Thread: Disney got me thinking

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I got back from Disney not to long ago and thinking back, boy do I wish I had some of their stuff! There were deccorations everywhere.

For example, I walk into a store and around me is an old jail cell with crumbling stone around the edges. Inside of this jail cell was 5 corpsified and intensly detailed skeletons. The skeleton in the middle was an animatronic who was swinging the cage as if he wanted to escape.He had a wiper moter inside4 of his rib cage which was attached to his arm. I am SOOOO jelous!

And on their rides.. Oh man... Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of robotics and static props, special effects.. The list can go on and on!

The one ride that inspired me the most was a dinosaur ride. At the end of the ride it is pitch black and all of the sudden a strobe light turns on and charging at you is a dinosaur head the size of a car with smoke pouring out of his nose. That gave me an idea to do the same effect but with an attack dog. I arlready know how I am going to make the dog but now I am wondering how to make him "attack". I think this might be the big switch where I build my first pneumatic prop, but I don't know anything about pneumatics and I hear that it costs a lot.

Help please!

Thanks,
the halloweenie

did it look like this?

I really like that prop - I saw one at the Disney Store in Anaheim. My wife says she wants me to build one, but I don't have anywhere to store the thing.

Yeah, Disney always gets me thinking, too...

When you get the budget they get ,and the manpower as well, you can build some awesome stuff!
I always get the jones when I am at a theme park and marvel just at the shear scale of things..... can't wait for HHNs!

Disney got me thinking when I first went there 35 years ago, and look where it got me . I find a creative team is always better than doing it all yourself. And boy do they have a team! I've been the lead sound engineer on many theme park haunts, but their teams would always listen to my suggestions, and I would listen to theirs. And you know what, the end result was 100 times better. Yeah, pneumatics aren't cheep, but they aren't hard to work with if you have some common sense. Good luck with the project and hit me up if you need any advice.

Bill Ehrsam.

That Pirate corpse display is controlled by a timer and a basic wiper motor...if you look at the floor where the gates meet in the center, you'll see two metal arms sticking out from a covered chute. the motor is behind the set and simply moves the plate in and out causing the gates to shake. that in turn causes the skeleton to move since its arms are connected to the gate...simple, but effective display...I visit Disney once to two times a year, and always bring my night vision video camera to record my inspirational moments...you'd shudder to see what I have captured on film that Disney tries to hide from view (track monitor devices, audio triggers, etc)...next time, try taking a night-vision camcorder on Dinosaur, Spaceship Earth, Haunted Mansion, Figment...it ruins the magic for some, for us (especially myself), we love to see what makes things at Disney tick. Some advice, tho, if you do take a night vision camcorder on the rides, never turn around with it and video what's behind you. Your IR light will blind their surveillance cameras (except HM), and you'll stop the ride, and become victim to "Sir, please turn off your camera" audio. I usually have to go on every ride more than once or twice - first time is "research", next time is "fun-time"...my wife says I'm a pain in the neck, and calls me "Cyclops"....

I write off my Disney trips, calling it "research", and because of what I do, it's legit!

Bill Ehrsam.

Thanks a lot for the advice everyone and yes, Scott N. that was it.

Great points everyone, keep them comming

Thanks,
the halloweenie

i went to disney a few years back and tooks lots and lots of pictures.

i think this is the same thing you saw.
http://www.webbspinner.com/Archive/P...res%20(12).JPG
ww.webbspinner.com

I thought i had a picture of the motor but it must have been deleted, it really is a cool effect and done really really inexpensivly, i wanted to make one last year but time cut things short.

That was it, I would love to make one of them but that would be impossible to store!