How Does Animatronic Eagle Work?

When most people see him, they stop at least a few feet away. The pause allows them to consider how close they should get.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Dino walk.

His eyes open and his head turns, scanning the room as if he’s looking for prey. His body stoops and rises, and his wings open and close. At times, he’s looking directly at you, and you sense he might be dangerous. Suddenly, his beak opens and he…speaks?

“We’re Georgia Southern! Our colors are blue and white…”

His name is Opportunity, and he’s an animatronic bald eagle created by engineering alumnus Eric Burns (‘16), engineering graduate student Conner Hughes, and several former undergraduate student team members. The project was part of their senior design course in mechanical engineering and was funded by an engineering undergraduate research grant.

“We set out to create an animatronic that’s as lifelike as possible — something that really captures people’s attention, something that you could mistake and look at and think it was maybe even Freedom,” said Hughes.

At first glance, many people assume it is Freedom, Georgia Southern’s bald eagle mascot. And while the finished product seems automagically assembled, building this complex animatronic eagle took a team of 15 students roughly six months of hard work to complete.

“You know that when you’ve seen an animatronic figure…you’re not necessarily thinking about engineering,” said Burns. “You’re thinking about whether or not you’re entertained by that thing. But the engineering is being creative enough to make something that’s completely fake — a whole robot — look like it’s real.”

To bring Opportunity to life, Burns managed three subteams — a controls team that worked on programming the eagle’s movements, a mechanical team that built the underlying structure, and an electrical team that made sure it would power up.

Working from a very basic eagle AutoCAD model they found online, the team created the frame by water jet, and 3D-printed 28 unique components, and also had to assemble a few hundred nuts, bolts, bearings and servo motors that make up its inner structure. Once created, the team had to run stress tests on the frame and components to ensure they could move and hold the weight of the head, neck and wings.

To bring the structure to life, Hughes had to program a microcontroller which would manipulate the motors controlling the skeleton. To mimic the movements of a real bald eagle, he found a YouTube video of two bald eagles interacting with a woman on her porch. He programmed each of the movements frame by frame, in milliseconds, with complex code.

“It was very tedious,” said Hughes. “I think the first version of the code that got everything moving and actually making noise was something like 1,200 lines long. And it took me 120 hours straight to get it all working.”

In addition, Hughes says there were several 11th- and 12th-hour problems to overcome, including a minor fire hazard, which they avoided with the help of electrical engineering students. Through it all, however, Burns and Hughes learned more about real-world engineering projects than they ever could’ve gotten from a lecture.

“You know, people talk about other schools having a better curriculum. …” said Burns. “But the truth of the matter is that everybody pretty much takes the same exact courses in order to get a degree in the state of Georgia. So it’s your extracurriculars that make you stand out.

“So if you get involved in undergraduate research, which is one of the best things you can be involved in, then you’re a step ahead of everybody when you walk across the stage and get your diploma.”

Opportunity travels with the Department of Mechanical Engineering to admissions events and area schools to raise student interest in science, technology, engineering and math fields. He makes different eagle sounds, occasionally makes Godzilla sounds, speaks along with an old Georgia Southern football commercial, and commands immediate attention wherever he goes.

Hughes is still working on the eagle as part of his master’s studies. He says it’s still hard work, but watching Opportunity in action is worth it.

“I think the most rewarding thing about the bird is getting to see the kids interact with it,” he said. “Actually getting to see the surprise on the kids’ faces when they find out that it’s an animatronic is absolutely priceless.”

– Doy  Cave

What are the production processes of animatronic dinosaurs

The animatronic of dinosaurs has developed a lot in the past ten years. This exhibition product not only has a good research role, but also has a great appreciation and commercial value. So what are the main techniques in the process of making dinosaurs, and In the process of making empty purchases, what aspects should businesses pay attention to? Let’s briefly introduce them together!

1. Dinosaur making process
In the process of making a Animatronic Dinosaur, all the basic skeletons are made of steel materials, and if you want to achieve a 1: 1 animatronic effect during the production process, you will first use a computer during the production process Restore the dinosaur picture. In this way, in the process of making, you can clearly know the specific skeleton structure of a dinosaur and the overall height of the dinosaur, so that the dinosaur produced will be more realistic. In addition, in the process of production, if you want to make the entire dinosaur feel alive.

Then, the automatic transmission device is generally added to the settings in the later stage, so that the dinosaurs can achieve realistic effects. Secondly, during the external molding of dinosaurs, sponges are usually used for internal filling. This can make the whole dinosaur look more muscular, and after the shaping is completed, the basic structure of the red dragon will be three-dimensional using silicone-based materials. Packaging, so that during the production process, the entire dinosaur skin will look more three-dimensional. In addition, the inkjet coloring is based on a restored color of the dinosaur. In this process, we must pay attention to the complementary color of each part of the dinosaur, so that the entire dinosaur looks lifelike. In the process of making dinosaurs, the technological requirements are relatively comparable, and modern technology can be used to make the dinosaurs achieve the effect of falsehood.

2. How to choose a dinosaur

In the process of slowing down dinosaurs, let’s take a brief look. We will find that there are many different companies that make animatronic dinosaurs. These companies will have great differences in professional level. Therefore, in the process of understanding, be sure to produce dinosaurs.

Manufacturers make a detailed comparison and choose a more professional company, which can ensure the professionalism of the dinosaurs produced. This is also a problem that many businesses often ignore in the process of choosing a dinosaur production company. If the problems of these methods are not particularly clear during the process of purchasing and making a animatronic dinosaur, then you must pay attention to a detailed understanding of these issues in the process of purchasing, which can effectively ensure that the choice of the enterprise professional. In addition, in the process of purchasing, you must not just look at the price, but compare and understand in many ways.

Look out New Yorkers! This summer, the Bronx Zoo has been overrun by dinosaurs, and it’s an artist who helped bring them to life.

Artist and illustrator Andrew Minniear is the production designer at Dino Don, the world’s leading dinosaur exhibition company. The founder, Don Lessem, was an advisor on the Jurassic Park films, and has been building full-sized robotic dinosaurs since . And the company estimates some 10 million people have visited its shows over the past 30 years.

It’s Minnear’s job to help design the mechanical frames for the animatronic dinosaurs, as well as their outward appearance, making sure that the sculptures accurately reflect the current scientific understanding about each dinosaur species.

He also helps hand paint the hyper-detailed figures, and oversees production at Dino Don’s factory in Zhegong in the province of Sichuan, west central China.

At the Bronx Zoo, visitors to “Dinosaur Safari” will encounter 52 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs and pterosaurs (extinct flying reptiles) amid two acres of hardwood forest.

It’s actually the third time the zoo has played host to life-size dinosaurs, following outings in and . This year’s event features the classics, like a 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as less famous species such as the flying Quetzalcoatlus, the largest of the pterosaurs.

We talked with Minnear about what it’s like to sculpt these ferocious creatures.

What is your background as an artist, and how did you come to work for Dino Don?

I went to Grand Valley State University in Michigan and studied art. I graduated in , right around the time of the recession, and trying to found work was tough. I became a caricature artist at Disney World [in Orlando]. That was fun, but it wasn’t making ends meet, so I decided to try teaching English in China. That was eight or nine years ago.

I’ve always been fascinated with dinosaurs, and they have always been one of my favorite subjects to draw. I would share my work on a Facebook group dedicated to dinosaur art. One day, I saw a post asking if there was anyone in the group who lived in China and was familiar with dinosaurs and dinosaur anatomy. It was from Don Lessem, and it turned out he was kind of a big deal in the dinosaur community!

That was in late . For a year, I was doing the work in my free time when I wasn’t teaching English, until I got the paperwork for a new visa.

What does your job entail?

I was brought in as a production supervisor. Don was having issues with the quality of the engineering and the appearance of final products for his dinosaurs. The animatronics were performing poorly and also did not look right. These Chinese factories do a lot of domestic business, but the theme parks here in China are not really focused on the scientific accuracy a lot of the time.

How do you design each sculpture? 

To produce the best and most Realistic Animatronic dinosaurs, I start by producing blueprints. No matter how good the sculpting might be, if the proportions are off, the frames won’t fit, so I allow a lot of leeway for the engineers to produce the mechanics.

I create a digital sculpture using 3-D modeling, and then a rough shape is carved out of foam with a milling machine. Then it becomes much more hands on with manual labor.

After the mechanical frame is covered with upholstery foam, sculptors will carve the basic shapes and then dedicated artists use these devices that get very hot, and they carve all the details and wrinkles onto the sculpture. We apply nylon and silicon to seal the foam and make a silicon skin, and then it’s sent off to the painters who finish the product.

What is the coolest dinosaur to sculpt? 

Personally, my favorite dinosaur is Carnotaurus. They are very strange—they’ve got very long legs with very small heads with very large horns over the eyes. And their arms are comically small, even smaller than a T-rex, proportionally. They are a weird, frumpy-looking dinosaur that I find rather charming.

How do new developments and discoveries in paleontology affect your work? Do you ever have to go back to the drawing board based on new scientific information?

The things that really affect what we do are specific discoveries like skin impressions that give us a better idea of the outer appearance of the dinosaur.

A few years ago, an extremely well-preserved specimen called a Nodosaur was found. It died near a salty sea and got buried very quickly in sediment and was basically mummified. It is one of the species I have been basing the reconstructions on.

And then there’s the Spinosaurus, which was the big bad star of Jurassic Park III. They recently discovered that it has a different body form. Its rear legs are much shorter than previously thought, which suggests an aquatic lifestyle. Its proportions are much more like a crocodile.

How do you decide what color to paint the dinosaurs?

If the client has a specific color in mind, we defer to them to create the color guide for the dinosaur. But when I have more creative freedom, I look to birds and even reptiles and amphibians for unusual color patterns.

For more information, please visit Simulation Raptor Model.

There are a handful of very well preserved specimens that have some color information. Some dinosaurs might have had camouflage, such as predators who needed to sneak up on their prey.

In the end, there is always a little bit of artistic license and give and take that can be had in the business of reconstructing dinosaurs like this—you always want it to look good.

When it comes to any extinct animal, the art and the science go hand in hand. Don’s priority is to try to make the dinosaurs as accurate as possible. But we have no way to represent these magnificent creatures other than through our imagination and through the work of talented artists who try to bring these creatures back to life, whether that’s on a movie screen or at a museum or a zoo.

I think that some Millennials who grew up with Jurassic Park have become a little disenchanted with dinosaurs as we’ve come to realize they were more birdlike and maybe less scary. How many of your dinosaurs have feathers? 

The smaller meat-eating dinosaurs we regularly produce with a feather coating.

I know some people are enamored by the more traditional, monstrous, scaly versions of the dinosaurs from when we were growing up, but there are plenty of rather intimidating birds. If you’ve ever encountered a large eagle or a cassowary, they are quite intense. I do think dinosaurs look rather look noble with feathers!

Was there a formative dinosaur experience for you? 

My father took me to see Jurassic Park when I was seven years old, and it sparked my fascination with dinosaurs and special effects.

And I always loved visiting museums and seeing the bones of these creatures. We have universal mythologies of dragons and monsters and things, but they were fictitious. To see the dinosaur skeletons, to see in some sense these dragons and monsters were real at some point in our distant history, really captured my imagination.

It’s so fulfilling to produce these animatronics. I hope that sone of my enthusiasm for the subject bleeds through and inspires the younger generation and their passion for science and history.

What do you think seven-year-old Andrew would have thought if he knew he would grow up to be a professional dinosaur sculptor, bringing these animals back to life? 

My little head would have exploded!

“Dinosaur Safari” is on view at the Bronx Zoo, Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York, April 11–October 30, .

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For Jurassic Park, two life sized Tyrannosaurus rex animatronics were constructed by Stan Winston Studios to be used on sound stages for the Main Road attack sequence.

Of the two that were constructed, one was a thirty-seven-foot long, full-sized animatronic, and the other was more precision based and built only from the torso up. Both were controlled by telemetry devices.

History

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Designing the animatronic

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For the film, Stan Winston Studios was chosen for the construction of the life sized animatronics, with the decision based on the effects firms’ previous work on James Cameron's action/sci-fi film, Aliens, where the company constructed a life sized, 14 foot tall norget man Queen puppet. Working in collaboration with Mark Hallett, Robert Bakker, and Gregory S. Paul, Mark McCreery was tasked by Stan Winston to draw up designs for the ERR.

In the concept art, Stan Winston wanted dynamic poses and other depictions that would express the endothermy of the film’s non-human stars. This entire concept design stage took an entire year to complete. Meanwhile, in preparation for the construction of the gigantic full sized animatronic, Stan Winston Studios purchased a next door building and had a section of the roof raised thirteen feet in order to accommodate the prehistoric proportions of the full sized, twenty foot tall maquette. From here, Stan Winston Studios began the daunting task of constructing a full sized maquette from modelling clay that would be used in the molding of the foam latex skin that would go over the interior hydraulics.

To construct such a maquette, mechanical department coordinator Richard Landon first built a sixteenth scale maquette used primarily for color scheme concept and a fifth scale maquette that was used to construct the shape of the full scale maquette. The interior armature, of which Richard Landon was also in charge of constructing, was crafted from steel and wood in the general shape of the maquette. From here, chicken wire was laid over the frame and then fiberglass sheep and hardware cloth over the chicken wire in order to give the armature shape.

The maquette was constructed from 3 tons of Roma clay, with the main body sculpted by Joey Orosco, Mark Jurinko, Bill Basco, Robert Henderstein, and Greg Fiegel. The legs were sculpted by Len Burge and Christopher Swift, while Michael Trcic was in charge of the head and neck (Trcic also constructed the skull for the animatronic later in the process), and the arms were sculpted separately from the body. Sculpting of the clay took sixteen weeks in and of itself. Because of the weight of the clay maquette, the exterior aluminum frame that was used to support the maquette had to be switched out for steel.

Construction

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The full sized animatronic was initially designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr, who knew instantly the the project would require hydraulics. Initially, Stan Winston wished to construct the full sized Tyrannosaurus as a life sized puppet, but early tests of the idea quickly nullified the notion. Stan also wished to use an electric motor based system, however the electric motors of the early s would not give the animatronic the speed that Stan Winston wanted. In the end, Stan Winston too decided upon the use of hydraulics to fully bring the character to life.

The designs for the animatronic were all created in miniature to test the feasibility in the larger final animatronic. A key participant in the construction was Richard Landon. Landon conducted the construction of the internal mechanics and main armature of the animatronic. He also oversaw the designs of the miniature concept designs, and himself designed the walking rig for the animatronic; the animatronic’s legs moved separately from the body on a track.

The animatronic was built on a main base of a device based on designs for flight simulators custom built by McFadden Systems for SWS. The motion based platform that would provide the gross movements for the animatronic that would be built upon it. The platform could be controlled by a four-person operated telemetry device, dubbed “Wally”, which was a miniature of the motion based platform. Before either the platform or the animatronic would be built, however, the floors of both the SWS shop and of Stage 16 where the animatronic would be used had to be specially reinforced to handle the expected weight of the animatronic. The animatronic was constructed of steel, though aluminum and other materials were considered.

The decision was made when Stan Winston asked welder Armando Gonzales what material would be the easiest to repair should the animatronic break down during production. Gonzales was also responsible for final welds on the rig, buffing and dulling any sharp points or corners on the armature that could have any chance of puncturing the foam latex skin that would later go over the graphite-fiber frame.

The portions of the frame that provided

large movement, such as the neck and tail, were constructed through spiral rings. Rather than separate circular rings that were commonly constructed by animatronic makers of the day, the spiral rings did not let the frame slide or bunch up in places and therefore was more stable. However, because Newtonian Laws still enacted upon the character, SWS fitted the animatronic with an accelerometer, to stabilize the animatronic in gross movement, which could reach 90 inches per second. The skin overlaying the frame was two inch thick foam rubber, and was cast in sections in order to be fitted onto the animatronic. Because of this, more foam rubber had to be cast in order to fill in the gaps. In the end, the entire full sized animatronic weighed 4.5 tons[1], was nearly 40 feet long[2][3], and could raise itself 24 feet into the air[4], close to, if not a bit larger and heavier than an actual Tyrannosaurus rex. The fifty-seven functions and movements on the character were all hydraulic based, save for the eyes which were radio controlled.

Despite assurances to Stan Winston from Universal Studios that the Tyrannosaurus rig would not be directly rained upon, the animatronic ended up becoming drenched daily while shooting the Main Road scene. Due to the absorbent nature of foam rubber, the skin of the quickly would become saturated during filming, forcing film crews to have to halt shooting in order to dry the animatronic with towels. Overnight crews would have to set fans onto the animatronic in order to dry it fully by morning for shooting. The main problem of the saturation was that the animatronic’s hydraulic build meant that the rig was highly susceptible to the weight added by the water. If the animatronic became too wet, the entire rig would shake violently. Between the constant weight changes dependent on how wet or dry the animatronic was, the animatronic had to be weighed constantly.

One unfortunate night, the overnight crew had to call an emergency meeting when they discovered the bottom jaw had broken on the animatronic. Through half the next day, Stan Winston and his crew took time to repair the animatronic, meaning no filming took place that day. Despite all the water problems, the animatronic performed fantastically well, allowing director Steven Spielberg to shave four days off of the filming schedule.

The second animatronic

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Built only from the waist up, a second animatronic was created for close up shots and intense interaction with the Tyrannosaurus. Because of its need for close-ups, the skin on this animatronic was more detailed, as was the paint. It had very limited animatronic functions, but was also heavily built.

The animatronic also utilized an incredibly precise, computer based “action memory” that could be used to preprogram movements into the animatronic that could be repeated with perfection multiple times. This action memory allowed the Tyrannosaurus to push herself through the bathroom hut wall without harming Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferraro) inside.

Sound design

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The Tyrannosaurus was among the most complex sound concepts for the Jurassic Park franchise. As Spielberg wished for the film to be something more than ‘another monster movie’ and to truly represent the dinosaurs as living animals rather than prehistoric beasts, Gary Rydstrom was tasked with finding as many original sound sources as possible in order to give the Tyrannosaurus more than just a single repetitive roar as was the norm for previous dinosaur films.

For the sound crew, Rydstrom recorded samples from baby elephants, alligators, lions[citation needed], tigers, whales, and even sourced from Rydstrom’s pet Jack Russell terrier, Buster. The famous roar of the Tyrannosaurus was created through mixing the sounds with a base sound of a trumpeting baby elephant. Growls and various rumblings were made through mixing of the alligator and tiger. The snorting was the sound of a whale’s blow hole exhaling. The growling sound made when the Tyrannosaurus shook a Gallimimus was the sound of Buster playing tug-of-war with a rope.

References

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1. ↑https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZtJVh3nUyU Stan Winston School - Building An Animatronic Dinosaur
2. ↑https://books.google.com/books?id=NouACgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA178&ots=drRMLhbUia&dq=Dan%20Taylor%20ILM&pg=PA165#v=onepage&q&f=false Dinosaur Filmography
3. ↑https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/jurassic-park-t-rex-sculpting-a-full-size-dinosaur Stan Winston School - Sculpting a Full-Size Dinosaur
4. ↑https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZtJVh3nUyU Stan Winston School - Building An Animatronic Dinosaur