Animatronics V.S. CG: can robots beat digits?

Post, Feb, 2003 by Ann Fisher

Animatronics, or mechanized puppets. is an ancient animation technique whose vogue has come and gone, and maybe come again. Certainly, sophisticated animatronics have been used in nigh-profile feature films, such as Stan Winston's dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. They are also continuously used in commercials, to a far greater extent than may be realized.

Animatronics are used as physical effects in their own right, not as CGI placeholders. Most are very deliberately crafted and play important roles in both the production and post production processes. Character designers know their range: Animatronics can be pre-programmed or remote controlled, they can have limited movement oi be incredibly versatile. Directors appreciate their flexibility and the performances they elicit from actors. Cinematographers love their physicality. Understanding producers watch how they affect the bottom line Viewers, more often than not, enjoy the visual results.

Post interviewed character design studios and visual effects companies that have used animatronics in recent projects, both feature films and commercials. We were curious why a particular job used animatronics instead of CGI characters, as well as the advantages and limitations of using this animation art form.

HONDA'S GARAGE SPOT

Project: A :30 technology branding spot Currently airing nationally.

Company: Ring of Fire (www.ringoffire.com) in West Hollywood provided visual effects. The live action production company was LA's Oil Factory Inc. The agency was Rubin Postaer and Assoc. in Santa Monica.

Type of Animatronic: The robot is the highest evolution of an animatronic puppet. It actually is a working and programmable robot," says Casey Conroy, Ring of Fire visual effects producer, of the Asimo, already a popular character in Japan.

Scene: The opening shot teases viewers that it's about a Honda automobile. A wide house shot narrows to the garage, which opens to show a car but out walks the robot, who picks up the paper, waves to the paperboy and walks into the house.

Why not CGI? :Since [the robot] already existed, to re-create it in CGI would've been pointless and too expensive."

Advantages: "Since it exists as a robot we just shot it, and we were able to utilize it and shoot with it rather well," says Conroy.

Limitations: "However, it's a $2 million robot and we can't shoot with it outside. It had to be shot in controlled interior environments. We shot the exterior plates in Pasadena, the interior plates in New Jersey in a controlled environment with Honda engineers... It had some limited movement but it was all choreographed." The robot footage and plates were composited using Quantel Henry and Discreet Inferno.

SONY WALKMAN CAMPAIGN

Project: An ongoing campaign featuring an animatronic blue, fuzzy character (internally known as Playdoh). Series of :30s and .60s airing on MTV, MTV2, and MPEG movies for Sony and MTV Internet sites. Most recent is :30 Masterpiece.

Company: Ring of Fire provided visual effects. The agency is Young & Rubicam/NY. The production company is NYC's Epoch Films.

Type of Animatronic: blue character was articulated and animated by puppeteers at Jim Henson's Creature Shop in LA.

Scene: Masterpiece features Playdoh directing a student film in 19th century England. A struggling actress needs inspiration so this cool, quiet, blue character downloads funky music off his laptop and puts headphones on the actress.

Why not CGI? "He's fuzzy he's covered in blue fur. Although you can do that -- it's definitely been done successfully with Monsters Inc. (2001) -- that type of effect is beyond the scope of a commercial budget and schedule. It wasn't just a technological decision, there was a definite creative decision to go with a character that looked like this -- more tangible, funky, Muppet-like," says Casey Conroy, Ring of Fire's visual effects producer. "Creatives drew it. The puppet was originally created by another company, but Henson has done it for the last two years. For this particular project, it worked so well, there really was no other option."

Limitations: "In post, [this spot] required a lot of clean up of animatronic gear; puppeteers, rig removal. Because of the fur, we didn't want to shoot him against bluescreen or greenscreen. We ended up doing a brutal amount of rig removal and cleanup. We'd shoot clean plates, shoot the puppet in the environment with puppeteers, then we'd restore back to the clean plate behind it. The fine blue hair was very challenging but the result was great." The spot was assembled using primarily Discreet Inferno and some Quantel Henry.

The only downside, notes Conroy, is that these types of characters and their movements are relatively hinted, especially compared with CGI, wherein virtually anything is possible.

Advantages: "From a post production and visual effects standpoint, [animatronics] is pretty straightforward and not too expensive, depending on what camera movements are used because we're primarily dealing with rig removal on in the case of an object being shot against blue- or greenscreen, we're talking about composites," says Conroy. "There's certainly a production cost for building puppets and paying puppeteers but for us to have done this character as CG, he would've exceeded the cost of the puppet just because of the man hours and labor involved to re-create something like fur;" (He estimates Playdoh's cost in $50,000 to $100,000 range.)