-O Brain Skull!

For this, we'll use a readily available "Zombie Brain Jell-O mold".

Place your MONSTER M4SK into the skull's eye sockets (you can secure it with tape or toothpicks through the mounting holes if you like) and your delicious dessert is ready for spooning into small bowls and eating!

Please note, the bottom layer should be avoided so nobody eats styrofoam. If you want to be extra careful, cut out a paper plate by tracing the skull cap and place it under the Jell-O.