Once the sketches and models are done, the full-size building begins.
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Build a Full-size Sculpture
For the animatronic dinosaurs in the original "Jurassic Park," SWS had to build the full-size sculpture by hand, a time-consuming and laborious process. Advances in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) allow them to automate a significant part of this step.
The maquette is taken to Cyber F/X, where it is scanned by a 3-D digitizer. This is nothing like a normal computer scanner. There are a variety of methods used in 3-D digitizers, but the one that was used for Spinosaurus is called laser scanning.
Laser scanning takes precise measurements of the maquette by bouncing beams of laser light off its surface. As the laser scanner moves around the maquette, it sends over 15,000 beams per second. The reflected light from the beams is picked up by high-resolution cameras positioned on either side of the laser. These cameras create an image of the slice (cross section) of the object that the laser is scanning. A custom computer system collects the cross sections and combines them to create a perfect, seamless computer model of the maquette.
Cyber F/X then used the computer model to mill the life-size model of the Spinosaurus from polyurethane foam. This very rigid foam is cut to the correct shape through a proprietary process called CNC-Sculpting®. This process, developed by Cyber F/X, takes the data from the full-scale computer model and divides the model into manageable chunks. The data for each chunk is then sent to the foam-sculpting machine, where a life-size section of the dinosaur is created by whittling away pieces of foam from a large, solid block using tiny spinning blades. Once all the sections are done, the SWS team assembles the pieces like a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle. This creates a very basic full-sized model. A lot of work still needs to be done and it is handled by a team of sculptors at Stan Winston Studio. They hand-carve the foam to add all the incredible details that make it seem real.
Molding and Casting
A set of molds are made of the full-sized sculpture. The molds are made from an epoxy that is very durable and has strong bonding characteristics.
Once the components of the animatronic device are ready, much of the frame work is test fitted inside the molds before the foam rubber skin is cast. In conjunction with this step is the fabrication of the foam-running core, which is created by lining the inside of the mold with precise layers of clay to represent the skin thickness. When the clay lay-up is completed, the surface of the clay is fiberglassed to create the foam-running core. After the clay is cleaned out, the foam-running core is bolted into the mold and creates a negative space between the foam-running core and detailed surface of the mold. When filled with foam rubber, this negative space becomes the skin.
The purpose of this process is twofold:
Let's move on to the building of the animatronic components.
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I teach a STEM enrichment class called Family Inventors&#; Lab, so we always want to make sure that each week has a &#;challenge&#; activity which encourages kids to try tinkering around to create something interesting. (i.e. not just craft projects with a picture of something science-y)
We were struggling to come up with an engineering activity for our Dinosaurs theme. We were also figuring out how to do a good job explaining that dinosaurs are extinct, which might be hard for young children to really grasp when they&#;ve all seen movies of realistic looking dinosaurs walking around (often in anachronistic scenes mixing humans and dinosaurs.)
We realized that a way to address this would be to a) show them how movies make dinosaur props (it&#;s a combination of puppetry, robotics, costuming and digital animation) and b) have them build something related to this idea.
So, we decided to make a &#;robotic dinosaur finger / claw&#; (like this cardboard finger or a straw finger: https://inventorsoftomorrow.com//04/08/build-a-cardboard-finger/)
We also told the parents to consider showing their kids one of these videos:
Building an Animatronic Dinosaur for Jurassic Park &#; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SK1qTnhHzI 4 minutes &#; the words are aimed at adults, but the kids can follow the images
The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs. Part 1 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6zGgQgxijo and you&#;ll find links to the rest in the &#;related videos&#;. There are 6 parts &#; it&#;s probably 30ish minutes. Does a nice job of really looking at the SCIENCE of what we know about dinosaurs (and mistakes we made in the past when we had less fossil evidence to work with) and how that guides their work in recreating the dinosaurs for the show. A good documentary for a 6 or 7 year old.
Creating the Dinosaurs of Jurassic World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16IdMStn1Ng&t=478s 16 minutes &#; contains scenes from the movie which might be too scary for some kids
You could also make more dinosaur parts or a dinosaur costume from cardboard: here&#;s some inspiration, from easier to hard and hardest.
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