This Is Crazy-Animatronics Have Come So Far

That's insane! I love animatronics. So much better than CGI:/

S&F

I can't say I'm all that impressed. There were a couple of great things in there but most of it was just more complex with expressions, not really any more convincing. Most of that still looked robotic and unconvincing. There was actually too much going on in the facial expressions as well. I don't understand why people still pursue this considering the incredible cost of materials and time/engineering when you could do something much more realistic on a computer screen with less manpower, no materials, faster, on a $800 dollar rig with a decent video card... other than the love of doing it of course, which I could certainly understand that. That isn't always practical though when money and time is involved.

I'd like to see animatronics continue, but I'd like to see some real progress in robotics. You know, the kind that you see in iRobot. If I saw a robot running around, picking up objects and looking at them, talking.. then I'll be impressed.

If you think that's cool you should check out the latest research Disney is doing with animatronics.

This is incredible, a lot of it was so convincing I thought it could only be done with CGI!
Now, compare this stuff to DARPA's "cutting edge new" robot tech and imagine what kind of crazy stuff they have hidden away in secret projects!

That’s pretty cool stuff! The only thing I worry about is the day they start thinking on their own, and realize humanity is nothing more than a virus that needs to be disposed of...

Cool stuff.
Seems to me, CGI still has a slight edge over animatronics with respect to realism, but I'm sure the two technologies will somehow merge at some point soon.

Originally posted by Alxandro
Cool stuff.
Seems to me, CGI still has a slight edge over animatronics with respect to realism, but I'm sure the two technologies will somehow merge at some point soon.

Funny, I think the opposite. I get more realism from robuts than cartoons.