Animatronics & Walking with Dinosaurs Live

For as long as I can remember I have adored dinosaurs, at one time I wanted to be a Palaeontologist to be able to study dinosaurs up close and I knew (and still know) hundreds of dinosaur names.
A few years ago I went to go and see Walking with Dinosaurs live in Liverpool and I was amazed at how beautifully the dinosaurs moved and acted, this got me interested in animatronics and more technical special effects.

Below is a video of just some of the work put into making the dinosaurs I saw in the show look as life like in their movements as they might have some hundred million years ago.

The work put into making these creatures look real was outstanding, not only the animatronics but also the colours and fabrics used for each dinosaur which got me wanting to make my own semi animatronic Utahraptor model over the summer, made from PVC piping, foam latex and an array of wires and controls. So far I have made a few initial sketches of how I believe the initial skeleton would look like as well as simple studies of the dinosaur I would like to make.

Looking at the two bottom images you can see that the skeleton has changed slightly for more simpler means of making the model.

Watching these animatronics made me wonder just how many films use them and for what purposes. I thought a good place to start would be the Hellboy films, more specifically, Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army. Del Torro has often used amazingly detailed suits for actors to wear rather than resorting to CG but this film offers quite a few new characters which also rely on the use of animatronics in order to work to the best of their abilities.

Johann Kraus: Kraus is one of the new characters in Hellboy 2 and acts as the leader and in a sense the baby sitter of Hellboys team. He is an ectoplasmic soul encased into a robot suit which enables him to travel more safely and appear more "normal." The animatronics that are used on Johann allow the metal flaps on his head to move when he talks, as well as allowing steam to pass through the bulbs in his neck in short bursts.

Wink: Mr. Wink acts as one of the main baddies of Hellboy 2 as well as a friend and accomplice of Prince Nuada. The animatronics used in Wink's design allowed his mouth to move when he roars/speaks as well as making him able to move the fingers on his mechanical hand and wrench his actual hand back when it is fired at opponents.

The Chamberlain: One of the more unusual creatures in Hellboy 2, the Chamberlain is a member of the Elf council and acts upon the actions of the King. Out of the other 2 characters show above, Chamberlain is probably the one with the most animatronics used to make his movements more  natural. The animatronics used on this character included helping his mouth move and eyes blink but probably more noticeable is that these same animatronics are used to make the Chamberlains slender fingers move and curl naturally.


The more I find out about how these effects are used the more interested I become and it has also opened me up to new art forms that although I had heard of I had never tried, such as clay character modelling, painting realistic skin tones and other special effects as well as the art behind controlling the animatronics themselves.