Patent: Disney to Clone Human Faces for Realistic Audio Animatronics

rodserling27

rodserling27

Well-Known Member
This sounds totally cool. I can't wait to see what comes from this.
However, my only fear would be that I hope wouldn't render Pirates/Carousel of Progress/Haunted Mansion etc AA's obsolete, or too "unreal" looking. Pirates looks pretty freaking fantastic for a decades-old attraction... I would hate for it to lose that. Perhaps they will update older AA's?
 
ryanduggers

ryanduggers

Member
the AA for John Garfield holding a turkey leg in his hand would make me scared...

"plastic animatronic, meet animatronic fake ham flavored food"
 
BrightImagine

BrightImagine

Well-Known Member
I am concerned that this means no more cartoony style animatronics. The Marc Davis style vignettes with exaggerated expressions read so well from far away... Like the Mansion caretaker, the whistling pirates, the World of Motion scenes. Realistic human expression is not going to read as well from a distance. Of course no one is going to build anything like World of Motion in this day and age anyway. I guess new style animatronics are better than none at all.
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Keep in mind, this tech is more about motion capture and improving the animation of the figures, not necessarily realism. rsterling27, I do share your concern about classic attractions not getting upgraded and not looking as good as the attractions with the newer animatronics. (To be honest, I think that the Jack Sparrow AAs, which clearly demostrate your concerns, should've been designed in the style of Marc Davis to keep the design language of the characters consistent.) The folks who program and design the AAs at WDI know how to animate figures, provided they receive an adequate budget, and they probably have a LONG wish list of things they would like to improve the performances of the figures (more functions in critical areas, improved reliability, etc). I doubt they would take us off into the awkward and creepy abyss that is the uncanny valley.
 
Magenta Panther

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
Beholder said:
Some of the more advanced robotics with extreme realism are creepy. In the ones I've seen, it's the eyes that are so "inhuman". It's kind of unnerving, but if anyone can overcome that issue, it should be WDI.
Click to expand...

I agree. Maybe Disney could use the tech the way Uncle Walt and his animators used rotoscoping...not as a way of copying exactly human movement, but as a suggestion and foundation for it, with an overlay of artistry that gives the final result a sort of gentle caricature. Could be amazing. Anyway, I love AAs, and I can't wait to see how they're going to be "plussed" with the new Disney technology! (Maybe it'll be applied to some of the older attractions, like Splash Mountain and Peter Pan...)
 
Beholder

Beholder

Well-Known Member
I think this technology could work very well in an attraction like GMR or SE where realism is the desired look. I like Pirates, Jungle Cruise and other classics the way they are. Like the difference between animation and live action films (except Pirates, but the ride came first!).
 
Beholder

Beholder

Well-Known Member
Also it'd be interesting if this technology was used in some sort of "create your own Avatar" thing in the future Avatar/Pandora area of AK. My apologies is this was mentioned before, but it just occurred to me.
 
P

Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
missbunny said:
I am concerned that this means no more cartoony style animatronics. The Marc Davis style vignettes with exaggerated expressions read so well from far away... Like the Mansion caretaker, the whistling pirates, the World of Motion scenes. Realistic human expression is not going to read as well from a distance. Of course no one is going to build anything like World of Motion in this day and age anyway. I guess new style animatronics are better than none at all.
Click to expand...

To see what more realistic animatronics in Pirates would look like, they could built a short stretch of the ride and have human actors act out the parts. For example, the scene with the mayor and woman in the window shouting "don't tell him a thing!", could be made to be much more realistic and attention grabbing with a realistic animatronic, even if it far away, IMHO. I think that the slow animatronics work for the most part in Pirates because most of them are skunk drunk. Adding a couple of these next gen animatronic could liven up scenes, especially if the movements outside of their face articulations are smoother and quicker. For example, they could add a scene with pirates dueling that actually looks real, instead of just having a projection of a "shadow".

Most Disney rides don't use realistic humans, in Disneyland you've got Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Pirates, and that's about it. Only the graveyard digger in Haunted Mansion is supposed to be "real", the other animatronics are ghosts, and hence look nice and creepy moving slowly. Small World is children as seen through the eyes of Mary Blair, Splash is all animals, Country Bear in WDW is all animals. Space Earth has some neat new animatronics, and perhaps could benefit from the addition of next gen animatronics in some scenes.

Little Mermaid is a character, purely hand-drawn, so if they used a next gen animatronic which had more realistic features than even the animated Ariel, it wouldn't look right.

Where would this new technology go?

Maybe in the new Pirates ride going into Shanghai, maybe WRE is finally coming to Disneyland, maybe based on Lone Ranger. Maybe they could update certain key figures in certain attractions, maybe a Brave dark ride with a realistic Merida who brandishes a sword.

I didn't know that Disney was working on this stuff, given that Garner Holt is doing all of the new stuff. Maybe we'll have two tiers of animatronics, the big new next gen ones that look very realistic, and Garner Holt doing the supporting cast of characters which don't have to move much.
 
zweltar

zweltar

Well-Known Member
This looks pretty cool. That video of the Japanese robot is kinda creepy, though.... But I'll admit it does look really good.

I'd be open to seeing something like that in the parks. Or who knows, maybe they would even use a digital scan of cartoon characters to make those faces look more similar to the movie faces?

Or maybe.... They'll use ultra-fast 3D printing technology to integrate guests' faces into rides via Next Gen?o_O Pirates, featuring YOU!
 
Patricia Melton

Patricia Melton

Well-Known Member
Disney is always working on something new. I love knowing that. I bet 90% of it doesn't pan out but all that research goes into files and will be used again someday.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom