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How Disney Built and Programmed an Animatronic President
An anonymous reader writes with this interesting look at how Disney created realistic animatronic figures in a time before programming languages and systems on a chip. Animatronics have powered some of sci-fi and fantasy cinema's most imposing creatures and characters: The alien queen in Aliens, the Terminator in The Terminator, and Jaws of Jaws (the key to getting top billing in Hollywood: be a robot). Even beloved little E.T.—of E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial—was a pile of aluminum, steel, and foam rubber capable of 150 robotic actions, including wrinkling its nose. But although animatronics is a treasured component of some of culture's farthest-reaching movies, it originated in much more mundane circumstances. According to the Disney archives, it began with a bird.
Among the things Walt Disney was renowned for was bringing animatronics (or what he termed at the time Audio-Animatronics) to big stages at his company and elsewhere. But Disney didn't discover or invent animatronics for entertainment use; rather, he found it in a store. In a video on Disney's site, Disney archivist Dave Smith tells a story of how one day in the early 1950s, while out shopping in New Orleans antique shop, Disney took note of a tiny cage with a tinier mechanical bird, bobbing its tail and wings while tweeting tunelessly. He bought the trinket and brought it back to his studio, where his technicians took the bird apart to see how it worked.
Among the things Walt Disney was renowned for was bringing animatronics (or what he termed at the time Audio-Animatronics) to big stages at his company and elsewhere. But Disney didn't discover or invent animatronics for entertainment use; rather, he found it in a store. In a video on Disney's site, Disney archivist Dave Smith tells a story of how one day in the early 1950s, while out shopping in New Orleans antique shop, Disney took note of a tiny cage with a tinier mechanical bird, bobbing its tail and wings while tweeting tunelessly. He bought the trinket and brought it back to his studio, where his technicians took the bird apart to see how it worked.
"How Disney Built and Programmed an Animatronic President"
The jokes write themselves. So I won't bother.
Patent infringement! Sue Disney for all they're worth! For the Progress of Science and useful Arts!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
everybody's heard about the bird.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Resist... Temptation...
I know I'll get modded down into oblivion, but animatronics is so 80s. CGI is king nowadays.
Child's Play was one of my favorite movies at the time, and the pupeteering and animatronics was top notch, but this technology simply didn't age too well.
I challenge you to watch any of the movies in TFS again and tell me with a straight face the special effects are convincing and/or scary.
This seems to explain the issues with Obama's birth certificate.
After this (*) I really don't care about Disney anymore :(
(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
The album, "I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus" was a computerized theme park parody.
It featured an episode with an animatronic President Nixon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The computerized replica president failed when presented with a logical paradox presented as a question.
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
Geez, that was hard.
We've already had the first animatronic president:
http://youtu.be/LFAXnCFk5IE?t=...
Since then, they've all been robots.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The ancient Greeks had mechanical devices, such as animated birds, water works, temple Gods, and more, as far back as the 350's BC. By year 1 it was going strong.
greekautomata is just one listing I found.
From the Disney diaries:
>south
Forest
This is a dimly lit forest, with large trees all around. One particularly
large tree with some low branches stands here.
>climb large tree
Up a Tree
You are about 10 feet above the ground nestled among some large branches.
The nearest branch above you is above your reach.
On the branch is a small birds nest.
In the bird's nest is a large egg encrusted with precious jewels, apparently
scavenged somewhere by a childless songbird. The egg is covered with fine
gold inlay, and ornamented in lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl. Unlike most
eggs, this one is hinged and has a delicate looking clasp holding it closed.
The egg appears extremely fragile.
>take egg
Taken.
>drop egg
Dropped.
The egg falls to the ground, and is seriously damaged.
>down
Forest
There is a somewhat ruined egg here.
There is a golden clockwork canary nestled in the egg. It seems to have
recently had a bad experience. The mountings for its jewel-like eyes are
empty, and its silver beak is crumpled. Through a cracked crystal window
below its left wing you can see the remains of intricate machinery. It is
not clear what result winding it would have, as the mainspring seems sprung.
>jump
Have you tried hopping around the dungeon, too?
>jump
Do you expect me to applaud?
>jump
Are you enjoying yourself?
>jump
Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!
>profit!
That's not a verb I recognise.
Jobs was just like Disney: "Good Artists copy, great artists steal!" Followed immediately by "Its mine! Mine! All mine, I got me a patent! Mine mine all mine, it came 'Out of my mind'(tm)".
Did samzenpus even follow the link?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2014/06/how-disney-built-and-programmed-an-animatronic-president/
Go!
Wall Street and the Democrat party have created one called obama.
Turn on teleprompter and he speaks.
Wasn't the original president more into cryogenics than animatronics?
Well, herer's the perfect opportunity for Disney to really build and program an animatronic president.
Just get Uncle Walt's corpse out of the liquid nitrogen capsule and retrofit it with appropriate rods, wires and servos, and get some coders in to program some sassy moves and tacky speech for the thing, then install it at the entrance to one of their theme parks and let the crowds watch it jive about and listen to the dreadful words it's been programmed to say as they queue up to have their wallets emptied.
Rolly Crump, one of the original Imagineers, mentions some of this in his "It's Kind of a Cute Story" book and "More Cute Stories" audio CDs that have come out fairly recently. Plus a lot more Disney history from around that era. (I have no direct interest, other than enjoying these a lot.)
Yes, but have they been patented yet. That's all that counts forget prior art, forget obviousness, all that counts to US patents lawyers is has it been patented yet in the US and can they force people to spend millions of dollars in US courts fighting over patent no matter how bullshit that patent is.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I saw Lincoln at the Fair, and my 5-year-old self was amazed. I knew it was a machine, as I had been told, but...how on earth could it move and stand just like a person? It was breathtaking!
Over the years, I've wondered at roboticists having trouble mimicking human motion, or Asimo falling over. My first thought was always "Really? How hard can it be if they could do it in '64?"
Of course, with the passage of time, I've learned about the difference between a recorded demonstration and the ability to do arbitrary kinds of work, begun to realize the power management needs and controlled environment constraints that let them pull it off, but 50 years later, it remains a high-water mark for me in the simulation of human motion onstage.
I recently visited Kennedy Space Center, and enjoyed the (sorta) animatronic presentation on the moon landings, but the astronaut is a stationary stuffed suit. They spent their budget on putting a model LM down onstage, not the figure's motion. The seams show.
BTW, my 5-year-old self also straightened out a docent at the Fair. Seems this clown was telling people the X-15 launched like a rocket and landed like a plane. I'd just built the Revell B-52 with the X-15 under the wing, and knew better. Indignantly straightened his ass out. Hmmph!
Never truer words spoken. That was such a make-out ride in my teens.
One can wind twine around wooden pegs in a way to "program" the movements. For example, reversing the winding direction on a spool can make a doll head turn the other way, and by controlling the wind counts per peg "lane", it can syncopate to a tune. It's speculated this kind of technology is how ancient Greeks did it. It takes more work to "re-set" than gears, but good enough for a show to the big wigs.
Table-ized A.I.
'Twas yellow skin and slanted eyes that did betray us with their lies. Until they crossed the righteous path of our Prophet's holy wrath.
Sadly, Disney makes for a poor Comstock impersonation.
Question.
Evaluate.
Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?
Obligatory Firesign Theater reference.
Listen to an ananamatroiniclly correct president!
Listen as the president is hacked!
Listen as the president is placed in diagnostic mode!
Listen as the artificial intelligence is crashed!
Listen as the president is broken!
Listen!
This was done in 1971 Either these folks were waay ahead of their time,or things haven't changed much. Rewind and listen to the whole thing. It's a life changing experience. As my parents would attest.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Firesign Theatre was definitely excellent stuff. "I'm Arty Choke, and we're just a joke. So it's back to the shadows again..."
Program Intellivision!
"Hey Paolo! He broke the President!"
I remember many years ago reading an article (probably in Wired; these days, it'd be a blog post) where someone described walking around EPCOT Center while listening to this exact album. Sounds like quite a trip, really.
And then there's this article from several years ago that's also fitting. Apparently Disney was working on their version of the Holy-Grams too..
Program Intellivision!
I knew they were big in the lobbying industry for copyright extensions, but surely this is a step too far?
Animatronics seemed to do really well at facial expressions and general body movement. What they sucked at was walking or things that involved moving across a room. I believe this was mainly because the walking was done "on stilts"
For example, see movies like the original "Alien" (/Aliens) Was Alien pretty scary, you bet. While the Gremlins were not so scary (more of a kids movie than Alien), the animatronic creatures with real oozing fluids etc were quite realistic. Better yet, you didn't have to do "computer generated" light effects (realism is hard even nowadays!), since you got to use real light.
What sucked was movement. The chest-burster running across the table: decent but still missing on the realism. Gremlins toddling across the snowy streets... stilty and not so believable. But facial expressions? That Alien with its inner mouth sliding out inches from Ripley's face, with slimy drool and everything. Awesome, and more believable than any CG I've seen.
Play out scenes in mythology or props in plays. Perhaps they learned steam technology from building hot baths in every city. They never industrialized this technology however. I was quicker and cheaper to use slaves.
Long ago in a different time - at the ripe old age of 15, I was in my very first summer job working as a subcontractor to Boeing at NASA.
I'm not sure why, but probably because everyone else had more interesting things to do, I was tasked with designing the 3D model of the replacement for the old Hall of Presidents system. I was told that the old system "ran on a looping tape" and they wanted to make it digital because it kept breaking down. I had to model Abe Lincoln's robotic skeleton in 3D (joints, pistons, etc.) for connection to the real thing.
It was a heck of a learning experience. I did all the modeling on in-house software on the old Silicon Graphics workstations. I had a blast. After hours I got to play some badass flight combat simulator.
A printout of the model of the robotic infrastructure I created in 3D is still sitting on the wall of my old room at my parents house. Crazy memories.
The Tiki Room was Walt's favorite (and mine too). You can see him beam as he demonstrates it in many videos.
My sons and I built a tribute to the Tiki Room using a Raspberry Pi and a Hasbro toy bird. It never ceases to get a laugh out of visitors. Here's a link.
To Copy from One is Plagiarism; To Copy from Many is Research.
I doubt Firesign Theatre's inthelligent brand of humor would gain much traction in this flouride addled, grammatically crippled graduates, of the modern educational system of today.. Shame. Maybe that's why their LPs have not been reissued, at least AFAIK.. Or have they?
"Even beloved little E.T.—of E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial—was a pile of aluminum, steel, and foam rubber capable of 150 robotic actions, including wrinkling its nose."
Sorry, but E.T. was a "little person" in a suit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Bilon
I'd say it would explain Al Gore.
No brain, no pain.
How many dates can a midget like you get that are shorter than you? It's hilarious seeing a runt midget like you with taller women (they're even embarassed inside, even when you paid them to be your escort whimp). The girls look like they're playing with a doll!
Rhino Records has reissued several on CDs. Also, Firesign Theatre has put out a few new albums in the last ~15 years, including Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death, Boom Dot Bust, and The Bride of Firesign.
Program Intellivision!
Ah yes.. Rhino..the ultimate reissuer.. Man I remember buying Rhino releases on cassette, when they were ultra cool.. Wild Man Fischer's second album, and a few others I think were rockabilly or perhaps blues, with numbers like RN003, RN004, etc..