Lucky the Dinosaur audio-animatronic at Walt Disney World in 2005

Tyrannosaurus at the Natural History Museum of London

Animatronics is the use of mechatronics to create machines which seem animate rather than robotic. Animatronic creations include animals (including dinosaurs), plants and even mythical creatures. A robot designed to be a convincing imitation of a human is specifically known as an android.

Animatronics is mainly used in movie making, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment. Its main advantage over CGI and stop motion is that the simulated creature has a physical presence moving in front of the camera in real time. The technology behind animatronics has become more advanced and sophisticated over the years, making the puppets even more realistic and lifelike.

Animatronics is used in situations where a creature does not exist, the action is too risky or costly to use real actors or animals, or the action could never be obtained with a living person or animal. Animatronic systems can be implemented using both computer control and human control, including teleoperation.

Animatronic figures are most often powered by pneumatics (compressed air), and, in special instances, hydraulics (pressurized oil), or by electrical means. The figures are precisely customized with the exact dimensions and proportions of living creatures. Motion actuators are often used to imitate “muscle” movements, such as limbs to create realistic motions. Also, the figure is covered with body shells and flexible skins made of hard and soft plastic materials. Then, the figure is finished by adding details like colors, hair and feathers and other components to make the figure more realistic.^[1]

History[link]

Animatronics was developed by Walt Disney in the early 1960s. Essentially, an animatronic puppet is a figure that is animated by means of electromechanical devices.^[2] Early examples were found at the 1964 World Fair in the New York Hall of Presidents and Disneyland. In the Hall of Presidents, Lincoln, with all the gestures of a statesman, gave the Gettysburg address. Body language and facial motions were matched to perfection with the recorded speech.^[3] The abbreviated term originally coined by Walt Disney as Audio-Animatronics, which is used to describe the mechanized characters, can be actually seen in the various forms as far back as Leonardo Da Vinci’s Automata Lion, which was theoretically built to present lilies to the King of France during one of his visits. It has now been developed as a career which may require combined talents in Mechanical Engineering, Casting/Sculpting, Control Technologies, Electrical/Electronic, Radio Control and Airbrushing. Long before digital effects appeared, animatronics were making cinematic history^[4] Another place that animatronics are used are in the sight and sound theatre in Lancaster, PA where numerous different animatronics are built for special use for the specific performances done.

Creature Creation[link]

Building the various components used in the animatronic device usually takes the longest time. There are four main categories into which the work splits, with development happening simultaneously across the categories. Although basically similar, the design and production processes for animatronics in cinema varies greatly from animation for theme parks and other permanent venues.

Mechanical

Engineers design and build the mechanical system, which includes everything from basic gears to sophisticated hydraulics.

Electronic

Another group develops the electronic control systems needed to operate the animatronic device. Typically starting from scratch and creating their own custom circuit boards, these engineers are essentially building giant remote-controlled toys. Almost all of the movement is manipulated by specialized remote-control systems known as telemetry devices.

Structural

All of the electronic and mechanical components need something to which to attach and control, and the skin must have a frame to maintain its shape. This is done by building a plastic and steel frame to increase the realism, and because it is the natural way to design it.

Surface

The "skin" is often made from foam rubber, which is a very light, spongy rubber made by mixing air with liquid latex rubber and then curing (hardening) it. While there are other compounds, such as silicone and urethane that are stronger and last longer, foam rubber is used because it is much easier to work with. The solution is poured into each mold and allowed to cure. As mentioned earlier, parts of the frame are embedded with the foam rubber at certain points. To further strengthen the skin, a piece of fabric is cut to size and embedded in the foam rubber after it is poured into the mold. Once cured, each piece of skin is pulled from its mold.^[5]

See also[link]

• Audio-Animatronics - Disney's trademarked animatronic technology
• Biomorphic robotics

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Animatronic

• Garner Holt Productions, Inc. world's largest animatronics designer & manufacturer
• Chris Hillman's Huge Animatronics Links Page (over 3000 links)
• More information on Animatronics
• International Community Forum For Animatronics, Automation & Robotics for the Film, TV & Entertainment Industries
• Wigtron - Audio Animatronics Manufacturer Company
• Axtell Expressions Hands-Free Animatronic Characters and Systems
• Dinosaur Factory Inc. is professional Animatronic Products Factory in China since 1992
• [1]

Stanley Winston^[1] (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American visual effects supervisor, makeup artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man, Edward Scissorhands, Avatar and Enthiran.^[2][3][4] He won four Academy Awards for his work.

Winston, a frequent collaborator with director James Cameron, owned several effects studios, including Stan Winston Digital. The established areas of expertise for Winston were in makeup, puppets and practical effects, but he had recently expanded his studio to encompass digital effects as well.

Career[link]

Stan Winston was born on April 7, 1946, in Arlington, Virginia, where he graduated from Washington-Lee High School in 1964. He studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville from which he graduated in 1968. In 1969, after attending California State University, Long Beach, Winston moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor. Struggling to find an acting job, he began a makeup apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios.^[4]

1970s[link]

In 1972, Winston established his own company, Stan Winston Studio, and won an Emmy Award for his effects work on the telefilm Gargoyles. Over the next seven years, Winston continued to receive Emmy nominations for work on projects and won another for 1974's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Winston also created the Wookiee costumes for the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

1980s[link]

In 1982, Winston received his first Oscar nomination for Heartbeeps, by which time he had set up his own studio. However, his ground-breaking work with Rob Bottin on the science fiction horror classic The Thing that year brought him to prominence in Hollywood. Between then, he contributed some visual effects to Friday the 13th Part III, in which he made a slightly different head sculpt of Jason in an unused ending.

In 1983, Winston designed the Mr. Roboto facemask for the American rock group Styx.^[5]

In 1983 he also worked on a short-lived TV series Manimal, for which he created the panther and hawk transformation effects.

Winston reached a new level of fame in 1984 when James Cameron's The Terminator premiered. The movie was a surprise hit, and Winston's work in bringing the titular metallic killing machine to life led to many new projects and additional collaborations with Cameron. In fact, Winston won his first Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1986 on James Cameron's next movie, Aliens.^[6]

Over the next few years, Winston and his company received more accolades for its work on many more Hollywood films, including Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, John McTiernan's Predator, Alien Nation, The Monster Squad, and Predator 2.

In 1988, Winston made his directorial debut with the horror movie Pumpkinhead, and won Best First Time Director at the Paris Film Festival. His next directing project was the child-friendly A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990), starring Anthony Michael Hall.

1990s[link]

James Cameron drafted Winston and his team once again in 1990, this time for the groundbreaking Terminator 2: Judgment Day. T2 premiered in the summer of 1991, and Winston's work on this box office hit won him two more Oscars for Best Makeup Effects and Best Visual Effects.

In 1992, he was nominated with yet another Tim Burton film, this time for Burton's superhero sequel, Batman Returns, where his effects on Danny DeVito as The Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and in delivering Burton's general vision for what was an increasingly Gothic Gotham City earned him more recognition for his work ethic and loyalty to what was an intrinsic ability to bring different directors' ideas to life. It was particularly poignant because for Batman Returns, Winston had to follow on from Anton Furst's earlier work, and recreate change according to what Burton wanted to do differently the next time around.

Winston turned his attention from super villains and cyborgs to dinosaurs when Steven Spielberg enlisted his help to bring Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park to the cinema screen. In 1993, the movie became a blockbuster and Winston won another Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

In 1993, Winston, Cameron and ex-ILM General Manager Scott Ross co-founded Digital Domain, one of the foremost digital and visual effects studios in the world. In 1998, after the box office success of Titanic, Cameron and Winston severed their working relationship with the company and resigned from its board of directors.

Winston and his team continued to provide effects work for many more films and expanded their work into animatronics. Some of Winston's notable animatronics work can be found in The Ghost and the Darkness and T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, James Cameron's 3-D continuation of the Terminator series for the Universal Studios theme park. One of Winston's most ambitious animatronics projects was Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence, which earned Winston another Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.

In 1996, Winston directed and co-produced the longest and the most expensive music video of all time, Ghosts, which was based on an original concept of Michael Jackson and Stephen King. The long-form music video presented a number of never before seen visual effects, and promoted music from two consecutive Jackson albums, HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which went on to become the biggest selling double-album by a solo artist and remix album of all time, respectively (20 million and 11 million).

2000s[link]

In 2001, Winston, together with Colleen Camp and Samuel Z. Arkoff's son, Lou Arkoff, produced a series of made-for-cable films for Cinemax and HBO. The five films, referred to as Creature Features, were inspired by the titles of AIP monster movies from the 1950s — i.e., Earth vs. the Spider (1958), How to Make a Monster (1958), Day the World Ended (1955), The She-Creature (1956), and Teenage Caveman (1958) — but had completely different plots.^[7]

In 2003, Stan Winston was invited by the Smithsonian Institution to speak about his life and career in a public presentation sponsored by The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. The presentation took place on November 15, 2003, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.^[8]

In 2004, he expressed great disappointment when director Paul W. S. Anderson did not come to him for the creature effects for Alien vs. Predator, seeing as how he designed the Predator and the Alien Queen. "They're like my children to me," he stated.^{[citation needed]}

Winston also worked on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

At the time of his death, Winston was working on the sequel Terminator Salvation.^[9] According to reports, next for Stan Winston was Jurassic Park IV.^[10][11] Winston designed the original monsters that appeared in the Midway game The Suffering^[12] and its sequel, The Suffering: Ties That Bind. He was also helping with his old friend, film director James Cameron and his upcoming film Avatar.

Stan Winston Studio also took a part in the most expensive Indian/Tamil film ever made, Enthiran, which became a huge success in India and overseas as well.

Death[link]

Stan Winston died on June 15, 2008, in Malibu, California after suffering for seven years from multiple myeloma.^[2] A spokeswoman reported that he "died peacefully at home surrounded by family."^[3] Winston was with his wife and two children, actor Matt Winston and Debbie Winston. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a public speech about his death, and Jon Favreau dedicated his Spike TV Scream Award to him upon receiving the award for Best Sci-Fi Movie for Iron Man. Terminator Salvation starts and ends the credits with a dedication to him. His special effects still lives on through his studio Stan Winston Studios, now renamed Legacy Effects, continuing to work on films after his death such as Pandorum, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Avatar, Enthiran and Shutter Island thus continuing his legacy.

Collaborators[link]

Winston worked with the following directors on more than one film:

• Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Big Fish)
• James Cameron (The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Avatar)
• John Carpenter (The Thing, Starman)
• Dennis Dugan (The Benchwarmers, You Don't Mess with the Zohan)
• Jon Favreau (Zathura, Iron Man)
• Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, The Ghost and the Darkness)
• Peter Hyams (The Relic, End of Days)
• Frank Marshall (Congo, Eight Below)
• Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, A.I., War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
• Robert Zemeckis (Amazing Stories episode "Go to the Head of the Class", What Lies Beneath)

Academy Awards[link]

• 1982: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Heartbeeps
• 1987: Won Oscar For Best Visual Effects: Aliens
• 1988: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: Predator
• 1991: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Edward Scissorhands
• 1992: Won 2 Oscars – Best Visual Effects & Best Makeup: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• 1993: Oscar Nomination For Best Makeup: Batman Returns
• 1994: Won Oscar For Best Visual Effects: Jurassic Park
• 1998: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• 2002: Oscar Nomination For Best Visual Effects: A.I.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Stan Winston Studio
• Stan Winston at the Internet Movie Database