Animatronics - Building your own Animatronics

ANIMATRONICS - An abbreviated term originally coined by Walt Disney as "Audio-Animatronics" (used to describe his mechanized characters ) .The first use of Audio-Animatronics was for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room.In that Tones recorded onto tape on playback caused vibrating reed to close a circuit  operate a relay. The relay sent a pulse of energy (electricity) to which resulted in an action    

Two ways of programming  a figure.

The first used two different methods of controlling the voltage regulation. One was a joystick-like device called a transducer, and the other device was a potentiometer.Each individual action would be refined, rehearsed, and then recorded.

JURASSIC PARK

Statistics of Spinosaurus-the largest animatronics ever created

1. 43.5 feet long
2. 24,000 pound heavy
3. Moves on  a track 140 feet long

• Spinosaurus was controlled largely by telemetry     devices each of which are responsible for the     movements of a particular group of movements.

• Synchronization of movements of animatronics  and digital dinosaurs was done by   dinosaur input device.

 

DINOSAUR EVOLUTION

Building the Spinosaurus requires several major steps: 

1. Put it on paper. 
2. Build a maquette (miniature model). 
3. Build a full-size sculpture. 
4. Create a mold (from the sculpture) and cast the body. 
5. Build the animatronic components. 
6. Put it all together. 
7. Test it and work out any bugs. 

Build a maquette

• Initial maquette is  one-sixteenth scale. 
• Next, a one-fifth-scale maquette is made.

 

Build a full-size sculpture

• Cyber F/X scans maquette by a 3-D digitizer using laser scanning. 
• Precise measurements of the maquette by bouncing beams of laser light off its surface.
• Laser scanner sends over 15,000 beams per second. 
• Cameras pick up the reflected light and create an image of the slice of the object being scanned.
• CNC-Sculpting cuts rigid foam to pieces.

Making it Move

• Eight puppeteers operate the Spinosaurus: 
• Basic head/body - swivels head, opens and closes jaws, moves neck back and forth, makes body sway from side to side 
• Tongue slide levers - moves tongue up and down, side to side and in or out 
• Eye joystick control - eyes move, eyelids blink and eye ridge moves 
• Front arms - full range of motion; hands open and close 
• Cart/body - moves creature back and forth on track 
• Breathing potentiometer - inflated bladder inside chest cavity simulates breathing 
• Tail - full range of motion 
• Body raise slider - raises and lowers body 
• The telemetry devices used to control the Spinosaurus range from simple handheld units, reminiscent of a video-game joystick, to arm strappers.

The telemetry device translates motion into a control signal that is sent to the circuit board controlling the mechanical components that comprise the arm system of the Spinosaurus.

 

BUILDING YOUR OWN ANIMATRONCS

1. Connect the cable to your PC's serial port.
2. Install the software 
3. No soldering or programming skills required. 
4. You can  record the movements of hobby servos and play them back exactly as recorded. 

CONCLUSION

• Animatronics works wonderfully for close-up shots and medium.
• The best way to tell if a dinosaur is digital or an animtronic –if you can see the entire creature then it is digital.Most animtronics do not have legs.
• Disadvantage-animatronic creatures are always heavier than the real creature would be. CG works best for that natural sense of locomotion.
• Advantage of animatronics is you can get something that looks absolutely believable and real, and it's right there in front you on set, and real light is falling on it, creating real shadows.