Luxo animatronic on-site behind construction screen at Pixar Place

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Walter Yensid

Active Member
Let's hope that the supposed $3 million price tag for Luxo included some of the R&D for the tech, one-time costs, etc. Because if each one costs that, then it will be less likely we would see them as frequently. I mean, we'd have to admit that $3 million is a lot for one character of that size. They would need to rationalize that cost to benefit.

Of course, I am hoping the costs will fall as they use the tech more and more because I think he is an outstanding addition (from what it sounds like) and like I said before, a perfect example of Old Disney style of plussing when they did not "need" to. To see these characters in many places would be amazing.

By the way, am I loser for not looking at the video yet? I go down there next week for ten days and I wanted to see him in person rather than video. Geez, I sound like a ten year old not wanting to hear how the movie ends. :)
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
Walter Yensid said:
Let's hope that the supposed $3 million price tag for Luxo included some of the R&D for the tech, one-time costs, etc. Because if each one costs that, then it will be less likely we would see them as frequently. I mean, we'd have to admit that $3 million is a lot for one character of that size. They would need to rationalize that cost to benefit.

Of course, I am hoping the costs will fall as they use the tech more and more because I think he is an outstanding addition (from what it sounds like) and like I said before, a perfect example of Old Disney style of plussing when they did not "need" to. To see these characters in many places would be amazing.

By the way, am I loser for not looking at the video yet? I go down there next week for ten days and I wanted to see him in person rather than video. Geez, I sound like a ten year old not wanting to hear how the movie ends. :)
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Not at all. I watched about 10 secs of the video to see him move and that was it.


I would like to see it all in Aug.;):D
 
T

timetopretend

New Member
EPCOT Explorer said:
I wonder if he was one of the ones outsourced.:lookaroun
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99% certain that he was built in the Tujunga, CA facility. All you have to do is look at the fact that he is the first 100% electric AA and you could guess that he was built there. That and when I was told about him last year they said he was being built in Tujunga.

JWG said:
Interesting he's 100% electronic. Maybe a new technology that will expand to new attractions. Wonder if that's easier/cheaper to maintain in the long run over hydraulic AA's. I'm just happy to see something plus'd instead of cut.
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I don't know the exact comparisons here between electric AA and hydraulic AA but I can make a few educated guesses here...

  • No hydraulic fluid = no hydraulic fluid leaks which means easier maintenance and no danger from leaking hydraulic fluid to people, props, costumes, etc.
  • Hydraulic systems usually operate under extremely high pressure. While I don't know what pressure Disney's AAs operate at, I'd imagine it isn't something to laugh about.
  • No hydraulic pump needed. The changing pressures that create an AAs movements have to come from somewhere. That somewhere is a rather large pump hidden somewhere near by. With that pump comes extra valves, lines, etc. all that have the potential to break. Not to mention the floor space needed for the pump. Mr. Potato head has about an 8'x8' room behind him dedicated to his pump (Timekeeper's old pump I believe!) and a few other things.
  • Electric motors can sometimes be designed to be plug and play drop in replacements. This isn't always the case, but maintenance is technically much simpler.
  • While Disney has done a great job with Hydraulics on their AAs (compliance, etc...) electric motor control theory is a very well known quantity and can allow for much smoother motion. Judging from the videos of Luxo Jr he looks to be much smoother than any other AAs, including the (very impressive) latest ones. It is also significantly less complex. Instead of electrically controlling a small motor (servo) that controls the flow of hydraulic fluid, you are directly controlling the electric motor. This decreases control delays and mechanical slipping.
I could probably go on but I will stop here. Electric motors have actually come a long way in recent years with AC machines (motors are called machines...) becoming much more powerful and smaller. As a result, their decreased mechanical complexity brings them favor in high reliability situations. Unfortunately I don't think technology/practicality is there yet for all, let alone many, new AAs to be electric. There is a limit to the torque that can be produced at various sizes and generally large, oddly shaped objects don't look quite right on human-esque figures.

Did you know that the two very large WDW Tower of Terror motors (electric of course) are brushed DC machines that were custom built and modified for Disney? The more you know!(tm)
 
CBOMB

CBOMB

Active Member
EPCOT Explorer said:
Dino would be nice.

Yoda...R2D2...It would be epic.

They have a WALL-E one, BTW...;)
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SirGoofy said:
Don't get me started. I'm very, very upset he hasn't appeared in a park yet. WALL-E is my favorite Pixar character ever.
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EPCOT Explorer said:
As am I. The AA is awesome. Like looking at the movie...I was very lucky to see him when he came to Miami last year. The CM with him said that his next stop was WDW...but that never happened.:shrug:


He's my Fave, too.
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Don't look for him anytime soon at a Park near you. From what Lee MacDonald said he is a on going nightmare. He's not very reliable, and technically very complicated. In other words he's got a ton of bugs in him.
 
teebin

teebin

Member
timetopretend said:
Some information on Luxo Jr's history...

The idea for Luxo Jr was originally much much smaller scale. He was going to sit on the Pixar sign at the entrance to Pixar Place in place of the "I". Occaisionally he would move around a bit, tilting his head around and such. At some point in time, someone realized (don't know who) that this would be very hard to see so work was shifted towards what you see to day. The budget of course exploded and the time line kept getting pushed back more and more. From what I was originally told, the idea was to have him up and running sometime late last summer, which of course did not happen. Luxo Jr is also the first completely electric animatronic (at least from the information I had 1+ year ago, the design could have changed) Disney has done which explains the buget and time line over runs. Other AAs movement is produced by hydraulic actuators with some pretty fancy electronics controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid.

I think that just about summarizes what I know about him. If I remember anything else I'll post it here.
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Last I read about the majority of Disney animatronics is that they are a combo of PNEUMATIC (air) and HYDRAULIC (fluid). A few people have continued to quote this thread and not corrected this oversight.

Good read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-Animatronics
scroll to "Inner workings"
 
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timetopretend

New Member
teebin said:
Last I read about the majority of Disney animatronics is that they are a combo of PNEUMATIC (air) and HYDRAULIC (fluid). A few people have continued to quote this thread and not corrected this oversight.

Good read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-Animatronics
scroll to "Inner workings"
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Yes this is true. Pneumatics are definitely used, however due to their nature they are for the most part either "on" or "off". With these two positions you get things like blinking eyes but not much else. While it is technically possible to get multiple positions out of pneumatics, they, for the most part, have discrete positions and more then two is much more difficult.

Since I was mainly talking about smoother motions I elaborated on the hydraulics rather than the pneumatics.
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
CBOMB said:
Don't look for him anytime soon at a Park near you. From what Lee MacDonald said he is a on going nightmare. He's not very reliable, and technically very complicated. In other words he's got a ton of bugs in him.
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That's a shame. I know he crashed once or twice, but...This is the same company that works wonders.:lol: How hard is it to get a box with wheels run?:lookaroun:lol:

He worked fine when I saw him...

EpcotServo said:
No...It's...what's the word? Oh yeah, Pity.
:lol: :hammer::p

Seriously, I don't get no respect 'round here...no respect I tell ya!
:lol:
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Oh, hush, Rodney...:p
 

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