Next Gen Animatronic Face Tech Shows Major Leap in Disney Character Realism
Next Gen Animatronic Face Tech Shows Major Leap in Disney Character Realism
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News Next Gen Animatronic Face Tech Shows Major Leap in Disney Character Realism
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
www.wdwmagic.com
"BuT iT's DiFfErEnT THIS TIME!!!!"
JD80
Well-Known Member
These are external projections vs. internal ones.
VicariousCorpse
Well-Known Member
But they did learn their lesson didn't they? They didn't use the projected faces at any other iteration of the ride and they are replacing Epcot's with physical heads and not this tech. Projection technology has become so much better in the last decade.
The most impressive figure I have seen with projection is Victoria Frankenstein at Epic Universe. I watched countless videos of her and it never occurred to me the face was a projection until I saw a video of her face turned off. I'm not a fan of video screens replacing anything, but the final product speaks for itself.
Disgruntled Walt
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Projections that enhance an animatronic's appearance (tears, etc) are not a problem for me, but it's bad show when it breaks and takes away from the effect. It should only be used when it can still look good if it's broken.
Coaster Lover
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Indiana Jones?
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
Is it really that crazy? Isn't it basically the singing busts in HM but tracking a moving (but predictable) target?
Also didn't USO already do this with Victoria Frankenstein
Also didn't USO already do this with Victoria Frankenstein
Yes, it's been done.
But unfortunately, we're being told it's already a failure. <sad trombone>
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
why is it a failure? I haven't seen it personally, but I thought People really like the Victoria AA
Have you been reading the thread?
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
She's quite a bit better than Disney's internally projected faces at least, but it's still somewhat fuzzy. Especially close up and in person. The flaws aren't as apparent when recorded, which generally blurs and washes out the rest of the scene too so that the projection doesn't stand out as much as it does in person.
The only projected faces that I would say look genuinely good are Leota and the singing busts from Haunted Mansion. Ironically extremely old tech. Aside from just being really well executed, the usual flaws are mitigated by the fact that they're ghosts. The bright lighting and blurriness isn't as much of an issue. Especially with the busts, you don't need the same sort of light/dark contrast as a real living human face since these are marble statues. Being ONLY heads/torsos also likely helps these cases, when you have a lot more of the rest of the body to worry about lighting correctly then it causes the flaws to stand out more.
I'm going to guess this tech is probably not going to be used in the near future. Seems more like they're testing ideas than thinking about implementing it into actual attractions. That doesn't mean they won't do so in the future whenever it become viable though.
Internal face projection was adopted largely because it had a lower initial up front cost to build (Tiana was initially going to use face projection in earlier versions until the budget was increased). However, it was eventually found that this was offset by high maintenance costs. Imagineers for HK's version of Frozen stated in an interview that aside from looking worse than a physical face, the internal projection tech at Epcot's version was actually much more unreliable and expensive to maintain. The swapout to physical faces on Frozen at Epcot is probably being done with money in mind rather than improving the experience.
I think they'll go back to face projection again if they find that it becomes cost effective for them. Unlike internal projection, external projection has a proven track record of being reliable and cheap to maintain. It's old technology and can actually look better too (though it comes with its own caveats and requires even more care with environment lighting). The problem has always been with moving objects though. Until internal projection came along, you could only really do it with static figures. But now both Universal and Disney have tracking tech. I can't speak for the reliability and/or cost of this tracking (Victoria did break down quite a lot initially and i'm unsure if things have improved since). But we'll see.
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AidenRodriguez731
Well-Known Member
FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
Agreed! In a GOOD way!! One of the best AA figures we’ve seen in a while. Looks & moves ‘exactly’ like the movie! Great work WDI!! They made a BIG win & accomplishment with that Olaf AA. Makes me excited for future living character projects. Perhaps we’ll start seeing him around the Norway pavilion at EPCOT too, and maybe Fantasyland at Disneyland?
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AidenRodriguez731
Well-Known Member
Lets be honest with our selves, while I would love to see this come to the US, we are not responsible enough for this... ESPECIALLY at Epcot of all places.Agreed! In a GOOD way!! One of the best AA figures we’ve seen in a while. Looks & moves ‘exactly’ like the movie! Great work WDI!! They made a big win & accomplishment with that Olaf AA. Makes me excited for future living character projects. Perhaps we’ll start seeing him around the Norway pavilion at EPCOT too, and maybe Fantasyland at Disneyland?
FigmentsBrightIdeas
Well-Known Member
Is the drinking problem during food & wine and such really ‘that’ bad? I’ve personally never seen it get that bad all the times I’ve been, sure it happens time to time but not ‘that’ often, yeah?? But then again, I’m not a Florida local so I wouldn’t know for sure.
Disnutz311
Disney World Purist
I rather an Audio Animatronic not be able to cry and Disney stay away from projection faces. Again, this feels more like cost cutting than innovation.