Thread: Trying to learn Animatronics..

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Hey everyone, I am new to this site but I think it's great! Everyone has such good ideas. After the holidays I am going to try and start learning Animatronics, I work for my grandfather at a huge metal fabrication and machine shop. I even have access to a plastic molding machine if I get really creative.

Building structures for the bodies and stuff will not be a problem; it's the mechanics behind it all. I have been googling different things but I'm pretty clueless, so any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

making animatronic things is very easy! once you get the hang of it.... anopther way to describe animatronic is to make a prop move talk blah blah blah... different ways to make props move is mechanical ways like gear motors or wiper motors and then theres more complicated pnuematics... that is something you want to read up on learn about... first things first is decide your first prop.. once you do one yull feel mroe in the jist..

decidng your first prop will tell you what you need what you want and what you want your prop to do...

anymore help in depth is no problem !

Chris

I would recommend reading through this primer I wrote a few years ago. It might help demystify some of the items you come across in haunt pneumatics. I re-posted a good copy of it last year here:

Beginner's Guide to Props and Pneumatics

That's a great resourse, but if you're looking for ideas for the actual mechanisms, check out Devious Concoctions website, and click on "Prop Shop", or there are lots of pics of the ones I've built on my profile page.

love that guide thats how i started out.. lets just say you already have ab advabtage with a netak industry because a good pnuematuc mechanism looks good with a metal welded frame!

Thanks, SkeletalRemains, that's an AWESOME tutorial !!

One question about tubing though. Do you use 1/4" tubing? And is the tubing measured by inside diameter or outside diameter?
Thanks for any info.

The pneumatic tubing is OD. I would reccomend a Trash can trauma for a first prop.
Pete

Yes tubing is OD (outside diameter), as CaptPete mentioned. And I agree that a TCT is a great first prop. It is simple: has a single motion, no real need for sound since the prop itself makes a lot of noise on it's own, control can be done by a footpad easily and effectively.

I am going to be building some props this year starting as soon as this coming week, so feel free to check out my blog. It won't be too much of a how-to, but more of a video/picture diary of what goes into each build. You'll likely get some ideas out of that also.

I have found two DVDS on animatronics that are great. They take you through the mechanical, electronic, pneumatic, microprocessor and even the silicon mask making. I highly recomend thses videos, they also provide schematics and vendors. These DVDS teach you to make everything from scratch. They can be found at halloween2go. Also they are inexpensive. I cant say enough about the amount of information contained in these videos they will keep you busy for years and allow you the skills to make anything you can dream up.