An animatronic is a mechatronicpuppet[1] controlled by a machine to move in a fluent way.[2] They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films, video games and in theme park attractions.
It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy and mechatronics.[3][4] Animatronic figures can be implemented with both computer and human control, including teleoperation. Motion actuators are often used to imitate muscle movements and create realistic motions. Figures are usually encased in body shells and flexible skins made of hard or soft plastic materials and finished with colors, hair, feathers and other components to make them more lifelike. Animatronics stem from a long tradition of mechanical automata powered by hydraulics, pneumatics and clockwork.[5]
Before the term "animatronics" became common, they were usually referred to as "robots". Since then, robots have become known as more practical programmable machines that do not necessarily resemble living creatures. Robots (or other artificial beings) designed to convincingly resemble humans are known as "androids". The term Animatronics is a portmanteau of animate and electronics.[6] The term Audio-Animatronics was coined by Walt Disney in 1961 when he started developing animatronics for entertainment and film. Audio-Animatronics does not differentiate between animatronics and androids.
Autonomatronics was also defined by Disney Imagineers to describe more advanced Audio-Animatronic technology featuring cameras and complex sensors to process and respond to information in the character's environment.[7]
1939 (1939) – 1939 (1939): Sparko, The Robot Dog, and Elektro, performs in front of the public. both manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Elektro was one of the first robots, using basic sensors and tube logic to receive commands and roughly know when it crashed into a wall. It could blow up balloons, smoke, synthesize text, and move his legs and arms. In 1939, he received his pet, and the first mainstream animatronic, Sparko.[8] However, unlike Elektro, Sparko had no built in computer and was not remote controlled, instead using an external computer controlled by an operator.[8] Unlike many depictions of robots in that time, Sparko represented a living animal, and thus becoming the very first modern day animatronic character,[9] along with an unnamed horse which was reported to gallop realistically. The animatronic galloping horse was also on display at the 1939 New York World's Fair, in a different exhibit than Sparko's.[10]
1961 (1961): Heinrich Ernst develops the MH-1, a computer-operated mechanical hand.[11]
1961 (1961): Walt Disney coins the term "Audio-Animatronics" and his WED Enterprises team begins developing modern animatronic technology.[12]
1964 (1964): In the film Mary Poppins, animatronic birds are the first animatronics featured in a motion picture. The first animatronic figure of a person, that of Abraham Lincoln, is created by Disney for its Abraham Lincoln attraction at the Illinois State Pavilion of the 1964 New York World's Fair.[12]
1975 - 1979: Aaron Fechter's wolf pack 5 animatronic show opens at multiple amusement parks.[17][18]
1989 (1989): The second generation of Disney's generic animatronics the "A-100", portraying the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, is developed for The Great Movie Ride attraction at Disney-MGM Studios.[29]
1998 (1998): Tiger Electronics begins selling Furby, an animatronic pet that speaks over 800 English and "Furbish" phrases and can react to its environment.[30]
2005 (2005): Engineered Arts produces the first version of their animatronic actor, RoboThespian[31]
October 31, 2008 (2008-10-31) – July 1, 2009 (2009-07-01): The Abraham Lincoln animatronic character is upgraded to incorporate new technology.[12], The Hall of Presidents[citation needed]
2019 (2019): Disney releases a number of new characters based on their third-generation platform "A-1000"[29]
The first animatronics characters shown to the public were a dog and a horse, as separate attractions at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Sparko, The Robot Dog (the "pet" of Elektro the Robot) is considered the first modern-day animatronic character, as it represented a living animal rather than a purely mechanical figure.[9] An unnamed animatronic horse, which was reported to gallop realistically, was also exhibited.[10]
Laffing Sal was one of several automated characters used to attract carnival and amusement park patrons to funhouses and dark rides throughout the United States.[32] Its movements were accompanied by a raucous recorded laugh that sometimes frightened small children and annoyed adults.[33]
Walt Disney is often credited for popularizing animatronics for entertainment after he bought an animatronic bird while vacationing (in either New Orleans[34] or Europe[35]). Disney's vision for Audio-Animatronics was primarily focused on patriotic displays rather than amusements.[36]
In 1951, two years after Disney developed animatronics, he commissioned machinist Roger Broggie and sculptor Wathel Rogers to lead a team tasked with creating a 9" figure that could talk and recreate dance routines performed by actor Buddy Ebsen. The figure, dubbed Project Little Man, was never finished. A year later, Walt Disney Imagineering was created.[37] Disney used what appeared as an animatronic bird in his film Mary Poppins (1964), which was actually controlled by bicycle cables.[citation needed]
After Project Little Man, the Imagineering team's first project was a "Chinese head" which was on display in the lobby of their office. Customers could ask the head questions and it replied with words of wisdom. The eyes blinked and its mouth opened and closed.[37]
The first fully audio-animatronic human figure was that of Abraham Lincoln, created by Disney for the 1964 World's Fair in New York. At the time Mr. Lincoln was one of the most realistic technologically advanced animatronics. His wig was stretched over his head to hide all of his parts.[39] Disney used Lincolns life mask from 1860 to create the most realistic version they could of the president.[40] In 1965, Disney upgraded the figure, dubbed the Lincoln Mark II, to appear at the Opera House at Disneyland Resort in California.[36] For three months, while the original Lincoln performed in New York, the Lincoln Mark II gave five performances per hour at Disneyland. Actor Royal Dano voiced both versions of the figure.[36]
Lucky the Dinosaur is the first free roaming Audio-Animatronic figure created by Disney's Imagineers.[41] An approximately 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) green Segnosaurus figure, it pulls a flower-covered cart and is led by Chandler the Dinosaur Handler. The flower cart Lucky pulls conceals its computer and power source.[42]
The Muppet Mobile Lab is a free roaming Audio-Animatronic unit designed by Walt Disney Imagineering. Two Muppet characters, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker, pilot their "laboratory" vehicle through the park, interacting with guests and deploying special effects such as foggers, flashing lights, moving signs, confetti cannons and spray jets. The attraction is currently deployed at Hong Kong Disneyland in Hong Kong.[citation needed]
The film industry has been a driving force revolutionizing the technology used to develop animatronics.[43] Animatronics are used in situations where a creature does not exist (like Five Nights at Freddy's), the action is too risky or costly to use real actors or animals, or the action could never be obtained with a living person or animal. Its main advantage over CGI and stop motion is that the simulated creature has a physical presence moving in front of the camera in real time. The technology behind animatronics has become more advanced and sophisticated over the years, making the puppets even more lifelike.[citation needed]
Animatronics were first introduced by Disney in the 1964 film Mary Poppins which featured an animatronic bird. Since then, animatronics have been used extensively in such movies as Jaws, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which relied heavily on animatronics.[44]
Directors such as Steven Spielberg and Jim Henson have been pioneers in using animatronics in the film industry; a film co-directed by the latter, The Dark Crystal, showcased groundbreaking puppets designed by Brian Froud and created by Henson's then recently established Creature Shop in London.
The 1993 film Jurassic Park, directed by Spielberg, used a combination of computer-generated imagery in conjunction with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston and his team. Winston's animatronic "T. rex" stood almost 20 feet (6.1 m),[45]
40 feet (12 m) in length[46] and even the largest animatronics weighing 9,000 pounds (4,100 kg) were able to perfectly recreate the appearance and natural movement on screen of a full-sized Tyrannosaurus rex.[47]
Jack Horner called it "the closest I've ever been to a live dinosaur".[46] Critics referred to Spielberg's dinosaurs as breathtakingly — and terrifyingly — realistic.[48][49]
The 1999 BBC miniseries Walking with Dinosaurs was produced using a combination of about 80% CGI and 20% animatronic models.[50] The quality of computer imagery of the day was good, but animatronics were still better at distance shots, as well as closeups of the dinosaurs.[50] Animatronics for the series were designed by British animatronics firm Crawley Creatures.[50] The show was followed up in 2007 with a live adaptation of the series, Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular.[citation needed]
The Hug, a 2018 horror short film directed by Jack Bishop and Justin Nijm, and starring Nick Armstrong and Roman George, follows a bratty birthday boy at Pandory's Pan Pizza Palace, a ShowBiz Pizza Place-like restaurant, who has an awkward situation with Pandory the Panda, the pizzeria's giant panda animatronic mascot. It premiered at Hulu as part of its "Huluween" film competition.[citation needed]
The Capicola Gang, a trio of evil anthropomorphic animatronic animals from The Fun Fun Zone, consisting of Dominic (a robot bear, although listed in the credits as Main Bear), who is based on Vito Corleone from The Godfather, Louie (a robot beaver), and Amelia (a robot duck, although listed in the credits as Duck Lady), are the main antagonists in the Regular Show episodes "Fuzzy Dice"[citation needed] and "Steak Me Amadeus".[citation needed] The Capicola Gang Leader had a cameo appearance as an incriminating witness in "Can you Ear Me Now?"[citation needed] where he testified in court against Mordecai and Rigby. They share a resemblance to the characters from the popular game series Five Nights at Freddy's and the popular kids entertainment center Chuck E. Cheese.[citation needed]
The British advertisement campaign for Cadbury Schweppes titled Gorilla featured an actor inside a gorilla suit with an animatronically animated face.[citation needed]
There are quite a few ways to build an animatronic, however most follow this basic structure:
An animatronics character is typically designed to be as realistic as possible and thus, is built similarly to how it would be in real life. The framework of the figure is like the "skeleton". Joints, motors, and actuators act as the "muscles". Connecting all the electrical components together are wires, such as the "nervous system" of a real animal or person.[55] Steel, aluminum, plastic, and wood are all commonly used in building animatronics but each has its best purpose. The relative strength, as well as the weight of the material itself, should be considered when determining the most appropriate material to use. The cost of the material may also be a concern.[55] Several materials are commonly used in the fabrication of an animatronics figure's exterior. Dependent on the particular circumstances, the best material will be used to produce the most lifelike form. For example, "eyes" and "teeth" are commonly made completely out of acrylic.[56]
Some examples of different methods of building animatronics are Chuck E. Cheese's studio c animatronic, made of latex rubber, metal, and plastic supported by an internal skeleton[57] and on the other end of the spectrum is the all metal bunyip animatronic in Australia, using water to actuate the characters mouth.[58]
Latex: White latex is commonly used as a general material because it has a high level of elasticity. It is also pre-vulcanized, making it easy and fast to apply.[59] Latex is produced in several grades. Grade 74 is a popular form of latex that dries rapidly and can be applied very thick, making it ideal for developing molds.[60]Foam latex is a lightweight, soft form of latex which is used in masks and facial prosthetics to change a person's outward appearance, and in animatronics to create a realistic "skin".[60]The Wizard of Oz was one of the first films to make extensive use of foam latex prosthetics in the 1930s.[61]
Silicone: Disney has a research team devoted to improving and developing better methods of creating more lifelike animatronics exteriors with silicone.[62]RTV silicone (room temperature vulcanization silicone) is used primarily as a molding material as it is very easy to use but is relatively expensive. Few other materials stick to it, making molds easy to separate.[63][64] Bubbles are removed from silicone by pouring the liquid material in a thin stream or processing in a vacuum chamber prior to use. Fumed silica is used as a bulking agent for thicker coatings of the material.[65]
Polyurethane: Polyurethane rubber is a more cost effective material to use in place of silicone. Polyurethane comes in various levels of hardness which are measured on the Shore scale. Rigid polyurethane foam is used in prototyping because it can be milled and shaped in high density. Flexible polyurethane foam is often used in the actual building of the final animatronic figure because it is flexible and bonds well with latex.[60]
Plaster: As a commonplace construction and home decorating material, plaster is widely available. Its rigidity limits its use in molds, and plaster molds are unsuitable when undercuts are present. This may make plaster far more difficult to use than softer materials like latex or silicone.[64]
Pneumatic actuators can be used for small animatronics but are not powerful enough for large designs and must be supplemented with hydraulics. To create more realistic movement in large figures, an analog system is generally used to give the figures a full range of fluid motion rather than simple two position movements.[66]
Mimicking the often-subtle displays of humans and other living creatures, and the associated movement is a challenging task when developing animatronics. One of the most common emotional models is the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) developed by Ekman and Friesen.[67] FACS defines that through facial expression, humans can recognize six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. Another theory is that of Ortony, Clore, and Collins, or the OCC model[68] which defines 22 different emotional categories.[69]
In 2020 Disney revealed its new animatronics robot that can breathe, move its eyes very much like humans, and identify people around it in order to select "an appropriate" response, as opposed to previous Disney animatronics that were used in purely scripted, non-interactive situations, like theme park rides.[70]
Some colleges and universities do offer degree programs in animatronics. Individuals interested in animatronics typically earn a degree in robotics which closely relate to the specializations needed in animatronics engineering.[71]
Students achieving a bachelor's degree in robotics commonly complete courses in:
Five Nights at Freddy's Glamrock Freddy cosplayer at Comicon in November 2023Five Nights at Freddy's (commonly known as FNaF), a horror video game series, features various animatronic entertainers as antagonists who try to kill the player character, who is typically a nighttime security guard or employee at one of the facilities (usually a pizzeria) where the animatronics reside. In the first game of the series Five Nights at Freddy's, the animatronics' violent attitude towards humans at night is explained away as faulty programming, which causes them to mistake the protagonist for an endoskeleton without a character suit on—which goes against the establishment's rules. As a result, the animatronics try to "forcefully stuff" the player character into a suit, resulting in their death. However, the games feature a deep lore (gradually revealed through various minigames and Easter eggs) which reveals that many of the animatronics are actually haunted by the spirits of children whose deaths are somehow connected to the fictional restaurant franchise "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza". At least six of these children were murdered by William Afton (A.K.A. "The Purple Guy"), one of the co-founders of the original restaurant and the series' overarching villain, who would go on to possess an animatronic of his own after his death.[73][74] Since the original game, Five Nights at Freddy's has evolved into a large media franchise comprising various sequels, prequels and spin-offs, fan games, a novel trilogy,[75][76][77][78][79] and an anthology series of short stories.[80][81][82][83] A film adaptation Five Nights at Freddy's was released on October 27, 2023.[84]
^Shooter, P.E., Steven B. "Animatronics". Mechanical Engineering Dept. Bucknell University. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
^"Define: animatronics". Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on August 13, 2012. The technique of making and operating lifelike robots
^ Jump up to: abcAyala, Alfredo Medina (22 October 2010). "Autonomatronics TM". Advances in New Technologies, Interactive Interfaces, and Communicability First International Conference Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 6616 (1st ed.). Huerta Grande, Argentina: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 8–15. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-20810-2_2. ISBN978-3-642-20809-6.
^ Jump up to: abGluck, Keith (2013-06-18). "The Early Days of Audio-Animatronics". San Francisco, CA: The Walt Disney Family Museum. Archived from the original on 2014-08-06. Retrieved 10 August 2014. The Walt Disney Family Museum is not affiliated with The Walt Disney Company.
^Magid, Ron (June 1993). "Effects Team Brings Dinosaurs Back from Extinction". American Cinematographer. 74 (6): 46–52. Retrieved 21 October 2014. But this system achieved its most remarkable results in Jurassic Park's star attraction, a 40-foot-long, 9000-pound animatronic machine that perfectly recreated the appearance and fluid motion of a full-sized Tyrannosaurus rex.
^Cohen, Matt (2012-04-05). "Why Jurassic Park was meant to be seen in 3D". THE WEEK Publications, Inc. Retrieved 21 October 2014. Spielberg's dinosaurs were breathtakingly — and terrifyingly — realistic.
^Neale, Beren (17 September 2014). "How Jurassic Park made cinematic history". 3D World (182). Retrieved 21 October 2014. Seeing Jurassic Park made me realise that my destiny was in digital
^Baygan, Lee (1988). Techniques of three-dimensional makeup. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill. p. 100. ISBN978-0-8230-5261-5.
^ Jump up to: abJames, Thurston (1997). The prop builder's molding & casting handbook (6. pr. ed.). Cincinnati: Betterway Books. p. 55. ISBN978-1-55870-128-1.
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