In this article, you will learn about what animatronic dinosaurs are and how they can move. You will also find out how you can make your own or purchase one for your display.
What Is the Animatronic Dinosaur Model?
Animatronic dinosaurs are toys or pros of dinosaurs that contain robotic devices. Manufacturers make these dinosaurs to be as close to the real thing as possible, and this provides us with several advantages.
Because we have these dinosaur models, we can create displays with dinosaurs in several different areas. For example, we can use these dinosaurs in movies, in plays, in exhibitions, and even in our homes.
Researchers have also used dinosaurs in their studies. They create them so that they can put them on display in museums for the purpose of teaching adults and kids alike all about these magnificent creatures.
WDR-097 10M Long Animatronic T-REX Ride
Which Parts of Animatronic Dinosaurs Can Move?
When you learn how to make an animatronic dinosaur move, you need the following:
The tail
The body
The eyes
The arms
The tongue
The head
To move the Spinosaurus, you need eight puppeteers. First, the puppeteers must spend some time learning which movements the dinosaur can make. They call this “finding the performance.” This is when they learn what they need to do to cause the dinosaur to look unhappy, sad, or hungry.
The movements that make the Spinosaurus appear to be so real are controlled by the coordinator. The coordinator ensures that every puppeteer is working with all of the others so that the dinosaur’s movements can appear to be believable.
AD-258 Animatronic Dinosaur Exhibit Scene Spinosaurus
The Spinosaurus requires that the puppeteers use telemetry devices that help them make the Spinosaurus’ movements. For example, these include a device that the puppeteer must wear on his or her own arms in order to make the Spinosaurus’ arms move. The puppeteer moves his or her arms in the manner in which he or she wants the Spinosaurus to move. Then, the telemetry device sends a signal to the arms of the Spinosaurus’ circuit board.
Find the Best Animatronic Dinosaur Moved Models
People have been indulging in animatronics for many years, but now, it is your turn to do the same. You can create your own dinosaurs from scratch and build them so that they will be able to move. This will require that you purchase the dinosaur’s parts, including motors, controllers and linkages that will make the dinosaur move. Then, you will need to have a puppet so that you can build the dinosaur’s body around the head.
Some people draw sketches of the item they would like to create, but don’t be surprised if the final version of your dinosaur doesn’t exactly look like your original sketches. It is advisable to determine the movements you want your dinosaur to make before you begin to build it.
You may wish to be able to move your dinosaur’s mouth in conjunction with an audio track. This would require that you purchase one servo that will move the jaw while the audio track is playing. If you would like to move other parts of the body, you would also need servos for these purposes. The last portion of your dinosaur may require steel or aluminum, but this can be expensive.
If it seems as if building your own movable lifesize animatronic dinosaurs would be a daunting process, you have another option. You can visit us at MyDinosaurs to purchase dinosaurs that will be made just for you. This is much easier than trying to create them yourself, and you will have them within two to four weeks. Learn all about our products on our website today.
Once the sketches and models are done, the full-size building begins.
Build a Full-size Sculpture
For the animatronic dinosaurs in the original "Jurassic Park," SWS had to build the full-size sculpture by hand, a time-consuming and laborious process. Advances in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) allow them to automate a significant part of this step.
The maquette is taken to Cyber F/X, where it is scanned by a 3-D digitizer. This is nothing like a normal computer scanner. There are a variety of methods used in 3-D digitizers, but the one that was used for Spinosaurus is called laser scanning.
Laser scanning takes precise measurements of the maquette by bouncing beams of laser light off its surface. As the laser scanner moves around the maquette, it sends over 15,000 beams per second. The reflected light from the beams is picked up by high-resolution cameras positioned on either side of the laser. These cameras create an image of the slice (cross section) of the object that the laser is scanning. A custom computer system collects the cross sections and combines them to create a perfect, seamless computer model of the maquette.
Photo courtesy Stan Winston Studio, photographer Chuck Zlotnick
Details are carved into the full-size sculpture.
Cyber F/X then used the computer model to mill the life-size model of the Spinosaurus from polyurethane foam. This very rigid foam is cut to the correct shape through a proprietary process called CNC-Sculpting®. This process, developed by Cyber F/X, takes the data from the full-scale computer model and divides the model into manageable chunks. The data for each chunk is then sent to the foam-sculpting machine, where a life-size section of the dinosaur is created by whittling away pieces of foam from a large, solid block using tiny spinning blades. Once all the sections are done, the SWS team assembles the pieces like a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle. This creates a very basic full-sized model. A lot of work still needs to be done and it is handled by a team of sculptors at Stan Winston Studio. They hand-carve the foam to add all the incredible details that make it seem real.
Molding and Casting
A set of molds are made of the full-sized sculpture. The molds are made from an epoxy that is very durable and has strong bonding characteristics.
Photo courtesy Stan Winston Studio, photographer Chuck Zlotnick
Creating the mold
Once the components of the animatronic device are ready, much of the frame work is test fitted inside the molds before the foam rubber skin is cast. In conjunction with this step is the fabrication of the foam-running core, which is created by lining the inside of the mold with precise layers of clay to represent the skin thickness. When the clay lay-up is completed, the surface of the clay is fiberglassed to create the foam-running core. After the clay is cleaned out, the foam-running core is bolted into the mold and creates a negative space between the foam-running core and detailed surface of the mold. When filled with foam rubber, this negative space becomes the skin.
The purpose of this process is twofold:
It makes the skin movement seem more natural
It controls the skin's thickness and weight
Let's move on to the building of the animatronic components.
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