# Must...have...this...technology...



## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

WANT!






Very upset that my build schedule is completely full for MONTHS!

I suppose I could just give up sleep completely and make time to build my own...


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

I saw the show in person. The baby T-rex steals the entire show.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

Amazing, took me a second to see the legs. Can you say trick or treat.


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## billman (May 3, 2006)

Looks like he is pooping out a dude... lol..


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## sickNtwisted (Sep 29, 2010)

Dear God! I want....I want....I want! 
Ok, if anyone makes one or knows how, please tell me!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

OMG, he is gorgeous! What a fantastic, beautiful puppet!

Hmmm, now I'm thinking smackdown between him and Gourdzilla


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

They had these at the 'Walking with Dinosaurs' show - absolutely fantastic!


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

That's an amazing creation. The motions of the puppeteer are great too.


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Can't you just picture it...

<Your front door step on Halloween night>

Diiiing-Dooong... <Little ghosts and goblins tee-hee as they wait for the door to open so they can yell Trick-or-Treat!>

<As the door opens...> "TRICK-OR-TR...."

<Just then- from around the dark corner of the house> STOMP STOMP STOMP!... "GRRRREEAEEAAARRRRG!" STOMP STOMP STOMP!

<Children bashing into each other, looking for an escape, wailing and crying...> "WAAAAHHHEEEIIIIAAAAAAAHHHHH!" As they flee down the sidewalk.

Oh the HUMANITY!

:laughvil:


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## Digger (Nov 21, 2010)

Wow,thats crazy!!!Would love to have one!!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

There is a show that was on PBS about hwo they made all these costume/puppets as well as the HUGE mechanical puppets. It was an add on to the Walking With Dinosaurs show, and I think they even showed how they designed and modified the interior framework it so it could be easily manipulated. The design process was so intricate and anally planned out. I haven't searched for it, but I'm sure the show is out there, either as youtube vids or to buy. They even show how they made the skin textures, and had to make them out of fabric & not latex to make them light to cut down on weight. I also saw this show and it was amazing...I mean, AMAZING amazing. Not to mention that the narrator was the hot dad from Zach & Cody...


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## Plastic Ninja (Sep 30, 2010)

fritz42_male said:


> They had these at the 'Walking with Dinosaurs' show - absolutely fantastic!


I believe that is what the little guy is from. This is a promo see the walking with dinos logo in the back? ;>)

Would be cool to have, but those people have lots of money and man power for that kinda thing. So it could really be hard to do


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Thanks Debbie! A friend told me the same thing this morning- haven't found it yet though, but still searching! 

I will have this!


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

Let me see now, Mmmmmmm, o darn, just out of the range of my budget.


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

TOO much coolness...!!!


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## sickNtwisted (Sep 29, 2010)

Found PBS behind the scenes special

http://www.aptv.org/APTPLUS/Digitalibrary/digitalmediadetail.asp?ConVidID=63


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Very cool! Watching the video now...


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

If this show comes to a city near you, GO. The tickets are rather pricey ($65) but SO worth it. I was in a high seat at about eye-level of the bigger dinos, but moved down to about only 5 rows up from floor after intermission (there were chunks of unsold seats in the arena, and after intermission, no one cares if you move). I'm glad I got both perspectives. Being eye level with a brontosaurus (or whatever it was) was very cool, then being closer up and lower allowed me to see the skin textures better. The lighting was also pretty cool- very leafy- textured and diffused.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Very cool but I can't even fathom how much it would cost.


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

Hmm.. I'm really not seeing more than a few thousand in materials. Perhaps that is a lot, but for the impact value it's relatively cheap.

So I watched the documentary about it and even though they showed a lot- they didn't give every detail- damn! But basically the Utahraptor costume is made from:

A metal framework- probably tubular aluminum, using bungies to center-balance.
Foam or plastic body-form.
A skin material.
An audio system.
An articulated neck/head- probably using mechanical linkage.
An articulated mouth- probably using electric not pneumatic cylinders.
Articulated eyes using electric servos.
Probably a small camera and lcd screen to be able to see.
A battery to power it all.
ummm... I think that's it in a nut shell.

Right now, other than the mechanical engineering I think one of the most important aspect to figure out is how they made the skin. Specifically, what kind or "paint" did they spray on the fabric? The material appears to be a spandex type stuff and the paint had some elasticity to it and perhaps some thickness as well. The skin is important because thats the part the customer sees- it and the paint details have to be convincing.


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## zombietoxin (Aug 3, 2010)

The more I think about it the more I think the eyes and mouth could be manually controlled via lever/cable.

I can imagine a handlebar set up that controls the neck and head with a mechanical linkage and the "brake" levers would control the mouth and eye blinking. You could put switches on the handle to control mp3 audio tracks for multiple audio effects. So basically, your battery would need to power the mp3/amp and the camera/lcd. Pretty small demand for a motorcycle type battery I would guess.


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## sickNtwisted (Sep 29, 2010)

In the baby t-rex video you can see a small translucent 'window' on the side of the suit. There may be another one in the front for him to see.
The fabric might be a cotton/poly blend, best guess. From what I understand all fabric paint must have some elasticity to it. Wonder if they watered it down so they could add multiple layers of color without weighing it down.
Only one way to find out. To the fabric store!!!!!


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## sickNtwisted (Sep 29, 2010)

In one of the videos I saw they showed a model of a manual lever system to move the mouth. Believe it's at 9:09 that they show it.


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