AAs and Screenface

[arielsgrotto]

I'm new here so I'm REALLY sorry if this is any sort of rule issue--I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I'm seeing a lot of discussions about little things (not that that's a problem), so I thought I'd talk about something that's been bugging me.

So I'm a big AA buff, and I'm always looking at the latest and greatest churned out (usually by Disney parks). This whole screen-as-a-face thing has me torn, though. On one hand, I understand that it allows for a whole new world (ha ha) of facial movements and elasticity. On the other, it can often look warped and odd on an AA where everything else is modeled out. The animatronics in Frozen Ever After look and move great, but the flat faces just...kind of take me out of it. I do think that it does have its place--Olaf looks like he walked right out of the movie. I think it benefits non-human characters who have the rest of their faces already modeled.

I'm kind of hoping this is just a sidestep while Disney advances more in the way of AA facial animating. I thought that the animatronics in the Little Mermaid dark ride looked really neat! Then all of a sudden the screens started becoming more prevalent (I'm making this sound like a horror movie).

ANYWAY, to make a long story short, what do you guys think?? I'm curious about how people who go to the parks more often than I do (and don't see this stuff through the lens of youtube videos almost exclusively) think.

 

[AndrewsJ]

I like them. The shoe scene in7DMT is incredible. The faces are actually flat they are modeled with an actual profile so I think they look much better in person than in video. Have you seen any in person?

 

[JIMINYCR]

It is different seeing them in person. I like the looks of them, but I have seen some differences in the way some characters look. Some appear better than others.

 

[kjb101791]

The AAs in Mine Train are great. I always wonder why the bride in Haunted Mansion still exists in her current state. It looks terrible with the screen face.

 

[dgp602]

I mentioned this in another thread, but it seems more relevant here. After just coming back from WDW and seeing Frozen for the first time, the AA's are just amazing. The one thing that struck me was that the final scene in Frozen is very similar to the final scene in MK's Little Mermaid. Except for the AA technology. It is amazing how much advancement they made in just 5 yrs or so. Which begs the question, how hard and expensive would it be to begin to update the old style AA's with this new technology. I don't mean every AA in the park ( some, like the Tiki Birds, harken back to the olds days and those AA's seem to just work in a simplistic kind of way!). Using Mermaid as an example, would it be possible to update Eric and Ariel in the final scene with the newer model AA's? Seems like it would be an easy fix during the next refurb...

 

[Mista C]

I'm on the fence with these also. I have ridden the Mine Train, and yes, the faces do look cool. But I think that I still like the good ole' AA faces a la POTC.

 

[ShoalFox]

Using Mermaid as an example, would it be possible to update Eric and Ariel in the final scene with the newer model AA's? Seems like it would be an easy fix during the next refurb...

The faces aren't the only thing those animatronics need replaced...
Hint: have you seen how tall they are?

 

[lazyboy97o]

They look awful. From the stretched image to the seems on the side, the figures look like they have had a bad face lift. They also introduce a different type of movement that highlights the more robotic movements of their attached bodies.

And how are the projected faces celebrated as something new? Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin opened in 1998. Constance was added to The Haunted Mansion in 2006.

 

[jasmine217]

The AAs in Mine Train are great. I always wonder why the bride in Haunted Mansion still exists in her current state. It looks terrible with the screen face.

The HM bride is what I was thinking of in terms of bad screenface...it always looks like it's slightly off-center. Every time I ride HM, when I get to that part a little voice inside me goes "ugh, but that looks so bad..." it doesn't ruin the ride for me, but it's for sure a low point. In short, I don't mind screenface when it's done well, ala Mine Train, but when it's bad, it's bad. My husband commented on our last Disney trip that it feels like it's time for the next big technology phase for rides after animatronics...because animatronics are becoming outdated, but we haven't gotten to the next thing yet. If screenface can be improved upon, I'm open-minded.

 

[ShoalFox]

For those who are interested in seeing the original bride, she's still there... in Tokyo Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

 

[WondersOfLife]

I must admit, I was not happy with seeing these AAs via YouTube... But after riding 7DMT and Frozen for the first time last week, I was quite impressed with the AAs! The dwarf AAs are larger than I thought they were going to be.

 

[216bruce]

For me it varies on a case by case basis...Bride is kinda bad, but mini-bride is fantastic in HM.
Love the Dwarves, they look great...almost too 'real'. For some reason, 'jewel-eyed' Dopey is very creepy looking and bothers me, but the rest are wonderfully done.
Buzz is perfect in 'Spin"
I think if the character is a honest to goodness human, I prefer the old school AA's. It's tough to beat the Wicked Witch, Most of American Adventure's folks and Johnny Depp in Pirates. For animated characters, the screens seem 'appropriate'. Just an opinion.
Now if the AA's are really ripe and overdue to be replaced...COP... then the 'real' faces are not even worth comparing.

 

[Brad Bishop]

I'm with @216bruce: It really depends on the face and some are better than others.

I think that a bigger problem is that they don't age well. Buzz Lightyear had a blurred face that last few years that I rode that ride. They may have fixed him by now. The first time I saw him I thought, "That's freaking amazing!" After he started to blur it just looked worse and worse. It may be because the lens needed to be focused or because dust had collected on his screen-face but it just looked awful and they didn't do anything about it. Actually.. I think that the last time I was there Buzz was either covered up or missing. I may be wrong on that.

It can be a great effect but they really need to stay on top of it with regards to maintenance. A blurred face is far worse than a typical AA face.

 

[steviej]

as long as they can stay on top of it as far as maintenance for blurriness and that kind of stuff goes, it works for me

 

[Tiggerish]

I think if the character is a honest to goodness human, I prefer the old school AA's. It's tough to beat the Wicked Witch, Most of American Adventure's folks and Johnny Depp in Pirates. For animated characters, the screens seem 'appropriate'. Just an opinion.

An excellent clarification.

 

[raven]

Screen faces look much better when they actually match the skin tone and brightness of the characters they are on. Many of them are too bright making them look horrible. I've only seen Olaf on video so far and that seems pretty good.

 

[sponono88]

Screen faces look okay to me but I feel that they should only be used when you can't create the look of the character any other way. After seeing the advancements in face AA technology I wish WDI could invest more resources into developing it further. I understand it's likely more expensive to create these figures but it sure is worth it. Abraham Lincoln's AA in DL has a range of motion that looks so good and so convincing. Here's a sample from the D23 Expo

 

[TubaGeek]

I don't think it should be an all-out replacement for traditional AA faces, but I do believe it's going to be the new norm. At least it'll get better.

 

[Raineman]

Even with the advancement in AAs, the level of mechanical intricacy you would need on AAs to match what you would be able to do with projections would require a ton of moving parts on the AA's face. The more moving parts an AA has, the more potential problems you could have with malfunctions, breakdowns, etc. I think we've all seen what happens to some AAs after a few years, and in some cases, it seems to take forever until they are fixed (I remember seeing a video of the AAs on the riverboat at the end of Splash Mountain a few years ago-almost all of them were not working, and they looked like a bunch of creepy zombies lol). I think face projections will definitely be the norm, especially for AAs based on animation.

 

[danyoung56]

I think that a bigger problem is that they don't age well. Buzz Lightyear had a blurred face that last few years that I rode that ride.

These AA's use a projector inside the head to project the face. It has a lamp in it, and lamps have a limited life. If Disney is being cheap and running these projectors out to lamp failure, then that would explain the blurred face that you saw. Disney needs to replace these lamps BEFORE they degrade and affect the image.