The Future of Animatronics

Like so many things these days, the field of animatronics is in a state of change. From the very beginning, animatronics was employed as an entertaining or even awe-inspiring spectacle. The Greeks are said to have place mechanized, moving statues of the gods within their temples to impress visitors. Disney really knocked people’s socks off when he introduced his animatronic Abraham Lincoln. Spectacle has always been a hallmark of animatronics and it is likely that will continue to remain true, to some degree or another. The immediacy and physicality of animatronics remains very useful in cinema, as it allow actors to interact directly and in real time with the animatronic figure, which cannot be done with a CGI character. Animatronics is alive and well in theme parks, and increasingly, in the haunted attractions that spring up across America every Halloween.

However, there is a technical revolution currently sneaking up on us called artificial intelligence (A.I.). There is plenty of debate about what A.I. is and is not, but, to a large degree it is already here. People have been talking to the intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) in their smartphones for a few years now,  and social robots are becoming increasing available on the consumer market. We are in the early days of these technologies, and the impact on the lives of people will be profound as they continue to develop. To effectively interact with people, these new artificial entities are going to need to move and behave in line with social expectations. Maintaining eye contact and conveying meaning through gestures and facial expressions are all going to be required elements of this technology, and this is where animatronics comes in.

Robotic personal assistants. Robotic pets. Robotic sex partners. The possibilities fairly boggle the mind. And animatronics can make it happen!

A Brief History of Animatronics

Classic automata

Walt Disney is credited with coining the phrase “audio-animatronics”, as applied to the mechanized figures which began to to appear in the Disney theme parks in the early 1960’s. Walt Disney was a unique visionary with the wherewithal to initiate and nurture a technology that would thrive for decades to come. Disney Imagineering continues to have a robust R&D department to this day.

The fact is, the creation of life-like mechanized animals and people has been going on for a very long time, and predates Disney by centuries. In 1515 Leonardo Da Vinci created a mechanical walking lion to present to the king of France. In the 18th and 19th centuries automata were a popular form of entertainment in the royal courts of Europe and in Japan mechanical puppets called Karakuri were used in religious festivals to reenact stories from traditional myths and legends. In the early 20th century mechanized figures forecast people’s fortunes in penny arcades and an animatronic galloping horse was featured in the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

It was in the 1970’s that animatronics creatures began to be utilized within the film industry, such as the mechanical shark in Jaws (1975) and elements of the costume created by H.R. Giger and Carlo Rambaldi for the movie Alien (1979). Animatronics in cinema truly came into its own during the 1980’s and one of the leading forces in its development was Rick Baker. The techniques developed by Baker and his team of artists and technicians greatly pushed the envelope in the realm of creature effects with his work in the films An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981). The newly developed techniques brought a whole new dynamic to the portrayal of fantastic creatures on the big screen that gave us many of the iconic movie characters we have today ( E.T. and the Terminator come immediately to mind).

When Jurassic park came out in 1993, the writing was on the wall for practical creature effects. Industrial Light and Magic had managed to portray convincingly life-like dinosaurs in a movie and no one had to physically build a thing. Animatronics has seen a steady decrease in application in cinema ever since.

Animatronics: What It Is

Contemporary examples of how animatronics are put to use.

Wikipedia defines animatronics as “the use of robotic devices to emulate a human or animal or bring lifelike characteristics to otherwise inanimate object.” Whenever I need a concise way to describe what I do, I tell people “I make things move in an interesting way.” That seems to satisfy those who need some clarification of what animatronics is. It is a good explanation because it does sum up the ultimate goal of any animatronic project. We are living creatures and our attention is engaged by other living creatures. When an inanimate object exhibits lifelike behaviors, that engagement increases to a whole new level.

Animatronics borrows from across many disciplines and incorporates a wide range of methods and techniques to accomplish its goal of creating a lifelike performance. Puppetry, biomechanics, anatomy, robotics and mechatronics are just a few of the fields that contribute to animatronics. Before anyone gets the idea that animatronics is all technical and can be broken down into purely engineering terms it must be acknowledged that there is a very strong artistic element. The esthetic requirements must be met before any animatronic project can be deemed successful. The human brain has specialized in observing biological movement for a long time, and even if everything is completely sound from the biomechanical perspective, if it don’t look right it ain’t right.