How Disney Built and Programmed an Animatronic President 97
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.
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You're never gonna get any whuffie that way. Then you're gonna end up down and out.
Apparently the mods don't have the same reading list that you do . . . even on Slashdot . . . where you'd expect some familiarity [slashdot.org].
Re:sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
In order to make money from kids they solve a whole bunch of interesting engineering and logistical challenges.
Re:sigh YOU BROKE THE PRESIDENT (Score:2)
Question.
Evaluate.
Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?
Obligatory Firesign Theater reference. [youtube.com]
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
Prepare ...for a period of simulated exhilaration! (Score:1)
Firesign Theatre was definitely excellent stuff. "I'm Arty Choke, and we're just a joke. So it's back to the shadows again..."
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Let me be the first to say it. (Score:1, Insightful)
Patent infringement! Sue Disney for all they're worth! For the Progress of Science and useful Arts!
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You beat me to it. Damn! You have to love the irony of the founder of one of the biggest proponents of onerous patent laws ripping off a small inventor. But really, isn't that what it's all about? Disney and their like ripping off everyone else. Their pet congress critters using our tax money to fuck us over at Disney's behest.
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So... was it patented? Was there, in fact, any legal protection to prohibit Disney from using the technology, or was it left unpatented by an inventor who didn't care? If the latter, would the state of robotics be as advanced today without Disney making the control systems from that little bird widely known? Even if it were patented, did the patent broadly cover all use of such technology, or merely the specific implementation as used in the bird?
I know that's a lot of questions to have to research before i
Re:Let me be the first to say it. (Score:4, Interesting)
while we may have not investigated the patent situation in this case the important question is did Mr. Disney do so or did he just take?
Wind-up automatons are older than the American Revolution. There was quite the fad for them, to the point where people were scamming by creating fake automatons such as Maelzel's Chess Player, which hid a chess-playing dwarf. Incidentally, Maelzel and Beethoven designed one of the first "Moog Synthesizers" and Beethoven wrote "Wellington's Victory" to showcase it. This unit was truly automated. The drawing automaton in the movie "Hugo" is an example of another popular model.
I believe that when Disney first started loading up on complex automata, they were "programmed" by tall stacks of cams. More recent models replaced some of the mechanics with compressed-air tubing, which allowed more flexibility than simple linkages. I haven't seen one lately, Presumably there are better options now.
I did see one of the air-based systems in the programming room of a company that manufactures such things. They had it hooked up to a piano keyboard. I think it used MIDI to talk to the actual solenoid valves.
Romans had steam-powered robotic toys (Score:2)
According to the Disney archives (Score:5, Funny)
everybody's heard about the bird.
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everybody's heard about the bird.
It doesn't sing, so it isn't a Nightingale, thus I've never heard of it.
Well, you've heard of it now [youtube.com].
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Done with a Raspberry Pi and a hacked Hasbro toy bird...
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I'm surprised they didn't mention the bird in Mary Poppins - the one that sings sitting on Mary's fingers. I always thought that was the first use of Anamatronics. That and the Parrot Head on Mary's umbrella.
Re:GCI is where it's at now... hello?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Movies do not need special effects to be scary.
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Often the effects detract from the terror.
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Indeed. Alfred Hitchcock [wikipedia.org] was a master of this technique.
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Indeed they don't. I think that movies that show less are more scary because you need to imagine more in order to fill in the gaps. For the same reason, books are often even scarier than movies.
Walking bad, facial expressions good (Score:2)
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 "compu
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Walking on two legs is unnatural and requires a shit-ton of processing power. Try to stand a GI Joe up. It's why you don't often find two-legged chairs.
I wonder how much of the relative size of our brains is because some dim ancestor decided to get up on two legs and didn't realize what he was getting us into.
Four legs good...
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Well... (Score:2, Funny)
This seems to explain the issues with Obama's birth certificate.
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I have to ask. I know it's going to be some stupid shit but I have to know. What has this to do with the birth certificate?
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I have to ask. I know it's going to be some stupid shit but I have to know. What has this to do with the birth certificate?
Would an Animatronic President have a birth certificate?
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I have to ask. I know it's going to be some stupid shit but I have to know. What has this to do with the birth certificate?
Would an Animatronic President have a birth certificate?
Well, Dell was sending out "birth certificates" for their servers.
I've seen one, Had a baby footprint on it and everything.
'Course I never saw the Long Form...
FTFY (Score:2)
I'd say it would explain Al Gore.
Copyrights (Score:3, Insightful)
After this (*) I really don't care about Disney anymore :(
(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
Firesign Theater did a parody of this in the 70s (Score:2)
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:
[youtube.com]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The computerized replica president failed when presented with a logical paradox presented as a question.
Do you remember the future? Forget it! (Score:1)
"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 [slashdot.org] that's also fitting. Apparently Disney was working on their version of the Holy-Grams too..
Prior Art (Score:1)
We've already had the first animatronic president:
http://youtu.be/LFAXnCFk5IE?t=... [youtu.be]
Since then, they've all been robots.
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That was my first thought when I read the headline as well.
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APK, you are a trip. You have to get out once in a while. I know it's scary at first, but once the bandages come off, people will stop staring at you and you won't have to wear that baseball batter's helmet all the time.
And the drooling isn't as noticeable as you think. You can't even see it unless you're looking right at your chin.
Re: Prior Art (Score:2)
Ob. Robin Williams [youtu.be] link.
Animated devices goes back to the ancient Greeks. (Score:2)
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 [ancient-wisdom.co.uk] is just one listing I found.
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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.
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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.
the poor bird (Score:1, Funny)
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 eg
So Jobs was just like Disney: (Score:5, Insightful)
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)".
What a completely vacuous story. (Score:2)
Did samzenpus even follow the link?
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To learn from the Ars article how all his movements were synced up on a master audio tape was interesting. Amazing tech for the time.
Disney's animatronics were the central attraction of five pavilions at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
Ford's Magic Skyway, a time travel trippy mix of Mustangs and Dinosaurs, GE's Carousel of Progress, which ended in a real-life demonstration of atomic fusion, Illinois's Meet Mr Lincoln and Pepsi's It's A Small World.
Lincoln at '64 World's Fair (Score:2)
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 arbit
Queue to GW Bush jokes (Score:2)
Go!
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What does this have to do with Global Warming and groundcover?
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Normally, yes, but I wanted them in a line.
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Animatronic Bush:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Wall Street & Democrat party (Score:1)
Wall Street and the Democrat party have created one called obama.
Turn on teleprompter and he speaks.
Check out Rolly Crump's It's Kind of a Cute Story (Score:2)
Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts! (Score:1)
A puppet president? (Score:1)
Tiki Room is my hands-down favorite! (Score:2)
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. [youtube.com]