The creation of animatronics is a multi-disciplinary field that integrates anatomy, robots, mechatronics, and puppetry to create lifelike creatures. Animatronics are often electronically, mechanically, or pneumatically driven figures. This system's implementation can be by using both computer control and human control, including teleoperation (Uma Maheswari, 2015, p. 1260).
Animatronic VS. Robot
Animatronics is a form of robotics. While animatronics are created to emulate lifelike behavior, a robot is a machine programmed to carry out complex tasks. The robot's design and development are concentrated on its task so that it can carry it out in the safest and most efficient manner. These machines are not trying to emulate human or animal behavior in any way. As animatronics' goal to convey lifelike behavior, the degree of freedom (DOF), appearance, and costuming of the machine are as important as that of the mechanism (Utture et al., 2017, p. 5).
Creation process
The creation process of an animatronic depends on its implementation. Will the animatronic be used a few times during filming, or is it permanently displayed inside a theme park's ride? The answer to this question determines the use of material.
The majority of the following steps are taken to create the Apatosaurus animatronic from the movie Jurassic world (2015). Although these steps focus on the creation of a dinosaur, they are used to create many different creatures and or objects.
The Apatosaurus neck-and-head animatronic is used to shoot a scene where the actors interact with the dinosaur's head. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), an American motion picture visual effects company, was responsible for the seamless integration of the animatronic head with its virtual body.
Figure 1. Screenshot of dying apatosaurus scene from the film Jurassic World (2015).
Concept to model
A concept of an animatronic is drafted, which is used to create a 3D model. This 3D model is printed as a small-scale version of the final animatronic to use as an example. After the approval of the model, its file is sent to an industrial robotic arm that mills the full-size model out of foam. A milling machine is a machine that uses rotary cutters to remove material from an object by advancing its cutters into its material. The foam model is cleaned up to get rid of the rough texture from the milling process.
Figure 2. Sculptors cleaning up milled foam dinosaur (Legacy Effects, 2015, 0:50).
Sculpting
Liquid clay, called slip, is applied to the foam model to seal its exterior. The Sculptors then go in for another round of detailing.
Figure 3. Sculptor adding detail onto clay (Legacy Effects, 2015, 1:05).
Jason Matthews, the lead sculptor of the Jurassic world Apatosaurus, explains that they take the sculpt further than what's in the original design. "It's up to artistic interpretation." He asks himself where the dinosaur moves the most. "Is that going to be wrinklier skin, or is it going to be tougher skin?" (Legacy Effects, 2015, 0:55).
Mold making
Once the sculpt is done, the next step is to make a mold of the sculpture. It is decided how to "split up" the sculpt into workable mold pieces. This decision creates the seams of the mold. The mold is made by layering multiple layers of fiberglass cloth brushed with epoxy resin to create a hard shell.
Figure 4. Sculpt divided into different mold pieces (Legacy Effects, 2015, 1:43).
Once the mold is done, a core is created. An even layer of clay is placed inside the mold to create an offset between the exterior mold and the core. On this clay, new layers of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin are applied to form the core. The offset created by the clay determines the thickness of the skin that will later be poured and retrieved from this mold.
Skin
Different mixtures of foam rubber are whipped up to create different softness and durability for certain parts of the animatronics skin. A face, for example, needs a layer of very soft skin to make sure small articulations of the muscles are seen through while parts that move a lot, like the neck, need more durable skin. Boccabella (2016) mentioned that getting the right skin thickness is key "Too thin and you will see the pressure points of the movement points underneath. Too thick, and the servos will not have the strength to move the skin."
Figure 5. The dinosaur leg's skin is taken out of the mold with the core still inside (Discovery UK, 2019, 4:12).
The mixtures are poured inside the mold, which will take some time to set. Once set, the shell is released. Thin strips of the material, known as flashing, occur at the seams of the shell. The flashing is carefully removed by hand to enhance the skin appearance.
Figure 6. Flashing on unfinished resin cast (Own work)
The eyes
According to Scott et al., (2018, p. 109), our focus is driven towards faces, especially the eyes. The eyes are said to be the doors to our soul. Therefore it can be said that it is important to create good-looking eyes for the animatronic. Creating the eyes from scratch is a whole process in itself. Designing, Moldmaking, casting, painting is all done to create realistic-looking eyes. Depending on the quality and budget of the animatronic, glass, or acrylic domes with an image of the eye behind them might suffice. Another option is to use taxidermy eyes. Taxidermy is the art of preserving animals via mounting or stuffing (Taxidermy Amsterdam, n.d.).
Figure 7. Making creature eyes (Stan Winston, n.d.)
Mechanics
Meanwhile, the artistic work of the animatronic is being done, a team is working on the mechanical part of the animatronic. A hard fiberglass shell, much like the core, will house the mechanical components of the animatronic. The shell is cut at various articulation points to ensure fluent motion. The custom-made mechanics are placed inside the shell. Sometimes it's opted to recreate the hard shell housing out of soft foam with the mechanics inside. This foam is then covered with spandex so that it would create the look of sliding skin.
Figure 8. Mechanics inside the dinosaur's head's shell (Legacy Effects, 2015, 2:53).
Painting
One of the last steps to finish the animatronic's skin is a paint job. Trevor Hensley, key painter of the Jurassic world Apatosaurus, says that when the skin is made out of foam latex, it's painted with rubber cement-based paint. For the painting job, Trevor explains that big areas are mapped in with automotive spray guns. Airbrushes are used for finer detail work, and not soon after, they switch over to brushes and even finer brushes to paint little dots and tiny cracks on the skin (Legacy Effects, 2015, 4:35). "You can get some really realistic effects by all these different layers going on top of each other"(Legacy Effects, 2015, 4:20). References taken from nature are used to enhance realism. Another key painter of the Jurassic world Apatosaurus, John Cherevka, adds that they used rhinoceros and elephant references since they have similar features (Legacy Effects, 2015, 4:26).
Figure 9. Airbrushing the animatronic's skin (Discovery UK, 2019, 5:19).
Hair, feathers & fur
Some animatronics require a fur or feather coat instead. In that case, a process of fur transfer, flocking, and hair punching is required. For the flocking process, an adhesive is brushed onto the skin. The flocking material is loaded in an electrostatic gun. Once sprayed, the flocking is electrostatically drawn to the prepared surface, slowly building up a fur coat. Using different colors of flocking material, a gradient can be achieved.
Figure 10. Hair flocking on a Puma (Stan Winston School, 2014, 0:36).
During the hair punching process, small hairs are individually punched into the skin with a needle. Hair punching is also done to create eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustaches, among other things.
Figure 11. Hair punching technique used to create eyebrows on silicon head (Stan Winston School, 2015, 0:59).
Rehearsing
Once everything is combined, the team gets together to rehearse and practice animating the animatronic. In the case of the Jurassic world's Apatosaurus, multiple people were needed to puppeteer the animatronic.
Figure 12. Team puppeteering the Apatosaurus (Legacy Effects, 2015, 5:08).
Figure 13. Team puppeteering the Apatosaurus (Legacy Effects, 2015, 5:24).
List of figures
Legacy Effects. (2015, June 19). JURASSIC WORLD: Building the Apatosaurus - Legacy Effects [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcqQf61S-k
Discovery UK. (2019, August 17). ANIMATRONIC DINOSAURS | How It’s Made [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBt-0SfmPWg
Van den Brand, J. (2021, March 15). Flashing of resin cast (Own work) [Image].
Stan Winston. (n.d.). Making creature eyes [Image]. Stan Winston School of Character Arts. https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/how-to-make-eyes
List of references
Uma Maheswari, B. (2015). Animatronics and Multi-Disciplinary Technologies. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, Vol. 5(No. 3), 1260–1262. http://ijarcsse.com/Before_August_2017/docs/papers/Volume_5/3_March2015/V5I3-0426.pdf
Utture, O., Mane, N., Shubham, S., Varute, S., & Waingade, A. B. (2017). Multidisciplinary Technology of Animatronics: A Review. Asian Review of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 6(No. 2), 4–7. https://www.trp.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ARME-Vol.6-No.2-July-December-2017-pp.4-7.pdf
Trevorrow, C. (2015). Jurassic World [film]. Universal Pictures.
Legacy Effects. (2015, June 19). JURASSIC WORLD: Building the Apatosaurus - Legacy Effects [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcqQf61S-k
Boccabella, D. (2016, October 23). Thickness of animatronic skin [Comment on the article “Moulding/underskull/foam latex skin companies help”]. Stan Winston School of Character Arts Forums. https://forums.stanwinstonschool.com/discussion/2868/moulding-underskull-foam-latex-skin-companies-help
Scott, H., Batten, J. P., & Kuhn, G. (2018). Why are you looking at me? It’s because I’m talking, but mostly because I’m staring or not doing much. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(1), 109–118. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-018-1588-6
Taxidermy Amsterdam. (n.d.). Over Ons. Retrieved 19 March 2021, from http://taxidermyamsterdam.nl/over-ons-2/
Discovery UK. (2019, August 17). ANIMATRONIC DINOSAURS | How It’s Made [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBt-0SfmPWg
Spielberg, S. (1993). Jurassic Park [film]. Universal Pictures.